Opera issued a press release today announcing an antitrust complaint that they filed with the European Commission. In the complaint they argue that Microsoft should be required to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows, and that the browser should follow the Web standards that many other browsers are already compliant with.
They are “filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them,” according to Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s CEO. In Opera’s own words they would like to…
- Obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop.
- Require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities.
As a Web developer myself it is always difficult designing websites that work on all browsers, but I do have to say that Internet Explorer 7 is much easier to design for than its predecessors. But still, Opera Watch’s Daniel Goldman makes a good point when he says:
We, as Web users, will greatly benefit when Microsoft will start supporting Web standards, something which the other major Web browsers (Firefox, Opera, and Safari) have been doing for quite some time already.
I’m not sure how this is going to play out, but everyone knows that the European Union (EU) has ruled against Microsoft in the past. Because of them Microsoft has had to offer a version of Windows that does not have Windows Media Player bundled with it, and has also had to pay a $613 million fine.
It does make you wonder how you would download another browser if Windows didn’t come with Internet Explorer, and you only had that one computer?
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Tags: Software, Windows, Browser, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Opera
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Microsoft should buy opera,keep opera team as is,let opera make their browser and Microsoft should focus on improving their products.
opera should then be put on windows update with ie6/7 skin—
Computer illiterate people do identify the New as Internet Explorer which of course comes with Windows. About Media Player: let me tell you that all the European versions of Windows come with Media Player bundled in them. Microsoft should give you the chance to uninstall IE if you don’t like it after having downloaded an alternative browser.
“consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them”
This is ridiculous! Over 20% of all web traffic comes from Non-Microsoft browsers. If those 20% can choose a different browsers then all users can.
I hate having to fire up Firefox or IE to properly display websites that the designers were too lazy to make compliant with the standards. Since IE is dominant, and because it is easy to hack a website together that works with that piece of crap, some websites don’t work with Opera. Those websites never get bookmarked, either.
Macs come with safari, windows comes with internet explorer. Getting microsoft to remove the internet browser is a stupid idea but getting microsoft to support open web standards is one of the best ideas. Now if only you could force them too instead of fining them.
Yeah, it is frustrating. Opera has by far the best features, and complies with the standards, yet it’s hit or miss whether a site will work with it. Even if it does, many advanced sites won’t work fully or as stable/fast w/ Opera. I’m all for IE taking the next step in standards compliance. However, I disagree with forcing them to include competitors’ browsers pre-installed, or to not bundle their own (yah, how would you download browsers?). That’s bogus that they can’t include WMP!
Don’t blame Microsoft for lazy or incompetent developers.
I don’t understand what I’m missing. If Opera is so fine and dandy, how come it’s so buggy with so many common sites?
I support Opera, as I am working on web app for a small company and the site doesn’t look like it is suppose to in IE, but it just fine in Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Stupid IE!
As far as the last question in the article. If windows didnt come bundled with IE.
Connect to the ftp site of firefox or opera and and download it from there. Even this is more acceptable than using a crap piece of software like IE.
Internet Explorer can be uninstalled if you so choose.
Yes, it is dominant, but I wouldn’t say it is easy to make a site that works perfectly in it. If it was easy I think there would be no complaints, but that’s not the case at all.
A lot of the issues fall back on JavaScript these days, where browsers handle JavaScript differently. That causes the AJAX-heavy sites to often fail in Opera, or at the very least they’ll warn users that they are using an unsupported browser every time the site is visited.
Because developers don’t take the time to test sites in Opera. When we designed our new theme we made a point to test it in all of the major browsers, include Opera, IE, Firefox, Safari, Konqueror, and a few others. That way we knew that visitors using almost any browser would be able to view our site without any troubles. The problem with that is it took days for us to complete the testing in all the various browsers, and the more extensive a site is the longer it is going to take.
That’s definitely an idea, but how many people do you know are actually knowledgeable enough to connect to an FTP? I know I would be receiving dozens of support calls every week from people wondering why they can’t get on the Internet.
Look, with each OS there is a lot of software that comes with it. No one claim that the included software is bug free, the best available, or the only one available.
If you bought Windows and it didn’t come with a web browser you be upset. People would say things like, “Macs and Linux come with a browser, why can’t Windows?”
Just think if Windows was just an OS without any included applications. No calculator, no calendar, web browser, email application, text editor, file manager, etc. What would you think of Microsoft?
If Opera wants to be distributed with Windows then it can pay for it. But then people are going to complain about the extra icons that are placed on the desktop and the extra disk space it takes up.
No matter how it works out, someone is going to be angry with the outcome.
Well said Cory. Whatever way this plays out someone is bound to be upset.