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Opera Reaches 1 Million Downloads Thanks To Google

auckland writes "More than one million people have downloaded the Opera browser in the days since Opera announced it was dropping the ad banner and going completely free. All made possible because Opera signed a search referral deal with Google." From the article: "'The current most important deal now is with Google,' the spokesperson said to Mr. Malik. That deal, and similar ones with Amazon and eBay, give those companies prime placement in the Opera search box. Mozilla has a similar arrangement with Google, with its search box and its default right-click menu search option on highlighted text sending queries straight to Mountain View."

287 comments

  1. Microsoft Says... by aklix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Opera free? Without ads? But Microsoft says companies can't survive like that!

    1. Re:Microsoft Says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Opera CHARGES for their mobile client. The hope is to get people hooked on the dsektop client so they'll pay for the mobile one...

    2. Re:Microsoft Says... by nocomment · · Score: 1

      I noticed this interesting tidbit earlier. Maybe they should put adsense on their site? :-D

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
    3. Re:Microsoft Says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Translation...they won't survive.

    4. Re:Microsoft Says... by at_slashdot · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Opera free? Without ads? But Microsoft says companies can't survive like that!"

      Of course, that's why Microsoft started to distribute IE for free.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    5. Re:Microsoft Says... by drsquare · · Score: 1

      To be fair, we'll have to see whether they actually survive first. If they're bust within two years then Microsoft will be right.

    6. Re:Microsoft Says... by Snaller · · Score: 2, Funny

      Internet Explorer is without adds!

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    7. Re:Microsoft Says... by tehshen · · Score: 1

      Internet Explorer is without ads!

      Not for long...

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    8. Re:Microsoft Says... by jerw134 · · Score: 1

      If you think "forever" isn't long, then I guess you'd be right. You're insane if you think Microsoft is going to put ads in IE.

    9. Re:Microsoft Says... by LPetrazickis · · Score: 1

      Internet Explorer isn't distributed on its own. It's an integral part of the Windows Operating system. Saying that Microsoft gives out copies of Internet Explorer for free is like saying that Baskin Robbins gives out waffle cones for free -- you just have to buy two scoops of ice cream first.;)

      --
      Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
    10. Re:Microsoft Says... by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

      It might be integral part of Windows Operating System, but you can run it on Linux if you want (actually the license probably doesn't allow you and also why would you? Opera and Firefox are ten times better) but that was a joke and a small reference to how they killed their competitor (because just think about it: if you already have Windows, and 90% of the people do, than IE is "free" for you, but if you wanted to install Netscape it meant an additional spending).

      Anyway, a joke that needs to be explained is probably not a good joke.

      --
      "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
    11. Re:Microsoft Says... by tehshen · · Score: 1

      I meant it in a more browser-hijackery kind of way.

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
  2. yup by pizzaman100 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A search for "internet browser" brings opera back at #1.

    1. Re:yup by CSHARP123 · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you search using MSN Search. The #2 result is STOP IE. You know even MSN search knows stopping IE is required. :)

    2. Re:yup by blibbler · · Score: 1

      A search for Web Browser" brings Mozilla at #1

      I think people would be more familiar with the "web browser" term than the less accurate "internet browser" term.

    3. Re:yup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but search for web browser and you get firefox as #1...opera at #2 though.

    4. Re:yup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah dude those are funny, try "miserable failure" as well.

    5. Re:yup by Gnavpot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think people would be more familiar with the "web browser" term than the less accurate "internet browser" term.

      Actually, most people refer to IE as "the Internet".

    6. Re:yup by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 3, Funny

      a search for "internet explorer" has firefox on the first page

    7. Re:yup by Frankie70 · · Score: 1


        A search for "internet browser" brings opera back at #1.


      I don't understand.

      Does this mean google rigged the ranking?

    8. Re:yup by selvan · · Score: 1

      But when we look for the best browser, it's obviously Firefox.

    9. Re:yup by Barrakketh · · Score: 1

      Searching for "web browser" brings back Mozilla.org at #1.

    10. Re:yup by Freexe · · Score: 1

      My guess is that Opera use the word "internet" more on their site or people often are linking to Opera as the "internet suite" which was its tag line for one year IIRC etc...

      --
      "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
    11. Re:yup by b100dian · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up please. I also met that kind of people..
      Valid for Office, Word, Windows, Pentium too:
      - I have a dual core Athlon yadda yadda
      - What kind of Pentium is that?

      --
      gtkaml.org
    12. Re:yup by Dolda2000 · · Score: 1

      A search for "web browser" brings up Mozilla first, though.

    13. Re:yup by jonadab · · Score: 1

      > > I think people would be more familiar with the "web browser" term than
      > > the less accurate "internet browser" term.
      >
      > Actually, most people refer to IE as "the Internet".

      Actually, most people aren't really clear on the difference between their operating system, the company who created it, their web browser, their internet service provider, their modem, their hard drive, and the company that made their computer. They refer to IE, when they do distinguish it from those other things, as "that blue e thing". Here is a typical conversation...

      User: I'm having trouble with my computer.
      Me: What seems to be the problem?
      User: Yahoo doesn't work right.
      Me: What seems to be the problem with Yahoo?
      User: It won't go.
      Me: Hmmm... Are you connected to the internet?
      User: How can I connect to the internet if I can't get Yahoo to work?
      Me: Are we talking about Yahoo, the web site, or Yahoo, the instant messaging
                      application, or something else?
      User: I don't know.
      Me: What program or application are you using to get to Yahoo?
      User: Microsoft.
      User: No, I think that's wrong. Maybe it's Compaq.
      Me: Okay, what do you click on to try to get to Yahoo?
      User: I don't know. It just comes up. Except now it doesn't.

      Et cetera, ad infinitum, ad bedlam.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    14. Re:yup by MoogMan · · Score: 1

      One wonders if Google are about to buy out Opera.

  3. Hmmmm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    So how much does KDE and the Mozilla foundation get for their implementation in Konqueror and Firefox respectively? Missed opportunity?

    Doh!

    1. Re:Hmmmm. by SoSueMe · · Score: 1

      'Missed opportunity?'

