Opera wants IE unbundled from Windows

BBC News is reporting that the Norwegian company behind the Opera browser is appealing to the European Commission to have IE unbundled from Windows, to have Microsoft follow web standards rather than creating their own, and to have other browsers pre-installed on Windows machines.

We've been in this territory before, when IE was first bundled with Windows about 10 years ago. Back then Netscape made a similar complaint to the American authorities, based on similar lines, which got them nowhere basically. Netscape went bust and became Mozilla, and Navigator, the Netscape browser, regerated into Firefox, and is now enjoying renewed success. But Internet Explorer still dominates the market.

I don't think that Opera will be successful in getting IE unbundled from Windows. However, it might just manage to get other browsers pre-installed as standard on all Windows machines. If that can be achieved, it would be a small victory, but an important one. I feel that is as much as can be possibly hoped for. IE is far too much a part of Windows these days for it to ever be unbundled. I have even less hope that Microsoft will EVER follow any standards other than their own, but allowing other browsers to be bundled with Windows, is at least an achieveable aim, and one that just might happen. Don't hold your breath though waiting...