Microsoft today declined to comment when asked whether it believed it’s required to offer a ballot screen in Windows 8 to European users for selecting rival browsers in the new operating system’s desktop mode.

In late 2009, Microsoft struck a deal with European Union (EU) antitrust regulators that required the company to display a screen in Windows providing download links to other browsers, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome and Opera Software’s Opera.

The settlement specifically called out future editions of Windows.

“For Windows Client PC Operating Systems after Windows 7, the Choice Screen update will first be made available at the general commercial release date of such an operating system and remain in place for distribution … for the entire duration of these Commitments,” the document stated.

According to the final agreement (download PDF), the deal has a five-year lifespan — meaning it will expire in late 2014 — and broadly defined “Windows” and “Internet Explorer” to include “successors” of the then-current Windows 7 and IE8.

Microsoft and EU regulators came to agreement on browser choice after a two-year investigation by the latter, who filed a formal “statement of objections” to Microsoft’s practice of bundling Internet Explorer (IE) in January 2009. The EU inquiry was prompted by a 2007 complaint submitted by Norwegian browser maker Opera Software.

Microsoft agreed to provide a way to disable IE and to show a ballot screen to users who had not changed the default browser.

Windows has always shipped with IE as the default browser, a practice Microsoft continued with Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the early build it launched in February.

Although Windows 8 features a new “Metro” mode for smaller-scale, touch-based apps, it also boasts a traditional “desktop” environment where existing x86/64 applications — those which now run in Windows 7, for example — operate. Current browsers, such as Firefox, Chrome and Opera will be able to run in the desktop mode, even if they’re not recast to include a Metro front end.

If implemented in Windows 8’s desktop, the ballot screen would presumably feature the same set of rival browsers as is now offered to Windows 7 customers in the European Union and several other countries.

Microsoft declined to comment on its interpretation of the ballot screen requirement regarding Windows 8 and its desktop.

The EU’s Competition Commission — the body’s antitrust agency — was not available for comment Monday.

Browser rival Opera also declined to comment; Google and Mozilla did not immediately reply to requests for their stance on the ballot screen in Windows 8.

The question of the ballot screen’s applicability to Windows 8 was first raised last week by Mozilla when its chief counsel, Harvey Anderson, blasted Microsoft for blocking access to Win32 APIs in Windows RT, the edition that will power devices with ARM-licensed processors.

At the time, Anderson argued that Windows RT — while a separate version from Windows 8, it shares considerable code with its sibling — may also be bound by Microsoft’s settlement with the EU.

“If Windows on ARM is simply another version of Windows on new hardware, it also runs afoul of the EC browser choice commitments,” Anderson wrote in a May 9 blog post.

The Microsoft-EU settlement provides an enforcement clause that allows the latter to reopen the case or levy substantial fines if it believes the former is in violation of the agreement.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9227148/EU_Microsoft_browser_deal_requires_ballot_screen_in_Windows_8

Microsoft does not make its own hardware products, except, of course, in the rare cases when it does, like the Xbox videogame console, the Zune music player and computer mice. In the PC and phone markets, though, Microsoft has been extraordinarily careful to say it wants to create only the software that powers those devices, leaving the hardware to outside partners.

But the company’s decision to invest in the Nook e-book business of the struggling retailer Barnes & Noble offers some tantalizing clues that Microsoft may be rethinking its position on hardware.

First, there is the Microsoft investment itself in the new Barnes & Noble e-book subsidiary: $300 million for a 17.6 percent stake, plus an additional $305 million in payments over five years. There is speculation that Barnes & Noble, as a result of this investment, will create new Nook devices that are based on Windows 8, a coming operating system designed for devices with touch-sensitive screens.

Neither party is confirming those plans. If a Windows-based Nook does come to pass, it will put Microsoft in a delicate position with all the other companies making Windows 8 devices who have not been blessed with a Microsoft investment. Will Microsoft favor Windows Nook devices in some way because of its investment, perhaps by getting more deeply involved in the integration of hardware, software and services?

James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, said Microsoft needs to avoid showing favoritism toward any one hardware partner or the rest of them “will revolt.” There are plenty of people who think Microsoft, like Apple, should consider making its own hardware to have more control over the total package that consumers buy.

But if a Windows Nook device comes out of the partnership, Mr. McQuivey points out that Microsoft still would not be making the Nook itself. Barnes & Noble designs but does not technically make the Nook, either, outsourcing its manufacturing to Foxconn, just as Apple does with the iPhone and iPad.

The details of the deal, though, suggest that Microsoft is contemplating the possibility of going further and creating its own e-book reader. Deep within a filing Barnes & Noble made on Monday with securities regulators is a section titled “Microsoft Reader.”

The section says Microsoft has the option to include in any reader it chooses to make an online store run by the new Barnes & Noble e-book subsidiary — known, for now, as NewCo until the parties figure out something better to call it. “If Microsoft creates a reader, Microsoft may include an interface to the NewCo Store in that reader and may surface in that reader all Content purchased by customers from the NewCo Store,” the filing states.

The rest of the filing doesn’t say whether this reader would be a Microsoft device or reader software that runs on another company’s device. I’ve asked Microsoft to clarify what its plans are and will update this post with a comment from the company if it chooses to do so.

Source:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/with-nook-deal-a-hint-of-microsoft-hardware/