Opera Chief Warns on Equal Access to Windows Services

By | August 14, 2009 | 25 Comments

Opera Software: We Want Access to Windows UpdateThe Register writes:

Microsoft might be closer to a compromise with browser rival regarding Internet Explorer on Windows, but access to key online services for PCs could be the next hurdle.

Opera Software chief executive told The Reg he welcomed Microsoft’s offer last month to give European PC users a choice of browsers on Windows, but he warned of “problems” if rival browsers don’t get equal access to crucial sites that help keep users’ PCs secure and updated.

[Read]


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Golden Boy

    Whats going on with opera? they used to be good company

    • Bryan

      Opera is desperate. I mean, c’mon, it’s good alright, but due to lack of support from the world in general, it will eventually collapse soon. It will be forced out of business so to speak. So here’s 2 scenarios: Opera closes down, or Opera gets bought by a bigger company.

      • hardyk

        “Opera is desperate. I mean, c’mon, it’s good alright, but due to lack of support from the world in general, it will eventually collapse soon. It will be forced out of business so to speak. So here’s 2 scenarios: Opera closes down, or Opera gets bought by a bigger company.”

        =======================================

        You clearly haven’t read the financials reports in the Opera website: they earn more money than ever, Opera Software will not close soon.

  • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

    It IS a awesome company that just wants justice.
    Or do you think it’s right (for just 1 example) MS not supporting officially Silverlight and the newly announced Office Web services on Opera?

    • Golden Boy

      Its microsoft loss if they dont

      just read blogs and forums, people who are not using opera hates it and i am not sure how can you attract more users when every non opera users hate you?

      • NibLer

        people who are not using opera hates it and i am not sure how can you attract more users when every non opera users hate you

        Only ignorant people and Microsoft shills are flaming Opera. They are a tiny minority. They may be vocal, but that doesn’t matter. Opera will be bundled with Windows, and will grow regardless of nonsense like “every non opera user hates opera” :D

  • nobody

    silverlight is OPERA’ fault. it is thier Netscape Plugin Architecutre implementation that is too strict to work with silverlight.

    it is not browser sniffing, opera simply cant do some things. if you dont believe, download visual studio express with silverlight toolkit and turn off ALL sniffing. opera will still fail. yet, browsers older and less capable can work well at the same time.

    as for the office stuff, try to code ANYTHING advanced for opera with their sh.. developer tools and youll understand why people couldnt be bothered. opera does almost NOTHING to convince developers to test for opera. no tools, no solid docs, no realised wish list items (oncontextmenu – how f.. many years opera!?). and you dare to blame microsoft? somehow safari doesnt have such problems, just like chrome. opera brewed this soup themselves, blaming others and whining to higher justice (even if justified) isnt going to cover obvious technical and attitude issues.

    btw – opera could – instead of whining, implement IE Tab to allow their users to use winupdate. but because they dont have api..

    btw2. browser without extensions in 2009 is like a dinosaur….

    • http://opera.com/ Daniel Hendrycks
      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        I didn’t read all “nobody” post, but if you ever try Opera and read them blog posts you wil see they are making everything possible to support Silvelight plugin that Microsoft is boycotting to not working on Opera principally because of the “ballot-case” that objective was not increassing Opera users but giving freedom to all browsers choicers.

        • nobody

          if you are familiar with c# language, try and and do it yourself – download (free) ms visual studio express, download silverlight toolkit and set a free test scenario where you turn off all browser sniffing.

          it wont work in opera, while it will in other browsers.

          level playing field – opera fails. it is ONLY because the way opera handles netscape plugin architecture. simple as that. it is too strict for no good reason. it is really easy to verify given a bit of programming knowledge.

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            Silverlight WORKS in my Opera browser very great – less in microsoft.com pages (that sniffs the browser). ;)

          • nobody

            what do you mean by ‘works’? 100%, or just like 80% of functionality? does video hd work for you? all keyboard inputs? opera NTP architecture blocks some calls that it deems ‘dangerous’, thus making SL break

            btw. SL is not only on ms sites, does it work (100%, no compromises) for you there too?

  • xErath

    bah, so much ignorance. The whole statement was about browser sniffing in web services, like live mail, and windows update. Jon is 100% right. Microsoft blocks competitive browsers from their online services which is anti-competitive.

    • Daniel H

      Yes he is right, do you think that IE5 would do a better job at windows update then Opera? Doubt it. A recent example is they are going to block Opera and Chrome from Online Office.
      Support this to stop it. http://makeofficebetter.com/Idea/260/support-for-opera-and-chrome-for-online-office

      • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

        Although it would be great to see Microsoft supporting Chrome and Opera web browsers as well, it’s not “anti-competitive”. It’s Microsoft’s money and their decision. Web Office is not just few lines of code. It would require investments to make it compatible with Opera, although I have no idea why Chrome is not supported, as it’s WebKit anyway.

        As far as I remember, gmail used not to work with Opera as well, but after lots of beta testing and efforts from Opera, it finally does. Hopefully, same thing will happen with MS tools.

        As Golden Boy and nobody said, it’s Microsoft loss, but at the same time, they don’t want to invest too much money on less popular browsers.

        P.S. There seem to be issues with YouTube navigation in Opera.

        Just my 2c

        • NibLer

          Sorry, posted this in the wrong place earlier:

          “It’s Microsoft’s money and their decision.”

          Not when they are a monopolist. Monopolists do NOT have the same freedoms as everyone else.

          That’s the law all over the world.

          • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

            They do support multiple platforms and multiple browsers. Also, they won’t block other browsers from gaining access to app, just won’t test it. Chrome should be doing fine with it, since it’s WebKit. If code is clean and Opera does not differ much from other rendering engines, everything should be working fine, nothing to worry about.

            Also, they do not have monopoly in web office space.

          • NibLer

            They have an OS monopoly, and therefore they can affect the web in dangerous ways. This is what the EU antitrust case is about.

            So again, as a monopolist, Microsoft has to follow certain rules. (Not because they are Microsoft, but because they are a monopoly.)

          • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

            But they do not include Web Office in their OS which makes OS monopoly argument invalid.

            It’s like saying: Google has search engine monopoly, therefore, gMail should also support Opera (which they don’t).

            http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6557

            Also, again, Web Office will work in Windows, Linux and Mac OS with multiple web browsers: IE and dozens of Gecko, Trident and Webkit based ones.

    • nobody

      it does not block them. ms simply decided to support only certain browsers. it is their money spent on their products. it is their decision.

      developing anything serious for opera with that sh..y dragonfly is so hard, that ms should be paid by opera to include opera’ support. simple as that. dont think, that with whining opera is going to gain developer’ recognition. not only ms is ignoring opera due to lack of developer tools. and what opera is doing? whining. deliver the tools already!

      • NibLer

        It stopped beng their decision when they became a convicted monopolist.

    • nobody

      one more thing “Microsoft blocks competitive browsers from their online services which is anti-competitive.”

      blocks? their main and hated archdevil apple is supported, same as firefox on mac and linux! and you call that blocking?

      they simply dont want to waste money on supporting niche browsers with 0.0001% share, so they set a border – and opera is below it. live with it. whining is not going to change that, delivering tools – maybe.

      • NibLer

        Opera has a 3% market share globally, and is closing in on 10% in Europe. It has more users than Safari and Chrome. Funny how Safari is supported, but not Chrome too.

        Your whining does not change these facts.

        • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

          Safari has more market share in US and that’s where most of the adverting dollars come from.

  • NibLer

    “It’s Microsoft’s money and their decision.”

    Not when they are a monopolist. Monopolists do NOT have the same freedoms as everyone else.

    That’s the law all over the world.

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