Opera to the E.U.: Internet Explorer is Ruining the Web
Opera wants the EU to go after Microsoft for failing to support web standards in Internet Explorer. Opera’s complaint is actually two-fold. First it argues that bundling Explorer with Windows limits consumer choice (the same complaint Netscape leveled in days of yore), but far more interesting is Opera’s second charge: that Microsoft is holding web developers back from making programs that work across browsers “by not following accepted Web standards.”
The first charge comes on the heels of an earlier EU decision that bundling Windows Media Player with Windows was an anti-trust violation, which essentially opens the door for Opera’s first complaint.
Predictably Microsoft argues that consumers are free to download, install and use whatever browser they chose.
That portion of Opera’s filing is considerably less interesting than the other, which basically amounts to saying that Internet Explorer is breaking the web and inhibiting innovation by failing to support web standards.
Opera has pointed to the ACID2 test as an example of IE’s miserable failure in the web standards realm, though, to be fair, Firefox 2 fails the ACID2 test as well. However, with Firefox 3 fully ACID2 compliant, and Opera and Safari passing as well, the last remaining thorn in web developers’ sides is IE.
For its part, Microsoft says that Internet Explorer “supports a wide range of Web standards.” Well, IE 7 is certainly an improvement over IE 6 when it comes to web standards, but “wide range” might still be stretching it. The ACID2 test result for IE, which is pictured above, reveals how far IE has to go before it passes the ACID2 test.
Of course ACID2 compliance isn’t the final word in adhering to standards and there’s a compelling argument to be that many a web application’s lack of cross-browser support lies more with varying implementations of JavaScript than how the rendering engines display content. Still, there’s no denying that IE could certainly do more when it comes to web standards. However, I’m not sure that having the EU legislate IE’s compliance is the right way to go about it.
One thing that’s always puzzled me is why so many people continue to use Internet Explorer when so many better alternatives exist. Forget rendering differences, aren’t IE users concerned about the number of viruses that leverage the browser to compromise their systems? Is it simply because the browser is bundled?
I’m not a legal expert so I won’t speculate on the potential outcome, but I do know that the idea of a government regulator forcing Internet Explorer to finally get serious about supporting web standards is going to bring a smile to many a designer’s face.
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