Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Will you be joining the Opera boycott?

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | June 15, 2009, 9:07am PDT

Summary: Opera’s antitrust complaint against Microsoft from 2007 has now ballooned into a full-blown EU antitrust case into browser bundling. As you’d expect, this antitrust case isn’t popular with everyone, and one Windows enthusiast website has launched campaign calling on users to boycott the Opera browser. Will you be boycotting Opera?

Opera’s antitrust complaint against Microsoft from 2007 has now ballooned into a full-blown EU antitrust case into browser bundling. As you’d expect, this antitrust case isn’t popular with everyone, and one Windows enthusiast website has launched campaign calling on users to boycott the Opera browser. Will you be boycotting Opera?

Here’s what JCXP.net, the site calling for the boycott had to say:

Who is behind all of this? Opera Software, makers of the Opera web browser. In December of 2007, Opera pushed the EU to open a case against Microsoft as Opera believed it to be anti-competitive for Microsoft to include its own browser as the default browser within their own OS.

For some unknown reason, instead of combating the lawsuit, Microsoft decided to settle, and on Thursday announced that they would no longer include Internet Explorer in versions of Windows 7 (Microsoft’s next operating system) sold in Europe, and would leave it up to OEM builders to decide which browser to install.

Well, things took a turn for the worse today when Opera made a statement saying this was not enough, and have now pushed the EU to pursue with the antitrust case. Opera believes the only reasonable solution is for Microsoft to include a “ballot screen” for users to select which browser to use.

That’s enough. And it’s time we do something about it.

Today, we are proposing a complete boycott of all Opera software.

This is absolutely nothing more than a company, who can’t legitimately gain market share, trying to squeeze their unpopular browser onto Windows systems. Opera is simply upset because their browser is dead last in market share, and has already been surpassed by the recently released Google Chrome browser and Apple’s Safari browser for Windows.

Microsoft is entirely within their right to include Internet Explorer as the default browser within their own OS, just like Apple includes their own Safari as the default browser in Mac OS X, and just like Opera Software would be free to include Opera as the default browser in their own OS, should they ever make one.

So, the question is this. Is Opera’s whole stance based on wanting to give users a real choice of browsers, or is it about breathing new life into a browser that suffers from a very weak market share? Or, to put things another way, are you for or against the boycott? And if you are for the boycott, will you be eradicating Opera from all your PC and devices?

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Opera Software, Boycott, Web Browser, Web Browsers, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: Will you be joining the Opera boycott?

pueblonative 22nd Dec 2009

if this boycott actually does anything, it will be raising Opera's profile. It's self-defeating at best.

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Yes.

Gnutella 15th Jun 2009

Although I don't use Opera frequently I had the latest Beta installed. After reading that Opera statement enough is enough.

I loved this quote from their VP.... "Certainly, we are in no financial situation to pay lots of money to have Opera distributed on new PCs," he said.

How is that MS' or anyone else's problem?

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Obviously, MS has used Windows to get free distribution for IE for years.

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

But, if IE is as great as MS claims, they have
nothing to worry about at all. Even if Opera was
shipped on all new computers, people would just
download IE anyway, RIGHT????

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Opera should market it's own products, not expect a free ride

de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 15th Jun 2009

Microsoft makes Windows and IE and opts to ship IE with every copy of Windows. I argue that they're free to do this and that despite doing this, there is substantial competition in the market - Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, etc.

If Opera want a free ride, perhaps they should create, market and support their own OS?

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Bundling is illegal when you have a monopoly, and MS even testified that

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

they get no advantage from bundling IE.

So, it seems that MS has nothing to lose. They can
solve the antitrust problems and maintain market
share at the same time. RIGHT????

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But did they say

Michael Kelly 15th Jun 2009

that others WOULD gain an advantage if THEY got their browsers bundled? Because that's the question now. MS is already conceding to not bundle theirs.

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Obviously, MS is very scared of end users being offered a choice when they

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

first use there computer. For the end user, it would
be best if users had a fool proof, hassle free way
to install the browser of their choice at install
time. MS understands very well, what is good for
users is not necessarily good for them.

