Opera disses MSN muppets

 

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By Matt Whipp

Posted on 14 Feb 2003 at 18:26

Browser-maker Opera Software renders MSN unusable with specially tailored Bork browser.

Based on the Swedish chef muppet character Bork, the special edition is a dig at Microsoft's MSN site which was revealed to serve up different and inferior HTML files for Opera users.

'Hergee berger snooger bork,' said Mary Lambert, product line manager desktop, Opera Software. 'This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages...'

Specifically, the MSN site not only serves Opera users less content but contains code within a style sheet that shifts list elements outside of the viewable area. The full technical skinny can be had at this Web site.

MSN says it provides different files for different browsers to optimise the experience for browsers that don't conform as closely to W3C standards as Internet Explorer. However, this is clearly a case of making the Opera browser less proficient than IE, when it is in fact the site that is serving inferior files to Opera users.

'We are working hard to make sure the Opera browser works well on all Web pages, even those that do not follow the Web's standards to the letter,' said Hakon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software. 'But it becomes impossible when we are targeted and fed distorted pages that don't work in any browser. It's like putting a moose in the blender - a recipe for disaster! Microsoft should clean up their act on MSN and their other Web sites.'

Opera 7 now works with MSN, although older versions will still be served the offending files. In 2001, MSN could not be viewed by almost any browser outside of IE, but this has by now largely been put right.

Microsoft had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publishing.

Those wishing to see MSN transformed into a melange of muppet nonsense by the Swedish chef can download the Bork edition from the Opera Web site.

Microsoft is in court with Sun on a charge not a million miles away from this. It centres on allegations that Microsoft uses an inferior version of Sun's Java runtime environment to make .Net more attractive to developers.