Web Browser Maker Opera Complains to EU

Dec 13, 2007 By AOIFE WHITE, AP Business Writer

(AP) -- Web browser developer Opera Software ASA complained to the European Commission about Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, asking regulators to force the company to give users a choice of Internet software with its Windows operating system.


Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

Explore further: Mozilla lab wants scientists to step out of analog age

add to favorites email to friend print save as pdf

Related Stories

Beyond NYC: Other places adapting to climate, too

1 hour ago

From Bangkok to Miami, cities and coastal areas across the globe are already building or planning defenses to protect millions of people and key infrastructure from more powerful storm surges and other effects ...

China paper hits out at US surveillance programme

1 hour ago

China's official army newspaper on Sunday branded the United States Internet surveillance programme exposed by former spy Edward Snowden as "frightening", and accused the US of being a "habitual offender" ...

Russia fetes 50th anniversary of first woman in space

2 hours ago

Russia celebrated Sunday the 50th anniversary of the maiden flight of the first woman in space—a Soviet national hero who went by the call name "Seagull" and captured the imaginations of girls around the ...

Current, former officials back secret surveillance

2 hours ago

Current and former top U.S. officials on Sunday defended the government's collection of phone and Internet data following new revelations about the secret surveillance programs, saying the operations were ...

Recommended for you

Mozilla lab wants scientists to step out of analog age

Jun 18, 2013

(Phys.org) —Talk about big ideas. Not satisfied to rest on laurels of having brought forth the open source browser Firefox, Mozilla—defined by some as a global project, by others as one of the key open-source ...

'Watch Dogs' video game a sign of the times

Jun 17, 2013

Across the dizzying, colorful show floor at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo, there were games on display where players could become all manner of things, like a throat-slashing 18th century pirate, ...

Winners and losers at this week's E3

Jun 15, 2013

Since the first battles over "Pong" machines in local arcades four decades ago, video gamers have loved good competition. And this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo—the industry's largest annual gathering—presented ...

Cube Slam: Google's video game plays up WebRTC, WebGL

Jun 14, 2013

(Phys.org) —Google has a new game called Cube Slam where you get to slam a cube into another player's screen target. If you hit the cube against the other player's screen three times, terrific, the screen ...

User comments : 5

Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank

Display comments: newest first

gopher65
not rated yet Dec 13, 2007
*sighs* As much as I bash my head against my desk every time I have to try and script a webpage to work with Opera (follows standards), Firefox2 (kinda follows standards), IE7 (follows some standards), and IE6 (is a piece of garbage), I just can't support this kind of legal action.

Yes I want open standards. But Microsoft has EVERY FREAKING RIGHT to code its IE however it wants! No court should have the ability to force companies to adopt the standards of other companies! That's INSANE.

Sure, today they are forcing big bad Microsoft to change the way it codes things. Next they might randomly decide that the government doesn't like Firefox's bookmark system. Maybe their next step will be to ban use of Opera because the word "opera" refers to a specific type of musical play, and that word is therefore considered trademarked indefinitely under EU law. Think it won't happen? Yeah, the people who use to make Champagne laughed too. It was a ridiculous thought. But now they make Bubbly Alcoholic Beverage Type 5 because Champagne is trademarked to some dinky little village in the EU.

This sort of litigation is a slippery slippery slope, and we have already travelled too far down it for my liking. Don't let your hatred of Microsoft cloud your judgement in these matters.
nilbud
not rated yet Dec 13, 2007
MS can do whatever with their browser they just aren't giving others access to the desktop. Similar arrangements are in place for telecoms companies to unbundle the local loop or whatever.

Champagne is quite a large region in France where Champagne is produced. Fizzy wine from other parts of the planet can call themselves anything they like, just not champagne. Personally I find a decent Cava to be superior to entry level Champagnes. Krug is Krug though and that's all there is to say about that.
gopher65
not rated yet Dec 13, 2007
Actually there are two Champagnes fighting over the right to use the name. One is the region, the other is an ancient little village. The village started producing what they call Champagne long before the region did. I hope they win and give those Champagne region jerks a taste of their own foul medicine:).

Microsoft lets you do whatever you want with their desktop. Your OS is a sandbox, not a prison. Well, unless you use the macOS. But if you use any other OS, you can put whatever software on it you want. I use choose to use Firefox for instance because I like it.

I only heard of Opera a few months ago. Frankly it isn't Microsoft's fault that Opera isn't being marketed properly. If it was being marketed (which it isn't), and it was decent software (which it is), then it would be doing better than IE7, just like FF2 is.

I don't understand how Jon von Tetzchner can claim that Microsoft has a monopoly on PC web browers. All versions of FF now account for 48.8% of the traffic on my website. All versions of IE 43.9% (out of ~10000 hits so far this month, so it is a decent sized sample). IE isn't even the biggest browser on the block anymore, never mind a "monopoly".
nilbud
not rated yet Dec 14, 2007
Well generally the estimates for IE run between 75% and 85% but the desktop used is MS 90% of the time. Allowing a choice of browser once people have already gone online is a bit late. Anyway if someone wants to bash the crap out of MS using the law it seems only fair. Cut off their air supply I say.
gopher65
not rated yet Dec 14, 2007
Those are the old estimates nilbud. Browser use changes rapidly.

According to wikipedia: "Typical market share analysis showed slow uptake of Internet Explorer 7, and after statistics in September 2007 from w3schools.com showed Firefox at 35.4% had taken over from Internet Explorer 6 at 34.9% as the most popular browser"

Of course those numbers are a few months old already. And actually, looking at my september statistics from my page, that matches what I was seeing a few months ago too. But today it has swung decidedly in Firefox's favour. IE7 is FAR below FF2 (IE6 accounts for something like 16% of IE's total numbers, while the latest version of FF2 has almost FF's entire share).

As I said above, in December FF (nearing 50% market share now) has now overtaken IE as a whole, instead of just IE6.

More news stories

Dish won't submit revised bid for Sprint

Satellite TV operator Dish Network Corp. said Tuesday it would not submit a revised bid for Sprint, leaving the path open for the wireless carrier to accept what it already considers a superior offer from Japan's Softbank.

Cape Wind gets $200M investment from Danish fund

The Cape Wind offshore wind project has secured a $200 million investment from a Danish pension fund in what the wind farm's president said Tuesday is a milestone for the long-delayed project.

Diabetes key to transplant success, research finds

(Medical Xpress)—Better management of diabetes could dramatically improve outcomes for lung transplant patients, with new research showing that those without diabetes lived twice as long as transplant recipients ...