SillyDog701

[Antony]

According to today's news Microsoft Windows forced to offer 12 browsers as EU antitrust case ends

EU said that Microsoft cannot only offer Internet Explorer with Windows in EU nations.

Regulations have forced Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, to open up its Windows operating system to rival internet browsers in a landmark decision.

Bringing down the curtain on a decade-long antitrust tussle, the legally-binding agreement will see new computer users presented as of March 2010 with 12 browser options when they configure their systems.

Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera, from the Norwegian company that first complained to competition enforcers in December 2007, will each be displayed prominently alongside Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

...

A present for open-source extremists in Europe from the EU?

All it was because Microsoft is a US company? Or am I the only one feel it was a bit too harsh?

Can someone please tell me what are the responses from those pro-Microsoft commentators (e.g. Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte)?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko/20091201 Firefox/3.5.6

[James]

Windows Weekly hasn't caught up to this landmark decision yet, Antony. When they do, they'll air their program. I can't imagine Thurrott or Laporte are going to be pleased. I know that I'm not. In my estimation, MS should have simply pulled IE out of the OS and left it at that. Someone wants Opera or Safari or Firefox or what-have-you as a browser? Then let them download it directly from the internet. How? Well...that would be a problem now, wouldn't it. I'll tell you how they would have to get it. BUY a hard copy of the browser (as we did in the old days). Stick it back to Opera and Google, etc. Let them mass produce hard copies of their browsers for purchase. In short... stuff it, Opera, and stop your incessant whining. I don't believe I have ever seen a bigger bunch of whiners that Opera fanboys.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko/20091201 Firefox/3.5.6

[iJohnE]

You see James, you simply cannot remove Internet Explorer from Windows. You can disable it and remove it from your menus and defaults, but much of the core of Windows is built around it.

Personally, I think Microsoft should be able to do whatever they want with their OS. Nobody is going after Apple for only including Safari are they?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091109 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.5.5

[Anonymosity]

What are the other 7 browsers? I had no idea that there were that many.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; rv:1.9.1.6) Gecko Firefox/3.5.6

[Fulvio]

Windows in EU will have 12 browser choices

It is irrelevant how many browsers exist. The above is what I see, with "choices" being my emphasis.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7pre) Gecko/20091218 Shiretoko/3.5.7pre

[crazypenguin]

What are the other 7 browsers? I had no idea that there were that many.

From here:

The accepted decision, of course, is that Microsoft will provide a "choice screen" where Windows users will be able to pick between Opera, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir, Slim Browser and Internet Explorer. As many of Microsoft's competitors requested, the choice screen will feature browsers in a randomized order.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.16) Gecko/20101123 SeaMonkey/2.0.11

[wdf2020]

What are the other 7 browsers? I had no idea that there were that many.

From here:

The accepted decision, of course, is that Microsoft will provide a "choice screen" where Windows users will be able to pick between Opera, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir, Slim Browser and Internet Explorer. As many of Microsoft's competitors requested, the choice screen will feature browsers in a randomized order.

In the UK we only get offered IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera but I am glad that the list isn't longer!

It does seem to have made a huge difference to global usage of browsers too:
July 2008 - July 2009

Last 12 Months:
October 2010 - October 20011

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/15.0.874.106 Safari/535.2

[Anonymosity]

I thought that Sleipnir and Maxthon were simply different shells applied to Internet Explorer. I have come up with a list of 8 distinct browsers.
Firefox
Seamonkey
Opera
Safari
Internet Explorer
Chrome
K-Meleon
Konqueror (Linux)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1