Magdalena Tulibacka
vanessamak
plaumannOf browsers and britishness!
Posted by plaumann on March 13, 2010
Hello readers!
The case I am blogging on is indeed curious. It concerns that mogul household brand we all know and love, Microsoft! As a europhile Brit I am the first to assert that certain things are considered the staples of British life- tea, The Royal Mail, bad weather!
Could we also add Internet Explorer to that list?
Whenever we boot up our internet we are always provided with Internet Explorer. We don’t question it. We just use it. However, the European Commission in it’s infinite wisdom (or overly exaggerated motherly concern- whichever way you look at it) has decided that we, as consumers, are entitled to more choice!
That means, when we load up our screens, we should be able to choose whether we use Internet Explorer or Opera, Bing, Google Chrome etc.
Now many of us would say: what is the problem? we were perfectly happy with Internet Explorer! Indeed the man on the Clapham omnibus would sagaciously assert ‘well mate, if it ain’t broke why fix it?’
Indeed it seems we Brits are change resistant!
I shall examine the ECJ’s ruling with interest. I am, however, reminded of a tirade by Margaret Thatcher who, in the House of Commons stood up and stated:
‘At a press conference the other day, the President of the Commission, Mr Delors, said he wanted the European Parliament to be the democratic body of the community. He wanted the Commission to be the executive and the Council of Ministers the senate. NO, NO NO!’ the Iron lady of Finchley roared across the chamber.
Now as much as I love Europe (or I would not be devoting time to writing this blog!) I cannot help think that she had a point. The Commission plays an undoubtedly useful role. But perhaps it is being overly concerned in this case?
Internet Explorer is as British as the weather and indeed as British as our Clapham homo sapiens who is as triumphant as the Iron Lady in stating: ‘well if it aint broke why fix it?’ albeit in a rather different manner!
I hope you have enjoyed this post!
TTFN!
name said
I have to say that I’m a little bit biased because I stopped using Windows several years ago. But I dabbled a bit in web programming and the Internet Explorer is indeed an abomination.
Basically Microsoft was afraid that the operating system, e.g. Windows, would lose its dominant position. Therefore they changed the behavior of IE in ways that made it incompatible with every other browser. The web had to adopt to these deviations due to the big market share the IE commanded. Around the year 2002, MS had by now a monopoly, they decided that they won’t develop new versions to minimize the threat to their operating system. Web-development ground to a halt. It took almost five years for the web to recover and work around all the damage MS inflicted by pushing their non-standard ways. After solutions were found and Firefox started to gain market share Microsoft restarted development of IE.
But how did they acquire this monopoly? They bundled IE with Windows which already constituted a monopoly in the operating system market. Therefore they misused their market power and caused great damage to the web as I’ve already shown in the second paragraph.
To further illustrate what MS did I will provide a car analogy. A browser is a car. Every Browser drives on the left side of the street – like you do in Britain – and has therefore the steering wheel on the right. Now MS comes along and changes the position of the steering wheel to the left in the IE. The IE is now better suited to drive on the right. The roads are adopted to this behavior and all the other browsers that adhere to the “law” have problems because they won’t be able to deliver the same flawless experience driving on the right with their steering wheel on the right. Driving them is harder than it should be.
Btw the Internet Explorer is in no way British. It is produced by MS from the US. It is riddled with security holes, bad behavior and it is not something I would like to see associated with Britain if I were British.
The browser ballot is a mere slap on the wrist. Adequate action would have been to disintegrate Microsoft.
Magdalena Tulibacka said
Hello Name, thanks a lot for your interesting comments. I have to admit that I do not agree with you though. I do not see why the “adequate action should be to disintegrate Microsoft” as you are suggesting! The problem I have with the Commission’s approach to the markets is that they seem to be pushing for competition for the sake of competition, not for the sake of consumers, or markets, or anything else for that matter. What possible benefit would there be, for consumers, web browsing and software, and a lot of countries where Microsoft are paying their taxes, from disintegrating Microsoft? I’m afraid that what the Commission are often doing in the area of competition law is more about justifying the need for their own existence than making life better for European consumers. Even you, in your comprehensive reply, do not seem to be able to point to one problem with the IE, other than it does things different and it is clearly dominant. You did not tell me why you think all the other web browsers are better, and I cannot help thinking that they are better according to you because they are not dominant, and, frankly, because they are not Microsoft. I have no problem with having to drive on a different side of the road, if that simplifies my life in a longer term. And I have no problem with dominant companies – they got there because they were good! I hope that Microsoft lives a long and happy life, until they are overtaken by an even better company which will then become dominant. I hope Microsoft’s demise will happen because a better one will come along, not because the Commission managed to dismantle Microsoft! Best regards, Magdalena