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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."

9 of 937 comments (clear)

  1. My reasons for not switching. by Alranor · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

    AdBlock Plus
    BugMeNot
    CustomizeGoogle
    DictionarySearch
    Farkit
    Gmail Notifier
    Nuke Anything
    Plain Text Links
    Switch Proxy Tool
    Greasemonkey

    I'm glad there's a version without the annoying advertising, but it wasn't that which was keeping me from using Opera.

  2. thinking of switching? by illtron · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Anyone who was on the verge of switching before now have virtually no reason not to."
    Who *thinks* of switching? It's not like you have to invest in new hardware.

    In my experience, people get fed up with IE and just switch. There's nobody out there who's thinking, "gee, the fact that just about everything out there is better than IE is tempting...but, man I sure do like Microsoft!"

    Sorry, but nobody was holding out for free Opera. If you couldn't take IE's shit for another day, you're already using Firefox, not waiting for an also-ran browser to stop charging.
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  3. Re:No reason? I think not. by LLuthor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its easier to get Opera to make a change to their browser than Firefox. I needed a specific CSS feature that was used by my company on its pages, and neither FF or Opera supported it properly. I submitted the bug to Opera and to FF. I also wrote a patch later that week for FF. The FF developers completely ignored me and my patch and any further requests. Meanwhile, Opera's next beta had the problem fixed with no further interaction from me, except for an email request for a way to reproduce the bug. FF is open-source only in name and the fact that I can see the code. Every part of the development is totally closed.

    --
    LL
  4. Re:A reason not to.. by Knome_fan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree that this is a reason not to use it for people who want free (as in freedom) software.
    However, I think those people are clearly in the minority.

    Finally, I don't like you implying that people who disagree with you on free software don't value freedom, that's just stupid and insulting.

  5. Re:No reason? I think not. by black+mariah · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Thier policies toward code changes have nothing to do with thier license agreement.
    Which just goes to show that open source is pretty fucking useless unless you want to fork the entire fucking codebase of everything you submit a patch for.
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    'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
  6. Re:Free is good... by mr_shifty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Definitely.

    That's the same reason I actually ordered my copy of Slackware 10.1 from the Slackware Store, even though it was available free for the taking.

    The way I see it, I got more than a year's worth of use out of Slackware 9.1, and I didn't pay anything for that (being the first version of Slackware I tried). I figure I got way more than $39.95's worth of use, so I showed my support by actually purchasing the next release I wanted to have.

    I don't have an aversion to paying for quality software.

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  7. Re:Can someone please explain to me... by Fweeky · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I use this in Opera, not sure if it works in Firefox (last time I checked this use of content: didn't work there). I've sadly lost the original source, so if anyone recognises it...
    embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"] {content:"Flash"; outline: 1px dotted gray; color: gray; background: black}
    embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash" ].zichtbaar {content: normal; outline: none}
     
    body:before {
    position: absolute; visibility: hidden;
    background-image: url("javascript:(function(){ window.onclick = function(){ var srcElem=window.event.srcElement; var tag=srcElem.tagName; if(tag=='EMBED') srcElem.className='zichtbaar'}; })()");
    content:""}
    Add to your user CSS file or edit the .ini to put it in the same list as the bundled CSS files; turns Flash into ickle grey "Flash" boxes you can click on to load.
  8. I'm not sure if I like this by slapout · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have mixed feelings about this. Opera has so many features that (to me) it is worth paying for. I hope that they will be able to maintain it without the income it's sales generated.

    On the other hand, hopefully many people will now check it out and see what a great browser it is.

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  9. Open-Source as end-user feature!? by porneL · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did you patch and compile your Firefox? Or did you just download binary like 80 millions other users?