Topic: Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU

Opera files antitrust complaint with the EU

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The complaint describes how Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by tying its browser, Internet Explorer, to the Windows operating system and by hindering interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. Opera has requested the Commission to take the necessary actions to compel Microsoft to give consumers a real choice and to support open Web standards in Internet Explorer.

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Wow! I'm so glad someone finally attack MicroSoft for its blatant non-support of the open web standards it contributed to elaborate. FYI MicroSoft contributed to HTML4.01, XHTML 1.0, CSS2, CSS3, SVG 1.1, ... none of which they implement correctly.

Beside in the light of the antitrust complaint about MicroSoft MediaPlayer, this complaint seem to have some good chances of reaching its goal : forcing MicroSoft to open its OS to other web browsers, and/or finally implement properly open web standards.



Disclaimer: I usually don't post about my employer, Opera, but this news is way beyond us and is in the interest of the anyone using the web.

Well I'm glad someone is doing at least *something* about it. I don't do much with web coding stuff anymore, but I did recently do some work on a site.

Had to make it work in FF 2.0+, IE 6+, Opera, Safari, etc.. You get the picture.

IE7 and 6...I was about ready to say "screw it, I don't care if it works or not". If I had hair, I would have been pulling it all out right then.

Later,

C:\

I don't think Opera instead of IE would be a great improvement, but I s'pose anything hurting Microsoft in Europe helps free OSes in Europe, where they're fairly popular already.

reisio: mmmh, it's not about Opera ( or browser X ) instead of IE. It's about giving people the choice. And above all it's about having Microsoft finally implement open web standards so that web sites work flawlessly in any browser ( at no added cost for web developers & designers ).

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poi said:

( at no added cost for web developers & designers ).

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*nods* yup. I couldn't care less which browser someone uses. I can not stand to have to take an extra 2, 3 or more hours out of my day to figure out how to code something just so one freakin browser will render it correctly.

Later,

C:\

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poi said:

it's not about Opera ( or browser X ) instead of IE

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It might end up that way, but I don't trust commercial entities with closed source browsers - that's how we ended up with Internet Explorer.

More: http://operawatch.com/news/2007/12/opera-cto-talks-about-the-operas-antitrust-complaint-against-microsoft-video.html

Reminds me of Dr. Evil.

Fair enough, just remember than even commercial entities with closed source can implement open web standards correctly.

It's easy for anyone to put Opera or Safari ( yes, parts of Safari are closed ) to the test of open web standards. And people do with every release. Both browsers do pretty well. Much better than IE and at least as good as FireFox.



(Edited by poi on 12-13-2007 19:47)

Indeed.

I am not it is the best idea to have the courts decide what standards should be followed.

Dan
Code Town | Zombie Head | How Much TP? | Feed The Blob

To quote Haakon:

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If Microsoft fully supported the standards they have chosen to implement, the web would have been a much better place. For example, in 1998, Microsoft said:

" Microsoft has a deep commitment to working with the W3C on HTML and CSS. We have the first commercial implementation of HTML4, we were the first vendor anywhere to implement even portions of CSS, and we have put a tremendous amount of energy into seeing CSS mature to Level 2. We are still committed to complete implementations of the Recommendations of the W3C in this area (CSS and HTML and the DOM). "

It's quite clear that they haven't followed up on their promises to support W3C Recommendations for CSS, HTML and the DOM. So, Opera or the EU don't really need to single out standards - Microsoft has done so already.

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(Edited by poi on 12-17-2007 17:33)