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No Flash, but it compresses stuff mostly up to 80-90%.

Youtube solution: Install flashblock, visit the YouTube page, paste the URL into VLC, which will stream it off the site without loading anything extra.

Bandwidth saving solution: Grab a cheap VPS (you can get pretty darned awesome Xen ones with 256MB RAM and 500GB of bandwidth for $13/mth or less), run a proxy on it. Have that proxy gzip all content that goes through it, and recompress images if you can find software. Alternatively, just run squid, tunnel to it over SSH, and enable SSH compression. That should produce some savings.

Ultimate bandwidth saver for the desperate: Opera Mini on a desktop.

Opera Mini is a J2ME cellphone app that is designed to make browsing fast on slow 2G handsets. It runs all data through Opera's proxy servers, compressing content, recompressing images, and packing everything into one file to reduce roundtrips.

It can actually be made to run on a desktop at arbitrary resolutions (say, 1920x1200) via MicroEmulator. Instructions can be found here:

http://my.opera.com/larskl/blog/2008/03/29/opera-mini-in-1280-1024?cid=4986133

I daresay that it's impossible to reduce bandwidth usage more than the Opera Mini approach short of using a text-only browser through a compressed link.

In addition, in Opera, you can activate "History Navigation Mode", which makes Opera reload only the cached page when you click the back button, without "phoning home", so to speak, to the server. I Wrote an Opera Tips and Tricks about this: Opera tips and tricks: Lickety-split back navigation. Still better: Use Opera and move to Europe, where we're simply light-years ahead of the States in terms of reasonably priced internet access.

Use http://www.opera.com/. You can set all kinds of "site preferences" including javascript, (turn it off! will save lots of bandwidth), plugins, etc.

You can also "block content", like from advertisers and 3rd party links, unneeded extra pictures and crap, etc. It's really great!!

You can also set user or author mode, including css, etc.

Also you can set up a firewall to block all of the ad servers, like admt.com, advertising.com, the whole list- block them all!

Try it- you will love it!!

http://my.opera.com/operaqa/blog/2008/10/15/mama-what-is-the-web-made-of

If you go to the source of the research, you will for example notice that the last time a similar study was done (in June 2006), only 2.58% of the tested pages validated completely. A 1.5% increase might not seem to be all that much, but it's definitely indicative that we're on the right way. (And of course, perfect validation is never the final goal in itself, but merely an easy first step for people en route to writing better, semantically-meaningful, universally accessible websites.)

If you go to the source of the research, you will for example notice that the last time a similar study was done (in June 2006), only 2.58% of the tested pages validated completely. A 1.5% increase might not seem to be all that much, but it's definitely indicative that we're on the right way. (And of course, perfect validation is never the final goal in itself, but merely an easy first step for people en route to writing better, semantically-meaningful, universally accessible websites.)

No. Supporting Linux is not hard at all. It's not like you have to release 10 different packages for each distribution you support... and stuff.

Take a closer look at the packages they link to, most of them are actually using the same package.

All in all there is a total of 3 versions of the binaries each with 3 different installers. a total of 9 packages to cover pretty much every single distribution out there.

One statically linked one for extremely old or unknown distributions, one gcc3 one for semi old ones, and finally a gcc4 one for modern distributions, each of these is then available as .deb, .rpm and .tar.gz.

Its really not a big deal, the only reason for having such a big list of distributions to select from is to make it easy for a end user to get the optimal package for his platform without having to know anything about his system except the name and version of his OS.

Specific distribution: Supporting all distributions isn't hard, you know.

No. Supporting Linux is not hard at all. It's not like you have to release 10 different packages for each distribution you support... and stuff.

Flip it around and ask yourself why shouldn't company X spend a little time making something cross-platform (it's not as hard as you think) and get that many more sales?

You say "It's not as hard as you think." I say, "It's easier said than done."

This just screams troll right here. I find it a pain to develop for Windows myself given that libraries and headers can be all over the place, or are you thinking of RAD C# stuff that is useless for many applications (note I'm saying it's useless for things like, say, Flash; it certainly has a use for smaller programs and other apps that don't need speed, etc).

