[szamot]

Maybe your IE will be singing Opera one day, remember this - it you can't beat them - buy them. Everything is for sale and everthing has its price and MS pockets are very very deep. Greed on the other had is very basic, I would not be surpriced if Opera sold out.

[szamot]

Maybe your IE will be singing Opera one day, remember this - it you can't beat them - buy them. Everything is for sale and everthing has its price and MS pockets are very very deep. Greed on the other had is very basic, I would not be surpriced if Opera sold out.

[Kirkaiya]

Originally Posted by szamot

Maybe your IE will be singing Opera one day, remember this - it you can't beat them - buy them. Everything is for sale and everthing has its price and MS pockets are very very deep. Greed on the other had is very basic, I would not be surpriced if Opera sold out.

Now this is sooooo true - the last I read, Microsoft had about 41 Billion (BILLION!!!) dollars in cash reserves - a good bit of their revenue comes from interest on their pile-o-money...

Lets hope they don't cast the all-seeing eye over to the fiords of Finland (or is it Norway? Wherever Opera is based, anyway), lol. I do hope that some CE-based SmartPhones start making their way here, I'm eager to play with one, and see how I likez it.

[Jason Dunn]

I read somewhere (can't remember where) that the Opera guys stated publicly that they will never develop Opera for any Microsoft Mobile platform - it's their way of holding a grudge I guess. :?

I too would LOVE to see a better browser - Pocket Internet Explorer leaves SO much to be desired...you can't even click the back button and have it load from the cache - my XDA re-connects to GPRS when I click the back button. 8O

[Mike Wagstaff]

Pocket Internet Explorer leaves SO much to be desired...you can't even click the back button and have it load from the cache - my XDA re-connects to GPRS when I click the back button

I think it depends on the site - sometimes my xda does need to connect, and other times it doesn't. I suspect it's to do with whether the site in question is linking to a resource stored elsewhere. Either way, however, it's annoying.

[szamot]

I was under the impression that this is exactly the kind of issue .NET would solve. On the fly content send out to a device based on its capabilities, but that’s just coming.

Hummmm, NEVER is not a very long time in the grand scheme of things. While I admire their moral principles, hurray for Opera, the fact of the matter is that moral principles have no place in the modern market place. If it did we certainly would never be able to buy anything that’s bad for us, the customer, like coke or chips our poorly made tires etc. Business is driven by greed, or is that profit I can’t never tell the difference between the two. So while their stance is certainly admirable it has little to zero business sense. I guess time will only tell.

[enemy2k2]

I think Opera is betting that they can become a larger and more profitable company through Symbian than it could if it developed for MS products. Opera's tune may just change if MS did approach them in some manner with a nice healthy offer. For now though they have too much vested in Symbian. My Diamond Mako (Psion Revo Plus), well... former Diamond Mako had actually come with an earlier version of Opera on the CD. If anything, this will at least cause MS to notice that PIE is lacking, competition always brings out the best in products

[Jonathan1]

Tried Opera. Liked the interface and some of its options but uninstalled it. It doesn't format many pages correctly (pocketpcpassion and pocketpcthoughts are 2 sites that come to mind.), mainly Affront Page sites. Thanks MS.) or forgets to load some images in web pages and you have a nice red X for an image.

Tried Mozilla. Did a pretty good job of screwing up my machine. For some reason some of the apps that I use would no longer open up a web browser when you did certain functions in them. Even after uninstalling and reinstalling the apps...no joy. Uninstalled Mozilla. Still nothing. I ended up redoing the computer. Will not use Mozilla again EVER.

I may consider Opera simply because I don't feel like having a web page format my hard drive thank you very much. :P

MS should be slapped up side the head for all the security holes he has. It really is a terrible pile of insecure crap but people use it and accept the holes. Is that sort of like driving a car that has a gas leak near the exhaust? You are making good time in your Porsche..that is until it blows up in your face. :P :wink:

[szamot]

Originally Posted by Jonathan1

MS should be slapped up side the head for all the security holes he has. It really is a terrible pile of insecure crap but people use it and accept the holes. Is that sort of like driving a car that has a gas leak near the exhaust? You are making good time in your Porsche..that is until it blows up in your face. :P :wink:

I like the car stories. I was goning to say that Opera is in the starting grid sitting on its high moral horse while everyone is reving up their F1 cars, but mainly MS. Thanks for playing.

[ThomasC22]

Originally Posted by Pony99CA

Anyway, if Microsoft ever feels threatened, don't think for a minute that they can't improve Pocket IE. In fact, I recall reading that Windows CE .NET will include a version compatible with IE 5.5 (whatever that means :-)).

Sadly, they may very well not be able to improve it (at least not at the same rate). This is for a couple reasons:

1) When IE took the lead from Netscape they were a division in and of themselves (it was at the time that MS turned around and created an Internet Division under then Exec. Vice President Brad Silverberg). They were given the mandate to beat Netscape at all costs, and they also had control of the Windows Shell. This allowed them to move fast and have everything they needed under their control. That's why you saw IE come out with 3 or 4 versions per year for a while.

Now they are under the platforms group and under current Exec. Vice President Jim Allchin who has always believed that IE should be (A) closely tied to Windows (e.g. the old guard considered IE a program in and of itself while the current considers it a piece of Windows) and (B) be on a platform product cycle (which is a new product every couple years). This structure inhibits Microsoft's ability to compete with Opera (which is in effect a startup).

2) Those Microsoft staff members that engineered IE's take over are largely gone (most to Ignition Partners). There very well may be others at Microsoft now that could pull off the same trick but the fact remains those who did it before are gone.

As for MS buying Opera, I believe Opera is privately held so if they won't even build a browser for Microsoft Platforms I doubt they will be willing to sell the company to them.

[Certified Optimist]

Originally Posted by Kirkaiya

Lets hope they don't cast the all-seeing eye over to the fiords of Finland (or is it Norway? Wherever Opera is based, anyway), lol. I do hope that some CE-based SmartPhones start making their way here, I'm eager to play with one, and see how I likez it.

Sorry mate... But Opera is from Norway - the land of the fjords (Norway that is not Opera). Finland is the land of a thousand lakes (and no fjords there I am afraid).

And Sweden is the land of beautiful women :wink: