[thelist] MS Silverlight

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 10:48 -0700, Robert Gormley wrote:
> A previous release of the MSN portal in the "bad old days" (ie
> www.msn.com) locked Opera users out, for no specific reason other than
> "not on the supported browser matrix".
> 
> Following calls and discussions and commentary, less than 24 hours
> later, a Group Program Manager from Microsoft was on his way from
> Redmond to Norway to /apologize/ for the lack of judgment shown in
> this decision, and to promise that Opera users would no longer be
> locked out arbitrarily.

It's (well, almost) the same reason criminal defendants apologize in
court. Microsoft thought they could get away with it; turns out they
couldn't.

Note also that was only good for Opera, which is another proprietary
(non-free) browser. I have a feeling Microsoft wouldn't be as quick to
apologize to the Mozilla Foundation when they have declared the free
software movement as the enemy (see the Halloween documents).

> Error of judgment? Definitely. Ability to change things for the
> better? Definitely.

More like ability to recognize "we couldn't get away with *that*, this
time, just yet".

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>