Yeah, I'm a troll. Instead of developing a modern tool chain, linux folk scream, "Emacs/VIM, the GNU toolchain and a command line debugger is all you will ever need!" Which, wherein lies the most fundamental problem of the Linux crowd, they feel entitled to tell people what they should want and need, rather than listen to what people want and need. And then you call them a troll.

Microsoft comes along and tries to set the clock back 10 years. No Linux support? Is this 1998 again?

17 years and 0% to 0.91% desktop market share? I call that a huge success.

http://www.opera.com/download/index.dml?opsys=Linux%20i386&lng=en&ver=9.60&platform=Linux%20i386&local=y

30 different versions? You _KNOW_ that when you write a windows program it just works on each and every Windows desktop out there. This is currently not possible on linux. I'ts still a platform for hobbyists. Its has to yet acheive enterprise-grade reliablity on the desktop. Which is why it sucks. Which is also why people ignore it. Even Google ignores it (chrome). Google milked the cow by using OSS code and making billions, now when its time to give back, ofcource, they dont give a crap.

Speaking of ad blocking, has anyone else noticed a fundamental flaw in their pop-up blocking?

Nope.

As a KDE user, I prefer Opera over Firefox, simply use to better resource useage, that being said, has Opera 9.6 started using Qt4 yet?

Yes. The main download page, as far as I can tell, only offers the QT3 version, but you can download QT4 builds from the FTP server.

A QT4 version of the official release is also available, but only for 32 bit x86.

Downloadable here:
ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/960/final/en/i386/

Gentoo's ebuild will install the QT4 version on 32 bit x86 if you have the qt-static flag on and the qt3-static flag off.

> whats not to love.

Proprietary applications without full source code availability ("of course I trust some American companies browser with my bank's passwords...")

Opera is Norwegian.

Does anyone know of a Windows Mobile device that matches the iPhone in web surfing? I'd love to hear about it.

Well, you can install Opera Mobile 9.5 on any touchscreen WM device. Phones like the HTC Touch Diamond and Samsung Omnia have it preinstalled.

Maybe I am using the wrong add-ons in Firefox/Opera but Chrome gives some very nice tools for inspecting CSS and how it is affecting your layout.

You didn't miss Opera Dragonfly did you?

Firefox gives me themes. Let's talk when Chrome offers them.

Wouldnt it be better to make it look halfway decent from the start? Then users wouldnt need to waste their time hunting down themes.

3. Web Developer Bar (nothing like this on ANY other browser)
4. FireBug (nothing like this on ANY other browser, not even Safari's inbuilt "Develop" menu options comes close for debugging)

Every major browser has an equivalent, usually nearly identical.

IE Web Developer Toolbar
Opera Web Developer Toolbar (old version, not super great)
Opera Dragonfly (new developer tools)

Plus there's always FireBug Lite.

7. Tabmix Plus

This irritates me. The default tab behavior on FireFox is terrible. I dont think anyone I know actually uses it as is.

Heck, by default Firefox wont even remember your last session (ie, what tabs you had open, etc) if it crashes. How lame is that.

You shouldnt need TabMixPlus (mind you, thats what I use too on firefox, out of need) if the tabs behaved reasonably out of the box.

9. Foxmarks which makes sure all my bookmarks (and their keyboard shortcuts) are exactly the same in my office, on my three home machines (XP, Leopard, Ubuntu)

Does anyone actually use bookmarks anymore? I just dont close the tab, and leave it running there for months or years or whatever. Or just use the auto-complete history.

I'm half joking here ... half not. I havent used bookmarks since like the early Netscape days.

Dont get me wrong, extensions in Firefox are better than NOT having them. But why cant the Mozilla folks just make Firefox better out of the box. Every time I have to build a new machine for me, or move to another, I spend 5 times as much time remembering, downloading, and configuring extensions as I do just downloading and installing firefox itself. I'd rather the product was just better in the first place, and then it wouldnt need as many extensions (and wouldnt waste so much of my time).

But with Firefox, you need plugins/extensions to do ANYTHING. The product is just not that good out of the box. But you shouldnt have to spend so much time doing that, when they could just make the product more reasonable from the start.

Until recently, the reasons to use FireFox was web app development, because of FireBug, LiveHTTP Headers, and Web Developer Toolbar. Plus it had the most consistently reliable javascript performance for non-IE targeted web apps.

