Releaselog

Opera attacks Microsoft’s monopoly policy

Posted on 13.12.2007 at 16:30 in Tech News by Martin

Microsoft has once more come under fire for allegedly anti-competitive behaviour – this time from software rival Opera. The Norwegian company, which makes an internet browser of the same name, has filed a complaint with European Union officials accusing Microsoft of stifling competition. Opera, which has around 12 million users worldwide, said today that Microsoft had been acting anti-competitively by bundling its Internet Explorer program with the Windows operating system. “We are filing this complaint on behalf of all consumers who are tired of having a monopolist make choices for them,” said Jon von Tetzchner, the chief executive of Opera. “We cannot rest until we’ve brought fair and equitable options to consumers worldwide.”

The company said it was looking for a series of measures from European officials, including forcing Microsoft to unbundle Internet Explorer or allowing rival products to be preinstalled in Windows, and compelling Microsoft to follow design guidelines issued by web standards groups. “Computer users have complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish,” the company said in a statement. Last year the EU fined Microsoft a record €280m in a similar antitrust battle over its Windows Media Player software. Opera’s claims are closely modeled on the high-profile case against Microsoft pursued by the US government in a six-year battle over the integration of Internet Explorer into the Windows operating system. I’m slowly getting tired of all these “best browser” debates and counteractions of competitive companies…

Source: Guardian 

* Comments(127)

Comments (127)

Feel free to post your Opera attacks Microsoft’s monopoly policy torrent, subtitles, samples, free download, quality, NFO, rapidshare, megashares, sendspace, megaupload, filefactory, netload, crack, serial, keygen, requirements or whatever-related comments here. Don't be rude (permban), use only English, don't go offtopic and read FAQ before asking a question. Owners of this website aren't responsible for content of comments.
Pages: « 1 [2] Show All
  1. open
    December 14th, 2007 | 00:44

    here is OperaTor link.
    http://archetwist.com/en/opera/operator

    OperaTor is a software bundle that can be easily installed on a portable memory (pendrive, usb stick, hard drive) to allow anonymous surfing while at an internet cafe, library etc.

  2. jv
    December 14th, 2007 | 01:04

    twatwad “the ultra noob” wrote:
    sorry but you are a r3tard. use the software before you comment.

    Hahaahhahahahhaha.
    Guess what kiddy…
    I actually wrote the encryption it is build on.
    It’s currently made for IE only but a Firefox client will be available soon. You really made my day with your silly comments.
    Thank you for that :)

  3. Reavenk
    December 14th, 2007 | 01:46

    This is the stupidest thing to keep reoccuring in history. I suppose I ought to be making a calculator program now and sueing them for having one pre-installed.

  4. Toni
    December 14th, 2007 | 01:48

    Opera was the best when it came out, and it still is.

  5. rickyBobby
    December 14th, 2007 | 01:49

    and guess what

    i invented firefox

  6. jv (twatwad is r3tarded)
    December 14th, 2007 | 02:01

    Reavenk wrote:
    This is the stupidest thing to keep reoccuring in history. I suppose I ought to be making a calculator program now and sueing them for having one pre-installed.
    ———————–
    Yes, you should.
    Even today we don’t have a calculate program without any flaws.

    The main problem with IE is different though.
    IE is simply a nightmare for all web developers, it’s not compatible with any of the accepted standards.
    Is it so difficult to understand for all your monkey brains what’s happening?
    Hint: MS is trying to replace HTML with OOXML.
    Only r3tards like twatwad will benefit from this.
    IE needs to die,
    period.

  7. jv (twatwad is r3tarded)
    December 14th, 2007 | 02:16

    rickyBobby wrote:

    and guess what

    i invented firefox
    —————————
    Hi Rick (Bobby…?)
    Stop b!tch!ng me for our debian port.
    We didn’t change anything. You stated yourself that FF is only the core product. We only changed the “patch” and “plugin” parts.
    Grow up.

  8. dated
    December 14th, 2007 | 02:20

    i just want browser: that support/have full PNG tranparency, can block img and iframe ads, and good at render CSS so i dont have use js just to make simple drop menu to work or hack CSS

  9. dude
    December 14th, 2007 | 03:05

    NETSCAPE ALL THE WAY!

  10. Eric
    December 14th, 2007 | 03:08

    I use Opera, but I feel this company complaint is stupid and futile. Microsoft can package whatever they like in their own product, why in hell should they release third-party software?

    Opera still reigns supreme on linux-based systems, I don’t see why they need to attempt to muscle in on Microsoft.

    Users don’t have choice with Windows either, users who want choice use open-source operating systems…

  11. Mr. X staff member
    December 14th, 2007 | 04:16

    One more vote for Opera to make their own OS and bundle their web browser on it. That would kick-ass.

  12. [NZ]SoniKalien
    December 14th, 2007 | 04:21

    @ Johno

    “APPLE was created to stimulate competition with MICROSOFT.
    ”

    Where the hell you dream that up son?

    Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Microsoft by Bill Gates, who just happened to go to uni togther, and were at one time good friends.

    Steve Jobs started building computers in wooden boxes (the first Apples), while Bill Gates went on to license out an O/S (namely QDOS) that wasn’t even finished, as a business venture.

    After that they pretty much followed different paths and the rest is history.

    Apple and Microsoft have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

    Stop making stuff up son.

  13. afx99
    December 14th, 2007 | 04:27

    go on opera… kick ass.

