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Opera: Acid or no, its Microsoft antitrust complaint goes forward

Summary: Now that Microsoft has passed the Acid2 Browser test, is Opera Software satisfied? If dropping its antitrust complaint filed last week with the European Commission is the measure, the answer is no.

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

Now that Microsoft has passed the Acid2 Browser test, is Opera Software satisfied? If dropping its antitrust complaint filed last week with the European Commission is the measure, the answer is no.

I asked Opera whether Microsoft's announcement on December 19 that an internal Internet Explorer 8 build has passed the Acid2 test meant a change in its complaint. Opera asked the European courts to require Microsoft to change its practice of bundling IE with Windows, as well as to compel Microsoft to make IE comply with accepted Web standards.

An Opera spokesman delivered the company's response:

"We congratulate Microsoft on the screenshots showing IE8 passing the ACID2 test. We appreciate the effort of Microsoft's developers in this achievement.

"We hope that IE8 passes the ACID2 test out of the box when it ships and we look forward to testing IE8 on all the main Web standards.

"Our filing last week stirred many discussions on the value of Web standards. We hope IE8's passing of the ACID2 test signals a change in Microsoft's heart and mind regarding their support of the standards."

Microsoft, for its part, is saying that its decision to go public this week with plans to make IE 8 Acid2-compliant had nothing to do with the timing of Opera's filing. (I don't buy that for a second, but that's what IE Development chief Dean Hachamovitch told me.)

In a response to a blog post I did questioning the wisdom of Opera's decision to seek court intervention to enforce IE standards-compliance, Opera CTO Hakon Wium Lie said:

"To help Microsoft and other browser makers support standards correctly, the Acid2 test was developed and published by the Web Standards Group. When published, it exposed bugs in all browsers. The programmers of Safari, Firefox and Opera got to work quickly and the latest versions of these browsers now pass the difficult test. Microsoft took a very different attitude and has not, seemingly, made any efforts to pass the test. This tells me we must do more than just ask them nicely."

So it looks like Opera's antitrust complaint stays as is. What's your take? Should Opera just focus on IE bundling and drop the standards piece of its complaint? Drop its complaint in its entirety? Or do you think Opera is right in staying the course?

Topics: Enterprise Software, Browser, Microsoft, Security

About

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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247 comments
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  • They should just drop it

    It was lame anyway. Firefox does well, why can't Opera? Litigation to make up for their own failure is all this is.
    Joeman57
    Reply Vote

  • Let's not beat around the bush here...

    This is not whether MS follows web standards closely or not. This is about Opera being the big browser war losers. Since they can't attract people to their browser naturally, they need to try different approaches. The fact that the EC has their own agenda when it comes to MS and has no problem manipulating markets until the market ends up to their desired results (even though to date they have failed to actually manipulate the market successfully), it makes sense to run crying to them.

    Seriously Opera, please grow a spine and compete with MS without ridiculous antitrust complaints. If FF can do it, why can't you?
    Qbt
    Reply Vote

    • That's right case more about helping Opera

      If lack of standards compliance was such a big issue, people would have switched to Opera already. The fact that they havent, proves these standards are nearly worthless.

      For awhile, Firefox was only partially compliant but I have yet to hear any complaints about it.

      What a joke! But hey, if you're part of big-govt you need to show you are doing something to protect the consumer!
      otaddy
      Reply Vote

      • MORONIC SENTENCE OF THE YEAR

        If lack of standards compliance was such a big issue, people would have switched to Opera already. [b]The fact that they havent, proves these standards are nearly worthless.[/b]

        Congratulations boy! ...you should go back to school & learn WHY & HOW standards are important (I dont have patience to teach you).

        PF
        theo_durcan
        Reply Vote

    • Totally agree...and I'll add

      that folks who work in the software business should never, ever want legal precedence like this set if Opera were to win - Freetards included.
      rramirez@...
      Reply Vote

    • SPOT ON!!! Opera = Sour Grapes. (nt)

      .
      No_Ax_to_Grind
      Reply Vote

    • oh yawn, fanboy

      you still haven't grasped the big picture of how this all came about, and i don't expect you MS fanboys ever to understand - its just too complicated for you when you have a bias
      With regards functionality, adherence to real standards and innovation, opera has knocked spots off every other browser and still does since its ver 5 release.
      As a result of MS lack of adherence to standards and releasing cr*p like Frontpage that produces cr*p code, there an abundance of badly written websites that will not work properly in standard-compliant browsers. Opera is trying to get MS to make their browser properly compliant so all the cr*p sites correct their cr*p
      read this http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/
      deaf_e_kate
      Reply Vote

      • Dumbest thing I ever seen

        So what's next? Should Microsoft sue Apple because QuickTime doesn't play .wmv files? Or vice-versa? Or SolidWorks sue Pro-E because of file incompatibility?
        Jedeye
        Reply Vote

        • wmv is not a standard

          dumb is right
          seanferd
          Reply Vote

          • Neither is the Skype protocol

            ...and yet Skype refuses to support SIP / XMPP, which ARE standards.

