December 18, 2007 at 19:54Frequently Asked Questions: Hakon Wium Lie on Microsoft Antitrust Complaint
In addition to the responses Haavarda, responses Hakon Lie Vyuma css3.info site read translation of the conversation with Todd Bishop Vyumom Lee on the same topic. Todd Bishop has a blog about Microsoft.
Q: When last year I talked with Jon von Tetchner (Opera CEO), he said that at that time Opera had no plans to sue Microsoft. What changed?
Wium Lie:I do not know in what context Jon made this statement, but we naturally thought about it. We waited for a decision to be made in another lawsuit, and, as you probably know, the decision in the case of Real media player was made in September. This, of course, influenced our decision. Another factor was the situation in the world of browsers. The importance of the browser as a means of accessing a wide variety of information is as great as ever and we believe that the consumer should have a real choice between alternative browsers, but this is very difficult to achieve with such close integration of Windows and IE.
Q: You mentioned the RealNetworks case, which resulted in Microsoft demanding that Europe sell a version of Windows without Media Player. Do you see a precedent in this decision that could be applied to browsers as well?
Wium Lie:Well, we certainly see a precedent that such close integration is illegal. As for the countermeasures chosen in that case, I am not sure of their effectiveness, I believe that the best could be chosen. We also draw attention to another aspect related to web standards - that Microsoft does not support web standards at the proper level and thereby creates problems for competitors trying to maintain these standards.
Q: What alternative solution do you offer?
Wium Lie:In our statement, we provide several options. Firstly, this is a branch of IE, possibly with a difference in price. I think one of the reasons for the low efficiency of the chosen solution in the media player case is that there was no difference between the price of the version of Windows with and without a media player. It is clear that the development of a media player costs money and it is quite natural that there should be a difference in price. Another option - instead of tidying up something, one could add several other browsers, giving users a real choice, putting them before their eyes.
Q: Will you ask for IE to be removed from all versions of Windows, not just to provide a separate version without IE?
Wium Lie:We have not yet decided on the options for countermeasures, we are not talking about anything like this. Naturally, browsers are very important for users and that a computer without a browser is not very useful. So people need browsers, and we need to provide them. We must give them a choice, a real choice, and not deprive them of it.
Q: In some blogs this morning it was possible to read that this, they say, is not a reaction to the actions of Microsoft, but Opera's inability to compete in the market. How would you comment on this?
Wium Lie:We are a very successful company. Since 1995, we have grown to 400 people with only one product - a browser. We produce browsers for a wide variety of devices: phones, game consoles, personal computers. And we are doing it well, but just for a Windows PC, it turned out to be very difficult and we believe that this is unreasonable. We do not think that 80% of people use IE because it is so good. We do not think IE is a good browser. We think that we could compete with him, we want the opportunity to compete honestly with him.
Q: Is this an attempt to attract attention?
Wium Lie:No, really not. Of course, when we make such a statement, we also want to explain to the world why we are doing this. For us, this is a chance to talk about what is dear and not indifferent to us - about web standards. But this, of course, is not the main motive. We want equal opportunities for competition.
The translation was done by rojer . I raised his karma, and you?
Q: When last year I talked with Jon von Tetchner (Opera CEO), he said that at that time Opera had no plans to sue Microsoft. What changed?
Wium Lie:I do not know in what context Jon made this statement, but we naturally thought about it. We waited for a decision to be made in another lawsuit, and, as you probably know, the decision in the case of Real media player was made in September. This, of course, influenced our decision. Another factor was the situation in the world of browsers. The importance of the browser as a means of accessing a wide variety of information is as great as ever and we believe that the consumer should have a real choice between alternative browsers, but this is very difficult to achieve with such close integration of Windows and IE.
Q: You mentioned the RealNetworks case, which resulted in Microsoft demanding that Europe sell a version of Windows without Media Player. Do you see a precedent in this decision that could be applied to browsers as well?
Wium Lie:Well, we certainly see a precedent that such close integration is illegal. As for the countermeasures chosen in that case, I am not sure of their effectiveness, I believe that the best could be chosen. We also draw attention to another aspect related to web standards - that Microsoft does not support web standards at the proper level and thereby creates problems for competitors trying to maintain these standards.
Q: What alternative solution do you offer?
Wium Lie:In our statement, we provide several options. Firstly, this is a branch of IE, possibly with a difference in price. I think one of the reasons for the low efficiency of the chosen solution in the media player case is that there was no difference between the price of the version of Windows with and without a media player. It is clear that the development of a media player costs money and it is quite natural that there should be a difference in price. Another option - instead of tidying up something, one could add several other browsers, giving users a real choice, putting them before their eyes.
Q: Will you ask for IE to be removed from all versions of Windows, not just to provide a separate version without IE?
Wium Lie:We have not yet decided on the options for countermeasures, we are not talking about anything like this. Naturally, browsers are very important for users and that a computer without a browser is not very useful. So people need browsers, and we need to provide them. We must give them a choice, a real choice, and not deprive them of it.
Q: In some blogs this morning it was possible to read that this, they say, is not a reaction to the actions of Microsoft, but Opera's inability to compete in the market. How would you comment on this?
Wium Lie:We are a very successful company. Since 1995, we have grown to 400 people with only one product - a browser. We produce browsers for a wide variety of devices: phones, game consoles, personal computers. And we are doing it well, but just for a Windows PC, it turned out to be very difficult and we believe that this is unreasonable. We do not think that 80% of people use IE because it is so good. We do not think IE is a good browser. We think that we could compete with him, we want the opportunity to compete honestly with him.
Q: Is this an attempt to attract attention?
Wium Lie:No, really not. Of course, when we make such a statement, we also want to explain to the world why we are doing this. For us, this is a chance to talk about what is dear and not indifferent to us - about web standards. But this, of course, is not the main motive. We want equal opportunities for competition.
The translation was done by rojer . I raised his karma, and you?