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And yes, it would tend to imply that if MS gets no advantage, bundling

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

another browser would not get any advantage either.
Wouldn't it???

But, yes, we all know that is horse sheeet.

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Agree! I'm not going to test with it anymore.

BillDem 15th Jun 2009

News Flash: People ALREADY have a choice and (other than web developers) they overwhelmingly choose NOT to use Opera. Even among the half of users who DO choose other browsers, a microscopic number choose Opera. No company should be forced to basically market the products of direct competitors. That's insane. Opera is a monumentally failed browser trying to get governments to force people to try it. Screw them. I'm uninstalling it and won't test my sites with it anymore.

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No, the average user just uses what is pre-installed with the OS.

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

That is why being bundled with Windows is such a
huge advantage.

The fact that Firefox can gain ANY market share on
IE given this situation, speaks volumes about the
quality of the MS product.

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So change the user..and..

JT82 Updated - 15th Jun 2009

the same theory applies to Opera...

"The fact that Firefox can gain ANY market share on IE given this situation, speaks volumes about the quality of the MS product."

The fact that Opera CANT gain ANY market share on IE [or Firefox, Safari, Chrome] given this situation, speaks volumes about the quality of the Opera product.

Firefox has gained a signifigant advantage - and if Opera cant do the same, well they need to check their business model or just accept the fact the free market has spoken.

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Except that Opera was never bundled and never had an advantage. Also, for a

DonnieBoy 15th Jun 2009

long time Opera charged for the browser (out of necessity
to make a profit), and the free version was advertising
supported. That was a HUGE disadvantage for them.

It was not until Google supported Opera that they were
able to toss out the advertising supported version and
make all versions free. By then it was too late, and
Firefox was the alternative browser that was used by those
that realized how bad IE was.

Of course this all started with MS fully funding IE with
monopoly profits, bundling IE with the OS, and giving it
away for no EXTRA charge.

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@Donnieboy: So Why should MS have to give a free handout

JT82 15th Jun 2009

to a RIVAL company whos business model failed? Last I checked the free market kills off the weakest link.

"Also, for a long time Opera charged for the browser (out of necessity to make a profit)"

So where is their profit? MS didnt tell them to charge for something that Mozilla, Apple, and MS were giving away. They failed to market themselves appropriately and are now paying the price - they are irrelevant.

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re:"...quality of the Opera product..."

Loggies 17th Jun 2009

re: "...The fact that Opera CANT gain ANY market share on IE [or Firefox, Safari, Chrome] given this situation, speaks volumes about the quality of the Opera product...."

The above statement is totally invalid. Opera's quality is actually very good. Key elements of their user-interface, like tabbed browsing, has been copied by all the major browsers.

In some respects they are still , in my opinion, the technology and innovation leader. The only reason for their limited market share is because they didn't have the marketing engine of MS or Google behind them.

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what horse crap!!

kaninelupus 18th Jun 2009

Apple bundles Safari, and it still runs like a dogs breakfast.

IE, as with most other browsers, has its pros and its cons. Yes bundling does give some advantages, but much of that lies with lazyass web designers still taking the easy road to some extent even now. And to say that most users simply turn to bundled software is senseless drivel (what else do you expect from the bandwagoners anyhow?!?). How quickly has Firefox become a common browser in the Windows environment? How long have both Winamp and iTunes been well used, even though Media Player is bundled? We are hitting a day and age where more and more users are becoming davvy enough to make their own choices... bundling is not the clincher it once once back in the ninties.

As to the quality of IE, that's about to be replaced with a new sandboxed design (currently called Gazelle), so I'll be reserving judgement till we see what the new model looks like.

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Like IF you did in the past

InAction Man 15th Jun 2009

Stop pretending!

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Are you even serious?

dojohansen Updated - 16th Jun 2009

> No company should be forced to basically market the products of direct competitors.

In what way does debundling IE force Microsoft to market another browser?

> Opera is a monumentally failed browser trying to get governments to force people to try it.

No, Opera is a quite successful browser; but more importantly, your allegation that they are trying to force people to try it is plainly false. They are trying to force Microsoft to compete on equal terms with other browser makers. What, specifically, are the grounds of your accusation?

