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MSN.com is borken
14 February 2003 10:52Microsoft, for some time, has been playing dirty games with users of non-IE browsers. The most recent manifestation was (and still is) the sending of an intentionally misdesigned style sheet to Opera users. Opera has documented that this style sheet also breaks the IE display, and that the good style sheet sent to IE would work fine on Opera. This was noted a while ago. Microsoft took a half step in fixing this, so that a correct sheet is now sent to some versions of Opera, but not all.
Today Opera responded. They didn't merely make things public, for they already did that. They didn't kindly ask Microsoft to fix things, as they tried that and it didn't work. As if anyone was expecting it would work. No, they released a special version of Opera 7.xx. The "Bork edition" of Opera. This is just like the regular Opera 7 with one exception - MSN.com is translated into 'Swedish Chef' and displayed as if it had been made by the chef from the Muppet Show.
Some excerpts from the official press release:
"Hergee berger snooger bork," says 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. The Bork edition illustrates how browsers could also distort content, as the Bork edition does.
and later...
"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."
I had been putting off downloading (and registering) Opera 7, as Opera 6.05 work fine for me. But this reminds me of why I like the Opera folks. Guess what I'm downloading this noon? And registering? Yep, the Bork edition. If Microsoft wants to send Opera users a "borken" site, then they deserve to have their site borked but good.
(I find it amusing, also, that TextPad's spellcheck suggests 'MSN.com' should be replaced with 'misnomer'. How very apt.)