But nowadays all the browsers have Firebug, webdev, and livehttp headers equivalents. And it looks like Chrome will be the new standard for testing javascript heavy web apps. And of course you use IE for the apps that need IE (Exchange OWA, tons of corporate intranet apps, sharepoint, etc).

And I use opera for my non-dev browsing (ie, slashdot, digg, theregister, serverside .com/.net, newspapers, blogs, naked ladies, etc). It doesnt crash as often, it doesnt suck memory so badly, page zooming actually works and has for years (firefox just barely got reasonable page zoome with 3), it works reasonably without a million plugins, etc.

I dont mean this to sound as anti-firefox ranty as it probably does. Firefox has its place, and I'm glad its there. But its just not a very good tool, outside of being a very extensible general tool. And its a shame, because you have something like Opera that 'just works' and is nearly flawless, not to mention lean, fast, and beautiful.

So for 'personal browsing' type of use, Opera is better, at least IMO. And for app-dev/app-use, what FireFox used to be the king of, Chrom

Firefox gives me themes. Let's talk when Chrome offers them.

Wouldnt it be better to make it look halfway decent from the start? Then users wouldnt need to waste their time hunting down themes.

3. Web Developer Bar (nothing like this on ANY other browser)
4. FireBug (nothing like this on ANY other browser, not even Safari's inbuilt "Develop" menu options comes close for debugging)

Every major browser has an equivalent, usually nearly identical.

IE Web Developer Toolbar
Opera Web Developer Toolbar (old version, not super great)
Opera Dragonfly (new developer tools)

Plus there's always FireBug Lite.

7. Tabmix Plus

This irritates me. The default tab behavior on FireFox is terrible. I dont think anyone I know actually uses it as is.

Heck, by default Firefox wont even remember your last session (ie, what tabs you had open, etc) if it crashes. How lame is that.

You shouldnt need TabMixPlus (mind you, thats what I use too on firefox, out of need) if the tabs behaved reasonably out of the box.

9. Foxmarks which makes sure all my bookmarks (and their keyboard shortcuts) are exactly the same in my office, on my three home machines (XP, Leopard, Ubuntu)

Does anyone actually use bookmarks anymore? I just dont close the tab, and leave it running there for months or years or whatever. Or just use the auto-complete history.

I'm half joking here ... half not. I havent used bookmarks since like the early Netscape days.

Dont get me wrong, extensions in Firefox are better than NOT having them. But why cant the Mozilla folks just make Firefox better out of the box. Every time I have to build a new machine for me, or move to another, I spend 5 times as much time remembering, downloading, and configuring extensions as I do just downloading and installing firefox itself. I'd rather the product was just better in the first place, and then it wouldnt need as many extensions (and wouldnt waste so much of my time).

But with Firefox, you need plugins/extensions to do ANYTHING. The product is just not that good out of the box. But you shouldnt have to spend so much time doing that, when they could just make the product more reasonable from the start.

Until recently, the reasons to use FireFox was web app development, because of FireBug, LiveHTTP Headers, and Web Developer Toolbar. Plus it had the most consistently reliable javascript performance for non-IE targeted web apps.

But nowadays all the browsers have Firebug, webdev, and livehttp headers equivalents. And it looks like Chrome will be the new standard for testing javascript heavy web apps. And of course you use IE for the apps that need IE (Exchange OWA, tons of corporate intranet apps, sharepoint, etc).

And I use opera for my non-dev browsing (ie, slashdot, digg, theregister, serverside .com/.net, newspapers, blogs, naked ladies, etc). It doesnt crash as often, it doesnt suck memory so badly, page zooming actually works and has for years (firefox just barely got reasonable page zoome with 3), it works reasonably without a million plugins, etc.

I dont mean this to sound as anti-firefox ranty as it probably does. Firefox has its place, and I'm glad its there. But its just not a very good tool, outside of being a very extensible general tool. And its a shame, because you have something like Opera that 'just works' and is nearly flawless, not to mention lean, fast, and beautiful.

So for 'personal browsing' type of use, Opera is better, at least IMO. And for app-dev/app-use, what FireFox used to be the king of, Chrom

I used Firefox for years and still do to an extent, but a couple of years ago I 'saw the light' and moved to Opera as my default browser. It does everything I need it to, quickly and securely, it takes up much less screen real-estate, and is very customisable. It's occassionaly caught out by sites 'optimised' for I.E. (but what isn't?) but otherwise is brilliant.

