A new push for the Web browser ballot to be deployed on all Windows installers/OEM PCs; other abuses of Microsoft in Europe

t was a Microsoft concession to the EU, to provide a randomized ballot screen for users to select a browser. However, the DSL.sk test suggested that the ordering of the browsers was far from random.

Microsoft has found "creative" ways of preventing people from actually choosing a Web browser other than Internet Explorer, according to Håkon Wium Lie from Opera Software (the infamous butterfly ballot is shown above)

Microsoft's EU ballot claimed not to be rearranged at random and besides, it totally disregards the issue of Microsoft perverting the Web to make it MSIE-only

Thanks to the European Commission's antitrust like activities, European citizens will soon be presented with a ballot choice between twelve browsers when first using a newly purchased computer preloaded with the Microsoft Windows operating system. But is this really progress?

The following idea, proposed on Ubuntu Brainstorm, puts forward the sugeestion that users should be allowed to configure the application set before installation. Sort of like the Windows Browser ballot but for, well, pretty much everything.

Press coverage about the "browser choice" update and further confirmation that Microsoft is cheating and escaping cheaply

As the battle over XML document standards heats up, Microsoft is gearing up its campaign to drive the adoption of its Office Open XML (OOXML) format in the lead up to a crucial ISO ballot resolution meeting scheduled for the end of this month. And Asia could play a significant role in determining the outcome.

Microsoft's original proposal to the European Commission, that it drop the web browser entirely from Windows 7, has been superseded with a new proposal that users be offered a "ballot box" of browser options. According to analysis by Glyn Moody of the presented documentation, it also appears to go much further.