December 14, 2007 6:50 AM PST
Microsoft strikes back at Opera antitrust claims
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Opera, based in Norway, announced Thursday that it had filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by bundling IE with the Windows operating system. Bundling IE with Windows means people have no choice in receiving it and only afterward have the option of deleting it or using an alternative product as the default browser, Opera said.
Opera also claimed that Microsoft is hindering interoperability by not following accepted open Web standards.
Microsoft struck back Friday, indicating that it would not willingly unbundle IE from Windows.
"We believe the inclusion of the (IE) browser into the operating system benefits consumers, and that consumers and PC manufacturers are already free to choose to use any browsers they wish," a Microsoft representative said. "Internet Explorer has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for over a decade and supports a wide range of Web standards."
The Microsoft representative added that "computer users have complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish, including Opera, and PC manufacturers can also preinstall any browser as the default on any Windows machine they sell."
Opera filed the complaint against Microsoft this week, asserting that Microsoft has locked consumers into using IE, which has "only recently begun to offer some of the innovative features that other browsers have offered for years," such as tabbed browsing.
"We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them," said Jon von Tetzchner, chief executive officer of Opera. "In addition to promoting the free choice of individual consumers, we are a champion of open Web standards and cross-platform innovation."
Opera asked the European Commission to force Microsoft to unbundle IE from Windows and to carry alternative browsers preinstalled on the desktop. Opera also asked the EC to require Microsoft to follow "fundamental and open Web standards accepted by Web-authoring communities."
The browser company asserts that Microsoft's "unilateral control over standards in some markets has created a de facto standard that is more costly to support, harder to maintain, and technologically inferior and that can even expose users to security risks."
Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.
See more CNET content tagged:
Opera Software,
antitrust,
Microsoft Internet Explorer,
Web browser,
Microsoft Corp.
What I don't like is that IE is so integrated into windows and applications that I can't get rid of it when I do download another browser I'd rather use. Then it's just taking up space and bloating up my computer.
Opera may not win the case but they still have a point.
Don't get me wrong. I fully understand the complaint. I understand having to deal with someone in an OS that I do not want in there (heh, demo progs in newly purchased computers is another example) but if it is so big of a deal that one must complain so much to file a disbute over it I think that person (or group) needs to just get another OS. Microsoft is not forcing anyone to install or use their OS. You are free to install any OS on your system that you want.
Opera's actions are an act of desperation by a company with a near-zero market share. I suppose next, Opera will sue Mozilla-Firefox for the crime of having a more popular browser.
The problem is most users just use what is put in front of them, I see many people think the answer is "well your free to go get a different browser" unfortunately 98% of users have no idea how to do this and just because 100% of the readers of cnet news do doesn't make what microsoft does right.
Personally I've been using linux for 3 years and will never go back, the freedom and integration is very balanced because if it becomes unbalanced I just pick another distro, load up the programs I like and continue... It is the way it should be.
tim
Microsoft has, from day one, flooded the web with it's own, Windows-specific mechanisms, in an Internet that is founded on the idea of open communication protocols. From perverting standard Java, to non-standard scripts and HTML, to such abominations as Active-X. Next up we have the proprietary "Moonlight" crap.
Open standards will win out in the end, just as the Internet won out over <shudder> MSN, or whatever that MS system was. In the meantime, MS is dragging it's feet and gumming up the works for everyone else.
They can include whatever browser they want, as far as I care. I just wish that their default browser would follow the web standards so that we don't have millions of web services that can only talk to Microsoft computers.
more secure. If Windows became more secure, more malware
authors might start working harder on breaking into other
operating systems. No thanks, I like things just as they are.
Let them keep picking off the low hanging fruit.
We design a killer look and feel for a website. We program the website in clean code that's by the w3c standards, our css is clean and to spec.
We start debugging process in multiple browsers Firefox for Mac and Wintel, the same with Opera and Safari, all these web browsers display the code almost identically. Then the challenge... IE6 destroys the code and specially written css hacks are needed to allow IE6 to display the site correctly, thinking thats the end of the nightmare, IE7 uses a different rendering engine than IE6 and there for IE7 doesn't display the clean code properly either, but the css hacks for IE6 don't work in IE7 either. So now additional css hacks for IE7 are needed.
Microsoft should either do one of two things. Make their browser render code to actually approved standards so we programmers can write code once and have it look the same across all browsers and platforms, or even better STOP producing browsers. Microsoft is the nightmare browser for programmers.
Opera's complaint would be valid if Microsoft didn't allow people to install Opera on Windows or wouldn't let people make it their default browser. Compare this to iPhone, where you can't install any other browser.
Any decent OS comes with a browser preinstalled. Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, iPhone, Windows Mobile, even Wii. Removing the borwser might be in best interest of Opera, but it won't be in best interest of the consumers.
The worst part is that the EU regulators might actually force MS to remove IE. I am glad I don't live there.
How do people normally download their "favorite" browser on a brand new computer?
They start Internet Explorer, go to Mozilla.com or Opera.com and download it.
If IE goes missing, how will people download Opera? They will have to get it on a CD or something... back to the stone ages!
Before you know it, Firefox will come whining, then Netscape, then Apple and so on, and before you know it, there will be 15 Browsers preinstalled on a new computer that you buy. If Opera wins, how will the courts deny other browser companies, however small they may be.
and then this whole cycle will repeat with media player, desktop search engine, email client, antivirus, firewall, backup utility etc etc etc.
One day you will launch calculator and your computer will ask you which one you want: Microsoft calculator, Google calculator or Mozilla calculator.
I just hope that doesn't happen.
- can someone please explain me?
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by cary1
December 14, 2007 10:20 AM PST
- Opera is free, Firefox is free, even Internet explorer is free... so why are they fighting?
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See all 239 Comments >>One free product is competing with another free product and people are calling it anti-competitive.
So one day, a church decides to give free food to the homeless, will another church call it anti-competitive?