Browser ballot fail: asks to set IE as the default browser
Wasn't the whole ballot thing about preserving the users choice? Then wtf is this:
Procedure to reproduce:
- choose to install your prefered browser, but not IE (actually, my prefered browser, SeaMonkey, is not in the list, even when it is the 6th most popular desktop browser in Europe... That's a big fail too.)
- close the ballot screen by clicking on "Choose later (Später auswählen)", because you couldn't find a "Close" button
- install the downloaded browser and set it as default
- restart your system
- see the ballot screen asking you to set IE as the default browser
Is it just me, or does this look like a violation of what Microsoft has signed in Brussels?
11 marca 2010 o 20:05:39
No, this is just a lazy programming and IE activex control which are
displaying this page:
http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_pl.htm
11 marca 2010 o 20:07:35
>activex control
...
11 marca 2010 o 20:23:41
There's no Konqueror either, altought it is one of the most popular browsers worldwide.
11 marca 2010 o 21:17:33
I'm confused about what you're even saying, and the image doesn't work. You clicked the "Choose later" option. It seems like it just asked you again later?
11 marca 2010 o 21:43:05
Niektóre przeglądarki potrafią wykryć, że utraciły status domyślnej i się o to upominają, jak są w ten sposób skonfigurowane - w tym okienku możesz to wyłączyć. Robi też tak np. Opera
11 marca 2010 o 21:54:29
It’s worse than that even: http://camendesign.com/blog/choice
11 marca 2010 o 21:58:14
Easily explained, without assuming malice. If IE isn't the default when it's run, it asks if you want it to be the default. Thus, opening the ballot screen in IE triggers that behaviour. It's not the ballot screen asking you to set IE as the default - it's the browser it opened in.
The problem, if anything, is that whatever mechanism causes the ballot to appear isn't respecting the default browser, and opening it in IE anyway. But for the majority for whom IE is already the default, it won't happen...
11 marca 2010 o 21:59:54
@Kroc - ok, *that* is much more serious. Still the same problem, probably unintentional, but much more intrusive in promoting IE.
11 marca 2010 o 22:31:21
Yeah, good lord, it's not a violation of ANYTHING. It's the regular behavior of virtually every browser to prompt you to make them the default if they detect that they aren't on the first launch. Let's stop crying conspiracy over what's already a ridiculous concession that Microsoft was (practically) forced to make. If the EU was really worried about the end user, and not just out to get Microsoft at any opportunity, they would not try to completely disrupt the end user experience for those already used to IE, and just force them to upgrade from IE7 (or, god forbid, IE6) to the perfectly acceptably secure IE8 (Firefox user myself).
12 marca 2010 o 05:06:00
Dear God, not another rabid Mozillian jumping to pompously accuse Microsoft of malice and treachery over a simple, unintentional bug.
12 marca 2010 o 11:40:02
"There's no Konqueror either, altought it is one of the most popular browsers worldwide."
Is there a native Konqueror for Windows at all? Having to install cygwin with KDE to use Konqueror with Windows is something nearly no one would want to do, and we're talking about end users who never used anything else except IE.
12 marca 2010 o 15:24:07
Scrumb, they were not "practically" forced, they were complety forced to do something, and you know why? because they were convicted of abusing their monopoly in the OS space to create another monoply in the browser space. This is about forcing Microsoft to give others a fair chance to compete.
And I don't care whether it was a mistake or not, nobody asked them to implement the ballot in IE. They will have to suffer the consequenced of acting against the agreement.