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Opera Free as in Beer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the well-isn't-that-special dept.

nekura writes "Just last month, Opera was celebrating their 10 year anniversary by giving away free registration codes; now they've trumped that by offering Opera for free. Quoth their site, 'Opera has removed the banners, found within our browser, and the licensing fee. Opera's growth, due to tremendous worldwide customer support, has made todays milestone an achievable goal. Premium support is available.' Anyone who was on the verge of switching before now has virtually no reason not to."

25 of 937 comments (clear)

  1. Good by Metasquares · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They had no hope of competing with Firefox and IE, despite the merits of their browser, so long as they charged for it while the other two were free.

    1. Re:Good by Cyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think Opera was making much money with their free desktop browser anyway.

      Their main profits are from embedded devices (PDAs and the like) that buy licenses to use their browser, because it's fast and small and has good support of all the desired features these days.

      Course, I haven't seen a recent version of Netfront - they may be losing ground to them, or they may still be way ahead...

      --
      cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
    2. Re:Good by R.D.Olivaw · · Score: 4, Insightful
      yep open-source kills another business.

      I would like to mention that the first free browser was from a commercial company and was intended to kill another business.

      worth mentioning as well is the fact that the opera business is not dead. They just realised that giving the browser for free would increase their userbase and by extension other revenue streams.

      I dub thee 'sir troll'

    3. Re:Good by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They had no hope of competing with Firefox and IE, despite the merits of their browser, so long as they charged for it while the other two were free.

      People have been saying the same thing for as long as Opera has been around - "nobody will pay when the competition's free!" And yet they've managed to stay in business for the past ten years. Maybe people are willing to pay for quality software even if there's a cheaper alternative.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    4. Re:Good by NDPTAL85 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The profit doesn't come from the desktop browser so yes it is a failed business model. Without their mobile sales they would have gone out of business a long time ago.

      --
      Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
    5. Re:Good by Ryosen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did you try doing that? I'm guessing that you didn't.

      Typing "g firefox" as you suggested lands me on http://firefox.g.hatena.ne.jp/popona/ <-- don't click on it

      If Firefox is searching google from the address bar, then it is going to the "I Feel Lucky" option.

      Opera, by comparison, just does a regular search, showing the results in the main window. Furthermore, Opera supports a number of search engines in this manner, having different codes for each one and is extensible, too.

      I had been a huge fan of Opera since I discovered it in 1995. I happily tolerated the rigid CSS implementation that would make it "incompatible" with other sites designed with IE's bugginess and broken features in mind. I've since left Opera for Firefox with nary a look back. I only wish that a search extension similar to Opera's would be made available. I'm not sure, however, that an extension can intercept requests from the address bar (just glanced over the API - I might be wrong about that).

      It's unfortunate that Opera has to go free. They have a great product. They're just in the wrong market. Here's hoping that they don't suffer the same fate as Netscape.

      --

      Ryosen
      One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
    6. Re:Good by Rits · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Without the desktop browser and a couple of million users, Opera would not have been able to create the mobile version it has now in the first place. Opera is better than other mobile browsers in getting as much of the real web onto the small screen as will fit.

      --
      If you don't like having choices made for you, you should start making your own. - Neal Stephenson
    7. Re:Good by WhiteWolf666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I have a feeling there new business model is:

      A) Make money off embedded devices
      B) Provide 'premium' support to large corporations who are willing to switch to Opera for their default browser. Customize the browser based upon the corporations needs.

      --
      WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
  2. No reason? I think not. by rockclimber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who was on the verge of switching before now have virtually no reason not to.

    Except those who want free as in speech.

    1. Re:No reason? I think not. by poptones · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What are you talking about? The fact you HAD the source code to the firefox browser allowed you to solve the problem within your company with no dependance upon anyone else. Whether or not the Firefox developers moved your patch into the distribution, you still had the problem solved within your infrastructure because you were able to patch Firefox yourself.

      Open source does not mean the project leaders will solve every problem for the asking. Open source means you have the freedom and the information required to solve the problem yourself.

    2. Re:No reason? I think not. by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What if this on a website that clients use? It is a lot easier to say "Use the latest browers" than "If you want to use firefox, you have to use this custom built version I made so it would be compatible"?

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    3. Re:No reason? I think not. by Bogtha · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Whether or not the Firefox developers moved your patch into the distribution, you still had the problem solved within your infrastructure because you were able to patch Firefox yourself.

      That's a distinctly sub-optimal solution. What happens when the next version of Firefox is released? Is he supposed to make the changes to the new version too? And after that? Is he supposed to maintain a separate fork for as long as he needs this feature?

      Open source does not mean the project leaders will solve every problem for the asking.

      No, but there's at least a reasonable expectation that they'll apply a patch that adds a missing feature.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    4. Re:No reason? I think not. by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Open source means you have the freedom and the information required to solve the problem yourself.

      If you're a developer with deep insight in the Mozilla codebase.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    5. Re:No reason? I think not. by FireFury03 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What if this on a website that clients use? It is a lot easier to say "Use the latest browers" than "If you want to use firefox, you have to use this custom built version I made so it would be compatible"?

      Sorry, if you need to use a bleeding edge browser to view a public web site then that site is essentially broken - you need to provide support to browsers at least a year or so old if you want the site reachable to the masses.