      Missed opportunity? How"
      To make money?
      Yep. They missed the boat on that one.

      Too bad that wasn't their onjective.

    2. Re:Hmmmm. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess you didnt realize Mozilla became a FOR-PROFIT company. Now, where did all those donations go again?

    3. Re:Hmmmm. by HeroreV · · Score: 1

      The Mozilla Foundation didn't become a for-profit company, it created a for-profit company. The Mozilla Foundation still exists, and since the company is owned by the not-for-profit foundation, it doesn't pose much risk to the freedom of foundation.

  4. Killing IE? by ezweave · · Score: 1

    Hopefully this well help more people switch from IE. Or at least introduce some of the computer using public to the fact that IE is just a web browser and they can pick from many...

    That is, as long as FF still gets users ;-)

    1. Re:Killing IE? by murmurr · · Score: 1

      ... but that there IS no choice of search engine as Google is the only one.

    2. Re:Killing IE? by HolyCrapSCOsux · · Score: 1

      On the one hand, I don't like opera. (feels kinda squishy). But on the other hand, I have a computer (Dos6.22 upgraded to win3.1 upgraded to Win95 (For playing old DOS games)) that I could not install firefox on. Opera has a niche. but I don't think it will kill IE..

      --
      0xB315AA8D852DCD3F3DCA578FD2E0BF88
    3. Re:Killing IE? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      You mean you can't go to altavista.com? or Lycos? or MSN?

      It's a small price to pay if you ask me... much less than seeing a banner.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    4. Re:Killing IE? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      I don't like it either.. doesn't feel as polished as Firefox or Safari.

      My wife (who's into web design) was delighted it was now free, but immediately pointed out the rendering errors (it doesn't support z-ordering, which made several of her pages look like crap as she tends to use every CSS tag she can (that work on both IE and Firefox, anyway)).

    5. Re:Killing IE? by elcid73 · · Score: 1

      that should be fixed in the new merlin (codename) release:

    6. Re:Killing IE? by mattyrobinson69 · · Score: 1

      So, instead of careful coding to work on all popular web browsers, she just ignores the ones she doesn't like.

      I develop in opera, test in konqueror and firefox, and do final testing in IE (make an ie_hacks.css file).

    7. Re:Killing IE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looser.

  5. So what is their business model? by bergeron76 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How exactly do they plan on making money now?

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
    1. Re:So what is their business model? by wyatt12 · · Score: 3, Informative

      They split the advertising revenue generated by the searches through the Google toolbar. This is how firefox pays their employees too. Google pay per click advertising is BIG money. It's a win win for both Google and firefox/opera. Both sides earn more revenue, and Google also takes market share from Microsoft.

      Wyatt

    2. Re:So what is their business model? by Loualbano2 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably mobile devices. Deals with Nokia, for example, to license Opera on phones.

    3. Re:So what is their business model? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      Look here:


      "only about a third of our revenue comes from our desktop business"


      "Today our browser works in most midrange to high-end phones. We can easily adapt them to any mobile platform. We even have a browser for Microsoft smartphones. It's better than Microsoft's own mobile browser."


      "Q: Apart from Nokia, what other major phone makers are bundling Opera -- and do they pay for it?

      A: Motorola (MOT), Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, BenQ, Casio -- and we get paid for each unit shipped."


    4. Re:So what is their business model? by callipygian-showsyst · · Score: 4, Funny
      > How exactly do they plan on making money now?

      Volume!

    5. Re:So what is their business model? by pharwell · · Score: 1

      They're also still charging for "Premium Support," roughly the same price as the registration fee. And of course, the forementioned other platforms (eg, cell phones).

      --
      I quote others only in order the better to express myself. -- Michel de Montaigne
    6. Re:So what is their business model? by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      "How exactly do they plan on making money now?"
      I know this is Slashdot, but did you even read what the story said? :) There's a better search deal with Google now.

      You are asking about something that was perfectly clear, even from the title of this story.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  6. spreadopera dot com by lonedroid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Damn, I was going to register spreadopera.com and start competing with a certain other browser, but a whois shows that Opera already registered that domain!

  7. So what is their business model?-Counterfitting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "How exactly do they plan on making money now?"

    Printing press out back.

  8. anyone else see a problem with this? by hashfunction · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With this kind deal between companies? Sure, it may bring Internet Explorer down, but what does this spell for other browsers who do not have 'deals' with Google?

    1. Re:anyone else see a problem with this? by liangzai · · Score: 1

      Well, it doesn't matter, as long as we get rid of IE.

      There is no fairness in real life, and this is WAR.

    2. Re:anyone else see a problem with this? by hashfunction · · Score: 1

      hehehe... well, i hope u were joking and not serious ;)

    3. Re:anyone else see a problem with this? by tuggy · · Score: 1

      huh, what do you mean by 'other browsers'?

    4. Re:anyone else see a problem with this? by NineNine · · Score: 0, Troll

      Google can do no wrong. Even when the violate the #1 rule of search engine integrity and manipulate their results, they can do no wrong (according to the Slashdot crowd). But yes, Google is still a profit-making company like every other one on the planet. I really doubt that they'll let their "do no evil" philosophy get in the way of profit. I've never known ANY company to keep their original idealistic philosophies once they get to a certain size.

    5. Re:anyone else see a problem with this? by Emperor+Cezar · · Score: 1

      They aren't manipulating results. The article says that the "deal" is the little search box in the top of the browser. Opera gets money for searchs that come to google through that box.

  9. Unfair by dedazo · · Score: 2, Insightful
    When Microsoft does the same thing with IE/MSN, then it's called 'anticompetitive' and 'unfair'.

    Lack of competition when you have no competitors is not exactly my idea of monopolistic behavior.

    Heck, I'm almost ready to make the case in favor of MSN - at least if Yahoo goes down Google won't have a search monopoly.

    --
    Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    1. Re:Unfair by mat1t · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When Microsoft do this though, they are cross-subsidising, as it doesn't cost them anything to include MSN search with IE.

      Google are paying Opera for this, so it becomes a business transaction. Also, Opera is a low market share browser, so it can't be considered anti-competitive. People can choose not to use/install it.

