Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 27th Jul 2009 07:29 UTC
Last week, the European Commission announced that Microsoft is willing to implement a browser ballot screen in Windows so that users can select a browser to install when installing Windows or when setting up their OEM computer. While this makes Opera very happy, Opera would like to see Ubuntu and Apple offer such a ballot screen too.
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Member since:2006-01-10
I don't get your distinction at all.
Anyone is free to take Windows and install Firefox or Opera on it. Dell, HP, lenovo can do it. You can do it on your own. You don't need source code to do that. nor do you need any kind of rebranding.
I'm not against the anti-trust ruling against MS. I think its 'reasonably' fair as a CORRECTIVE PUNISHMENT due to Microsoft prior actions while in a monopoly position (needlessly tying its browser into the OS, pressuring vendors not to install other browsers by default...).
However, it's not a general principle that can or should be applied to other companies and situations.
Member since:2008-07-29
This is not quite true.. If you remove IE, than you cannot install recommended updates easily from Microsoft , due to the problem with compatibility (ActiveX I think). The sec fix will update automatically (if is set)..
So IMHO the Microsoft did not completed the dependency on IE in Vista at least (I don't know the 7) or actually they left a needed usage for IE...
Member since:2005-09-10
Ok, to put it into simple terms - Opera is free to take a linux distro, make any modifications to their liking, and distribute it themselves. They can do what they want - they don't need to request linux vendors (althouh it's a lot more convenient to do so). If they want different defaults for windows, they have to beg Microsoft and/or pressure them via lawsuits. That's a big difference imho.
Member since:2007-09-05
Opera's demand is as ridiculous as it can get.
Did you even read beyond the insane and sensationalist BS by the article author?
What Opera's CTO actually said: "Apple and Ubuntu are not monopolies as per the legal definition of a monopoly. Still, it may be a good idea to offer it"
Member since:2005-09-10
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."More News »
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Member since:
2005-09-10
Well, it's more about control. Microsoft has control (a monopoly) of the desktop OS market, and the problem is that they leveraged that monopoly to create a new one in the browser market. That's what the EU ruling is about.
Opera's demand is as ridiculous as it can get. You can argue for a ballot in case of MS Windows, because you have no control over it. On the other hand, you have full control (and I mean YOU, the user or YOU a company) over any Linux distribution except for some branding stuff. In other words, Opera, if so wishes, can take Ubuntu, strip away trademarks, and release the whole distro as Opera Linux with Opera as the default browser, with no obvious ways of installing other browsers if they really want to limit consumer choice. You can't force Ubuntu to do anything because they already gave you the choice to do anything YOU want (provided you don't violate the GPL).
Once you can legally obtain the source code of MS Windows, rebrand it, and distribute it freely on whatever medium you prefer (including the source code) - then we can talk about demanding the same from Linux distroes and MS Windows. Until then, Opera's request should be properly ridiculed by the internet community