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
  3. Next Step by someguy456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Obviously Opera has realized that a browser with a cost can no longer survive in this post-2000 market. However, I wonder how long it will take until they open source it?

    --
    Robert Bindler
    A Computer Science student's views on technology.
    1. Re:Next Step by MosesJones · · Score: 5, Insightful


      How about "Never"... Opera actually make a PROFIT out of their browser business.. which is certainly better than "survival". Their main profit comes from their device platform but some people are indeed willing to pay for a better quality browser.

      Opera is much better, and quicker, to use than either of the other popular browsers out there, and some organisations will continue to pay for Opera based on that responsiveness and security. More often people will pay for the mobile browser however. If there is common code between the two then Opera would be releasing the crown jewels for free and would cease to be a VIABLE company.

      Open Source is NOT always the only answer, some people have to make a living.

      --
      An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
  4. Can someone please explain to me... by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the advantages of using Opera over Firefox?

    --

    Technoli
  5. Great News for Standards Compliance by stinerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm certainly glad that they are doing this even though I don't plan to use Opera in the near future. More alternatives will push web developers to use standards instead of just coding for IE.

    1. Re:Great News for Standards Compliance by morcego · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not sure.

      I have a feeling that a free-Opera will hurt Firefox's marketshare more than it will hurt IE's.

      --
      morcego
  6. And vice versa by Guspaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anyone who was on the verge of switching before now have virtually no reason not to.

    And anyone who wasn't on the verge of switching has virtually no reason to do so. I mean, this is all well and good, but Firefox is working rather nicely, why should I switch to Opera? How is Opera going to make my browsing experience better in a way that cannot be replicated via Firefox extensions? And how will Opera provide to me the functionality that I have via Firefox extensions that isn't part of Opera?

  7. Opera by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Opera is a really good web browser. It is fast, renders most pages really well, and has a good UI. However, the spot where FireFox beats it, is in the Extensions department. Extensions are what makes firefox the best browser out there. The Web Developer extension makes web development a breeze, and FlashBlock makes sure I don't have any animations hogging my CPU cycles unless I want to. Oh, and the Javascript Debugger is the best tool ever. It's not the best debugger, and ironically, is kind of buggy itself, but, it has saved me hours of infesting my code with alerts() in order to find out the problem.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  8. One question: by hummassa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    was the CSS feature in question a standard CSS feature, or something non-standard your company used from IE?

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  9. Bull by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is the fundamental issue I have with the F/OSS mindeset--you have the source, so you can fix things yourself, and to hell with everyone else.

    First of all, let me be the 5 millionth person to point out that not every user has the skills, tools, time, and inclination needed to fix things. (Yes, you were responding to a person who did provide a fix, but I'm talking about the more genral case.)

    Second, the inherent selfishness and short sightedness of this F/OSS mindset is very damaging to the whole community's image, and ultimately, to the success of projects. What the hell ever happened to putting the user first, to valuing and maximizing the benefit the project provides to non-developers? Until the F/OSS community stops acting like a bunch of petulant kids and starts behaving like responsible adults, this will be a very serious problem, one that many people within the community don't even see.

  10. Your right and wrong by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You see being easy to use is NOT what opensource is all about. It is the fact that YOU can modify YOUR copy of the sourcecode so that YOUR binary will do what YOU want it to do.

    It does not mean YOU can alter MY copy of MY sourcecode. Or even to force me to distribute YOUR alteration.

    Sure in the case were you are unable to distribute your alteration to those who need it it sucks donkey balls. Just as IE's total domination of the browser market sucks donkey balls because it still means I can't use many many many features that work beautifull in every real browser out there.

    So firefox in this case showed both how opensource works, namely that he was able to modify his own copy of it to do what he wanted AND showed why doing doing web development is such a pain in the ass. Because ultimately you can't develop for the browser on your machine, you have to write for the browser installed on your clients machine. Even if that is netscape 4.

    Next time I get a snide remark about a C programmer building 100% clientside software for Windows 2000 only I am gonna go postal. PHP/ASP/Perl may be joke languages but crosscoding between browsers is the ultimate challenge. Doom3 engine, PAH! Try just getting a bunch of left floated images to center. Now that takes brains.

    What do you mean I sound bitter?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  11. Re:no reason? by Karhgath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unless you are taking an ideological stance in which you do not use any closed/proprietary software(including windows, office, etc.), in which case it's justified, or if you are a Firefox developper and need the source, I don't see that as a strong argument. The fact that it's open source doesn't mean much beside for development and ideological reasons. In the end it's a product.

    Now, you may not like Opera for other reasons, or you are happy with firefox and don't see why you'd switch, that's fine. But not trying it because it's not open source is pretty stupid IMHO.

    Now, since they are mostly similar, I don't see a lot of people switching from one to another, but that's something else and has nothing to do in the fact that it's open source or not. Those using FF don't see why they should switch, and Oepra users don't see why they should switch. Some will switch because of a couple of features or other reasons, but they both do a pretty good job.

    Maybe I'm an open source traitor, but I do like open source and see the advantage of it, but if a closed source software does a better job, or is really cool and innovate, and the price is right, I'll gladly pay to encourage the company. 20-40 bucks for a software I use everyday? That's fair. Now it's free, which is even better. I use tons of open source software whenever I can, but I still use some closed software too. I donate or contribute to open source projects whenever I can, just as I pay for a closed software if I like it.