IBM-led tech outfit backs EC in Microsoft browser fight Tech group ECIS has today been granted third party status to testify in the Brussels probe into whether Microsoft abused its dominant browser market position. The organisation that represents the likes of IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems confirmed today it had joined Google and Mozilla in being allowed to have its voice heard …
..or at least the results will be the same as the UE probe into bundling media player with XP. The results of that investigation led to Microsoft being forced to retail a version of XP without media player bundled. MS obediently did so as "XP 'N'", but at a retail cost that was greater than the bundled version.
Opera never does anything but bitch and moan about how they are the little guy and deserve a chance. God. It's annoying.
I like the product fine, it's nothing special but it's an OK product. The management team is a bunch of whining pansies though. Maybe that's why they can't get any market traction....
They've obviously got good technical brains over there but that's not all a software company needs in its management team if it's going to make it. Look at Google for example - do you think the company would have done nearly as well if it had actually been run by the guys who originally developed it?
Google was smart, they got business professionals to do something with a good product, Opera should do the same.
Sack some techies and get some bean counters, that's what I say.
I fear that whatever the outcome of any EU legislation, the world will still spin in an IE direction for a while yet. For the mass market whether we like it or not, Windoze is the predominant player dragging it's dumb cousin IE along in it's wake and the average punter just doesn't appreciate that there are better alternatives out there. It's a combination of ignorance and apathy that Microsoft play on to preserve their market share. Because Microsoft are such an effective marketing machine, the MS message has become ingrained in the psyche and Joe Average just doesn't understand that there are better alternatives available.
Unfortunately, Microsoft are so indifferent to the billions that they are fined, I'm sure that they just treat it as an operating cost and will carry on regardless of future penalties.
Footnote, I was in the Apple store in Southampton at the weekend and happened to be standing next to another punter who was looking at a copy of MS Office. I happened to mention that there were alternatives out there, iWork, Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice and they had not heard of any of them. I said they were free and worth a look and they put the copy of Office back on the shelf :-)
I've said it before and I will no doubt be saying it again (and again and again). I don't care if MS do insist on putting IE into every Windows build, just as long as I am able to UNINSTALL it...not remove the icon, or set my preference to something else, actually uninstall it. If this isn't possible then it must have been integrated into the OS which harks back to previous 'abuse of market position' lawsuits.
Oh, and before we get the 'well how will you install your browser of choice then' moaners, re-read this carefully. I accept that the vast majority of computers users would not be able to get to the web to download their preferred browser from the command prompt and have no issue with launching IE to do that just so long as I can remove it afterwards as I would were I to move from (for example) Sage to MYOB for an accounting package.
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