  14. knux
    December 14th, 2007 | 04:36

    @Mr. X

    GOS sounded cool but OOS? maybe they will call it Phantom, nice play on words atleast, but they don’t have enough money to do it plus their mobile browser sucks on Palms (not that Palm helps the matter)

  15. Reality
    December 14th, 2007 | 05:41

    @128 [NZ]SoniKalien,
    “Apple was founded by Steve Jobs” should read “Apple was co-founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak”.

    Wozniak being more the computer nerd and technical partner while Jobs being more the marketer. “In addition to designing the hardware, Wozniak wrote most of the software initially provided with the Apple.”
    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak

    :)

  16. lavaground
    December 14th, 2007 | 06:27

    the notepad is too imba, it should be removed from the standard os install *rofl*

  17. Darth Arcon
    December 14th, 2007 | 06:57

    Heh…this is getting annoying. Everybody who says Microsoft is a monopoly are short sighted idiots…It is quite clear, from the amount of people who enjoy beating them down, that in all probability, have another OS on their computer, that Microsoft is nothing more than an industry leading company, not a monopoly.

    That said, Microsoft has the right to stick IE on PC’s. After all, it isnt their fault that Opera didnt make an OS to rival theirs (they didnt make one at all!)…

    The part I dont understand is that if Microsoft didnt put IE on computers, there would be no internet browser for them to download a different one with, hence making every “Download this Browser” button on any website a hypocritical idea. If they stuck in every browser that said, “I want on there by default!”, they would be no better than companies like Dell and HP who stick a bunch of bundled crap pre-installed on computers built by them. The reason I build my own computer and install just Windows is so that I can avoid such. I really dont enjoy going through and uninstalling everything I dont want on my computer…

    I am not saying monopolies are good, far from it. All Im saying is that companies like Opera need to think a little bit more before they make dumb choices like this. It isnt like Microsoft has software that prevents you from installing any browser other than theirs. You have the freedom to use IE to download a different browser, if you like. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. All they did was pick the lesser of two evils, install one or install all of them…

    It is times like this that remind me how greedy and un-intelligent people really are…

  18. aaaa
    December 14th, 2007 | 08:06

    I need IE bundle with WINXP to download and install firefox…end of story…

  19. koszi
    December 14th, 2007 | 08:22

    @135: or maybe you’d prefer to have a choice during instalation of windows what browser do you want ? and it’d be preinstalled with your system ? :)

    this pre-installed browser is quite good idea, sadly it won’t work.

    Safari > * :)

  20. [NZ]SoniKalien
    December 14th, 2007 | 12:07

    @132 Reality

    Apologies, I got my Steves mixed up.

  21. trell
    December 14th, 2007 | 12:22

    To everyone who’s leaving a ‘My br0w5er pwnz, yr br0w5er is teh suxx0r’ type posts, give it a rest. You use the browser you prefer. Each has their strengths, and each has their weaknesses. You are not going to get extra brownie points for using the most obscure browser that you can find either…

    However, it does demonstrate that Opera have got it completely wrong! The fact that we are all on different browsers, and all discussing the benefits & merits of them just show that Microsoft have not monopolised anything. If their built-in IE7 actively blocked pages where additional browsers could be downloaded, then yes. You could happily say that MS were monopolising the market.

    As good as Opera is at providing a decent browser, I suspect that MS is going to completely wipe the floor with them if Opera do try to sue over this whole ‘monopolisation’ accusation.

    Oh, and JV & Twadwad – get a room, you two.

  22. bill gates
    December 14th, 2007 | 13:05

    Stop using IE. You have a choice. Also stop using Windows.

  23. Fazlul Rahuman Fazal
    December 14th, 2007 | 13:21

    How crazy r these ppl? They should make a Film with the name “Browser War”. ;-)

  24. Vajid
    December 14th, 2007 | 16:00

    @99.. well said.. freedom of choice my ass.. they are fightin for the dumbass who cant download a browser otherwise.. kiss ass Opera..

  25. jv (twatwad is r3tarded)
    December 14th, 2007 | 20:53

    twatwad wrote:
    ultra-noob jv wrote the encryption camera/shy is based on?

    don’t think so nubbycakes :D
    ——————————————————–
    Feel free to think that. It was actually based on the (free) work from many people. Camerashy can be be used with any encription.
    —

    twatwad wrote:
    ultranoob jv says camera/shy is about to be released for firefox?

    don’t think so nubbycakes :D
    ——————————————————–
    I never said it would be released by the same people. It’s GPL code anyone can use it.
    An unofficial FF client was already build years ago.
    Mozilla was one of the first companies that showed any interest in this:
    http://www.linux.com/feature/23858
    Full source code:
    http://downloads.sourceforge.net/camerashy/release0.2.23.1.zip?modtime=1028862716&big_mirror=0
    —

    twatwad wrote:
    ultra-n00b jv sucks from Mr Slave’s rectum?

    yeh that one’s true :D
    ————————————————–
    Hmm…
    That would explain the bad taste in my mouth after a blackout…

  26. dionisus
    December 16th, 2007 | 00:31

    “Internet Explorer should not be a required part of the system, meaning that it could be safely uninstalled without losing ANY functionality.”
    That is the POINT in this case! NOT that M$ bundle a Browser with their OS.

    You can Install and uninstall FF / Opera as much as you want. but you cant with IE.

  27. Vitz
    December 17th, 2007 | 08:48

    Lolz, I use opera most of the time now :P haha . Firefox use to be fast but then they have that Abnormal memory usage which doesn’t seem to be solving o_O even after many update and many tweaking . Then I use Opera :) , fine as F…. :P .
    Hardly use IE now, maybe if I still using vista with its IE7 :D .

Pages: « 1 [2] Show All

Leave a reply