> I'm uninstalling it and won't test my sites with it anymore.

What browser you wish to use is entirely your choice. But if you want to impose your political or other opinions on the users of your websites you are not only optimistic, but also intolerably unprofessional.

As a web developer (who btw works with .net and SQL Server, in other words in the MS world) I am dismayed to see that there are people out there making web sites who have such a total lack of understanding of the destructive role IEs bundling with Windows has played. I've read many articles both on dev.opera.com and msdn and it has not escaped me that MS tells me how to make it work in IE and doesn't mention that it won't work elsewhere, while Opera tells me how to do it according to standard, how to work around bugs and quirks in IE (since the standard code doesn't work with IE), how to adapt code for several other competing browsers, and occasionally how to do something proprietary in Opera - whenever they do, it is fully disclosed.

I recommend that you read a little about the W3C and how it came into being, and about various standards, several of which were originally proposed and developed by Opera. Opera and Microsoft and other makers probably all try to act in their own best interest, but that is no reason we should just step away and disregard whether or not their actions have *effects* that are in the public interest.

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Not much of a choice for the average Joe

wizoddg 16th Jun 2009

It may be a fair choice, but it's a heavily weighted choice--all you have to do to use IE is install windows--ANY other browser is a specific choice which must not only be made, but which then requires an effort on the part of the user...despite that disadvantage, other browsers are nibbling away at IE's market share for the simple reason that most of them are better in one or more ways.

Let's start with complying with ISO HTML--which IE doesn't...to the point that there are millions of sites which work as designed ONLY with IE.

If MS wants to bundle browsers and do so fairly, they ought to bundle all of the freebies so the user has a realistic and reasonably fair choice.

Pure market arguments aside (sometimes, perhaps often, the "free" market makes awful decisions, in particular about technology.)

MS has NOT, historically "played by the rules."

Like billionaires whose original money came to them through illegal means (usually by their ancestors,) any entity which has attained it's market domination through questionable means is no longer working under "free market" conditions.

Capitalism has not shown itself to be a great deal better than any other economic system--and despite noise to the contrary, capitalism does not equal democracy.

The US has the worst: cell phone service, middle-l;ow speed Internet bandwidth, the highest percentage of it's population in prison, the worst performing vehicles if pollution costs are included, a horrible record both governmentally and in the business placer of actually paying the total costs of production including cleanup.

That "free market" is totally controlled by large corporations diddling politicians.

Don't think so? How come NONE of the fancy guys in New York or Washington knew that there was a recession until it was 4 years old?

Why do the taxpayers (whose average annual earnings are in the low 10's of thousands,) have to bail out the richest 2% of the population--by devaluing the currency by up to 20%.

If you are to argue that everyone has the same opportunities, you are fooling only yourself.

Donald Trump started out with over $300,000 & his father's advice as partner. Did YOU have that kind of opportunity? I sure didn't.

It's not a free market, so don't try and argue that it is...the market is one of the most heavily manipulated games we've invented as humans...fair is not in the rules.

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What free ride?

dojohansen Updated - 16th Jun 2009

Your argument appears to be basically that Microsoft should be free to bundle whatever software they want with the OS. But every modern nation has laws against bundling together products in order to use dominance in one market to gain it in another - which, if you know anything about browser history, of course is precisely how IE became the dominant player. An OS does not need a browser to function.

