[Macworld]

Post your comments for Microsoft user group demands Opera boycott over EU suit here

[dreyfus]

Good to see that the kids are well these days... instead of protesting against apartheid or the arms race, all they have to worry about is keeping a monopolist in the saddle... Better be somewhere else when they grow up though...

[doglesby]

He doesn't seem to understand that Microsoft doesn't have to do squat. The OEMs would be required to provide the ballot screen (which, I agree, is a lame solution).
I can't believe there are a lot of "Microsoft enthusiasts" (shudder) using Opera.

[heisetax]

As much as I dislike IE, how would your feel if Apple would have to take Safari out the Mac OS? Even though I use FireFox 90% of the tie I believe that Apple should be able to install the browseer of their choice with their software. For the same reason, even though I've really never used IE with my Mac or with Windows on my Mac, I believe that MS should not be punished for including IE with Windows.
The problem has veen more to do with what MS did to OEMs that wanted to include other browsers or remove IE from their use of Windows.
I'm not an Opera User so it makes no difference whether I boycott or not. MS started this problem with Netscape & hasn't changed since. By time MS had to pay Netscape, Netscape was nearly our of business. A better answer needs to be had. This boycott is just an attempt, right or wrong, to fight back.

[doglesby]

Safari isn't in the Mac OS. Apple provides it with new machines because it is the OEM. WebKit is an API in the OS that other browsers can and do use.

[spiderbat]

A "Microsoft enthusiast group" is a concept that strikes my mind as completely oxymoronic, but, on second thought, it might be an organization of committed masochists or, more probably, a group of paid professionals, as the actors who impersonate plain customers in m$'s ads where spontaneous opinions should be shown.
As an european citizen, I'm all but happy with the trend by european authorities of issuing rules that dictate every aspect of our lives: which light bulbs, thermometers, bags we may or may not use, up to the hysteria of forcing electric cars to use a device that mimics the noise of a conventional motor. But whatever goes against the borg-like assimilation process by m$ is welcome! However, the first step would be changing the rules of the "European Computer Driving License", a certification that is mandatory for some working positions and is completely based on the use of m$ applications.

[Grapho]

heisetax said:

As much as I dislike IE, how would your feel if Apple would have to take Safari out the Mac OS? Even though I use FireFox 90% of the tie I believe that Apple should be able to install the browseer of their choice with their software. For the same reason, even though I've really never used IE with my Mac or with Windows on my Mac, I believe that MS should not be punished for including IE with Windows.

The problem has veen more to do with what MS did to OEMs that wanted to include other browsers or remove IE from their use of Windows.

I'm not an Opera User so it makes no difference whether I boycott or not. MS started this problem with Netscape & hasn't changed since. By time MS had to pay Netscape, Netscape was nearly our of business. A better answer needs to be had. This boycott is just an attempt, right or wrong, to fight back.

Once Microsoft builds and sells there own computer hardware, they can bundle IE all they want. But since they are only part of the solution and they have been found to be not only a monopoly, but an abusive monopoly at that, then I side with the EU in this case.

Apple pretty much is free to bundle whatever they want, the entier OS and hardware that it runs is design and manufactured by them. Safari can be easily removed and it has no special hooks to the OS unlike IE on Windows.

[dreyfus]

spiderbat said:

A "Microsoft enthusiast group" is a concept that strikes my mind as completely oxymoronic, but, on second thought, it might be an organization of committed masochists or, more probably, a group of paid professionals, as the actors who impersonate plain customers in m$'s ads where spontaneous opinions should be shown.

Nothing to worry about... According to latest intel from the APO, the MEG has just one member more than the "Anonymous Aunt Jemima Evangelists" (that's: two).

[maccam]

Apple does not force you to use Safari, except to set another browsers as default. However, try to get MS updates without using IE?a big difference.

[DonBurnett]

Microsoft Windows Update from Vista forward works just like Apple Update, it doesn't use the web browser anymore just an FYI.. Haven't used a copy of the latest version of Windows since 2006 have ya??

[DonBurnett]

Does Apple provide any other browsers as an "OEM" with it's hardware any more? YES or NO?

[DonBurnett]

I would pose a question to all the Apple Centrists here (yes I own a Mac and PC, in fact more than a few of each for very different reasons, in case anyone is interested..

Let's put this in terms of something Apple People understand..

Let's say one day the Rhapsody Music Service in "Europe" said to the EU, we want to complain.. Apple has a dominant share with it's iPods in the music market and they control consumer choice of which music service they should use and buy from..

We want them to include Rhapsody's Music Store in with and let it work with the iPOD instead of Apple's own iTunes Music store, because they indeed own dominant market share in hardware and software.. We don't just want to be "in the iTunes Store" we want to be bundled instead oh and by the way Apple needs to give us all their technical data on the iPod and start selling Rhapsody bundled in with their iPods..

How fair would that be?

It's the same situation different company.. Would that be really fair to Apple? If I were Apple I'd say NO.. How would that be any different than a web browser..

Then the EU comes back saying "OH We Understand, yeah that's really not fair, we still like itunes, how about letting the user select it through the store they buy it from which music service they want to be using.."

This would be no different how would you resolve this dispute. If the EU then told Apple well because of your dominant marketshare you have no choice.. Then Apple withdrew the product and the EU said wait you can't do that..

Do you guys see the issue, if you take the Microsoft bias out of the equasion??

[wwiehn]

A recent mac world article praised the Beta 10 version of Opera. I tried it and it appeard to work fine and then it spread like a virus throughout my system. No crashes but virtually
every html file in most of my applications turned
to an opera file. And I can not find a way to remove Opera totally. Needless to say I was disappointed. It appears it is really still PC software.

[DonBurnett]

Guys, you haven't used Windows since XP.. Windows Update doesn't use a web browser anymore to get updates..