Mozilla and Opera Mock Microsoft’s Native HTML5 Claims

It looks like not everyone is digging the native HTML5 marketing claims from the software giant.

With the launch of Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1, Microsoft had to say the following:

Web sites and HTML5 run best when they run natively, on a browser optimized for the operating system on your device. We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows. The only native experience of the Web of HTML5 today is on Windows 7 with IE9.

Mozilla’s former director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner, was quick to respond, ridiculing the term on Bugzilla, the company’s bug tracking database.

Mozilla should consider adding support for native HTML5 as well, I’m sure that a specification will be produced.

I’m pretty sure Firefox 5 has complete native HTML5 support. We should resolve this as fixed and be sure to let the world know we beat MIcrosoft to shipping complete native HTML5. – Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s director of community development.

Opera has also joined the criticism, taking a less humorous approach.

The beauty of the Web is that it’s not native to anything. It works on the newest Android phone, any desktop browser and even the ancient Nokia phone a friend of mine in India has. Even though the native devices are completely different, the thing that unifies them is the Web. And HTML5 is the new evolution of the lingua franca of the Web. – Bruce Lawson, an open-standards evangelist for the Norwegian browser maker and co-author of Introducing HTML5.

HTML5 is not native. It is not supposed to be native. It is silly to even attempt to tie HTML5 to a specific platform. Hachamovitch should be ashamed of himself for signing his name to such a shoddy piece of dishonest marketing nonsense. – Haavard Moen, who works in Opera’s desktop QA group.