SiliconValley.com - Dan Gillmor's eJournal

Tim Berners-Lee on Microsoft's Latest Browser Tricks

Posted on Friday, October 26, 2001

Yesterday, Microsoft disabled use of MSN with many non-IE browsers. It was a clumsy move, and it has plainly backfired.

I asked the World Wide Web Consortium's Tim Berners-Lee for his views on the situation. Here are my questions and his answers (edited very slightly, such as putting in hyperlinks):

DG: What is your reaction to Microsoft's decision to disable non-IE browsers from access to MSN?

TBL: I have fought since the beginning of the Web for its openness: that anyone can read Web pages with any software running on any hardware. This is what makes the Web itself. This is the environment into which so many people have invested so much energy and creativity. When I see any Web site claim to be only readable using particular hardware or software, I cringe - they are pining for the bad old days when each piece of information need a different program to access it.