How Europe's Mandated Browser Ballot Screen Works 169
CWmike writes "After an 11-month legal face-off, Microsoft and European antitrust officials signed off yesterday on the ballot screen concept that will give Windows users a chance to download rivals' browsers. But now that the battle's over and the ink has dried, it's time to look closely. Some FAQ examples: What's Microsoft promised? How will it work? How many browsers will be on the ballot? Who decides which browsers? Who will see it?"
Re:Quit making it so complicated (Score:4, Funny)
Write a 'Portable Application" that is not integrated with Windows System files to web browse to any web site and download any file and then run it. Default the startup page to a Google search for "web browsers" and let the user pick which link to follow and download. Then the 'Portable Application" can be deleted if the user so desires.
Gee what would we call this innovative portable application? How about "browser"?
Re:The ballot screen is Europe only (Score:4, Funny)
The bad news is that, the screen is to appear only for users in Europe. I hope the US anti-trust takes hint a from their European counterparts and mandate in the US too.
I believe deliberate, artificial market segmentation is a violation of the sherman anti-trust act. It merely needs to be actually pursued by the justice department.
Re:Waiting for (Score:2, Funny)
Re:more to the point, is this really necessary? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Quit making it so complicated (Score:1, Funny)
Natural selection? Might not be such a bad thing... :)
Re:The ballot screen is Europe only (Score:2, Funny)
You mean things like region encoding of Movies is actually illegal?
Huh.