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Opera Turns 10, Gives Away Free Registrations

osvejda writes "Opera Software ASA is celebrating 10-year anniversary of its browser. As a surprise party favor they're giving away free registration codes (for as long as the party lasts). Also see photos from the party, listen to music by employees, play games and more."

15 of 583 comments (clear)

  1. The one thing keeping me from using Opera by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Zooming with the scroll wheel also zooms the images. I only want it to zoom text (like Firefox). Anyone know how to change this behavior?

    1. Re:The one thing keeping me from using Opera by blueskies · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what I love about it...who else has a real zoom? That and the lack of multiple document interfaces that all of the other browsers I've tried are lacking. Most are SDI with a tab hack.

  2. Re:Opera isn't free by thc69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll feed the troll...

    Most of the features in question existed in Opera long before somebody made an extension for FF. In fact, there's quite a few FF extensions whose name or description refers to Opera.

    My FF has 93 extensions, at least half of which are features that are standard in Opera. I won't bother to discuss startup and page load speeds.

    --
    Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
  3. Re:Weeeeeeee! by LnxAddct · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would be pissed as hell if I had paid for Opera yesterday or even within the last few months.
    Regards,
    Steve

  4. As usual... by MSFanBoi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you use Opera, FireFox or Mozilla you can do no wrong.
    Use IE, and you are a troll.
    Go figure.

  5. Re:Never had a reason to use Opera by Bronz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Candles work great for me too, but I still like electric lights. Built-in mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, BitTorrent client, mail client, irc client, RSS reader, completely customizable interface, screen reader ... cross platform ... ability to (easily) shut off images, flash, animated gifs, cookies, doesn't take 4 minutes to clear its cache ... And its all of 3MBs.

    You might not know what you are missing.

  6. Re:About time by Bronz · · Score: 3, Insightful


    Because when you look at a lot of the popular browser innovations, Opera has been a fundamental cornerstone. Tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, a built-in BitTorrent client. All happily working together with a blazingly fast browser. And it's cross-platform. Firefox is a great browser... #2 in my list... but I don't mind rewarding people for innovation. Be it a coprorate entity, shareware registration or a donation to an OSS project.

  7. Re:Codes are for by semifamous · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, but the fact that you can add all of those features (including that "Tab Groups" feature you wanted and more) to Firefox with Extensions is what makes Firefox so great. If you want a feature, just grab the extension. I like how much Firefox can be customized.

    Can I have Flashblock in Opera? How about something like the "NukeAnything" extension? Can I configure it to automatically open new tabs when I type an address in the address bar? I'm sure there's a way to do that. I just haven't found it yet. Can someone point me there? I'm going to give Opera a try since it's free, but so far, I can't figure out how to get things the way I have them in Firefox.

  8. Re:how are they surviving by gasaraki · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because I find Opera much more stable and reliable, much faster and just a lot easier to work with. To give a random example of something I consider really essential that Firefox does not have, where is the unified keybinding interface? Some (very few) keys you can change, sure, but at least 50% of them are hardcoded into the core files and basically impossible to edit meaningfully. To me this is just ridiculous.

  9. Re:Easy instructions by loner0208 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another hint: keep hitting reload, and you can get unlimited reg codes.

    What's the point? You only need one set, and the more you get the more you deprive others from getting a set too.

  10. Re:how are they surviving by taskforce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your post makes out as if Mozilla is the Be All End All of browsers and that it's the final evolution of said program. Many people prefer Opera; it's an excellent browser in my opinion and feature for feature is more useful and reliable than Mozilla. (And I use both extensively.) Obviously I can see why paying $40 (The same cost as a night of pizza and coke with friends?) might put some people off, but I still would highly reccomend people try at least the ad-free version, or just snap up a registration code for free today. (Nobody is forcing you to use it.)

