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11.15.08

Is Microsoft Blocking Firefox Downloads?

Posted in Free/Libre Software, Microsoft at 8:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Or could the code wranglers at Mozilla get their markup so terribly wrong?

There’s an old joke which says Windows and Internet Explorer are tools for obtaining/burning GNU/Linux and for downloading Firefox, respectively, depending on one’s preferences. But what happens when the single Web browser that’s installed on a new PC refuses to fetch an alternative to it? Xenophobia?

The following seems too risky (for Microsoft) to be true, but watch this and make personal judgment. It is not verified yet.

Internet Explorer balks at Firefox download link

[...]

[O]n a clean installation of Windows XP (don’t ask; it’s a long story), Internet Explorer 6 claims there’s an error on the GetFirefox.com download page, and refuses to allow a click on the download button.

A screenshot is the best I can do here, since I don’t really have any other way of proving it won’t work.

Remember the alleged tricks Microsoft plays with Hotmail (against GNU/Linux) and its general effect on E-mail. I gave similar examples three and a half years ago when I was an early (pre-1.0) Firefox adopter on S.u.S.E. Linux 8.1.

“On a different topic,” says one reader, “here is an oldie about Microsoft causing spam.

“Get Windows off the desktop and spam goes away…

“Also with the holidays coming up, it might be time to prepare an article about why not to work for free to fix Bill’s mistakes for Christmas (or other holidays).” █

Hand grenade
Microsoft Internet Exploder

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2 Comments

  1. Needs Sunlight said,

    November 15, 2008 at 10:02 am

    Gravatar

    Actually, that reminds me that I do get reports from some Hotmail users that it is giving grief to Firefox. The solution was to ask them to ask their friends what mail to use and Gmail was the more common answer, Hotmail was not among the other suggestions.

    But Gmail has been interfered with by MSIE. Find someone with Windows and get them to start up MSIE and try connecting to Gmail. There will be errors claiming the site is insecure. The funny thing is that when I spotted this it took several tries for the Windows users to see this. They’re so used to clicking “OK” on every stupid dialog box that they were not even aware of having clicked on anything…

  2. Roy Schestowitz said,

    November 15, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Gravatar

    One can’t help wondering if former/existing Windows faithfuls (or Microsoft employees hired by Google) are responsible for Windows-only features in GMail.

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