Not content with their current (low) marketshare, Opera have filed a lawsuit with the EU citing that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser does not support open Web Standards and that they should give users the choice. This ultimately means more marketshare for Opera as it will mean either bundling other browsers with it too, or removing IE from the operating system like they once were forced to do with Media Player (because of Real not liking that no one liked their software - boo hoo).
"Our complaint is necessary to get Microsoft to amend its practices," said Jason Hoida, Opera Software's deputy general counsel.
I feel that this is a worthy goal to make IE more standards compliant, however I think Opera are just doing it to increase market share and awareness for their browser - something Mozilla have managed with Firefox without any of these underhand tactics.
The dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been dented in recent years by the success of other net surfing programs such as Firefox.
This very point alone shows that anti-competition from Microsoft with web browsers is not a problem - if Firefox usage can rise to be around 30-40% then Microsoft bundling their browser with their operating system just as they have done for the past 10 years isn't a problem. Further proof that Opera are bitter about their 1-2% of the market share.
From another point of view, if Microsoft can't bundle Internet Explorer with Windows, why should Apple be allowed to bundle Safari? Just the same as if Apple can bundle iTunes with OS X, why should Microsoft be told they can't include Windows Media Player (remember Windows XP N)?
Microsoft and Apple are different: Microsoft is a dominant player and must therefore adhere to certain rules in the market.