[Cross-posted at Organizations and Markets]
Opera is an innovative company that makes a fine web browser and has a devoted following. I use Opera Mini, which is in many ways superior to the native browser on my BlackBerry. So I was dismayed to learn that Opera has adopted the “if you can’t beat ‘em, file an antitrust suit against ‘em” approach to its dealings with Microsoft. Happily for Opera, the company is based in Norway, allowing it to file its complaint with the Microsoft-unfriendly European Commission without being accused of forum-shopping. But, really, haven’t we been through all this already?
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What’s sad is that the threat of EU antitrust has been to make Vista less secure and stable:
Microsoft intentional closed access to the kernel. They completely changed the driver model to suit. You can no longer run audio drivers, for example, or any drivers that I know of, in the kernel. But the EU comes along and threatens what they were doing. So, instead of fighting, they open up the kernel. Thanks Symantec and McAfee.
I don’t know what to think of Opera doing this. I know Opera is getting left behind with online apps, in particular Google Docs. But, I don’t know how much that has to do with IE supporting or not supporting standards.
What’s sad is that the threat of EU antitrust has been to make Vista less secure and stable: http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/193302307
Microsoft intentional closed access to the kernel. They completely changed the driver model to suit. You can no longer run audio drivers, for example, or any drivers that I know of, in the kernel. But the EU comes along and threatens what they were doing. So, instead of fighting, they open up the kernel. Thanks Symantec and McAfee.
I don’t know what to think of Opera doing this. I know Opera is getting left behind with online apps, in particular Google Docs. But, I don’t know how much that has to do with IE supporting or not supporting standards.
(Sorry for double post. Link didn’t appear in first.)
I’m no fan of Microsoft either, but I wish they had a pair big enough to take the John Gault solution in response to the EU and US “anti-monopoly” departments abuse. Void ALL Microsoft software licenses held by any government entity. Let the leeches sink or swim on their own ability.
If people don’t like the bundle of OS and browser then either go buy different software/OS or put your money where your mouth is and jump in the ring by building a better product.
Wy_Not, the problem being that Microsoft software is a commodity. The only reason that Microsoft still makes a profit selling software that has free or cheap alternatives is inertia. Governments are _great_ at inertia, and government sales are one of the largest, if not the largest, profit centers.
So the John Galt answer for Microsoft would not work. Linux, BSD, Apple would all just get used more than they are now.
Now ask me why Windows Vista has so many versions, the lowest price point being one that not just doesn’t _include_ things like a media player, but are specifically written so that they are _unable_ to have a media player?
Because Microsoft was in fact trying a John Galt-type solution, giving the EU what it demanded (an un-bundled OS) and at the same time making it effectively useless. To reach the functionality of what was published before, you still _must_ buy the bundled system.
As far as “money where your mouth is”, I run Linux. Don’t you?
“if you can’t beat ‘em, file an antitrust suit against ‘em”
Do you think that Opera, with a market share of 1%, is trying to beat Microsoft, with over 80% of the market? What Opera really want is fair competition. By not supporting standards or by even breaking them, Microsoft is forcing web developers to code for IE separately. Thanks to its market share, many developers can afford to only support IE and cater a sufficiently large portion of their public. Or maybe it’s the other way around: they can’t afford to spend more on supporting other browsers, even if those browsers follow web standards. This simply kills competition. Alternative browser developers are faced with the impossible task of breaking their own product so that it matches IE’s undocumented flaws.
What I’ve read in several blogs is “but Firefox has a significant market share now, so it is possible to compete with IE”. There are still plenty of IE-only sites, and now also IE/Firefox-only sites appear.
Opera is small and is trying to follow the idea of “one web for all” by building a browser for many different platforms and devices based on a single core engine. Web standards are crucial to their business and if a monopolist is holding back the web, it directly hurts Opera.
“if you can’t beat ‘em, file an antitrust suit against ‘em”
Do you think that Opera, with a market share of 1%, is trying to beat Microsoft, with over 80% of the market? What Opera really want is fair competition. By not supporting standards or by even breaking them, Microsoft is forcing web developers to code for IE separately. Thanks to its market share, many developers can afford to only support IE and cater a sufficiently large portion of their public. Or maybe it’s the other way around: they can’t afford to spend more on supporting other browsers, even if those browsers follow web standards. This simply kills competition. Alternative browser developers are faced with the impossible task of breaking their own product so that it matches IE’s undocumented flaws.
What I’ve read in several blogs is “but Firefox has a significant market share now, so it is possible to compete with IE”. There are still plenty of IE-only sites, and now also IE/Firefox-only sites appear.
Opera is small and is trying to follow the idea of “one web for all” by building a browser for many different platforms and devices based on a single core engine. Web standards are crucial to their business and if a monopolist is holding back the web, it directly hurts Opera.
Microsoft enjoys a government enforced monopoly privilege. Those who profit from the predations of the state, especially those who lobby for the continuation or expansion of state interventions on their behalf, deserve no sympathy when the state does them injury. If Opera wins Microsoft will, in the end, still be better off than they would be in the absence of states. Free market advocacy is not synonymous with cheerleading big businesses regardless of the degree to which they profit from state interventions in the market, and we’d do well to remember that.
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