As a web developer I have seen only too well the negative consequences of Microsoft's dirty tactics. I'll give you one good example. I want to describe this so that non-programmers can follow, so please have a little patience. It won't be *very* long... When Microsoft implemented DOM (Document Object Model), which makes it dramatically easier for developers to programmatically interact with documents, the W3C (world-wide-web consortium, the body responsible for setting global web standards) had stated that a method called "getElementById" should exist. Any element, such as a button, in a document, could then be found by passing an ID to this method. Microsoft however chose not to implement it, and offered instead a method named "all". Apart from the fact that this is a nondescriptive name, the important thing is it was not according to standard. In other words, if I used "all" instead of "getElementById" in my code, it would only work in IE. But if I used "getElementById" it would only work in non-IE browsers. What to do? 90% of the users had IE and would assume my site was ****, not the browser. So the good guys wrote extra code to be able to detect which method to use (often done by a bad practice of browser detection, but that is another topic). But many weren't even aware of the problem - they used IE, they tested only in IE (this is a few years ago), and they used Microsoft's help files, tutorials and documentation. I can assure you that even after MS added support for the standard method, they still used "all" in their docs for developers. And kindly offered plenty of code samples, us for the taking, without ever mentioning that this was non-standard and wouldn't work in other browsers. (Other browsers up to this day of course spend a lot of time emulating IE in order to be able to display non-standard documents.)

I have little difficulty in seeing why MS should not be allowed to bundle apps with the OS. They should be free to make apps and offer them for free to the world, but NOT to force anyone who wants to buy Windows to also take the apps. If Windows had not been so dominating it might have been alright, but it is that dominating and it's not alright.

That having been said, I'll return to my headline question. Even if we forget all I've said and accept that anyone who makes anything should be allowed to bundle it with whatever else they please (I'm not saying you said so, but let's say we've agreed on that, for the sake of argument), how does removing IE from Windows give Opera "a free ride"? It would merely put them on an equal footing with all their competitors, including MS. They haven't asked to be bundled with Windows, just that IE should not be either, even if it's made by the company that makes Windows. The EUs court, like the US one before MS settled with the justice department, apparently agrees with me that MS is too dominant to be allowed such unnecessary bundling.

Finally, the "consumer" point MS pretends exists if they were to get PCs with no browser: There is absolutely nothing to stop distributors from selling PCs with preinstalled software. Many already put word processors and instant messaging clients and email programs and multimedia apps and so on onto their machines, depending on what there is demand for. If consumers want PCs with browser(s) preinstalled, they will get it. The only difference would be that it wouldn't always be IE, at least not only IE, and it would be up to distributors and not Microsoft to decide what application software should be preinstalled on their PCs.

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By the way

dojohansen 16th Jun 2009

Isn't it conspicous how Microsoft has been telling us for all these years it was technically impossible to remove the browser from the OS, then suddenly last Thursday says "ok, we'll do it"?

My point with the details about a particular method (getElementById) is just to illustrate how market clout can be misused to the detriment of everyone but the dominant player. Microsoft would never have succeeded in introducing a bunch of non-standard "functionality" that duplicated the standards if they had not had a huge market share. If they introduced a new browser like other companies did they would not have attracted developers to make things specifically for their browsers, and without content they would never have gotten a big share of the market. The only way left for them would thus have been to make a better browser than their competitors. That would have been good for consumers.

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No, it wouldn't effect

genefitz1976 16th Jun 2009

the market share, but why is trying to raise Opra's marketshare Microsoft's responsibility?
Welcome to business, it is a competition. For the Opra folks... SORRY. If you can't make your browser so fantastic that people download it on their own, don't expect to succeed.
Firefox and Chrome are making it pretty well, and they aren't asking to be shipped with windows.

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re: Firefox and Chrome are making it pretty well

Loggies 17th Jun 2009

Firefox is a good product and had the entire open-source community behind it to push it.

Chrome,on the other hand, only lasted a day on my PC, before I removed it. How big would its market share have been if it wasn't endorsed by Google ?

IE's market share is not based on the merit of the product, but on the fact that it was bundled with Windows.

Strangely enough, Even IE has had a few facelifts since it got serious competition....which is to the benefit of the user.

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sure your business is damaged by a monopoly using illegal leverage

stevey_d 15th Jun 2009

and you wouldn't go to the courts????

sure.

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Ditto

Dauplat 17th Jun 2009

Couldn't have said it better myself.

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Like most people...

lostarchitect 15th Jun 2009

I don't run Opera anyway. I use firefox most of the time. So, with no plans to use Opera in the future I won't be joining (or opposing) any boycott. I expect most are the same.

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ditto (NT)

Badgered 15th Jun 2009

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Same here and in addition.....

