The classiest thing I’ve read all week.

[ music | Digable Planets – Cool Like That ]

Ok, I’m sure everyone has seen this interview with Asa on ZDNet. It’s actually an interesting interview too, not just another fluff piece. Well, on page three of the interview, I read the classiest thing I’ve seen in a long time. ZDNet asked Asa the following:

Opera recently said it is unfair that it is criticised for putting ads in its browser, as they “don’t have a rich sugar daddy like the Mozilla Foundation.” What is your response to this comment?

Now, that’s quite a baiting question, it’s a question about a crackpot comment from a competitor. It’s a softball intended to get a really biting quote. Asa didn’t take the bait, but he did hit a smash homerun. Before he talks about putting the user first, he makes a quick but direct reply about Opera in an extremely classy way:

When you don’t have to worry about monetising the browser, you can think about user. As we’re a non-profit, our goal is merely to sustain ourselves. I agree that Opera need to be profitable, but to do that they have had to make their user experience a little bit worse. Luckily, we can just focus on being sustainable.

I’m not given to being gushy, but well done, Asa. Well done.