    --
    My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
  11. Re:how are they surviving by magetoo · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Opera users especially, are aware of the existance of Firefox, so what is keeping the relatively small portion of Opera users from switching to Firefox, and what's still drawing in new users into the Opera club?
    Well, I think it might actually be the fact that Opera is good at what it does. (Gasp!)

    (Why should Opera users particularly want to switch to Firefox anyway? Is there an offer of 72 virgin brides in Heaven after you die or something that makes it worthwhile?)

    Seriously, I'd say it's because Opera just gets the job done. You can pimp your FF installation all you want and it will have a ton of features not present in Opera, but for 90% of what you do, all you'll ever need is already present in the base install (of Opera). And it's not a particularly large download either. Plus it really is fast.

    Whether you should migrate ... well, you should at least try it for a week, then you'll know enough to decide which was the best for you. You can always switch back.

  12. Guilt by adolfojp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I preach Opera like a Jehovah's Witness preaches... well... Jehovah.

    It is like firefox, with most of the extensions installed, without hoarding your memory, and completelly integrated. Oh, It also reads your mail. It is a 4MB download.

    Opera spoiled me because now I cannot use any browser that doesn't use Sessions. Its usability is superb, nothing comes close. Every single detail has been polished.

    I have always used the ads to support Opera. Specially since the ad sense ads that occupy the same screen real estate as a toolbar. Getting a free version makes me feel rather guilty actually.If only Microsoft made me feel that way :-)

    Adolfo

  13. Opera Inc is actually a good company! by mritunjai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Opera inc are actually a nice bunch of folks:

    1. Unobstrusive ads (google text ads), commercial != bad, google makes money from ads and your pizza ain't free.

    2. These people are pioneers of key browser features. Tabbed browsing, standards support, integrated mail/news/RSS/IRC/BT client, mail labels (what Gmail did later), etc etc

    3. Opera folks are in staunch opposition to software patents. Inspite of fact that they did all those features waaay before anybody else, they haven't patented anything. Their CEO said in an statement that Opera is opposed to the concept of software patents.

    Folks, the product is worth the money. They are good people(TM) and that is reason enough these days to support them.

    --
    - mritunjai
  14. Re:IE, Media Player were free and everyone bitched by spisska · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People who purchase Windows expect certain features in a modern OS, such as web browsing, video editing, photo manipulation, multimedia playback, etc.-- why is it wrong for Microsoft to include these features in an OS _they_ made and sold?

    First off, MS is a convicted monopolist; Apple is not. This means that Apple has a whole lot more flexibility in what software they can bundle -- since Apple doesn't own 19 of 20 desktops, nobody can claim that shipping OS X with iMovie is blocking out competitors (particularly since pro-quality video editing suites sell rather well on the Mac platform).

    It isn't illegal to be a monopoly per se. If everyone in the market decides your product is the best, then more power to you. What is most certainly illegal, however, is using a dominant position in one market (such as, oh say operating systems) to leverage a dominant position in other markets (like, oh say media players and web browsers). Laws on this matter are clear, and MS has had more than a fair trial in both the US and EU and was convicted each time. Unfortunately, the punishment in the US amounted to MS being sent to bed without supper for a night a few years ago.

    See, Microsoft isn't bothered with creating a superior media player or browser. They'd rather just subvert existing standards to run only on their software (eg (among many) .asf, .wmv, dhtml, etc, etc). This isn't illegal because MS makes the OS and WMP, but because MS uses their OS dominance to ensure that everyone uses WMP instead of any other media app, and that providers create content that is compatible with (and only with) WMP. It didn't work with html, and it's not going to work with media, but that doesn't mean that they won't try.

    Second, of the things you mention, only web browsing and media playback come bundled with MS Windows. There is no included video editing and no included photo manipulation -- at least nothing capable of doing anything serious.

    Anyone buying MS Windows and expecting to be able to edit photos and home videos out of the box is going to be sorely dissapointed. The fact that these come standard with other operating systems only proves the point that people who "expect certain features in a modern OS" would be better off with a truly modern OS like OS X or GNU/Linux