One of my Windows XP systems installed an automatic update last night when I shut it down. This morning I was presented with this:
As I understand it this is as a result of an EU competition law decision. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
On the one hand it seems a waste of money and illogical.
I’m no fan of IE, but why shouldn’t Microsoft build a web browser and make it part of their operating system? Should the EU force them to offer a choice of text editors, calculators, paint programs and calendar applications too? Where should it end?
Plus, yet another dialog like this is surely going to confuse the ordinary user. Many have no idea what a “web browser” is and just call it “My Internet” or “Google”. The dialog preceding the one above has to go to the trouble of explaining what a web browser is. And isn’t the user just going to take the first option anyway? In which case should the EU force Microsoft to make IE8 something other than the default option?
But then if I were trying to sell a web browser I guess I would welcome this decision. It might give me a little extra exposure.
What do you think?
