Opera Files Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft

Posted by Kelson on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 19:07Seen Online

Opera Software has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft.  In it they allege that Microsoft has used their monopoly on the desktop OS to obtain and a monopoly on the web browser, and that they have maintained this monopoly by not properly supporting open web standards. (Recall that Microsoft was convicted of this nearly a decade ago in the United States.)

The complaint seeks two remedies:

  1. Unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows, or at least provide alternatives on installation.
  2. Fully support open standards in Internet Explorer.

The Q&A with Opera's Haarvard is worth a look.

So how does this affect Firefox?

Well, if they succeed in getting IE separated from Windows in Europe (like Windows Media Player), computers are still going to have to ship with a web browser. That opens the door for Firefox to come pre-installed on systems.

If they succeed in forcing Microsoft to improve their standards support, then it will be much easier for web developers to target four major browsers with one set of code: IE8, Firefox, Opera, and Safari (or rather IE8, Gecko, Opera and WebKit). Once IE6 and IE7 fade away, the biggest barrier to alternative browsers -- IE-only websites -- will become a relic of the past.

Hey, we can dream!

It will be interesting to see how this turns out, and what impact it will have on the web browser market.

If you have time to read a zillion responses, you can check out commentary at CSS3.info, Web Standards Project, Slashdot, Asa Dotzler, and Opera Watch.

(And before anyone starts posting "Opera sux," please go read LIJI's excellent post, 3 Browsers, One Enemy, or my site, the Alternative Browser Alliance, then come back and try to post something a little more insightful.)


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Thanks, Opera!
Submitted by LIJI on Wed, 12/19/2007 - 14:18.

Opera Software are definitely going in a spirit of my "3 Browsers, One Enemy" article.
Opera are making a move which will not only help Opera, but will also help Mozilla, Apple or any other browser vendor and the web itself.

If everything will continue this way, we would have an IE-Free web which is based on Open Standards, the vendors will help each other to improve their browsers, the second Browsers War will end and hopefully will hopefully be the last one. The death of IE would make a Browser Peace.

 -LIJI of the Neatwares Network and Neatwares Studio

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Let's help out....
Submitted by JustZisGuy on Sat, 12/15/2007 - 14:24.

Man, where was this 10 years ago?

Anyway us Firefox lovers can help do our part by getting Firefox (or anything besides IE) installed on every computer we can.  In the end IE will be relegated to the status of "crappy HTML renderer widget"

Also, in comments I keep hearing people whining about "how would I get Firefox without a web browser". There are plenty of good answers: FTP, CD-ROM, USB Flash or other storage device, od Networked installation repository (like Ubuntu if MS or an OEM would ever include something like that). The point is, I think us Firefox lovers can also help by making Firefox available in other means besides downloading. It would be nice if there were some way we could get official Firefox CDs available on physical store shelves.

That also makes me wonder, is it possible to order something from the Firefox store by calling some phone number rather than using the web?

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One comment
Submitted by ottodv on Fri, 12/14/2007 - 22:36.

One of comments I read really sums it all up:

The fact is, Internet Explorer's massive market share [...] cannot be explained by IE's "quality"

Otto

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Futher Information
Submitted by pnkrkrgeo92 on Sat, 12/15/2007 - 00:43.

There's an article on PCworld that has more details if you want to check it out:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140573-c,internetexplorer/article.html

 Also I wish Opera good luck with their suit and I hope they score a big win.

 

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