Opera chairman a longtime Microsoft critic
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Although Opera's antitrust complaint against Redmond is new, Chairman William Raduchel in the late 1990s said Bill Gates was a lot like John Rockefeller.
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By Saul Hansell  There is a lot about the way Microsoft has run its Internet business that Steve Berkowitz wants to change. But he is finding it more difficult than he expected.
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Ad una riunione tenutasi a Sydney questo giovedÃ¬ Ben English, product manager di Microsoft, ha dichiarato che il browser di Microsoft, Internet Explorer, Ã¨ sottoposto continuamente a rigide revisioni del codice e non Ã¨ meno sicuro di qualunque altro
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I'm back, with a very interesting topic too!  Joel Spolsky, ex-Microsoft Manager and software engineering guru has a new essay, How Microsoft Lost the API War that is creating quite a big storm in the blogging communitiy.  Joel posits that the priests in the holy Temple of Microsoft have lost their way, because it has split into two factions, and the wrong faction is winning. One faction worships on the alter of backward compatibility, while the other is led by fervent priests who are proselytizing to raise up the new gods of .NET and Longhorn. Joel suggests that the new gods will cause the destruction of the holy Temple because Microsoft's great victories were built on the altar of keeping customers happy with backward compatibility. Furthermore the old gods of the Windows API continue to grow more grotesque and cruel with the passing of time, driving former worshipers into the arms of the friendlier gods of World Wide Web.  This story sounds extremely plausible. I must admit that i fit the profile of the developer who used to develop on the Window's API, is familiar with COM and Win32 who now develops mostly using PHP and Python. However I continue to develop and maintain Windows apps that keep our customers happy, and we still plan to develop new Windows apps. Some points:  Temple of the Blind? Firstly, Microsoft is still a compelling place to work for to people who feel that they can make a difference. The Temple continues to attract talented people with a Unix background. For example we have the recent hiring of Ward Cunningham, author of the Wiki.  Microsoft is still able to keep talented people like Raymond Chen, and others like him who continue to look after the Windows API, and Longhorn apparently will still give high priority to backward compatibility. Open sourcerers like Miguel Icaza are sufficiently attracted to the .NET vision to stake their careers on Mono. Longhorn and .NET are compelling technologies, so even if Win32 is not so cute anymore, M'soft is providing something that remains very attractive.  What i do see M'soft doing wrong is that they aren't disseminating the .NET runtime fast enough. It remains an optional install in XP Service Pack 2 for example. Also their IE dev team appears to be hog-tied due to political reasons; nevertheless IE remains good enough, particularly when I can embed IE as an activeX control, something I cannot do with Mozilla (AFAIK) - Update: I'm wrong.  Temple of the Spider?  Secondly, people don't merely use a web browser. They run the web browser in the OS.  So let me ask you, if you are using DreamWeaver or HomeSite or Photoshop or vi or emacs or Gimp, how many of you are willing to give it up for a java applet (or whatever your favorite technology is) running in your web-browser? Precisely.  Temple of the Abandoned?  Third, Joel makes the claim that developers are not developing to the Windows API. Well he could be right. But I bet a lot of them are still calling Win32.  If you are using a framework or IDE like Delphi or wxWindows (or .NET or VB) then you certainly are insulated from the Windows API, but that doesn't mean that you're not calling the Windows API all the time. I don't see Borland dropping their Windows version of Delphi at any point in time.   In fact, the fact that many developers are using some form of framework is a compelling argument for Microsoft to enhance the .NET framework to attract developers who are using other frameworks.  Today, not that many students learn x86 assembler, but that doesn't mean that Intel lost the CPU wars. Just because fewer people are learning Win32 doesn't mean Microsoft has lost the API wars, if the frameworks run predominantly on Win32.  Temple of the Lost  Joel even warns you in the beginning that "because I'm talking about big trends, I need to exaggerate and generalize". But you still get sucked in because Joel Spolsky is a first-class writer, in the same order as Philip Greenspun or Eric Raymond. That makes him so persuasive and plausible. But this is not Indiana Jones and doomed temples, but Steve Jobs and reality distortion fields.  Other opinions:  Harry Fuecks (PHP is ASP's upgrade path),  Dennis Hamilton (M'soft is just covering all bases), Robert McLaws (Joel is wrong in 7 points), Oliver Travers (the web is not good enough), One Run-time to Rule them all....
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A senior security expert at the networking giant says that aspects of Microsoft's new operating system are worrying.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --Â  Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, during an appearance here Friday at the Computer History Museum, expressed no fear of Linux usurping Windows in the software industry.
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Web browser developer Opera Software ASA said Thursday it had complained to the European Commission about Microsoft Corp., calling on regulators to force the company to give users a choice of Internet software with its Windows operating system.
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MicrosoftÂs online chief wants to change the way his company runs its Internet business. But he is finding that redirecting such a behemoth is slow going.
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A top European Union judge challenged the EU executive's reasoning in its antitrust court battle with Microsoft Corp. Friday, questioning why it opposed the U.S. software giant's setting industry standards.
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Opera CTO H&#229;kon Wium Lie asks how seriously Microsoft's Web browser will support an upcoming Web standards test.