Yeah, 3D may take a while, but I now see a path to it- 3D support for the canvas has already been faked; I did a simple (if dirty) 3D Globe once, and the Wii Opera SDK has worked hard on more optimized stuff.

Now, here's the neat part- the Wii SDK has been focusing on the rather low-memory, somewhat inefficient Internet Channel, but it is compatible with other browsers... including, at least according to some quick experiments, Chrome.
And with V8, it runs blazing.

Reference please? I certainly don't recall seeing anything like that anywhere on Opera blogs, given that default search provider in Opera is Yahoo, I'm rather unconvinced.

You're right, it doesn't directly say it anywhere on the Opera site. You have to read between the lines.

First of all, I'll clear up the second half of your statement: "Google has been the default search option on Opera's desktop browser for seven years." and "Google(TM) [is] the default search engine in Opera's mobile Web browsers." (Source)

According to Opera's Investor Relations FAQ, "The Opera Browser features integrated search and shopping bars, and partner companies pay a fee to Opera every time a user utilizes the integrated search or shopping bar. Opera cooperates with a few select partners it feels can contribute value to its product and users. Deals with companies like Google, Fast, Lycos, InfoSeek, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay are showing constant growth in revenues for Opera."

Google is in the top 10 most visited sites in every country Opera lists in their financial reports (Source [PDF]); it is #1 in all of South America and the United States.

Reference please? I certainly don't recall seeing anything like that anywhere on Opera blogs, given that default search provider in Opera is Yahoo, I'm rather unconvinced.

You're right, it doesn't directly say it anywhere on the Opera site. You have to read between the lines.

First of all, I'll clear up the second half of your statement: "Google has been the default search option on Opera's desktop browser for seven years." and "Google(TM) [is] the default search engine in Opera's mobile Web browsers." (Source)

According to Opera's Investor Relations FAQ, "The Opera Browser features integrated search and shopping bars, and partner companies pay a fee to Opera every time a user utilizes the integrated search or shopping bar. Opera cooperates with a few select partners it feels can contribute value to its product and users. Deals with companies like Google, Fast, Lycos, InfoSeek, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay are showing constant growth in revenues for Opera."

Google is in the top 10 most visited sites in every country Opera lists in their financial reports (Source [PDF]); it is #1 in all of South America and the United States.

Reference please? I certainly don't recall seeing anything like that anywhere on Opera blogs, given that default search provider in Opera is Yahoo, I'm rather unconvinced.

You're right, it doesn't directly say it anywhere on the Opera site. You have to read between the lines.

First of all, I'll clear up the second half of your statement: "Google has been the default search option on Opera's desktop browser for seven years." and "Google(TM) [is] the default search engine in Opera's mobile Web browsers." (Source)

According to Opera's Investor Relations FAQ, "The Opera Browser features integrated search and shopping bars, and partner companies pay a fee to Opera every time a user utilizes the integrated search or shopping bar. Opera cooperates with a few select partners it feels can contribute value to its product and users. Deals with companies like Google, Fast, Lycos, InfoSeek, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay are showing constant growth in revenues for Opera."

Google is in the top 10 most visited sites in every country Opera lists in their financial reports (Source [PDF]); it is #1 in all of South America and the United States.

I know you're being snarky, but if you actually think about it, the address bar really *does* belong under the tab bar.

Well, some browsers place tabs where they belong...

You mean the canvas element? Firefox and Opera are already working on 3D drawing contexts.

Opera build, Opera Code example
Firefox Addon

Another advantage to giving web apps this power- it makes learning programming (especially the flashy bits) easier. Elementry-schoolers needn't worry about configuring compilers, managing imports, window handles, etc; the browser does it all. HTML and parts of Javascript are simple enough to explain with a good teacher; gloss over the trickier bits at first with a voodoo var artist = getElementById('canvas').getContext('2d'); line, and drawing becomes much more accessable.

You mean the canvas element? Firefox and Opera are already working on 3D drawing contexts.

