Star A Proprietary Web? Blame the W3C
Linked by Adam S on Fri 11th Jul 2008 04:37 UTC, submitted by peskypescado
Internet & Networking A recent post about Firefox and my general view of corporations and organizations has caused a bit of a stir. It even caught the attention of Asa Dotzler. He said "It's really hard for me to believe that either [Microsoft or Adobe] have the free and open Web at heart when they're actively subverting it with closed technologies like Flash and Silverlight." But are they really subverting it? Where exactly is the line between serving the consumer and subverting the web? I think the W3C should share in this blame.
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RE[7]: Completely disagree
by tomcat on Fri 11th Jul 2008 22:34 UTC in reply to "RE[6]: Completely disagree"
tomcat
Member since:
2006-01-06

Having written for the web since back in '94, I can say that the W3C has done a tremendous service to everybody by standardizing the web. No, it still isn't perfect. However, nobody with an ounce of sense can deny things are much better today because of the W3C.


I've never questioned that.

You are acting like Microsoft and Adobe came to the rescue because of the sheer lameness of the W3C.


No, reread some of my other posts. The W3C isn't lame. They're just slow. And as I pointed out in some of my other posts, I don't blame them for being slow. Getting consensus is tough. You have a lot of players with different ideas on the way that things should work, and you have to get all of these guys to play nice. Takes time. But that doesn't change the fact that the lack of standards created a vacuum in the market that Microsoft and Adobe filled. I'm not commenting on how well (or poorly) they filled that vacuum, because that's an entirely separate conversation.

What has Microsoft done that has brought the web together? Created yet another "me too" technology in Silverlight?


Again, I'm not here to critique anybody's specific technology.

Have they made IE standards compliant yet?


Apparently, IE8 is.

IE 7 certainly sucks less than the worthless bubble of anal wind that is IE 6, but it still isn't that great to write code for because it doesn't support the 7 year old standard very well...


This conversation has officially gone off the rails...

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RE[8]: Completely disagree
by Clinton on Sat 12th Jul 2008 19:10 in reply to "RE[7]: Completely disagree"
Clinton Member since:
2005-07-05

Apparently, IE8 is.


That's my point. The article is blaming the W3C for not coming out with a video standard before now, forcing Adobe and Microsoft to do so, but Microsoft isn't even following the 7 year old standards that ARE there yet.

Sorry if I misunderstood your meaning. Still, I think it was a great discussion. Thanks.

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