The browser wars may be heating up again.
Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, has taken aim at longtime rival Microsoft over the way the latter s new Windows 10 operating system handles users choices of browsers and other software. Mozilla is accusing Microsoft of overriding users preferences and making it difficult to change Windows 10 s default applications.
Saying that those aspects of the new software are very disturbing, Mozilla CEO Chris Beard, in an open letter posted Thursday on Mozilla s Web site, called on Microsoft to reverse course.
We strongly urge you to reconsider your business tactic here and again respect people s right to choice and control of their online experience, Beard said.
A Microsoft representative said the company plans to issue a response to Mozilla later today.
Released Wednesday, Windows 10 is the latest version of Microsoft s PC operating system. The software features a new Web browser dubbed Microsoft Edge. Edge replaces Internet Explorer, the browser that has been a part of Windows since the late 1990s and which famously battled with Firefox s predecessor, Netscape Navigator, for market share and control of the nascent World Wide Web.
That battle led to an antitrust suit against Microsoft that ultimately required the company to allow consumers to install rival browsers and essentially give those browsers the same status in Windows as Internet Explorer had. The provisions of the settlement have now expired, but previous versions of Windows have allowed users to relatively easily change the default browser or other software.
Mozilla is charging that Microsoft is backsliding into its old ways. When users upgrade from a previous version of Windows to Windows 10, the organization charges, the new software will override their preference for Web browser. So, if a user running Windows 7 has specified that Google Chrome is their default browser, they will find when they upgrade to Windows 10 that Microsoft Edge is now the default.
The organization is also charging that Microsoft has made it more difficult and less intuitive for users to change the default browser. In the past, users could typically change their default browser by pressing one button in their browser s settings area.
Now, however, changing the default browser requires additional steps. If users click that same button in their browser settings, they ll be taken to Windows 10 s settings area, whether they have to scroll to find browser settings and know to click where it says Microsoft Edge to change it to another browser.
With the launch of Windows 10 we are deeply disappointed to see Microsoft take such a dramatic step backwards, Beard said in his letter.
Photo: Screen capture of a Windows 10 computer running Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox side-by-side (Troy Wolverton).
