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Old February 19th, 2010 Top | #1
 
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Thumbs up Microsoft offers web browser choice

Interesting article from the BBC.


Microsoft offers web browser choice to IE users


Microsoft agreed to give Windows users a choice of internet browser

Millions of European Internet Explorer (IE) users will have the option to choose an alternative browser from 1 March, Microsoft has announced.
It follows a legal agreement between Microsoft and Europe's Competition Commission in December 2009.
Microsoft committed to letting Windows PC users across Europe install the web browser of their choice, rather than having Microsoft IE as a default.
Figures suggest that over half the world's internet users have IE.
Testing for the update is already underway in the UK, Belgium and France.
The software update choice will arrive automatically for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 customers, according to a blog post by Dave Heiner, Microsoft's vice president and deputy general counsel.
The blog also contains screen grabs of the message as it will appear.
"Users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have, as they prefer," wrote Mr Heiner.
Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera are the alternative browsers that people will be offered.
"Millions of people who have never really thought about which browser to use will now be forced to make a choice," said BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones on his blog.
"That presents Microsoft's rivals with a unique marketing opportunity."
Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker described the news as "an important milestone towards helping people take control of their online lives."

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Old February 19th, 2010 Top | #2
 
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Default Re: Microsoft offers web browser choice

I'm pretty sure most people will install ie even if they have other preferances

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Old February 20th, 2010 Top | #3
 
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Default Re: Microsoft offers web browser choice

Originally Posted by perris View Post
I'm pretty sure most people will install ie even if they have other preferances
From what I have seen IE9 is gonna be even better than IE8 with faster speed, support HTML5, hardware acceleration (DirectX) for things like images & ajax rendering plus better CSS support.

Look at the graph on this page and that was in early development.

Microsoft Announces IE9: Focus on Standards and Speed
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