Economister 15th Jun 2009

I could never see myself punish another entity to support MS, who wrote the book on playing dirty.

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We agree on that one.

nizuse 15th Jun 2009

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Well, got to give you credit for that. (nt)

Economister 15th Jun 2009

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When you're right, you're right.

nizuse 15th Jun 2009

nt.

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For it

JoeMama_z 15th Jun 2009

I've tried Opera several times, didn't care for it. I found it disorganized and unintuitive.

Google, Firefox, and others have build up market share without gov't intervention why can't opera? because most people who try it, don't like it and don't pass it along.

So screw Opera, boycot FTW!

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The people I am interested in hearing from

Michael Kelly 15th Jun 2009

are the Windows Mobile users who have Opera Mobile as their default, because I'll bet those are the ones who would lose the most in a boycott. Opera is quite replaceable in other platforms.

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RE: Will you be joining the Opera boycott?

FJRC 15th Jun 2009

Since I have never used Opera and never planned to, I guess I've been part of the boycott for years and just didn't know it.

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Nope. I prefer Opera to WM IE any day... why?

HypnoToad72 15th Jun 2009

1. Unlike Mobile IE, I can use my stylus to flick the page up or down in the Opera browser; IE you're stuck using the slider bar on the right of the browser.

2. Speed.

3. Lesser chance of malware, though I have other protections installed to begin with.

4. Easier to zoom in and out and just use.

No doubt many blindly use what's on their WM smartphone and don't even know what's out there. And many have the mindset of "Well, the device comes with this software and I'm too much into what I think are standards or am just too lazy to try something else".

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excatly

vachi 15th Jun 2009

users just do not search for alternatives,
the same is with firefox now, if firefox is their set alternative they
don't know that there are others, i was using my safari 4 beta recently
in starbucks and this girl behind me awed and at how cool the
application was, she did not know its a browser, that was hilarious is
that she was using firefox on her mac, and i was just mindblown, i
asked her why she did not use safari, she said her boyfriend had given
her the computer and she did not know that apple had a browser
since firefox was the one in her dock

so its not just on windows, lol
but truly people just do not know there are others

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So what you are saying is..

JT82 15th Jun 2009

its a stupid user issue. How is that MS's or anybodys issue really? Opera needs to market themselves if they want to be competitive. How did Firefox get so much market share? Marketing.

Poor planning on Operas part - Is not an emergancy on MS's part. They designed their OS - they should be allowed to ship IE on it and do NOT preclude other browsers from being installed.

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This is about equal access

prof123 15th Jun 2009

Most users are dumb and use whatever is pre-installed.
MS has a huge advantage since they pre-install IE. All
major browsers should be pre-installed and let the user
choose... MS is a monopoly, they paid billion$
penalties...

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Same holds for apple...

JT82 15th Jun 2009

They pre-install Safari. By using your logic you will consistantly fail. If the user is not educated to know other alternatives out there, someone needs to advertise or accept the fate.

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"How did Firefox get so much market share? "

rbees 16th Jun 2009

There is one big advantage that Firefox has over Opera. Mozilla,Firefox,Iecweesel is based in open source. That give them free development and the open source market to start from. Opera does not have that.

I never use IE unless I am forced to by a website. Quite often I will not deal with a web-based business that forces me to use it because I use Debian Linux and IE dese not nun on it. Therefore I don't do business with them, their loss not mine. I can find someone else to by from.

Having used Opera for years (requires sepcial install in linux) when I am forced to use some other browser I find them very slow.

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This is about Pcs

bill.andersen@... 16th Jun 2009

I thought the discussion here was about PCs and if we would boycott Opera? Contrary to what this guy thinks, with his mobile device, most people do not have the type of device he talks about and therefore don't think about Opera in regard to one of those. The discussion is about Windows and using Opera possibly in preference to IE/Firefox/Google Chrome/Safari etc. The point is, as I see it, which browser people will use by choice, but choice is the operative word here. I don't want to have to deal with yet another screen at start-up just because Opera want to piggy-back the windows system. The fact that Opera has so little market share shows that people have already voted with their feet and chosen not to use it. I object to the tactics Opera are using and I think it is beneath contempt that they try to influence the EU to force something else onto people which they have already chosen not to use.
I will, for this reason, join the boycott.

