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Opera Browser Beta Adds Voice, More
An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at DesktopLinux.com, the first public beta of Opera 8 is available for free download. It adds voice input/output and a host of other niceties. Key new features include improved RSS handling, fit to window or paper width, a start-bar for easy access to the most commonly used functions, and automatic update checks. The beta release supports Windows only, but a general release is scheduled for early 2005. Opera and IBM have partnered on XHTML+Voice (X+V) technology for several years, co-announcing a Multimodal Browser and Toolkit early in 2003."
Who cares about the voice thing ?? How many of the readers will care to actually speak to their browser, imagine a office full of people all talking to their browsers.. that's simply stupid.
I think that Opera people should care most about fixing things in it's browser instead of adding features that nobody (95%) will use.
Like M2, it simply sucks with IMAP, i was using it till i tried Thunderbird, did the switch about 5 minutes of starting it up for the first time.
The opera forums are full with complaints, why don't Opera listen to them, i'd do so before my userbase flies right into the open (and free) arms of Firefox.
I hadn't even looked at Opera because of the slashdot crowd screaming about the "Oh So Annoying" ads. Then, due to the fact that I wanted to test my web site with opera, I downloaded the free version. You have a choice to display this ultra thin text ad at the top of the browser that really does not seem to get in the way of anything other than maybe a few buttons that could be there.
The browser itself is really nice, and the tiny advert does VERY LITTLE to detract from this. Why oh why is this such a huge issue?
East Coast Brewers
Because it's not firefox and GOD FORBID you'd have to like pay money for software. Not to mention that nearly every single feature that makes firefox what it is (tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, mouse gestures, lightweight interface) was pioneered by Opera first.
/. crowd has a mentality that we have to dismiss Opera even though most, if not all, of the revolutionary features of webrowsing were pioneered by opera first.
Sad but true. Not that there is anything wrong with either (I use firefox on linux boxes, opera on windows, and safari on mac) but most of the
Opera is many things. Before the bashing continues, however, I'd like to make a few things clear:
- it is NOT bloated; it's a 3.5 MB download
- it is NOT crashy
- it is NOT bad because of flashy ads because you can look at tiny, non-flashing google ads
- it is NOT unable to display pages propperly; it handles every webpage I'ver ever been to just fine
- it has a much nicer, more customizable UI than Firefox
- it is considerably faster than Firefox
- it has everything you'd ever want in a browser suite without needing any additional downloads or plugins
- you don't EVER have to use anything in it you don't want to, and even with email and chat turned on, it's still not bloated, and still has less of a footprint than Firefox
- if you turn off everything except web browsing, you'll never hear from it and Opera will have even less of a foot print
- it was well worth the $20 student price I paid for it. I rarely ever register software, and it was one of the few programs I did register without any regrets.
Opera is a magnificent piece of software. Who cares if it's not open source? Not every god damn thing in the world needs to be open. Who cares if it costs money? They're running a business, and selling a product, and a damn good one at that. You get what you pay for. Firefox is good too, but you also get what you pay for with Firefox.
There's no such thing as free lunch, economics 101. The fact that you didn't pay a single $ for the software you use doesn't mean it didn't cost money to develop. Someone has to pay for that, either the developers have another job, or they get paid to develop free software.
Some software cannot be developed with the open source business model, it doesn't work. I'm sure the Opera guys would love to release their software as OSS if they could make money another day. Other niche products won't be OSS any time soon, e.g. Softimage|XSI, Maya, etc. And no, Bender doesn't even come close to them. When will some people understand that not all software has to be free? I don't care what Stallman says, it's not true.
--
HawkinsOS, kicking Smorgrav in the ass since 2004.
To achieve with Firefox the functionality that Opera offers out of the box I have to download a dozen plugins. When that is done, Firefox is very slugish and the features don't feel tightly integrated. (I am using a slow computer)
:-).
Every feature in Opera feels very natural and intuitive, it doesn't feel bolted on. It is a beautifully refined browser and works great both on Linux and Windows. Of course, a pluggable Opera would be heaven
I still always recommend Firefox as an IE replacement, but for power users I will recommend Opera.
Cheers,
Adolfo
About the ads. The google ads take half the screen real estate that the graphical ones take and, to be honest, I have found them to be usefull more than once.
To be honest, I think a lot of the open-source faithful have gotten so caught up in the philosophy that they've forgotten the pragmatism. Open source isn't important, open formats are. When your file formats are open, your data is yours forever, you're not subject to vendor lock-in, and all that crap. Open-source software is simply a means to this end.
Both Mozilla and Opera support open standards. So what is the practical difference besides price? Is paying for software really that awful? There's obviously still a market for a pay-browser. The closed-source-phobia around here is silly.
Also, I think it's misleading to criticize the browser for costing $39 and then slam it for having ads (which are inobtrusive text ads by default) when there exists no version of the browser subject to both these criticisms.
The same is true for Minimo. Did you read the CNET article about Minimo and all the "fantastic innovations"? Guess what, Opera invented all those things, but the Minimo spokesperson tried to make it sound like they were Mozilla firsts.
There's a pattern here. Opera comes up with all these new things. Without Opera, Firefox and other browsers would have been in the Browser stone age.
This is why a company which makes money is a good thing: They are forced to do research and development beyond what everyone else is doing, to come up with new stuff to stay ahead.
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