December 15, 2007...9:21 am
Opera Takes Microsoft To Court
Browser maker Opera, filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft on Wednesday. The complaint concerns the unbundling of Internet Explorer from the Windows operating system and forcing Microsoft to make their browsers standards-compliant.
“Opera requests the Commission to implement two remedies to Microsoft’s abusive actions. First, it requests the Commission to obligate Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows and/or carry alternative browsers pre-installed on the desktop. Second, it asks the European Commission to require Microsoft to follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities. The complaint calls on Microsoft to adhere to its own public pronouncements to support these standards, instead of stifling them with its notorious ‘Embrace, Extend and Extinguish’ strategy. Microsoft’s unilateral control over standards in some markets creates 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.”
2008 Could Get Nasty
I’ve just been writing some predictions for 2008, but it looks like I’ll have to tear those up as next year looks like it is going to be all out internecine warfare among the browser manufacturers.
To add salt to the wound, Håkon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer over at Opera has published an open letter to the web community stating that the gloves are off and that Microsoft is to blame for holding back development on the web.
People seem to be divided over what’s going on here. Many say that unbundling Internet Explorer is impractical and doesn’t actually solve anything related to standards-compliance. Others point out that other manufacturers bundle their browser in as well, though Håkon Wium Lie says that this is different from Microsoft abusing it’s operating system monopoly.
I think that there is a difference of approach between North American and European commentators on this matter regarding using the courts as a means of solving these matters.
There’s much more agreement about Microsoft complying with Web Standards however and we’ll have to wait to see what they pull out of the bag with IE8. So, the browser wars aren’t going to be over in 2008. If anything they look like things are really going to hot up.
We Still Need To See The Back Of IE6
Of course, whatever the outcome, there still remains the question of what to do about the huge remaining user base of IE6 users. I’ve seem some comments where people have a defined time scale for continuing to support IE6 after which they will withdraw support. Some people are just going to ignore it as a browser where as others will actively redirect users to an upgrade page. I’ve still to decide how to play it and will likely do it on a case by case basis, but I think the key to it is understanding why so many people still use IE6.
Anyone have any answers?
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