Lilly acknowledged that Mozilla, which was granted "interested third-party" status to the antitrust case last spring, has not submitted its concerns to the commission. "We've been in contact with the commission all along, but we haven't communicated these to them yet," Lilly said.

He also echoed comments first expressed by Opera last month, when that company's chief technology officer called on Microsoft to . "My hope is that whether or not the commission and Microsoft decide to revise the proposal, that Microsoft will take [our concerns] to heart," Lilly said. "It's all about what makes it best for the users, so hopefully Microsoft will take that into account and do this not just in the EU, but that it starts to look like this across the world."

EU regulators have not set a timetable for a final decision on Microsoft's proposal, but sources close to Microsoft have said they expect a resolution before the end of October, both because of the launch of Windows 7 that month and because the current commissioner for competition, Neelie Kroes, steps down Oct. 31.