            How dare they?
            John Carroll
            Reply Vote

          • Apples to Oranges

            Skype is not tied to any particular OS and can be
            removed. IE on the other hand, IS tied to the OS now
            and cannot be removed because the original DLL code was
            merged into the system DLL code with some judicious cut
            and paste then fixing any issues that popped up.

            If IE were modular and could actually be removed, this
            whole thing would be moot. But it isn't and there is
            the actual point.
            doug@...
            Reply Vote

          • FF isn't integrated...

            ... but people still choose to use it. If Opera wants to compete against IE for the regular "consumer" market (non-IT people) then they need to get some marketing in front of consumers and show them why they think their browser is better than IE. That will get people to download it and use it over IE. Resorting to legal manuevering is just a bad move in my opinion. It makes it appear that Opera can't compete against IE or FF on it's own merits and they have to use legal tactics to level the playing field.
            jason_thewebmannetwork
            Reply Vote

          • Sorry, WMV is a standard

            WMV9 AKA VC1 is a standard.

            "VC-1 is a video codec specification that has been standardized by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and implemented by Microsoft as Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) 9. Formal standardization of VC-1 represents the culmination of years of technical scrutiny by over 75 companies."
            retardboy
            Reply Vote

          • WMV is not a standard

            You said it yourself WMV is an [b]implementation[/b] of VC-1, they do not equate to the same thing.
            madfenris@...
            Reply Vote

          • Do you really want to go there?

            VC-1 is the name the the SMPTE gave to WMV when they decided to standardize it. They are compatible. The SMPTE wasn't going to standardize something with Windows in the name. This is why WMP also changed it name to HD Photo.
            retardboy
            Reply Vote

  • RE: Opera: Acid or no, its Microsoft antitrust complaint goes forward

    It seems unlikely that Microsoft could have made IE8 Acid-2 compliant so quickly. So I buy that they were working on it long before Opera filed their complaint. But the announcement is of course directly related to it. It's a good PR move now that Opera has made Acid2 seem important.
    nakedfish
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Opera: Acid or no, its Microsoft antitrust complaint goes forward

    Umm... I run Firefox 2.0.0.1.1 and it still doesn't pass the acid2 test. Opera is just talking a whole lot of bs. While I'm sure Mozilla and Opera began work on making their browsers compliant, their's aren't 100% compliant either. Microsoft just wasn't as public with information about what they were doing. Since when can you sue someone for being secretive about their new products? That makes no sense. I'm sure the IE has been working on making IE8 compliant since IE8 began in development, just like the new versions of Mozilla's and Opera's browsers. You can see that yourself if you head on over to channel9 where they just posted a video on getting IE8 to pass the acid2 test. It clearly shows how long they have been working on getting it up to par in the standards area. Microsoft just didn't communicate what they were doing that whole time, unlike the other two.
    retardboy
    Reply Vote

    • Oh wow retard boy, Microsoft shows a video where IE 8 passed the acid2 test

      Personally I think Microsoft is BSing. Why the video only? I'm sure folks everywhere
      would want to have seen IE 8 pass the acid 2 test in person, not via a video. Think
      man, think, videos can be manipulated until you get the results you want.
      The_Nutty_Zealot
      Reply Vote

      • Really?

        Really? We're still talking about microsoft here, right? I have 5 blogs on mu reader here that are focused on just microsoft. Do you really think they're stupid enough to play around with the video when everyone has an eye on them. When IE8 beta is released and it isn't standard compliant (whatever that is) they will be publicly evicerated and their stock will be ripped to shreds. I really, really doubt they're that stupid. They seriously can't be that stupid. That is something Mozilla would be able to do, since people rarely measure them on the same level as Microsoft. (Of course Mozilla wouldn't do this, but they are in a position for it)
        Chustar
        Reply Vote

        • I don't know - with Ballmer throwing chairs...

          on video; I wouldn't put anything past Microsoft now.
          JCitizen
          Reply Vote
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