    2. Re:Unfair by dedazo · · Score: 1
      And how much do you figure the Mozilla Foundation paid Google for the cross-licensing? The probable answer is zero dollars. Now that's what one would call "anti-competitive", no?

      Of course not, but that's not the point.

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    3. Re:Unfair by glwtta · · Score: 2, Insightful
      When Microsoft does the same thing with IE/MSN, then it's called 'anticompetitive' and 'unfair'.

      Well, "unfair" is sort of a subjective term, but 'anticompetitive' is exactly what it's called when a monopoly uses it's dominance in such a manner.

      Lack of competition when you have no competitors is not exactly my idea of monopolistic behavior.

      You have an odd idea of "monopolistic behaviour" then: no competitors == monopoly. And yes, just being a monopoly means that you are not allowed (in theory, anyway) to do some things that companies that are not monopolies can.

      Heck, I'm almost ready to make the case in favor of MSN - at least if Yahoo goes down Google won't have a search monopoly.

      Just because of the nature of web searching, it would be pretty hard for Google to get an MS-like monopoly on it. There's dosens of search engines that work more than well enough; if Google, Yahoo Search and MSN Search disappeared tomorrow, it would have very little effect on people's ability to find stuff on the internet.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    4. Re:Unfair by mat1t · · Score: 1

      but with that arguement, you can say that by giving away the web browsers is anti-competitive...

    5. Re:Unfair by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Did you even read the article? The whole point is that Google pays the Mozilla Foundation and Opera to include Google in the browser, of course Mozilla doesn't pay Google.

    6. Re:Unfair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      Google is paying Mozilla, not the other way around. Why would TMF pay Google to use Google as their default search engine when they can just do that anyway for free?

    7. Re:Unfair by dedazo · · Score: 1

      And isn't that the argument used to justify Netscape's death at the hands of Microsoft?

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    8. Re:Unfair by evilviper · · Score: 1
      When Microsoft does the same thing with IE/MSN, then it's called 'anticompetitive' and 'unfair'.

      That's because when Microsoft does it, it IS anticompetitive and unfair. Microsoft always locks everything else out, except their own.

      What Google is doing is inherently fair, because they aren't just playing favorites for one browser/search engine. Microsoft's browser could get in on this deal just as easily as Opera or Firefox, if they weren't so busy being anticompetitive and forcing their crappy search engine upon unsuspecting users ;-).

      Hence the huge difference... The difference between Microsoft being unfair and anticompetitive and Google being inherently fair and pro-competitive.

      Heck, I'm almost ready to make the case in favor of MSN - at least if Yahoo goes down Google won't have a search monopoly.

      MSN really sucks. Yahoo isn't so terrible, but they're still not very good. For Google's competition, I'd much prefer to have it be Clusty/Vivismo rather than anyone else. Nice side-effects: good search engine--not part of 800lb gorrilla monopolistic corporation.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    9. Re:Unfair by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      What a dumbass. The arguement was Microsoft bundled IE, a non-monopoly product, with Windows, a product which was a monopoly, to shut Netscape out of the market. There are no laws saying you can't give things away for free. If Microsoft had shipped Windows without IE but had offered IE for a free download, it wouldn't have been illegal.

      As for Mozilla, why the fuck would they pay Google? That has to be the dumbest thing I've seen on Slashdot all day....which is pretty bad, as there are a lot of retarded people on Slashdot.

      Mozilla: Hey Google! I'm going to pay you to bring you more customers, and I'll get nothing out of the whole deal!!!!
      Google: Ummmmm, sure...if you say so.

      In-case you don't get what I'm saying, Google is paying Opera and Mozilla to include the search bar, not the other way around.

      Anyways, the factually incorrect arguements you are bringing to the table are irrelevent because Opera doesn't have anything close to a monopoly.

      Fucking Microsoft shills.

    10. Re:Unfair by dedazo · · Score: 0, Flamebait
      In-case you don't get what I'm saying

      I lost you at 'dumbass', fucktard.

      Thanks for your insight into the inner workings of monopolies, and next time try to exercise some reading comprehension.

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
    11. Re:Unfair by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      OK, enlighten me, what in my post was factually incorrect? According to the DOJ documents, the reason Microsoft faced antitrust action was because they bundled IE directly with Windows. If you know otherwise, please point out where I was wrong instead of just telling me to learn some reading comprehension.

      Oh, and I'm not afraid to speak my mind. If I think your saying stupid things such as it being anti-competitive that Mozilla doesn't pay Google for a business relationship that only benefits Google, I'll damn well say it.

      The entire content of my post seemed to fly right over your head, either that or you ignored it. Perhaps it is you that should practise your reading comprehension?

    12. Re:Unfair by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      Allow me to set the record straight then:

      You are wrong.

      He is right.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    13. Re:Unfair by dedazo · · Score: 1

      You so totally rock. Thanks ever so much.

      --
      Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
  10. What? by timmerk15 · · Score: 0, Troll

    When Google first started out, the bragged how they won't let advertisors pay to be ranked higher in the search results, like Yahoo and other search engines did - that's what made their seaches such great quality. But it seems now that Google has changed their mind?

    --
    Free stuff without getting the referrals? http://referralaccelerated.com
    1. Re:What? by mroch · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, Google is paying Opera to be the default search engine in the toolbar search. It doesn't make any sense for Google to pay Opera to list Opera higher in Google's rankings...

    2. Re:What? by Karamchand · · Score: 1

      That's why the story title and body is misleading too: The downloads of Opera are totally independant of this deal with Google. The profit of Opera ASA of course is not, but the downloads are!

    3. Re:What? by SpaceAdmiral · · Score: 1

      The story text is sort of misleading, but the downloads of Opera aren't "totally independant" as you suggest. What the submitter means is that, because of the deal with Google bringing in money, Opera can now fund their business with no ads in the browser. The newly ad-free browser is being downloaded more now.

  11. Goooooooogle! by Stanistani · · Score: 2, Interesting

    *Sigh*
    *bats eyelashes*
    Is there anything they cannot do?

    kinda sick, heh?
    But, hey, I remember when Micro Soft (original name) used to treat its users with a modicum of respect.
    I clasp my hands and hope Google stays, well, relatively Good.
    Right now, a diversity of free browsers looks pretty good.

