I take it most of you have been following the EU gang bang on Microsoft. Opera starts the fight. Mozilla joins suit on February 9. Google feels left out so it signs up today. But did anyone catch Mozilla's Open Source Evangelist, Christoper Blizzard, at this year's Scale conference? In the grandest figurative move of 2009 thus far, he rips apart his shirt, thumps his chest, and blusters about how great Firefox is doing in Europe; that since Firefox 3.0's launch last June, market share skyrocketed in Europe, from 30% to 40% today. Did anyone catch it?* Here's the page from his presentation, touting Firefox browser-share advancement.
I know. So I'm sure you're just as confused as I am when the EU raises a stink about dominant position, stating in its Jan. 19th S.O.:
"The Commission is concerned that through the tying, Microsoft shields Internet Explorer from head to head competition with other browsers which is detrimental to the pace of product innovation and to the quality of products which consumers ultimately obtain."
Is this EU's attention-diverting ploy to convince us that we're living a cozy pre-recession past, T minus ten years? Perhaps.
Watch this vid, where Mr. Blizzard shows off Firefox 3.1 Beta's precocious use of Javascript in worker threads to detect motion, within browser, and consider how much detriment could truly have been wrought on browser innovation. Also check out this conceptual vid, where a couple Mozilla Lab guys, Aza Raskin and Alex Faaborg, discuss a "chromeless" (i.e. full screen) browser that, hypothetically, puts Chrome's UI to shame. I'm a believer. Plus there's the omniscient Ubiquity extension that's still making waves. Honestly, EU, how much more shame-inducing innovation do you want?
* All true, except for the shirt-ripping, chest-thumping parts.
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