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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."
Great idea Opera - I wonder if other companies would consider doing this - i.e. get free Windows Vista registration on Bill Gates 50th birthday? BTW, here's a direct link to the Free Registration Page and I see chat, photos, and some podcasting/MP3's are available ... but no live webcam feed of
their party - I'm sure that
would be more exciting that the
concrete cam ... ;-)
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Windows, GNU/Linux Intel, GNU/Linux PowerPC, GNU/Linux Sparc, FreeBSD, Solaris and Macintosh.
Pretty good give away. Opera is a good third browser, after Firefox and Safari.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Really, the ads are very small and don't bother me. I did use the free registration to see what it looks like without the ads. I still don't think the ads are a big deal.
This browser has come a long way since I first tried version 2.0 on Win95. That was clunky and I uninstalled it after a couple of days and went back to Netscape. I tried it again around 5.X and liked it a lot better. I stuck with it and now use it as my main browser on multiple platforms, but I also use Firefox, Konoqueror and Mozilla as well depending on what I'm doing.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Taking the existing extensions and add-ons of both browsers into account (probably a similar list), why are there diehard fans of the opera browser? Unlike IE users, those running either Firefox or Opera, 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? You'd think Opera's not being freeware (this article notwithstanding) would keep it out of my server logs entirely, but that's not the case.
To rephrase, why ought I migrate to Opera?
Keep in mind that the whole "free browser" thing was started by Microsoft. They gave away IE for free in hopes of squashing Netscape and gaining a monopoly on the web. And it worked. It's only after many years that another reasonable free alternative has become available in the form of Firefox, but the damage has been done and will take a looong time to repair.
So when you go around advocating that all web browsers should be free, you're basically supporting Microsoft's (and other big corps') strategy of gaining market monopolies in unfair ways.
I received free copies (with keys) of Windows 98, Windows 2000 at various MS promotional events.
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
"I mean, why pay when you gan get a free alternative elsewhere?"
Because the little Google text ads aren't very obtrusive and Opera's actually a really nice browser?
Frankly, I'm glad Opera is ad supported. You're right, $40 for a browser these days is a hard sell. However, Opera's making money, in return they're making a good product, and they've been around for 10 years. Ad support != evil evil bad bad bad.
"Derp de derp."
... it rather *languishes* away,
;),
;P
;)
considering the - for modern users - nearly unusable interface
(ex: "hey, why does rocker nav open a popup menu?? what? i have to actually *move* the mouse to the button and click, *just to go *back*???" "where are the tabs??" "where is the adblocker??"),
the tons of bugs
(ask a real web developer. i'm pretty sure he answers you that he wants to strangle everyone still forcing him to support this load of misdocumented inconsistent unreliable crap that IE calls an API
and the chances that it ever gets really *good*...
(depending of M$ being *good* from your POV)
I guess if I were an american i'd sue you for compensation for the pain and suffering you helped to do to me.
P.S.: I got in fact fired because in some special cases of inconsistency a (nearly) unpatched IE 6 destroys the whole site by making it unusable (and ugly). It seemed that the press and marketing chimps from many important companies did not have the patch, but in our company everyone had it. So I never saw a problem, released it, and *bam*: We were "blamed" that much at out target group that my big boss fired me.
(Okay, you could also say that i should rather hate those chimps. In fact i hate IE *and* them.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
"My FF has 93 extensions, at least half of which are features that are standard in Opera."
Exactly why I don't use Opera... too bloated, but to each their own
Exactly why I don't use Firefox. It tried, really. But endlessly searching for extensions (and deleting the ones that sucked, lather, rinse, repeat) to give me the functionality I was used to was just too much hassle.
For example, Opera automatically tracks your browsing session so if your computer crashes (yes I run Windows) or you close Opera, it automatically restores your session when you restart Opera. Since I typically have about 10 browser tabs open at any time, this was a must have feature for me. I tried to get similar functionality from Firefox plugins. At the time (last year) I only found a few, and they either had lousy functionality or were extremely slow.
Maybe things have improved but I really don't care. Opera works for me and I see no compelling reason to switch, especially with a free reg code (not that the ads bothered me to begin with)
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
OK, here's what I believe is about the second half of the party chat on IRC:
;))
ROBOd asks: how you like the "all-new, brand-new and polished" Internet Explorer 7?
Haakon: They have made some improvements in the UI, it took them 4 years or so. I was very disappointed that they didn't fix any rendering bugs. They have promised some fixes, but will not support Acid2 fully. That's a mistake.
ROBOd asks: can you express your feelings about William Henry Gates the 3rd?