    1. Re:Goooooooogle! by mat1t · · Score: 1

      their original name had a hypen in it; micro-soft

    2. Re:Goooooooogle! by Stanistani · · Score: 1

      You are correct.

      I do have some documentation from MS that has the usage Micro Soft on it, however, from a period in the late 70's. That's when I first got to know them.

    3. Re:Goooooooogle! by emcmanus · · Score: 1

      Modicum? Looks like I'm not the only one using dictionary.com's word of the day!

  12. This is a terrible injustice! by badmicrophone · · Score: 5, Funny

    People should pay to see the Opera! after all, when you download it you miss all the fantastic costumes and corpulant players!

    when will the RIAA do something about this!?

    1. Re:This is a terrible injustice! by pharwell · · Score: 1

      People should pay to see the Opera!

      Yeah, definitely. I can't stand to see all the singers running around with cell phone ads on their costumes!

      --
      I quote others only in order the better to express myself. -- Michel de Montaigne
    2. Re:This is a terrible injustice! by diogenes57 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Didn't you read the summary? It's because Opera is going ad-free. Finally I can enjoy some Puccini without the breaks. And I can see the costumes just fine, thank you.

  13. I'm not sure now by Synli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not sure but was the headline to suggest that "No, Firefox doesn't suck, and it's still THE ONLY decent alternative to IE, because Opera CHEATS! -- They exchange traffic with Google!!!"

    If so, then let me quote from the article:
    "Mozilla has a similar arrangement with Google, with its search box and its default right-click menu search option on highlighted text sending queries straight to Mountain View. "

    --
    "Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within." - Albert Einstein
    1. Re:I'm not sure now by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral universe within.

      Uh... man... I really think it was Kant who wrote that.

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    2. Re:I'm not sure now by FonzCam · · Score: 1
      Uh...man... I really think Kant wrote...

      "Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe - the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."

      In any case Einstein was probably paraphrasing and it seems to have been attributed to him.
  14. A search for "web browser"... by Thu25245 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...turns up a link to Firefox as #1.

    But I'm sure you knew that.

    Interestingly enough, Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, and Safari are all listed before IE.

    1. Re:A search for "web browser"... by arose · · Score: 1

      But it's the second/third result if you search for internet...

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    2. Re:A search for "web browser"... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      Try doing a search on "free webbrowser". Number one is not what you expect... :-(

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    3. Re:A search for "web browser"... by GraemeDonaldson · · Score: 1
      Try doing a search on "free webbrowser". Number one is not what you expect...
      Except that your link doesn't search for "free webbrowser", just "free browser". A search for "free webbrowser" is rather different.
      --
      I think, therefore I am. I think?
    4. Re:A search for "web browser"... by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

      It isn't that interesting. Most people looking for IE already have it and only have to look on their own system.

      --

      --

      WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
  15. ah, no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Google pays MoFo for that placement.

    They also seem to get to hire the best Mozilla developers, but I'm not sure if that's part of the deal.

  16. This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 0, Interesting

    In the beginning, browser competition was good. Like it or not, Microsoft's "Embrace and Extend" policy pushed the need for standards, even as it proceeded to ignore them.

    Now, we have Firefox. It's good. It does a pretty good job of supporting standards. It's available for all platforms, free of charge. It's also open source. As a web developer, I think there's no reason for anyone to use anything but firefox, barring any special need for ActiveX or some such proprietary thing.

    Opera, while certainly better than IE, hurts the world wide web by dividing the population even further. With more browsers out there, I can't count on my (standards compliant) code working everywhere, and I have to add hacks for each browser to make it work. Things get even uglier when I try to write a "fat" web app - different browsers support radically different scripting standards.

    The chances that all web developers can account for all browsers is slim, and this mean s that any given website is less likely to work in your browser of choice. We need to work to pick a browser and dominate the market with that browser. This is one case where a monopoly would be somewhat beneficial. Capitalism SHOULD take care of this: if a browser has shoddy standards support, people wouldn't use it. Unfortunately, John Q. Public knows next to nothing about standards, and so many sites are still coded to IE that they are broken in other browsers.

    Anyway, the point is: No more browsers, please.

    1. Re:This is not a good thing by vcv · · Score: 1

      Opera hurts the web? Hahaahha, that is the more ridiculous and retarded statement I have read on Slashdot this week, and that means a lot.

    2. Re:This is not a good thing by the+arbiter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If your code is truly "standards compliant", then the only browser you have cause to be concerned with is Internet Explorer.

      As for your suggestion that a browser monopoly would in any way be a good thing for anyone...well, you're just wrong.

      --
      Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
    3. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I doubt that very much. Put a little thought into it. Each browser is a schism in the de facto standards. Until all browsers support the same standards equally, the more there are of them, the worse off we are. In other words, it is logically apparent that the public is better off when one browser can render all pages the way they were intended to be displayed. That will never happen, of course, but the closer we can get, the better. More browsers makes this goal harder to reach. Instead, why don't all the browser makers collaborate on a great browser? Because that's pinko commie talk, that's why.

    4. Re:This is not a good thing by vcv · · Score: 1

      Firefox hurts the web too then.

    5. Re:This is not a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up: Opera is all about correctly working with web standards.

    6. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      True.

      My POINT is that there should be One Browser to Rule Them All.

      My OPINION is that it should be Firefox.

      Both are open to debate, of course.

    7. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      Is an open source monopoly really a monopoly?

      If Firefox were the only browser, it would still continue to improve by virtue of the fact that it's open source, and there are talented programmers who care about its quality.

      Also, you're wrong about standards compliant code. When you start doing tricky things, even if they're standards compliant, different browsers start having their own quirks. No two browsers will ever render every possible standards-compliant page the same way. That's why I wish everyone would use Firefox.

    8. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      Opera may be all about Opera web standards. But Firefox is all about Firefox web standards and IE is all about IE web standards. Which is closest to W3C's standards? More importantly, which is best? Speaking from personal experience, I've written pages which were valid, standards compliant according to the W3C docs, and displayed correctly in Firefox ("correctly" is an important word - it implies that the way the page displayed in Firefox is the way it should display according to the W3C). The pages were "off" a bit in Safari, Opera, and IE - all in different ways.