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Microsoft was considered to have escaped lightly after the European Commission found it guilty in 2004 of bundling its media player software with Windows to the detriment of competition. It was ordered to sell a second version of Windows in Europe without its media player, but the new version was priced the same, few PC makers stocked it and the product effectively bombed in the market.People continued to buy the original version of Windows, complete with the media player, and the remedy did little to help Microsoft&#39;s rivals.With its fresh&#160;antitrust suit filed with the Commission this week, browser maker Opera Software is hoping for a tougher penalty to rein in what it sees as Microsoft&#39;s illegal bundling of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser with Windows. One legal expert said that this time around, Microsoft might not be so lucky.&quot;The landscape has changed quite a bit between Microsoft and the European Commission since the last ruling. If there&#39;s a replay of what led up to the 2004 ruling, and Microsoft takes similar positions regarding bundling, then I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if the Commission comes down harder now,&quot; said Chris Norall, a partner in the Brussels office of the law firm Morrison &amp; Foerster.Opera argues that because each version of Windows comes with only IE preinstalled, Microsoft has an unfair advantage against rivals like Opera and Firefox. That has helped it maintain a consistent market share on Windows PCs of around 80 percent, Opera contends.The Norwegian company now wants the Commission to come up with a tougher remedy to overcome Microsoft&#39;s advantage. If the Commission agrees that the bundling of IE is just as illegal as the bundling of Windows Media Player was in 2004, its remedy this time &quot;will be tougher, it will have teeth,&quot; said Norall, whose law firm is not involved in the Microsoft case.One possible outcome would be to make Microsoft offer a second version of Windows without Windows Media Player, and to sell it at a lower price than the &quot;complete&quot; version of Windows. That may give PC makers more incentive to offer it. Opera&#39;s preferred solution, however, is simply to force Microsoft to pre-load other browsers with Windows when it ships.&quot;In our minds, the best solution would be one version of Windows with a must-carry type of provision,&quot; said Jason Hoida, Opera&#39;s deputy general counsel.Microsoft is likely to fight that remedy fiercely. It says it will cooperate with the Commission&#39;s investigation, but argues, as it has before, that consumers benefit from bundling its browser with Windows. What&#39;s more, it notes, PC makers and consumers are free to install any other browser if they wish.Microsoft&#39;s position my be strengthened by the popularity of rival browsers in Europe, notably Firefox, which has reached a market share of close to 40 percent in some key markets, such as Germany, studies have shown. If Microsoft can argue that rivals to IE are gaining market share, it could help it persuade the Commission that antitrust intervention is not necessary.Opera responds that the growth of other browsers has been levelling out. &quot;Firefox has attracted a lot of users, especially in the open-source world, but it has not been climbing consistently,&quot; said Hakon Wium Lie, Opera&#39;s chief technology officer.In addition, he said, Opera&#39;s complaint is focussed on Windows PCs, where IE&#39;s share is higher, and not that of Linux or Macintosh computers. However, it is uncertain that the Commission will exclude Linux and Macintosh computers when it considers the relevant market in this case.Opera&#39;s position may be helped by the previous antitrust judgment against Microsoft. Three months ago the Court of First Instance endorsed the legality of the Commission&#39;s 2004 ruling when&#160;it threw out Microsoft&#39;s appeal. The Commission will examine the new complaint &quot;in light of the case law set in the Court of First Instance judgement,&quot; Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said Thursday.Opera expects the case to move along faster than the seven years it took to reach&#160;the 2004 decision, since the Commission has already deemed Microsoft to be a monopolist, and because Microsoft opted against a further appeal against that decision. &quot;There is an unappealed judgment, so we hope this will go faster,&quot; Hoida said.Thomas Vinje, a partner in the Brussels office of the law firm Clifford Chance, which is representing Opera in this case, said: &quot;The complaint is very short. It doesn&#39;t have far to look for a relevant legal precedent.&quot;In addition to the bundling charge, Opera also complains that Microsoft does not follow Web standards, putting rival browsers at a disadvantage. The issue is significant because if all Web browsers do not use the same standards, Web site developers are likely to design their Web sites to work with the most widely used browser, which is Internet Explorer. That gives people a disincentive to use other browsers.Microsoft often takes part in debates over Web standards, and says it will implement them, but ultimately does not, Opera&#39;s Lie said. He pointed to CSS, XHTML and DOM as areas where Microsoft does not comply with or is inconsistent.The Opera complaint is the second against Microsoft filed to the Commission since the 2004 ruling. In February 2006, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS)&#160;complained that Microsoft is foreclosing the market for productivity software&#160;with its Office package. Some expect more complaints to follow.&quot;The bundling issue is going to come up each time Microsoft adds a new feature to Windows. Will there be more complaints? Yes,&quot; said Norall.
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Steve Ballmer, Microsoft&#39;s CEO has emailed management and IT professionals in a fierce defence of Windows against Linux and Unix in the Enterprise.
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This week, with just over a month left in office, Mario Monti, Europe&#39;s antitrust chief, faces a crucial test of his rulings against MCI and Microsoft.
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Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said that Opera is making a smart move by spending more money on marketing. He said some fear and uncertainty remains about the security level of Microsoft&#39;s
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Il CEO di Microsoft ha diffuso una e-mail a tutti i clienti e partner affermando che la piattaforma di Windows e&#39; in assoluto piu&#39; stabile e sicura di quella di Linux e Unix. REDMOND, USA. Il CEO di Microsoft
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David Karp, who has chronicled pet peeves since Windows 95, says the complaints over Vista echo past gripes, but solving Vista's issues proves more challenging.
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Microsoft paid $20m(Â£10.6m) to one of its fiercest critics, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, after the group dropped out of an EU anti-trust case against the software giant, it emerged today.