David Storey - Four countries, three states, one goal

Four countries, three states, one goal

Tuesday, 22. August 2006, 13:57:55

After a long last minute trip, I'm back at Opera headquarters. Last week, I received a mysterious e-mail from Microsoft requesting that I fly out to Redmond, together with a party of our developers whom had a pre-planned engagement there. Their flight was due to leave the day after next, so after a rush to book tickets on any flight that was available, via Paris, France and Atlanta, Georgia, I was on my way.

We were hosted in the Microsoft Campus at the Platform Adoption Center (PAC). This facility hosts the Vista application compatibility lab, that works with 100,000 ISV's to help them get their applications ready for Vista. The main party was invited there by the Strategic Relations Group, where Microsoft works with rival companies to ensure they are treated fairly. Microsoft were very friendly, and we had numerous meetings with people working on Vista. A highlight was meeting up with the IE team over coffee and then lunch. Maybe people will probably want me to say they are satan embodied, but they are great guys and really do care about standards. We all got on like a ~~fox~~ house on fire.

Our programmers found a number of bugs both in Opera and Vista during the visit, and we made huge strides in Vista compatibility. We even got as much pop, and ice cream as we could eat and drink. This wasn't my focus however; Anne and I were invited for a different matter entirely, of which I'll post more about soon, so stay tuned.

CSS Reboot needs rebooting?Opera Backstage: London and other events

Comments

dmfalmeida # 22. August 2006, 14:39

Hi David.

It's very nice to know that Microsoft and Opera are now working to ensure both companies' products meet what users really need (as for future Vista users).
But I have to say that I'm surprised to learn that they're not 'satan enbodied'.

lol

Anyways, leaving jokes aside, it's pretty cool to see Opera teaming up (in a segment) with such huge company.
I have to be honest about my preferences: I love Opera Community, Google and others (basically because they offer good products and ARE NOT Microsoft), and I'm proud to see how big Opera is seen in the Internet scenario.

Congrats!

Wishing the best for Opera, always, and looking forward to your next post about the 'different matter' you're about to post.

Peace,
Dan

FataL # 22. August 2006, 14:47

It's not new for me that Microsoft says that they do care of standards.

Apart from the IE team MSN Search team really do care of standards. At this time they use most semantic and valid* XHTML 1.0 Strict (*only gping attribute is a stopper to being fully valid).
Anyway, good things happens...

Waiting for your next story about "different matter".

miamaus78 # 22. August 2006, 17:42

senkrecht # 22. August 2006, 18:42

good to hear. Opera on Vista will rock. Better than IE 7

hope you all will find all bugs...happy testing.

Doliprane # 22. August 2006, 21:25

nice to read comments like that, it's not as relations are labelled on internet between opera and crosoft.

MossMan # 23. August 2006, 08:49

Heck MS donated a few million to Opera a couple of years ago, so I'm sure Operafolk don't hate them all *that* much...

Very curious to see what the other business is...

coxy # 23. August 2006, 13:55

Next time you go, can you bring me back a doggy bag of pop and ice cream, please.

Regards,

Matt

Pineas # 23. August 2006, 14:22

Wait... you tell me, that nobody there smelled for sulphur and had a tail?

gabydewilde # 23. August 2006, 15:31

I guess they do make the most famouse browser in the world. And, John Doe is always right.

thebigredone # 23. August 2006, 15:42

good news :-)

kitt # 24. August 2006, 03:53

Can you elaborate on the kind of bugs that you saw. Were they security issues ? Coz vista has (supposedly) changed some of their security model.

I ran vista inside a VM (virtual machine) and didn't find any problems with Opera. Was just wondering what those bugs could be....

That aside, i heard they removed all the chairs from MS campus, coz Steve Ballmer is running around throwing chairs

ale5000 # 24. August 2006, 21:10

Please fix css errors: http://my.opera.com/dstorey/homes/user.css

nanopy # 25. August 2006, 03:32

...Microsoft should have just offered to package Opera with Vista instead of IE. Opera is just so much better.

thobi # 25. August 2006, 10:51

nice story

not that i'll get vista soon, but knowing, that MS cares about us opera users - and the new ones we/you'll get soon

- is just amazing

thobi

Pixelle # 26. August 2006, 15:19

We all like to think that Microsoft is the big "evil baddie", but once you visit the "worker bees", you find out that they are really great people. Not to mention that they work in a killer place...that campus rocks and is only second to the Nike Campus. Hope you enjoyed it, I always loved visiting the MS Campus.

benbrady # 27. August 2006, 12:34

Um yea.. , I wonder how they pay for such an awsome campus? By ripping people off maybe.
Anyway its great to know that opera will be available for vista.
I don't think M$ care about MS software altlernatives, what they really want is to hold on to the biggest advantage they have, the huge range of apps.
If M$IE developers care about standards why is the browser so shite?