Haakon: I've never met him. I had lunch with one of his men, Ballmer, though. I believe they are hardworking successful man that, unfortunately, not have accepted the responsiilities that comes with their size and power.
Jazmo__ asks: So what is typical workday for you? Do you code or is it more like sending mails and speaking on phone?
Haakon: I don't read or write Opera source code. I code in HTML, CSS and other web languages, but email takes most of my days. Sometimes meetings, although I try to cut back. Phone confereces are also common. I like lounging on a couch, bean bag or bed while working....
Haakon: Where I'm most productive though, is in the shower. It'a great place for thinking.
Haakon: I shower a lot.
PowerUser asks: You all use emacs I assume?
Haakon: Absolutely, I've been using gnu-emacs since 1987 and have found no reason to quit.
eps asks: working in a company that actively tests compatibility of our software with firefox and opera (most of our programs are webbased now, activex/java/js horrid mixtures) and is interested in linux, what efforts are you making to support (I hate the idea too, but it would be handy for bussiness) activex webbased apps under windows (and possibly linux as we are moving to FOSS in as many areas as possible)
Haakon: Active-X is a security threat and a windows-only solution. I don't think it would do us much good to support it, although I have sympathy with your position.
Jakub81 asks: Did you (or: will you) implement support for CSS3 selectors in the new (Opera 9?) core?
Haakon: I should know the answer to that one, I'm afraid the deatails are slipping me at the moment. CSS3 Selectors is one of the most mature CSS3 modules and I think we should support it.
ROBOd asks: Will Opera ever have something like iCab browser which shows a crying smiley face when a page contains invalid code? That would let users know about which sites are better and would also give the devs an impulse to follow the standards.
Haakon: Actually, I implemented that feature in the Arena browser (now historical) in 1994. I think it's great and have been suggesting it internally. However, there are thousands of good ideas, but only that many developers....
Danimal82 asks: I am wondering, what do you think the world would be like without microsoft?
Haakon: a better place, I believe. Although windows, word, powerpoint and other applications have made computers easier to use for many, I consider the PC -- as MS developed it in the 80/90s to be a dead end. Only the internet saved it, and we didn't need MS for that.
Moderator: (To answer some questions about women at Opera: yes, we have women at Opera. Yes, some are coding
RedPing asks: freedom of choice in the mainline. Is that round now in the level of smart devices (smartphones, tablet pcs, handhelds, and so on)? Is this the new battlefield?
Haakon: Yes, I think so
Haakon: MS won the desktop, but the mobile market is much more open. I hope we can build it on standards -- so that we don't battle unnecessarily.
Joshtek asks: What do you feel is special about software development?
Haakon: It's so easy to get started -- all you need is a computer. In other areas -- math, physics, music -- you often need years of training to make a difference.
Haakon: This is also why I'm against software patents -- it's so easy to have good ideas in this field.
keny asks: What do you think of firefo
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Now the person who runs the email.com domain is going to get swamped with emails from Opera. Good work.
.invalid TLD for use in situations like this.
Read RFC 2606. It explicitly reserves the
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
This is the one thing keeping me from using Firefox !
Unfortunately for me and others, Opera still lacks one critical thing: NTLM authentication to MS Proxy/ISA servers. Firefox works. IE works. Yet Opera still manages to write of NTLM compatbility just because 'it's an ensecure protocol from MS'.
I merrily downloaded and registered my free version only to find out it's absolutely worthless at work not only for web access, but the access developmental pages/servers that do ntlm/windows integrated security.
I'll stick with Firefox thanks.
I used to LOVE Opera. Was back when I was using Windows 95 I think; after installing IE4 (thus active desktop), the whole operating system became awefully unstable, but especially when using IE itself.
I'd tried Netscape Navigator; but I never liked that... was slow, displayed things poorly and so just sat on my computer. It was a computer magazine actually that showed me Opera; with its claim of its install being able to fit on a single floppy! Wow, how did they manage that!
So installed it, and loved it. On my paltry 32 megs of RAM, on an unstable Windows 95; Opera was fast, stable, and displayed websites how I liked them. Perfect! But then I got more memory, Windows 98 came out and was more stable; Opera started becoming bloated for my likeing (so many features I would never ever use yet sit there taking up UI space) and so I went back to IE. Netscape at this stage? A joke.
And now of course I'm on Firefox; fast, customisable and easy to use, even managed to get my ex to use it. Its not without its faults, but its the best there is for now. One thing though; this free registration offer will have done what its set out to do; I will definitely give Opera another try