Microsoft says it forgot to offer people a browser choice, EU investigating
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Okay, either Microsoft is sneaky and evil with this latest dust up in Europe or it’s just phenomenally absent-minded. The software giant says that it simply didn’t notice that it was failing to offer European Windows users a choice of browsers other than the company’s own Internet Explorer. Under a 2009 settlement in European court, the company was supposed to offer a kind of ballot whereby users would select a browser from among IE, Firefox, Chrome, or even Opera.
However, since February 2011 when Microsoft issued a first service pack for its Windows 7 operating system the choice screen had vanished, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement on Tuesday.
Microsoft immediately confessed to what it described as a “technical error” that had removed the choice screen from its OS. It further claimed not to have noticed the choice screen’s disappearance, and to have only become aware of the situation when contacted by Brussels officials recently.
Microsoft now says a fix is on the way. But seriously? You just space it? Ot you CHANGE it absent-mindedly to a system that favors your own company?
Some 29 million customers were affected and the EU has now opened a formal investigation into the matter. Microsoft and European regulators have been at odds since roughly the time William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066.
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