Opera CTO Hakon Wium Lie, who earlier today wrote an open letter to the Web community, spoke on camera about Opera’s antitrust complaint against Microsoft.
Hakon also spoke with ZDNet blogger Larry Dignan.
Note: This video is also available in Ogg Theora format.
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Q: What is Opera?
A: Opera is one of the most powerful Web browsers around. A Web browser is the program that allows you to view Web pages. Opera is well known for innovation for PC browsers and bringing the full web to mobile phones and devices.
Q: Is Opera free?
A: Absolutely free.
Q: Why should I download a browser? Doesn't my computer already come with one for free?
A: It's about getting more out of the time you spend on the internet. Opera is designed to be much faster than these browsers and gives you powerful features that the default browser lacks. Default browsers like Internet Explorer are also more likely to be subjected to dangerous software such as viruses and spyware.
Q: Will Opera keep me safe from fraudulent websites and malicious hackers?
A: According to Secunia, a respected firm that tracks security in browsers, Opera has the best reputation and track record when it comes to browser security. Keeping our users safe from security vulnerabilities, fraudulent websites, and malicious hackers is a top priority for Opera. Opera is maintained by hundreds of engineers, developers and security experts who are constantly looking to make the browser even safer.
Q: Doesn't Opera copy all of their features from other browsers?
A: Absolutely not. In fact, many of the features that are popular in other browsers today were invented and pioneered by Opera a long time ago. Opera invented the precursor to tabs (in 1994), Page Zoom (1994), was the first browser to block pop-up ads (2000), first to add a Search field in the browser toolbar (2000), Sessions (1996), deleting private data (2000), Mouse Gestures (2000), User JavaScript (2005), BitTorrent support (2005), Widgets (2006), Speed Dial (2007), and much more.
Q: Does Opera support extensions, such as those found in Firefox?
A: Much of the functionality provided through Firefox extensions is already built directly into Opera, so you don't have to download additional extensions in Opera. In addition, Opera is highly customizable and supports all standard plug-ins.
Q: Can I also use Opera on my mobile phone?
A: Yes. And your Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS or almost any connected device and mobile phones. Opera Mobile oftens comes preinstalled from the manufacturers, but if it doesn't you can install Opera Mini which runs on nearly all phones.
Q: This all sounds great, so how do I download Opera?
A: -- Opera on your computer
-- Opera Mini on your phone
-- Opera Mobile on your phone
-- or learn more about Opera at www.opera.com
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It’s a great idea, and I love Opera dearly, but I think that Microsoft should have its choice about how it packages Windows and Internet Explorer. While I do regret that Microsoft hasn’t tried to support standards, not supporting standards is not a crime–it’s a personal choice. What is unique in this case is that generally, not supporting the standard means less marketshare. This is not the case with IE, which should cause one to worry. Nonetheless, legal action is unnecessary. Microsoft has made up its mind and chosen to let standards develop around its products.
There are many different standards on the web. The W3C chooses to accept some standards, Ecma International accepts other standards, and Microsoft accepts other standards. It’s a matter of whether a standards organization can market their technologies in a compelling enough way that many companies are willing to accept their standards. In the case of Microsoft, they have created the xml-based .docx format for the Office 2007 Suite. This isn’t widely used outside of Microsoft, but they shouldn’t be penalized for trying to create a standard if they believe it is superior. Netscape and Microsoft for years supported their own versions of javascript because they each believed that their featuresets were superior. They should not be penalized for this. Perhaps what this letter most directly addresses is Internet Explorer’s rendering engine. That is something that could be improved on, but is a personal choice for the developers of IE, and it is just unfortunate that web developers have to code around those flaws because of IE’s poor standards support. Ideally, not supporting standards would mean less marketshare, but this isn’t the case with IE. However, making IE a standalone application won’t solve this problem, because it is essential to download Windows Updates from Microsoft. (strange how you have to have a security hole installed on your computer in order to keep your computer up-to-date on security patches.) So if this letter is any more than a request for Microsoft to put togeter a better browser, then I am all for this gesture. However, using the European Commission to force a change about IE is something I have a difficult time supporting. Opera can only hope that this movement is successful, but shouldn’t assume it will be.
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I wish Opera every success with this move. Microsoft should not be above standards, Internet Explorer and Microsoft’s arrogance holds back the web.
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@Ice Ardor,
Being the browser with the most marketshare IE has a kinda responsibility over us, the users. Isn’t it? The web is not IE’s place, it’s everyone’s place. Thus it isn’t a choice for IE to support open web standards. It rather is a responsibility.
Being a web developer, I am a huge fan of web standards and I tell you my friend, it’s the worst pain having to tackle browser specific coding issues. Imagine a day when I do not even need to test my site in different browsers before publishing it. That is our dream. That is our target. Open standards! Open web! Don’t you just love the term “Open”?
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@Goldman: maybe you should post a warning about that ZDNet post. That’s not at all how the ACID2 test looks like in Opera (v9.24.8816). How on earth did they manage to scalp the smiley?
Ignoring Larry Dignan’s “translations” of Opera’s statements, the post is very informative (more details than Lie’s Q&A above) and comes with an excellent Microsoft response.
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The problem isn’t that Microsoft shouldn’t be allowed to create their own standards, but that they shouldn’t claim to adopt industry-wide recommended standards and then cripple them by making their implementation incompatible with everyone else’s.
People keep drawing parallels with Netscape, but I think the more apt parallel is between MS J++ and Sun Java – remember what happened there?
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Sorry mates but how do we embed this video on a website or a blog?
Would you mind if someone uploaded it on youtube?
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the ogg theora video link is invalid