Opera build, Opera Code example
Firefox Addon

Another advantage to giving web apps this power- it makes learning programming (especially the flashy bits) easier. Elementry-schoolers needn't worry about configuring compilers, managing imports, window handles, etc; the browser does it all. HTML and parts of Javascript are simple enough to explain with a good teacher; gloss over the trickier bits at first with a voodoo var artist = getElementById('canvas').getContext('2d'); line, and drawing becomes much more accessable.

We can offer:

• Beatiful location in the middle of Oslo, Norway
• Today's Norwegian salaries are great compared to the US ones
• 5 week vacation per year
• English is the official company language
• Norwegian course offered on site
• Interesting co-workers
• Lots of other perks
• We need people like you

Just make sure to tell them I referred you (...profit!)

http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/

Working in Norway you get 5 weeks of paid vacation pluss good and free healthcare. Working at Opera Software you would have coworkers from over 40 nationalities, "free" lunch, free beer every friday, and the chance to shape how the web will be in the future.

Read more here, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I'm hiring, in Oslo, Norway and LinkÃping, Sweden: http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/opening.dml?id=67 Other departments in my company is hiring in Norway, Sweden, Czech republic, Poland, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India and the US: http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/index-open.dml Feel free to apply to anything that looks interesting. If we decide to hire you, we'll arrange all the formalities. (c:

I'm hiring, in Oslo, Norway and LinkÃping, Sweden: http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/opening.dml?id=67 Other departments in my company is hiring in Norway, Sweden, Czech republic, Poland, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India and the US: http://www.opera.com/company/jobs/index-open.dml Feel free to apply to anything that looks interesting. If we decide to hire you, we'll arrange all the formalities. (c:

Try Opera Software. They are headquartered in Norway, with offices in Sweden, Poland, and Czech Republic. So you might have choices and an opportunity to move around.

It's not like I can switch to Opera. Their latest stuff won't run on my Linux machines.

Have you actually tried? They at least claim to support a lot of versions of Linux. (unless you have Sparc machines, then nevermind.)

Your attitude still lives on at Firefox scene eh?

Stuff like: "It uses too much RAM" "buy RAM you cheap bastard", "it doesn't run on my OS", "upgrade it and your hardware".

Why don't they install Opera 9.5 which perfectly works on their OS instead?
http://www.opera.com/support/search/view/386/

It even supports Windows 95. In contrast to Firefox for OS X, it also supports OS X 10.2.

In fact, even that unfixable pile of crap, IE 6 works on Win 98. By telling users to get a new hardware, you are driving them to IE too.

AFAIK you cannot use the dependency resolution logic of apt or yum or w/e without also divulging the source code something which is never going to happen with commercial s/w.

kjella@desktop:~$ dpkg --info opera_9.51.2061.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb
  new debian package, version 2.0.
  size 8295240 bytes: control archive= 6485 bytes.
            34 bytes, 2 lines conffiles
        1275 bytes, 21 lines control
      16580 bytes, 231 lines md5sums
        1719 bytes, 54 lines * postinst #!/bin/sh
          572 bytes, 18 lines * postrm #!/bin/sh
          179 bytes, 9 lines * prerm #!/bin/sh
  Package: opera
  Version: 9.51.2061.gcc4.qt3
  Section: non-free/web
  Priority: optional
  Architecture: i386
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.1.3), xlib6g (>= 3.3.6) | xlibs | libxmu6, libqt3-mt (>= 3.3.4), libstdc++6
  Suggests: flash-npapi-plugin | flashplugin-nonfree | swf-player | libflash-mozplugin | mozilla-plugin-gnash, pdf-npapi-plugin | djvulibre-plugin | mozilla-acroread, cupsys-client | lpr, sun-java6-jre | sun-java5-jre | java-gcj-compat, linux-libertine | ttf-dejavu | ttf-bitstream-vera | msttcorefonts, xine-plugin | gxineplugin | mplayerplug-in | kaffeine-mozilla | mozilla-mplayer | mozilla-helix-player | gecko-mediaplayer, mozplugger | plugger, mozilla-bonobo, aspell
  Conflicts: opera-static
  Replaces: opera-static
  Provides: opera-static, www-browser
  Installed-Size: 20100
  Maintainer: Opera Packaging Team
  Bugs: mailto:packager@opera.com
  Description: The Opera Web Browser
    Welcome to the Opera Web browser. It is smaller, faster,
    customizable, powerful, yet user-friendly. Opera
    eliminates sluggish performance, HTML standard violations,
    desktop domination, and instability. This robust Web
    browser lets you navigate the Web at incredible speed and
    offers you the best Internet experience.
    The binaries were built on Debian using gcc-4.0.0.

