Native Version Of Opera browser for FreeBSD

An anonymous reader writes "Norway based Opera Software finally released a native FreeBSD version of its fast, standard based browser yesterday. The browser has been available in the ports tree as an app running in Linux binary environment. Opera 6.1 is the first version released for FreeBSD, it has the same set of features as the Linux version."

Comments

This is great news

[dcstimm]

I have always been a big fan of freebsd. I am currently using it on my server. I think this is long over due. Most apps are being released for windows a linux and they forget about freebsd users. Like Nvidia drivers, UT2003, quake3, DOOM III (when it comes out). And alot lot more. They still havent released the src yet for phoenix 0.1 (I could always check it out of the cvs) so we wont see it on freebsd for quite awhile.

The reason linux gets so much more attention than freebsd is because of Tux the penguin. I know this might sound stupid but Tux makes people want to switch over. And once they see nvidia drivers and native games in linux they are hooked. Then once they get used to linux and want a real chalange they check out freebsd.

Most people that are curious about Unix will try linux first because people say its more user friendly. Mandrake and Redhat are super easy to install. I think for bsd to get as much market share as linux they need to do the same thing. Of course we will have freebsd (they way it is) for servers but wouldnt it be nice to see a gui installer for it?

Oh well Until then freebsd users will always have to wait for software.

A thought:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think a native release of Opera 6.x for FreeBSD and the recent announcement of Pheonix would add two nice lighter weight [graphical] web browsers to FreeBSD. I've been using Mozilla 1.0 and 1.1 under FreeBSD (along with the Java 1.3.1 JDK, using both the regular and the Linux ports of JDK 1.3.1) and it runs fine... with the exception that it can get quite sluggish.

Running the Linux version of Opera 6 on FreeBSD is faster than the native build of Mozilla, but getting the plug-ins to work has been a bit of a hit and miss.

Now what would be great would be a native version of the Macromedia Flash plug-in for FreeBSD :)

Re:This along with Pheonix...

[evilviper]

Pheonix isn't nearly ready yet... but if you want lightweight, go for Dillo!

Personally, I could care less about Opera plugins, what I hate is how often it's crashing. If it wasn't for the fact that it saves all URLs, I'd be too concerned about crases to use it at all.

As for Flash, I won't take it even if was available. And by the way, the GPLed Flash player works natively with Mozilla (check the ports), although there's a lot of instability there. I suppose a decent browser like Opera might fare better than Mozilla.

My qualms with Opera:
* Lowsy printing (often garbled and overlaping text)
and
* It's based on QT, so interoperability with my GTK programs has been a strugle (Copy and paste into Abiword doesn't work)
* Terribly lowsy interface. Even with it's billions of options, Mozilla's preferences are easier to work with than Opera's.
* Unfortunate method for handling tabs. When closing a tab, instead of going to the tab left or right, it jumps through them in the most recently used order. Bah!

That said, if it proves to be stable, I'll be quickly handing over the cash to register it. I really hope they distribute a version for OpenBSD as well (it should only need a recompile).