    9. Re:This is not a good thing by BlueCollarCamel · · Score: 1

      I must say, while a single browser would be nice, it would be like the 90s again when MS won the browser war.
      Since IE was the only real browser used by the masses, MS just decided to sit on it. Now that Opera and Mozilla are getting their shit together, MS is being forced to actually put some work into the browser if they want to continue to control things.
      So having a single, universal browser wouldn't be great if the developers suddenly decided what features people do and do not need, and whether support for something is really all that nescesary (check spelling.)**
      What I would like to see, is a universal-ish rendering engine, that people then build browsers upon.

      ** - This is talking closed source. Open source basically debunks the point I'm trying to make.

      --
      1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
    10. Re:This is not a good thing by nagora · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Opera, while certainly better than IE, hurts the world wide web by dividing the population even further.

      Opera is older, and better, than Firefox, so by your "logic" it is Firefox that is dividing the population even further. I assume that you wish we were all using Mosaic?

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    11. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      You forget that Firefox is open source. That's why it's the perfect candidate to hold a monopoly - it can continue to progress because nobody profits from leaving it in disrepair. With a commercial browser, the company has to pay people to fix it, so they would prefer not to.

    12. Re:This is not a good thing by gasaraki · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I see. So, monopolies are bad and competition is good, but there's only allowed to be ONE competition with the leader at a given time? Your argument can just as easily be applied to eliminate Firefox. Why should you have to support TWO browsers when 90% of the population uses only one (IE)? Firefox is damaging the internet by forcing people to support more than one browser!

      Please. This is why we have standards: so the can have both competition and compatibilty. It's not perfect, but no competition is even worse.

    13. Re:This is not a good thing by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      No, I disagree, the comment about Mozilla being anti-competitive by not paying Google to be able to include the Search Bar in Mozilla was equally retarded.

    14. Re:This is not a good thing by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      You're right!!!! I'll go and load Firefox onto my PDA right this minute! Everyone who has a handheld device and accesses the net should do the same thing right this minute!!!!!!!!

      Oh...wait a minute...

    15. Re:This is not a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about interfucking explorer?

      That worked fucking well as the one true browser didn't it?

    16. Re:This is not a good thing by BlueCollarCamel · · Score: 1

      You also forgot that nobody really profits from keeping an open source app up to date either. All in all, you made a good point.

      MOD PARENT UP!

      But because it's open source doesn't mean the leaders of the project won't suddenly decide that such and such a feature isn't nescesary (still haven't learned it), and you end up with the same problem, an OSS project with a napolean complex (I'm kidding...) And then a group of intrepid developers suddenly decide to fork the project, with such and such a feature. Bam. Back to the problem of having too many browsers. Although, FF does seem to alleviate this possibility through extensions.
      It's basically an endless cycle, and I'm just bitching about it. Maybe I should go start my own browser...

      --
      1&1 - Cheap domain and web hosting.
    17. Re:This is not a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Because that's pinko commie talk, that's why."

      My friend, it has nothing to do with commies. It has to do with being logical in both an economic and technical standpoint. In fact the same argument, which you just used for FF, was once upon a time used for IE back in the original browser wars. You assume that FF is perfectly standard compliant. Well its not and neither is Opera. However, FF and Opera are working towards that and are getting closer everyday.

      See IE didn't follow standards cause there was nothing to make them follow standards. No competition means you don't need to follow the industry norm. By having 3 or 4 browsers that compete you ensure that everyone plays fair and makes their apps compatible with the industry de facto.

      Though it would be nice for everyone to work on a super browser there really isn't any reason for such an endeavor. Different people have different tastes and needs. I find Opera opens and closes, hell even seems to load pages faster, then FF. Actually I know it does but that may just be because of my system or hardware or whatever. The point being is that I want a streamlined browser that opens, loads web page and closes. I don't surf for hours so I want to be on an off as quickly as possible. Well, opera allows me to do that better then any other web browser. Therefore I use Opera.

      Sure sometimes I use FF if a page won't load right and hell I'll switch back to my windows box and use IE if it won't load in either and I really need the info. So I say to each his own. This competition is good and I'm glad to see Opera finally getting peoples attention.

    18. Re:This is not a good thing by CrazyTerabyte · · Score: 1

      Insightful comment. But the "correct" you think the page should be displayed depends on which browser you test the page you are developing, because, while you are writing it, you will try to fix any bug you find in your page.

      Opera has bugs, Safari has bugs, Mozilla/Firefox has bugs. Which one has less bugs? Hard to know. [people say that Firefox has less bugs than Opera, which has less bugs than Safari]

    19. Re:This is not a good thing by jlarocco · · Score: 1

      OMFG. So many things wrong with your post, I'm not even sure whether you're being serious.

      You do realize that you're apparently arguing in favor of Firefox , and then claiming that a single browser should have a monopoly. Wait a second... I seem to remember a particular browser already having a near monopoly. Forget Firefox! Maybe we should all go use that other one. Then, since it'd have no competition, it could be the de facto standard!

      Next on the list: Opera is at least, probably more, standards compliant than Firefox. Oops.

      Third, just to be picky, Firefox isn't avaliable for all platforms. How many cell phones run Firefox? How many run Opera?

      Fourth, your idiotic attitude is what puts a lot of people off of Firefox. I stopped using Firefox as my primary browser not only because it's inferior to Opera, but also because 99% of the people who recommend it are mindless zealots. Listening to them, you would think Firefox is the best thing since sliced bread (which they'd probably claim Firefox had first). Is Firefox nice? Yeah, it's not too bad. Is using it the orgasmic experience the zealots make it out as? No, not really.

    20. Re:This is not a good thing by CargoCultCoder · · Score: 1

      In the beginning, browser competition was good.

      Now, we have Firefox. It's good.

      Opera, while certainly better than IE, hurts the world wide web by dividing the population even further.

      Oh puleeze. At least get the history right if you're going to start pissing and moaning about there being too many browsers.

      Opera was around long before Firefox, or Mozilla. If you can't work that basic fact into your "no more browsers" philosophy, then it's clear that your agenda isn't to further standards: it's to promote the browser that you happen to like.

