Opera files complaint against Microsoft

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Wha Wha?

i agree somewhat that the makers of Opera are being a bit melodramatic. it is true that i can install Opera and use it instead of IE. however, it is also true that IE is an integral part of Windows. my objection to IE stems from the fact that it's inferior to other browsers, and i assert that i shouldn't have to have it on my computer. it's the principle of the thing. granted, Windows is a huge pain, and i'm still using it, but learning to use an alternative would involve an investment of time (and a loss of supported video games) that i'm not prepared to commit to right now.

see if this logic works for you. i bought a laptop computer recently. it came with Vista pre-installed, but i know that there are other operating systems out there. the existence of alternatives means that Vista is not an integral part of my computer... i can get rid of it and install a different system if i choose to. the same logic applies to browsers. the fact that there are alternate web browsers out there suggests that IE does not need to be an integral part of Windows.

but Microsoft makes it an integral part, by both disabling any logical means of uninstalling it and preventing access to Windows update pages through any other browser. these facts work to detract significantly from Opera's market share regardless of the superiority of their product, and Microsoft thoroughly deserves to be slapped for it. hard.

i made a Geocities page back in 1997, to teach myself HTML and to have a place where i could rant and rave about the inadequacies of the world.

the point of that little story is that when i bring my web page up in IE and Firefox, the two windows look completely different. when i used Netscape, it looked different again. i don't have any fancy javascript or comment boxes on my page... it's just HTML.

IE doesn't recognize all of the same HTML tags that Firefox and other browsers do. if the folks who write browsers would agree on some kind of *standard* that was not simply an easily ignored *guideline* then writing HTML would be a much easier task. as it is, it's not sufficient to merely learn HTML... a responsible web author has to also learn the idiosyncracies of each browser, pick the version that looks best within the mandate of being able to reach as many users as possible, write for that browser, include alternate versions that enable users of other browsers to have some vague idea of what we're trying to say, and when any given browser gets updated we get to investigate it and make relevant changes to the site. my personal peeve is that none of them are able to keep up with the actual HTML specification, so there are always nifty things that are possible with HTML but are not possible because there aren't any browsers that can display it.

so in actual fact, it's not a matter of coding the site the way we want it so that everybody can be happy. any given HTML tag may be interpreted differently by each browser. i demand freedom of choice, and Microsoft isn't giving it to me. down with the man!

Posted by: that one geek   Posted on: 12/13/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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