EU accepts Microsoft deal on browser choice

The battle between the EU and Microsoft

After years of court battles, hefty fines and more fines in the future it looks like Microsoft have finally given the EU a solution they are happy with. If you use Internet Explorer in the EU you will be sent a small update giving you the choice of between 10 and 12 different browsers including some of the more common ones. This will happen on XP, Vista and windows 7 machines and is reportedly going to be in a neutral window and not in an Internet Explorer windows with the options in a random order.

The main browsers will be:

Internet Explorer , Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari on the main page but you can scroll to get AOL, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser. This list will be reviewed every 6 months and Microsoft expects 100 million machines to have displayed the pop-up by mid-March.

Browser Popularity

The percentage of global internet traffic using the following browsers:
Internet Explorer - 56%
Mozilla Firefox - 32%
Google Chrome 5%
Safari - 4%
Opera - 2%


This could just be the beginning with other now wanting to challenge other default programs the Windows bundles, like notepad.


What browsers do you use and why?

I use Internet Explorer for Microsoft sites and go between Safari and Chrome form my main browsing. I used to like Firefox but I think it has went downhill in the last year.