    21. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      Someone does profit from keeping open source up to date: the users. In every case, the developers of open source software ARE the users; therefore the developers profit (in a non-monetary sense) from making the software better.

    22. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      Read my reply to the other guy who called me a firefox zealot. Also, read my replies regarding an OPEN SOURCE monopoly vs. a closed-source/commercial one. A monopoly is usually bad because it has the potential to crush progress or drive prices up. Neither of these will happen with open source. And if you think it's fair to call me an idiot for stating my opinion, than I'm free to call you a dimwitted knee-jerker who regurgitates other people's opinions and entirely missed the point of what I was saying. I really wish the slashdot crowd could have real discussion and debate. The majority of replies I've seen follow the same formula as yours: State your opinion, declare it as fact, and sling derrogatory names at me. Eliminate the second two and add on some real support for your claim.

    23. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I know how long Opera has been around. I don't care.

      Opera is a commercial product. Yes, I would prefer an open alternative. Viewing web pages correctly should be a free (as in beer) right. Just because Opera has some profit-making scheme up their sleeves that's causing them to give away their product doesn't mean they won't be charging for it tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or whenever their market share goes up and they feel like they can make some real money.

    24. Re:This is not a good thing by SpartacusJones · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow, I thought everyone on Slashdot hated monopolies and loved anything free (wheither as in beer or as in speech).

      Opera is better than IE, you're right about that. In many ways it's better than Firefox (and Firefox copied many of it's features from Opera).

      Now, before you fan boys start slobbering all over your keyboards, try Opera out. Check out how quickly you can go between pages in your history. Using Opera right now, I can use a tightly integrated mouse gesture (which I didn't have to find, download, restart my browser, test and if I didn't like it do it over again) to go bach to the last page and then back forward and what I am typing will still be here. Try that in Firefox.

      When a new version comes out, everything still works- I don't have to go re-install a ton of extensions to get it how I like it. The new trashcan is awesome- if I close a tab, I can re-open it at any time (as long as I didn't quit the application) and not only will it reopen instantly, but it retains it's history.

      That being said, there are lots of cool things about Firefox that Opera doesn't allow. Many of the extensions are very specific to things people do online, and it would not make sense to integrate that into a browser like Opera since most people wouldn't use them. There are times in the day I will use both- Opera for general browsing and FF for specific things I do.

      It's amazingly asinine of you to say that you'd have to worry about your standards compliant code not working on various browsers. Have you seen the acid2 page in Opera vs. Firefox vs. IE recently? IE blows ass on it, but Opera and Firefox are pretty damn close, with Opera just barely better (thought neither is perfect). If you write standards compliant code and a browser can't support it, then who is at fault?

      You said it yourself- market forces will correct it. People are, for the most part pretty ignorant about what a browser is, but it is steadily improving, and a company like Opera ASA making a move like this will actually help educate people. Opera ASA is still a for profit company who is making a profit in spite of giving away it's browser. It's a somewhat risky but clever move on their part. As more people try Opera and the word about the company and the quality of the software it makes gets out, more people will want to try their comercial software. Opera ASA decided to release their browser for free to build mindshare, and it seems like it's working. Now, imagine if they decided to do some real marketing - on TV to get Joe Sixpack. He would learn in 30 seconds that IE is NOT "the internet" and that he can try another browser. The Mozilla Foundation could do this as well, but I don't know if they have the cash laying around that Opera does.

      BTW, for a laugh, on Win XP right click IE on the start tab and delete it. It will warn you with "Are you sure you want to delete the internet from your start menu?" Dear lord, who would ever want to delete the internet from their computer after spending so much time downloading it?!

    25. Re:This is not a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, but what type of web pages are you making? If youre trying to do all sorts of fancy and funky things with animations and special effects then youre going to run into problems. 99% of the pages I visit appear identical in Opera, FF and IE. Only pages with a lot of flash/JavaScript/"insert random language here" have problems and even then they are minor.

      The biggest problems are pages that are specifically designed to work on one browser like IE or FF. See, cause your programming them to work on FF they are going to work perfectly in FF. If your designed it to be a generic web page, that would be able to work on all the browsers, you wouldn't have so many problems. I'm not saying you can't use more advanced languages and create more advanced apps. However, when designing the front end of web apps you should really only use basic code to ensure it works on as many Browsers as possible. The backend can be anything you want since it should be independent of the browser. Some people design the front end and backend to be browser specific, which is a horrible practice for web apps. Then again I don't do too much programming on the web so I'm no expert. But from my experience there are ways around this problem with different browsers you just got to keep it sweat and simple.

      If its just web pages and your having these problems then youre doing to many things, which probably arent needed. I always keep thing as simple and elegant as possible and never have problems. Like I said Im no expert which is why I do keep things so simple, but then again I dont have the problems you do. Im not knocking you or anything. Im sure your good at designing and programming these things but I know a lot of programmers who go overboard trying to load in features and cool things and they seem to run into these problems a lot. Id be interested in hearing what type of aps/web pages you design.

    26. Re:This is not a good thing by eakthecat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Despite your very hostile (dare I say troll-ish) attitude to the people who have responded to you, I feel compelled to take your bait and try and explain why I feel that having a browser monopoly (even an open source one) is a problem.

      See, you seem to think that if there was one supreme browser that was open sourced, everything would be groovy. I have news for you... there's this little thing called the 90% problem. More specifically, the problem with a lot of open source software is that it gets mostly finished (to the point where it is usable for the average geek - not for 'Joe Sixpack') and then the developers go on to other, more interesting projects. See, they're not being compensated for their time, so they want to work on what is 'fun' or 'exciting' instead of fixing the last couple of problems with a piece of software. Now, a non-open source company, like Opera, has a financial incentive to write that last 10%, however, a group of open source developers, like those working on Firefox, who are not getting paid to write user-friendly code, have virtually no incentive to go the 'last mile'. Plus, paid developers have to listen to their users, or they risk alienating their customers. Open Source developers are free to be horribly rude to their users and can ignore usability problems (becasue they feel that the way *they* use the software is the only correct way*) becuase they have no financial incentive to listen to their users.