I think someone sent us a telex saying they want their troll back.

That's what happens when they decide to stray away from the original Mozilla Labs

Opera has been working on video tag support for some time, their test build (a version of Opera 9.52) was released two weeks ago.

Article: http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/07/18/
Download links: http://labs.opera.com/downloads/

Opera has been working on video tag support for some time, their test build (a version of Opera 9.52) was released two weeks ago.

Article: http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/07/18/
Download links: http://labs.opera.com/downloads/

I really don't want to sound fanboyish, but, Opera implemented the attribute (though only for Windows at the time) at 8th November 2007 and it added the Mac and Linux builds at 18th July 2008.

But, as always, it didn't got the respectable place in /.'s front page.

I am also dissapointed in the fact that Wikipedia didn't even say a single word about Opera supporting the same spec. as Firefox even earlier than Firefox.
Yes, I do know they support free (as in free speech) software so they recommended Firefox, but not saying a single word about Opera makes me (and Opera's devs) cry.

I really don't want to sound fanboyish, but, Opera implemented the attribute (though only for Windows at the time) at 8th November 2007 and it added the Mac and Linux builds at 18th July 2008.

But, as always, it didn't got the respectable place in /.'s front page.

I am also dissapointed in the fact that Wikipedia didn't even say a single word about Opera supporting the same spec. as Firefox even earlier than Firefox.
Yes, I do know they support free (as in free speech) software so they recommended Firefox, but not saying a single word about Opera makes me (and Opera's devs) cry.

Opera has also added support for Ogg Vorbis and recently released a build that supports video, 3D and their proposed file access: http://labs.opera.com/ Hopefully, Firefox and Opera can jointly tilt the scales in the favor of open video. Google should start using Ogg Theora instead of the proprietary bits they spew out now.

I can only say it is a real shame that no-one has noticed any of the mouse gesture add-ons and would like to incorporate mouse gestures and wheel-based tab switching natively.

Disclosure: my main browser is Opera. I do use Seamonkey and Firefox (as well as other browsers). I currently use Firegestures, and have used Optimoz and "All-in-one gestures" in the past.

Yes, it's why Opera and WebKit (Safari) also support the canvas element. I suppose singling out Firefox for criticism will never go out of style.

Actually, even if you POST using https, if the page displaying the form is not secure then there is a security risk.

is that Firefox has been driven (to a large extent) by Opera.

Credit where credit is due, please.

Hmm... interesting. I've been using http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/
which is based on 8.6, but was significantly better than any other web browser on WM5 at the time. It sounds like I should be looking at upgrading.

Opera mobile does exist for WM5. I use it. It is far better than the other browsers, but does have a few small missing features. IIRC, there is no find on page feature for example. For the free trial see http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/winmobileppc/

Just maybe, a browser will emerge for Windows Mobile that doesn't completely suck.

Is the ability to actually SAVE files that difficult for this platform? IE and Minimo say so.

I personally have been underwhelmed with just about every mobile browser I've used (Blazer, Mobile IE and Opera Mini are especially awful), but this Opera Mobile Beta is pretty much amazing. It goes out of its way to ape Safari Mobile - and it shows. The smooth scrolling, slick interface and zoom gestures are all lifted rather liberally from Safari. My only real criticism is that I'd like to see the finger gestures fine-tuned and further explored, but it's still a great browser.

I'm not a huge fan of Apple, but I hope the iPhone continues to light a fire under the collective ass of the mobile phone industry. Microsoft and friends need to get their shit together before Apple moves in on the business smartphone sector.

And Safari and Opera are both non-free so they are more reluctant to give detailed fix reports. http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/ [opera.com]

Non free? I believe you mean they have a proprietary source code, as opposed to open source like firefox. I don't recall paying to download either Opera or Safari for my desktop and laptop. Yes, I do know opera charges now for the Wii browser, but I don't have a Wii.

And Safari and Opera are both non-free so they are more reluctant to give detailed fix reports.

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/

There is a way to block just the chat service.