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Sunday, 16 December 2007

Opera files antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft 

Opera has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft for abusing its dominant position in the market, stating that by tying its own browser Internet Explorer with Windows, they are 'hindering' interoperability by not supporting web standards. Their main strategy is alleged to be targeting the higher morals of web standards and allowing Joe Schmo consumer to make a real choice between browsers. Financial gain is said not to be part of the decision to file the lawsuit albeit having only .66% of the market share, one is not entirely conviced this is the case.

The latest Opera brower is of course one of the best browsers in the market in terms of CSS and XHTML support whereas its counterpart Internet Explorer is significantly lacking, exacerbated further by its own proprietary properties and unique behaviours. What is difficult about this case, is that the consumers don't know anything about web standards nor do they care about them (or should for that matter). What they want is a browser - and they have that when they purchase Windows. Many people believe that Internet Explorer IS the internet, so giving people a choice between browsers will probably confuse a lot of people.

The obvious best possible solution to this, is for Internet Explorer to increase its own standards compliance so that the uninformed user will get 'the internet' and the web designers can create effective websites that are cross-browser compatible without the need for CSS and other browser hacks. After all, a browser should simply be the 'window to the web' and nothing more.

As for Opera, I commend them for their noble actions (if indeed their actions are innocent) and I sincerly hope that this is the outcome. Of course, if it is the case that IE becomes standards compliant, Opera will have only succeeded (in terms of personal gain) in making their browser less appetisable to the market in general. Currently Opera has some nice features on top of their standards compliance but has lacked in marketing, losing out to other browser makers such as Mozilla and Safari. This case could make or break Opera.

As for the result, we shall have to wait and see.

Original Article

Opera files antitust lawsuit against MS