      Now, you're probably going to post a rude reply about how I must simply be a Microsoft apologist because I don't worship FireFox. To try and prevent that (not that it'll do any good), I would like to state that I believe that having multiple open source and closed source browsers all competing in the marketplace is the best way to spur innovation. Also, all things being equal, I will always pick open source software over *equal* closed source wares.

      Finally, as someone who has been doing web development since Mosaic reigned supreme, it is my opinion that the current browser that is the closest to w3c compliance is Opera. Granted, it might not display everything quite the way you expect it to display (or quite the way it displays in FireFox), but before you start pointing and screaming about how Opera sucks, and FireFox is more compliant... go back and re-read the actual standards (you *have* read them thoroughly, haven't you?). Most of the time, I think you will find that Opera is actually conforming to the published standards, and that what you thought it *should* look like is actually due to a mis-reading of the standards (or possibly due to a false expectation, based upon FireFox's mis-rendering).

      Bah... I'm really not anti-FireFox, despite the tone fo this post. I just get annoyed when people assume that FireFox (or even open source in general) is always the best. That mentality is almost as bad the people who think IE is the internet!

      All of that said, I'm *still* waiting for any browser other than IE5+ or NS4 to support embedded fonts! =)

      * I realize the tone of this is a tad bitter - I had a horrible experience when I submitted a FireFox bug a few months ago. Basically, FireFox was not following a w3c xhtml specification and when I submitted the bug, I got rudly told that the developers felt that the w3c's spec was not the right way to implement something, so FireFox would not be following that particular spec... Oh, and by the way: How dare I question the wisdom of the mighty and always-correct FireFox developers. Needless to say, I now consider FireFox my browser of last resort!

      --
      Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Not Quite As Tall As I'd Like To Be.
    27. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I think you're a being a little unfair - I've been hostile in return to those who gave hostile, uninformed responses to me. You raise a good point about open source software - it's never really complete. But I feel that the browser market is different - since standards keep evolving fairly rapidly, there is NEVER a chance for the software to be "complete". It will always be changing. The project may lose developers and gain developers, but I think as long as people like the browser there will always be people dedicated to working on it. When it comes down to it, 'Joe Sixpack' is not going to pay for a browser. If people don't pay for it, Opera has no business model. Furthermore, if people get the idea in their heads that if they want a new browser besides IE then they have to buy it, they will give up entirely. I admittedly haven't done a comprehensive comparison of standards compliance between Opera and Firefox. But I stand by my opinion that Firefox is better for the internet than Opera, and Opera may even be a detriment. I am truly apologetic that some people don't share my opinion, and even think I'm an idiot or a moron for having that opinion. But I never did anything to those people other than state what I think. Apparently I'm not allowed even to do that.

    28. Re:This is not a good thing by a.d.trick · · Score: 1
      I think there's no reason for anyone to use anything but firefox

      I know Slashdot MS is teh evil and Mozilla will sit next to God Himself in heaven, but this is soooooo wrong. The whole point of Hypertext Markup on the internet is to be platform agnostic. CSS was designed so that it could be used by Free browsers and propretary browsers (and non-CSS browsers and text-browsers and screen readers and web bots like Google and just about anything else that can parse 's).

      I understand (and sympathize) with your frusuration about web applications, because many javascript implementations are garbage and support for DOM is still in it's infancy, but the web is first and formost a platform for disseminating information, not building applications.

    29. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I would just like to post one final comment here. You're all right. I was wrong. Opera is the bee's knees. Firefox is shit. I'm a horrible web developer who can't write standards-compliant code to save my life, because obviously if I could then it would look perfect in Opera (since Opera is perfect) and I would have no need to be wary. No more need for argument. The dissenting opinion has left the building. To further demonstrate I will henceforth speak entirely in sheep noises.

      Baaaa!

    30. Re:This is not a good thing by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I forgot to mention: I'm also a retarded, idiotic moron. I'm clearly no older than twelve and have the mental capacity of a chimp.

      Err, I mean, Baaaa!

    31. Re:This is not a good thing by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      "Which is closest to W3C's standards? "

      Web-core /khtml based browsers such as konqueror or Safari

        "which is best?"
      Totally up to personal preference . I use safari on mac , Firefox /konqueror on linux , opera on all occasionaly .

      "I've written pages which were valid, standards compliant according to the W3C docs, and displayed correctly in Firefox "
      I have written standards compliant code which firefox did not render properly , though it did do a far better job than MSIE-but Safari displayed it exceptionally .I have written compliant code which rendered better on Firefox than safari . I am yet to make standards compliant code that will render more accurately on MSIE than the other browsers though (Mission impossible) .

      The reason we have a standards committee such as the W3C is to create a (You guessed it ) set of standards . A set standards so that all browser makers can code towards it , giving web devs security that their code will render well no matter the browser.
      Of course no browser is fully compliant , but some are more compliant than others.

      The point about one browser seems a little odd to me :how about a single OS for everything , Everyone could drive the exact same car , everyone could wear the same clothes , we could all eat one food .Life would very boring.

      I understand the frustration of web devs . but one browser monopolising the market has given us the scourge of MSIE.

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    32. Re:This is not a good thing by hkmwbz · · Score: 2, Informative
      "Opera, while certainly better than IE, hurts the world wide web"
      How does Opera hurt the web? By paying several people to work on the W3C and standards?
      "Anyway, the point is: No more browsers, please."
      No, more browsers please! This will force them to adhere better to standards, web designers to use standards based design, and best of all:

      With several browser with about the same market share, the impact of viruses/worms targeting specific browser flaws will be lessened.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    33. Re:This is not a good thing by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      "My POINT is that there should be One Browser to Rule Them All."
      Yeah, making it a nice and juicy target for viruses and malware, just like IE is now.
      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    34. Re:This is not a good thing by BorgHunter · · Score: 1

      Viewing web pages correctly should be a free (as in beer) right. Just because Opera has some profit-making scheme up their sleeves that's causing them to give away their product doesn't mean they won't be charging for it tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or whenever their market share goes up and they feel like they can make some real money. You had damned well be running Linux or BSD right now (not using KDE, which uses licensed commercial software), using Firefox to surf, Thunderbird to check your mail, Jabber (in any open-source client) to IM, Wikipedia for information, D-Moz to search the web, a non-commercial mail provider, and listening only to public domain music, or else you will be the world's biggest hypocrite.

