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> The problem was that each attack was fought on the Microsoft playing field. Each product kept users within the Microsoft hardware ecosystem. The competition d
by sdegutis 11y ago
> The problem was that each attack was fought on the Microsoft playing field. Each product kept users within the Microsoft hardware ecosystem. The competition didn’t have that limitation. Firefox, Facebook, Chrome and the iPod emerged as dominant solutions because they served users across devices: Mac’s, PC’s, and sometimes Linux systems.
That's just not true. Firefox stole IE users because it was actually innovative. (IE never had tabs, Firefox 2 brought that to us.) Then Chrome stole Firefox 3 and IE users, because it had all the same innovations, but it wasn't bloated, it felt faster and smoother. It had practically nothing to do with Linux or Mac.
- Mithaldu 11y ago> IE never had tabs, Firefox 2 brought that to us. Excluding wrapper software for IE, like NetCaptor, and the Amiga browser IBrowse, Opera brought tabs in 2000, and Firefox took until 2002 to offer them. Firefox has, until Chrome came about, had the best marketing team though.
- majewsky 11y agoActually, Opera was the one to invent tabs. Does someone remember why Firefox took off while Opera never managed to come out of its niches?
- sdegutis 11y agoFor one thing it's not open source and never was.
- Mithaldu 11y agoFree marketing, by every linux advocate ever. Chrome overtook in a similar manner, by getting free marketing on Google.com.
- atopal 11y agoHave a look at the main UI, should be self explanatory: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Opera_7.02.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Opera_7.02.pn...
- Mithaldu 11y agoExcept it looked like this when it came out with tabs: http://i.imgur.com/ms0RsfB.png http://i.imgur.com/ms0RsfB.png And on top of that it was skinnable and customizable to a degree no other browser has matched since.
- atopal 11y agoDid you really not see the gigantic banner ad in the middle of the main UI? Opera tried to monetize the browser in that way for years.
- digi_owl 11y agoMuch like Android apps that offers a choice between ads and paying to make them go away. Opera was initially for pay only, much like Netscape Navigator. IE was the really odd one out by being offered for free (and why Netscape pulled Microsoft to court over antitrust charges). Opera introduced the banner after Mozilla was formed and started offering first a rewritten Netscape package (these days called Seamonkey) and then Firefox (after some back and forth about naming).
- digi_owl 11y agoUntil they dropped it with the transition to a Chromium base, the "tabs" in Opera was full blown MDI.
- Mithaldu 11y agoYep, and it is awesome. Need to research and compare a bunch of sites at once? Throw the tabs into a window of their own and tell the window to tile the tabs. One of the reasons i still stick with Opera 12.