Microsoft has made a breakthrough with the European Commission
over its ability to ship Internet Explorer with the Windows
operating system.
The Commission has agreed to market test Microsoft's proposals,
which allows PC manufacturers to install any browser on top of
Windows, and make any browser the default.
Brad Smith, General Counsel at Microsoft, said We're very
pleased by today's decision. We welcome the announcement by the
European Commission to move forward with formal market testing of
Microsoft's proposal relating to Web browser choice."
As part of the agreement with the Commission, PC users in Europe
will be presented with a screen that will allow them to easily
download and install another browser if they would like, for the
next five years.
Microsoft will now be able to ship the same copy of Windows 7
globally, but Smith said, "Consumers in Europe will receive shortly
after they get a new PC or install Windows 7 an update that will be
delivered to them over the Internet via Windows Update, and it is
that update that will launch the code that will display this
consumer choice screen or ballot screen."
Microsoft will also be required to support certain industry
standards in its products, and to document how these standards are
implemented. Smith said Microsoft will support industry standard
file formats in Office, including the standard that Microsoft
developed, Open XML, as well as ODF, the Open Document Format used
in MS Office rival, Open Office.