Opera vs. Microsoft: more EU antitrust antagonism (and USBwine)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which Opera complains about Microsoft to Euro. antitrust authorities. Not to mention how to download wine...

Gregg Keizer reports:

Norwegian browser maker Opera ASP took a page from an American playbook yesterday as it complained to European Union antitrust regulators ... Opera claimed Microsoft continues to abuse its dominant position on the desktop ... and hinders interoperability by not following accepted Web standards. [more]

Mike Magee peers deeper:

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the object of [Opera's] ire was the Redmond Vole (Microtus Redmondia Avarice) ... [It] asked the Commission to oblige Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer ... [and] to require Microsoft to "follow fundamental and open Web standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities". [more]

Peter G. Klein fiddles while Rome burns:

Opera is an innovative company that makes a fine web browser and has a devoted following ... 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 ... really, haven't we been through all this already? [more]

Paul Smith calls it, "utter madness":

This has got to be the dumbest thing I've heard in years ... Mr Jon von Tetzchner, and friends. You're a disgrace to the computer industry. Why don't you stop trying to make everybody's lives 50 times more complicated and actually develop a decent browser, one which people will want to install themselves. [more]

Erna Mahyuni is more even-handed:

I don’t see how Microsoft can ship an OS without a browser so getting them to unpack IE would be hard to justify ... But making Microsoft give in to the whole premise of web standards and no longer have sites that proclaim to need IE to run would even out the playing field somewhat. [more]

Reap Cid Highwind:

They might want to specify that Microsoft should be compelled to follow published w3c standards, not just accepted standards. The "standards accepted by the Web-authoring communities" today are pretty much "Code everything for IE6. If there's free time after that's done and the pub isn't open yet, test in Firefox". [more]

And devjj is normally a fan of free markets:

But in this case the obviously inferior and downright broken product is winning, and it's got nothing to do with price. Two words: market failure. [more]

'Cos AmaDaden's dreaming of a white Christmas: [You fool -Ed.]

I am currently doing some web development work ... I run our pages on IE, FireFox, Safari, and Opera. By far IE is the BIGGEST pain in the ass. Why? It does not follow the standards at all. It just laughs at you. "oh you want that over there. Haha that's funny. Keep dreaming." It flat out ignores some HTML ... So what happens? People have started to code to IE and just IE. [more]

Here's Paul Thurrott, with a reference that the Europeans won't understand:

Fun with Headlines ... Opera complains to EU about Microsoft -- They're the New York Jets of the technology world ... Get over yourself, it's fun. [more]

And finally...

• USB Wine: virtually visit the vineyard, download some wine and even print out the bottle label [hat tip: Idiot Toys]
  

Buffer overflow:

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• Mike Masnick: France Says Non! To Amazon's Free Shipping
• Overcoming Bias: Evaporative Cooling of Group Beliefs
• Kevin Anderson: LeWeb3 '07 on the web Day 2
• Mike Treder: CRN's Nanotechnology Scenarios Project
• Ben Kuchera: 63 percent of US population now plays video games, says report
• Anton Chuvakin: How to Do Database Logging/Monitoring "Right"?

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• Ken Mingis: 802.11n, Leopard and MacBook Pro wireless woes: The follow-up
• Michael R. Farnum: Fidelity sends breach notification out to Yahoo! employees
• Mark Hall: Inspire, nag your mobile workforce
• Shark Tank: Sometimes taking your best shot isn't enough
• Douglas Schweitzer: Users put their own networks in jeopardy
• Shark Bait: Hey Hey 16K

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Windows 7 gets touchy-feely (and blogsplanation)
• 11 Patch Tuesday vulns. (and hirsute coders II)
• LinkedIn adds API, features (and hirsute coders)