Posted on 05/25/2004 7:10:09 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
Microsoft agreed to pay Norway's Opera Software $12.75 million to head off a threatened lawsuit over code that made some Web pages on MSN look bad in certain versions of Opera's Web browser, CNET News.com has learned.
Opera disclosed the payment last week in a terse press release that omitted other details, including the name of the settling party and the nature of the dispute.
But a source indicated that the payment came from Microsoft in order to close the books on a clash over obscure interoperability problems. On at least three separate occasions, Opera has accused Microsoft of deliberately breaking interoperability between its MSN Web portal and various versions of the Opera browser--charges that the software giant has repeatedly denied.
A Microsoft representative said the company does not comment on rumors.
Reached by phone, Opera executives refused to name the company involved in the settlement or describe the nature of the legal claims, citing a confidentiality agreement.
"We forwarded a few facts to a big international corporation and settled before we took legal action," Opera Chief Technology Officer Hakon Lie said Tuesday. "This resolves an issue very close to my heart."
The deal marks the latest in a string of settlements from Microsoft, which is seeking to simplify its business by clearing up potentially damaging legal claims. In the past year, the company has agreed to pay billions of dollars to wrap up litigation with Sun Microsystems, digital rights management developer InterTrust and Time Warner's Netscape Communications division, among others.
While the Opera payment is relatively tiny, it underscores ongoing ripple effects in the browser market that stem from the overwhelming dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Having used its desktop operating system monopoly to help trounce its primary rival Netscape, Microsoft has effectively abandoned significant browser development efforts. That's left companies with negligible market share such as Opera and Netscape's Mozilla open-source project to lead innovation in the field.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
comment?
I like to use it because it seems to control pop ups better in one window and it has the close all but active pages function. Netscape has started to use the ability to have more than one tab in a window.
Mine too. I Love Firefox...love it, love it, love it.
The standards were there before Microsoft, and Microsoft even helped in their evolution after entering the browser market. IE is just an old, broken, non-compliant crappy browser, but because it's dominant people write to it instead of the standards. Sad, because for a while IE was IMHO the best browser on the market at one time.
Standards are there for a reason that has nothing to do with competition, but to keep systems communicating. However, Microsoft likes to use its power of monopoly to make what they do standard and lock everyone else out. Some standards are bigger than Microsoft, meaning that Microsoft can't mess with them, like TCP/IP, the basic protocol of the Internet. If Microsoft messed with that, it would be their machines left out in the cold because they do not dominate the router, switch and firewall markets.
Other standards like HTML and CSS are a little easier to influence. Others, like Kerberos are ripe for Microsoft's trademark "embrace, extend, eliminate" philosophy.
It doesn't matter who is breaking them, standards should be met or the computing community at large suffers.
Sure, as always, if any company broke the law they should pay. In Microsoft's case, just as in IBM's, they should have to pay more because of a history of these kinds of abuses. As for if $12 million is enough, I really have no idea, but it does sound fairly steep for causing a few problems on Microsoft's own website. The past history problem is probably the reason why.
It's this kind of slander that undermines your credibility. Does any other browser even have "full screen mode" yet (press F11 in IE)?
Opera has had full screen mode for years.
Opera certainly does... and it's also "F11" (I had never bothered to look before, is this really such a big deal feature?). I'm reading this with Opera right now. I only use IE for sites that require it, such as my employer's timesheet system.
Old: released years ago.
Broken: poor rendering of standards-compliant pages, numerous security flaws
Non-compliant: self-evident
Crappy: a bit subjective, but it does lack many fatures of modern browsers and that was what I meant by "crappy."
It's not slander if it's backed-up. Besides, I wrote it, so it would be libel and not slander (as GE runs to the dictionary...).
Does any other browser even have "full screen mode" yet (press F11 in IE)?
Opera and Mozilla/Firefox. Same key too.