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RE: Will you be joining the Opera boycott?

nimasmi Updated - 15th Jun 2009

No. I've used it occasionally on the desktop in the past, and it's so-so. I prefer Firefox most of the time, though Lynx is occasionally useful and due to incompatible websites I sometimes have to use Internet Explorer too.

In principle I am dead for the antitrust cases being brought against Microsoft and Apple, and I am pro-choice and pro-user-education when it comes to all software. Novice users do need to be made aware that there are choices to be made, (in browser, media player, email program, image editor, financial app...) and frankly an installation-time popup sounds like a good way of doing this. Perhaps a link to an impartial 3rd party site. Avoiding corporate homepages is really difficult for new users, (I have several friends whose internet start page is their ISP's homepage) and being shepherded towards them is inevitable if you don't know how to do things like find a search engine you like or change the start page.

On the other hand, I do feel that Opera is playing for market share here, even though they have/had an innovative browser in its own right. But then boycotting their product is the result of a similarly biased view. Whatever happened to free speech? It's not as though they are (flamewar warning) peddling powdered baby milk to mothers in the third world is it? They're simply asking for the decision to be made in open court by a third party arbitrator.

Still, the main reason I won't be joining the boycott is because on my Nokia E71 phone the Opera Mini browser is far better than the built in Symbian OS web browser. In this area they have a superb product, and it's a shame that more users aren't aware that such choices exist, on portable devices or the desktop.

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I need to understand

Eyebol Updated - 16th Jun 2009

Everyone is saying that users need choice or that they need to be
educated about choice.

What I don't get is this - whose responsibility is it to educate the user?
Is it Opera by advertising their product more or the EU by making
Microsoft put a choice box?

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RE: Will you be joining the Opera boycott?

Loverock Davidson 15th Jun 2009

Yes, absolutely! Soon as Opera wanted to push this issue I stopped using any of their products. Opera just dug themselves a huge hole that they will not be able to get out of. But my boycott doesn't stop with just Opera, it extends to the EU as well.

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"extends to the EU as well"

nizuse 15th Jun 2009

But LD, you're denying yourself of some goodies here! No more BWMs, Italian wines, French delicacies, and I guess also no more trips to Europe!

All this, because your beloved MS is getting its fair share of legal attention in Europe? LOL!

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re: LD's boycott

Loggies 17th Jun 2009

A boycott is only a boycott if you actually used the product and stopped using it. In LD's case, I doubt very much whether he's ever used Opera. Therefore its not a boycott, its just business as usual wink

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Or put another way...

Zogg 15th Jun 2009

"Will you throw your toys out of your pram?"

No.

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I'll still be using Opera on Ubuntu

ingramproductions 15th Jun 2009

Until Internet Explorer is released on Ubuntu,
i'll be using Opera (lol). Actually, I'm waiting
on the release of Chrome, but until then, Opera
seems to have better performance than Firefox on
my system, so i'll stick with it.

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Firefox is great on Ubuntu

Tiggster 15th Jun 2009

I've had a wonderful experience running Firefox on Ubuntu, even on systems with minimal specs. After trying the Windows version of Opera and being utterly dissatisfied with it, I never even bothered trying it on Ubuntu. Firefox is actually my primary browser on both Windows and Ubuntu, although I'm finding myself using IE8 a bit more these days, but I still don't see myself switching from Firefox anytime soon.

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I don't see the need for a boycott

Tiggster 15th Jun 2009

Why boycott Opera? It is totally irrelevant anyway! It's been around since the beginning of time and still nobody uses it. Google Chrome has only been out for a few months now and already has over double the total Opera market share. The reason Opera is pursuing this case is because every other effort to become relevant has failed.

I'm boycotting Opera because it sucks, not because of what they are trying to do legally, although I find that despicable as well. Just as SCO turned to legal avenues when they were getting their butts kicked by Linux, Opera is doing the same with Microsoft. This is inevitably a failed strategy that will backfire.