Comments on: Bad Timing

By: Cliff Wells

Cliff Wells — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:58:44 +0000

“Or a future where the open web is largely shriveled and dead thanks to wide-scale abandonment by the Windows community?”

I heard a prediction by John Dvorak in the same vein when Microsoft announced MSN. That the internet would become just a dark closet in the house of MSN. Didn’t happen then, and the web was really just an infant compared to now. It *could* have been killed, but wasn’t.

Second, your statement assumes that Windows “community” means anything. There is no community, only users, most of whom don’t care about Microsoft’s corporate agenda or legal concerns. If Microsoft doesn’t provide a browser, they’ll use Firefox or Safari. People care far more about eBay and Amazon than they do Windows.

Finally, if market trends are any indication, the time frame for Microsoft to deprecate the web would certainly be longer than the time frame for Apple to have eaten their lunch. Microsoft has larger concerns (losing the desktop – or more precisely – the laptop to Apple). I don’t think sudden risky moves (such as handing a key part of their desktop over to competitors) are in their immediate future.

By: Web Development 2.0 » Blog Archive » Web standards take a beating

Web Development 2.0 » Blog Archive » Web standards take a beating — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:20:35 +0000

[...] a long time now, and Opera’s suit has seen the gloves come off. As Eric Meyer observes, the timing is bad, but I for one am pleased to see the web community’s frustrations out in the [...]

By: ADAC

ADAC — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:17:26 +0000

I haven’t seen any responses to Antony.

While I prefer using FireFox, he makes an interesting point.Many of our programming problems would disappear if we only had one browser to worry about.

Be it FireFox or IE, it would sure be nice if someone won the war instead of the constant battle with the users and programmers stuck in the middle.

By: Forum On Web Design and Internet » Blog Archive » Web Design Quotes: December’s Best

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:50:21 +0000

[...] Eric Meyer, Bad Timing [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:55:11 +0000

Federico: I’m sorry, but “poor standard support” is just nonsense. IE wil pass the Acid2 test with IE8. Firefox will pas the test with FF3. Does that mean Firefox also has “poor standard support”? The IE-team has made a leap forward with IE7 and seems to be doing the same with IE8. Although every browser has its own weaknesses and strengths, IE is adopting the open standards faster than I would have dreamed possible a few years ago. It’s easy – and popular – to keep bashing Microsoft, but especially IE has come a long way and that should be appreciated.

By: Felix

Felix — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:13:30 +0000

A lot of people are asking why Microsoft cannot simply say what features will be in IE8. It’s a fundamental part of development that things change. Planned features can often run into the brick wall of being too difficult to implement (into the upcoming version without huge delays, typically) or completely degrading performance (with the same caveat). Implemented features may be removed or downgraded later for performance or security reasons. Many things can change, and it’s quite common for the final product to have a few feature differences to the initial planned product. Usually when something is announced, even cautionally as just being worked on, people rely on it and start hatin’ when it’s not in the final thing. It’s by far safer and easier for a development team to keep stumm on features and dates, because not everyone appreciates that these things often don’t go to plan.

By: Federico MP

Federico MP — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:30:17 +0000

Netscape 6.0 did not have the same market share as IE so it was not a menace for the open web.
And when will it be the right time? When browsers implement CSS N and IE starts considering implementation of CCS N-10? Why should Opera or whoever complains wait for IE8 which we all know will have less standard support than most of the other browsers?
Have you think that MS might be using its poor standard support on purpose as a lock-in technique?
And why we should try to be nice and comprehensive about MS when all other browsers vendors have a headache every time they have to use reverse engineering on IE?

By: Pixel Acres » Blog Archive » Web standards take a beating

Pixel Acres » Blog Archive » Web standards take a beating — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:49:31 +0000

[...] a long time now, and Opera’s suit has seen the gloves come off. As Eric Meyer observes, the timing might be bad, but I’m pleased to see the web community’s frustrations out in the [...]

By: Rowan

Rowan — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:02:01 +0000

“As far as Microsoft is concerned, I have not received any instruction to change my participation in W3C in any way because of this or any other lawsuits. Personally, I love working with Håkon and all CSSWG members… whatever Opera’s intentions are, I can’t imagine it involves not being interested in working together on a standard that is worth implementing. I am certainly interested and plan to keep doing that, to the best of my abilities and any time that I can afford to invest.

http://www.w3.org/blog/CSS/2007/12/19/signal_to_noise

By: Un passo al giorno ~ Davide Bocci in...

Un passo al giorno ~ Davide Bocci in... — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:57:09 +0000

[...] Bad timing [...]

By: James Oppenheim

James Oppenheim — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:26:55 +0000

What about IE8 suggesting that they now render the Acid2 Face correctly in standards mode.Surely this is a major step in the right direction or at least a change in thinking.

By: Niko Neugebauer

Niko Neugebauer — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:24:10 +0000

This is good news – whatever you stand for, whatever you believe in or not. We need a better, more standard web where we write our code without regards on the browser.

IE8 is passing ACID2 test – isn’t it what we all wish from Microsoft ?
Whatever the reason behind it – i do not care as long as web gets better. Will i use IE8 – no, but do i need it to be standards compliant – YES.

By: Holy Standards Support, IE8! :: Unintentionally Blank

Holy Standards Support, IE8! :: Unintentionally Blank — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:21:28 +0000

[...] their monopoly in the browser department and their lack of support for standards (which caused some ripples around the rest of the [...]

By: Opera Sucks, At Least Some People Have Sense

Opera Sucks, At Least Some People Have Sense — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:52:33 +0000

[...] force them to follow web standards. And its the lamest thing they could do. At least some people have sense and are not taking [...]

By: SitePoint Blogs » Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded

SitePoint Blogs » Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:19:48 +0000

[...] echoed by many in the web design community. CSS expert Eric Meyer considers the Opera move to be bad timing, coming right when Microsoft was showing promise with IE7 and the upcoming [...]