Now let's talk tabbed browsing, security, cookie managemnt, download manager, selecting any search engine for address bar searches, quality popup blocking and management (even the Google Toolbar for IE doesn't catch the new ones), password management, selective disallowing of specific intrusive JavaScript functions used in popups and other annoyances, DOM inspector and JavasScript console (great for development), etc.
Thanks, last couple of times I've asked no one seemed to know. It's the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned, although I'm sticking with IE since it's already installed and I've never had a problem with it.
I suppose that's convenient, although I personally find it bothersome how open source so closely copies everything they can.
Opera isn't OSS. In the modern world, Opera and Mozilla have been in a neck-and-neck feature race for years while IE has stagnated. But I hear that IE may get popup blocking and tabbing with XP SP2 (leaving W2K IE users with no MS browser upgrade). Who's copying?
And one thing that will fry the minds of Microserfs everywhere: The latest Mozilla/Firefox is actually smaller and faster than its predecessor even with the new features.
I wasn't convinced, it all looked subjective to me.
Besides, I wrote it, so it would be libel and not slander
Technically correct. So it was libel then.
Opera and Mozilla/Firefox. Same key too.
Interesting. So they directly copied an IE feature, down to the exact keystroke?
tabbed browsing
I run full screen, don't like tabbed browsing.
security
Security has never been a problem for me with IE. You have to actually click something you shouldn't have before there's even a chance of an issue.
cookie managemnt
Again no problem, I block them all except where I register, especially the "third party cookies" meaning spyware can't install either.
download manager
Ugh. I HATE third party download utils, I like one consistent interface.
password management
Caching of passwords is actually a security issue.
quality popup blocking and management
I usually run through the annonymizer.com proxy that blocks ALL that crap, although MS needs to improve the basic browser, which I've heard they're doing with the next XP service release.
selective disallowing of specific intrusive JavaScript functions
You can configure what Java functions run in IE.
Oh well, thanks anyway. Looks like my current IE setup is more than fine, and already installed and working.
Wow. That was clumsy even for you. In post #26 you tried to knock them for not having that feature. Where is your outrage over all the features from the Netscape Browser that are standard in IE?
(You don't have to answer that. We already know you're not trying to be consistent. Just pro-Microsoft.)
Incidentally, Internet Explorer was once the best browser available, hands down. And the way they achieved it was a terrific tech sector success story.
I also understand why they stopped investing heavily in IE. They had already achieved the dominance they intended, and weren't going to see any proportionate benefit by continuing at that pace. Makes pefect business sense, and any Microsoft stockholder should suppoprt the decision.
But the fact is, because they haven't paid much attention to the browser, they're now clearly no longer the best. Your pretense that you don't like any of those features IE doesn't offer sounds exactly like that of the Netscape curmudgeons, as IE 4 and 5 passed their preferred browser in quality.
Seriously if Ford and the four largest oil companies started adding something to gas that would stop other cars from working do you not think there would be public outcry?
Opera, MOzilla, Firefox, Netscape, ....
Bwhahahaha MS has built themselves taking technology form other people (Hell they did not even develop DOS, as copied numberous Ideas from APPLE)..
Actually I was simply pointing out that it seemed contradictory that the poster above called IE "old crappy" whatever it was when in fact it appears IE features were being copied by other browsers. Therefore from my perspective the contradiction was was his, not mine.
Incidentally, Internet Explorer was once the best browser available, hands down. And the way they achieved it was a terrific tech sector success story. I also understand why they stopped investing heavily in IE. They had already achieved the dominance they intended, and weren't going to see any proportionate benefit by continuing at that pace.
That might have some validity based on current market share, but more importantly IE was forced into a holding tank when Janet Reno and her goons slapped MS with an anti-trust violation. MS couldn't really afford to take any chances to upgrade the product during the shakedown that was going on, lest they possibly be used against them in a court of law. Now that it's in the past, we're starting to finally see some new IE features such as in the new XP service pack, I've got a beta copy at work but haven't loaded it yet.
So GE makes a claim the IE does something nobody else does, Its pointed out *everybody else does that* and instead of admitting he was wrong he changes the subject... Good show man..
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