A Blog From Behind the Trenches

Note/update: For those too lazy to read the whole thing, this is about Microsoft's history. It shows their history of consciously anti-competitive behavior. It is aimed at those who have little knowledge of Microsoft's history. To learn more, read this document by ECIS: A History of Anticompetitive Behavior and Consumer Harm

It seems that some people are still doubting that Microsoft has consciously sought to undermine competition by abusing their position in the market. In fact, some are outright denying any wrongdoing on Microsoft's part, and if there was any wrongdoing then it was surely unintentional.

Sadly, such history revisionists are creating confusion about what actually happened, but this quote from a Bill Gates memo to the Office product group in December 1998 sums up Microsoft's attitude:

One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company.

We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.

So as you can see, Microsoft has a history of anti-competitive behaviour. You can agree or disagree that it is necessary to get the Government involved to deal with antitrust cases (Microsoft itself certainly thinks so, and they have filed their own antitrust complaints, e.g., against Google), but what you cannot deny is Microsoft's attitude and behaviour through the years.

And yes, this has continued even in recent years.

One of the most frequent questions I see about the Microsoft antitrust case in the EU is why Microsoft should have to include competing products in Windows. Is poor Microsoft being hunted by the evil EU with its silly laws that ensure competition in a free market?

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Wow, I have clearly missed a lot while on vacation for a couple of weeks! Not only did we lauch the beta of Opera 10 and Opera Mobile 9.7, but there are other developmens such as Opera reinventing the Web, and of course Microsoft is up to its regular tricks.

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The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), has joined Opera's antitrust complaint against Microsoft. ECIS members include IBM, Sun, Nokia, Adobe, Oracle, and others. Opera is also a member of ECIS

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Back when the antitrust complaint was first filed, our Open the Web guy David Storey commented that "Korea is a perfect example of a country that almost solely designs for IE bugs and Active-X".

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I notice that a lot of people people are wondering how they are going to be able to install a browser if IE is removed from Windows by default. This is a good question, but the answer is fairly straightforward.

If I am not mistaken, most Windows installations are not direct Windows purchases, but rather OEM versions preinstalled on new computers. In other words, the vast majority of Windows installations will come with the OEM's browser of choice, rather than Microsoft forcing all OEMs to stick with IE as they have been doing.

Then there's perhaps a smaller group which will install Windows manually. There are several possible solutions for this group, such as offering a way to download any browser through some kind of portal the first time you connect to the internet (most Linux distributions have package managers, so why not Windows?), supplying separate disks containing the browser(s), and so on.

For the vast majority of people, I don't see that this will become a problem since they will simply use the browser the OEM decided to bundle. And with antitrust regulators breathing down Microsoft's neck they won't be able to force OEMs to bundle IE anymore.

This is a great day for open standards. Microsoft has changed its mind regarding the default mode in IE8.

And while this is a huge win for the internet community, it is also a vindication for an small browser company in Norway, which, at times, faced harsh criticism for getting the authorities involved in order to enforce open Web standards.

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Two days ago, Opera Software filed an antitrust complaint with the EU against Microsoft (please note that this is not a lawsuit). You have probably read about it by now, because it has been all over the Web (and then some).

Reading some of the discussions on this subject, I have noticed a lot of questions being asked, and many assumptions about Opera's position and motives for doing this. I know that we are going to be giving out more details as time goes by, but I thought that I would post some thoughts on the issue, from the perspective of someone inside the Opera organization.

One thing that has surprised me is the seemingly one-sided focus on one of the two proposed remedies, namely the unbundling of MSIE. People seem to forget about the second proposed remedy - forcing Microsoft to adhere to Web standards, which is even more important in my opinion. The first is just a way to prevent Microsoft from having the power to continue its practices. Both are about giving people an actual choice.

Anyway, here is my small "FAQ" based on some questions and issues I've seen raised around the Web.

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