Microsoft and EU Resolve Browser Argument
Following the legal action taken by Opera, Microsoft and the EU have agreed that a separate dialogue offering a choice of alternative browsers will appear by the installation of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
The Norwegian browser specialists Opera, took their grievances to the EU Commission in December 2007. Yesterday's decision means that Opera, Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari can, with one click, be set as default browser during the Windows installation. Other, mostly free browsers, can also be chosen as standard browser via an additional dialogue.
Since the last concrete proposals in October, only some small details have changed: the choice of browser will no longer be presented in a traditional Internet Explorer window, but in a more or less neutral dialog, and the list of browsers will appear in random order and not alphabetically.
The rules will take affect in the EU and some additional countries from the middle of March 2010 at the earliest. This gives Microsoft time to modulate their operating systems. The list of available alternative browsers will, according to the commission's report, be kept constantly up to date.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.