      --
      "Excuse me, did you say 'Trekker'? The word is 'Trekkie.' I should know; I created them." -- Gene Roddenberry
    35. Re:This is not a good thing by Domo-Sun · · Score: 1

      Someone does profit from keeping open source up to date: the users. In every case, the developers of open source software ARE the users; therefore the developers profit (in a non-monetary sense) from making the software better.

      Didn't you mean financial profit when you first said it? If not, then all that applies to Opera too. The developers eat their own dog food, i.e. they use Opera too, but most importantly, if they don't make a good browser, no one would buy it or use it.

      Opera has so many brilliant features. It supports User CSS the way the Accessibility specifications suggests, it has User JavaScript, and lots of other features. You just admitted to have downloaded it, run it and said I don't like it never to try it again. You don't sound really qualified to put it down as you have. Meanwhile, most Opera users also have FireFox installed, and they use both. I can tell you that FireFox is slow and bloated. Previous pages are refreshed, Opera can be run on old hardware, but we covered that...

      I understand what you're saying about Open Source, but clearly it's not the only way because how do you explain Opera. I think it's better to have more than one browser in a Darwinian way. Competition, less universal exploits. Diversity stops attacks. If you have one browser, all bugs/exploits effect everyone.

      I'm not fond of ad supported software, but opera is so good that I've overlooked it. I do have like each version of opera installed on my computer, and I've always been suspicious as to how extensive the spy features are, and I never use the search bars, but then FireFox gets revenue from quick search too, and it tries to connect to the net as soon as you open it.

      Anyway, I don't see why we can't use both. That's what I do. I mostly use Opera. Maybe you don't, but I love it.

      The reason people are attacking you is because your "we can only have one browser." and "open source only" and "Opera sucks" attitude is a bit extreme. You've used opera twice in your life, yet you appear to be on a passionate crusade against it.

  17. And now by MatD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And now, we are going to start seeing exploits getting released for Opera. As well as articles about how IE is more secure than Opera. Just give it a little time, trust me.

    --
    Since when did operating systems become a religion?
    1. Re:And now by CapnGrunge · · Score: 1

      Opera is a corporation and can be bought out. Not that I'm giving away ideas to {bigcorp}...

      --
      I see 57005 people
    2. Re:And now by Pneuma+ROCKS · · Score: 0

      Opera might become so popular that it will get its own Slashdot dupes. They grow up so fast...

      --
      Favorite quote: "
  18. Google = Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.uncoverip.com

  19. Useful by Col.+Bloodnok · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why would anyone search for an 'internet browser' via their internet browser?

    Oh, AOL users.

    1. Re:Useful by nfk · · Score: 1

      What does everyone else do? Look at ads in the newspaper?

    2. Re:Useful by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can beat that. At the school that I work at - we have a "Baasics of the Internet" that is a fully on-line class.

      Sera

      --
      Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
    3. Re:Useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A subtle dig on sheep? C'mon, they're so wollen a-and cuddlyyy!

    4. Re:Useful by DiarmuidBourke · · Score: 0

      My cd burners mounting instructions came on cd.

  20. I can hear it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Somewhere, a CEO is throwing a chair through a wall ...

  21. Lots of money in open source? by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Interesting
    According to some blogs, there are rumors that the Mozilla foundation gets 30 million dollars a year for the search box in Firefox defaulting to google. Also, only the financial details for 2003 have been made public by Mozilla. So it requires someone to file a special request under the law to check Mozilla's dealings.

    So, remember, everytime you do a search in Firefox, some money goes from google to Mozilla, estimates ranging from 50 cents to 1 dollar per user per year.

    --
    This space for rent.
    1. Re:Lots of money in open source? by recoiledsnake · · Score: 1

      Does it have to be good or bad and do I have to have an opinion on it? I know this is slashdot and all but I am just giving the information for what it is worth and fuel further discussion. I never knew that the Mozilla foundation gets so much money from google, so I thought it was interesting enough to share.

      --
      This space for rent.
    2. Re:Lots of money in open source? by Norgus · · Score: 1

      Hey, if thats the case then maybe we should use the amount google pay Mozilla to calculate the REAL firefox usage statistics! ;-)

    3. Re:Lots of money in open source? by nfk · · Score: 1

      According to some blogs, there are rumors...

      It might be true and all, but seriously...

    4. Re:Lots of money in open source? by jalefkowit · · Score: 2, Interesting
      So it requires someone to file a special request under the law to check Mozilla's dealings.

      Not true. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation the Mozilla Foundation is required to file disclosure paperwork with the IRS every year. These disclosure filings (called Forms 990) are public and searchable via GuideStar (requires free registration).

      The Mozilla Foundation's 990s are, it's true, only current to 2003. But that's not due to any deep conspiracy; it's just because they didn't file the 2003 990 until October 2004. So you shouldn't expect to see the 2004 disclosure until a year or so after that (October-November 2005).

      If you want to spin a conspiracy theory, a more plausible one would involve the recent formation of the "Mozilla Corporation" as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Foundation. It's unclear to me if money paid to such an entity would need to be disclosed or not (it would definitely have to be reported to the IRS, but possibly in a way that isn't public like the 990 data). If not, it's possible that one of the motivations for the formation of the Corporation would be to accept large donations from parties like Google without having them show up on the Foundation's public disclosures -- but that's unlikely since Google has been the default search engine in Firefox since 0.1, and the Corporation has only existed since August of this year. So any payments from Google would have to have been pretty recent for this to be plausible.

      You can now go back to your regularly scheduled tinfoil-hat fashion show ;-)

  22. Add one more to that by crkpot · · Score: 2, Funny

    1,000,001 - thanks google!

    1. Re:Add one more to that by suwain_2 · · Score: 1

      Aww great, you had to screw up the nice even number. Now I can't rest until 2,000,000.

      Can everyone -- except for you -- just download it again?

      --
      ________________________________________________
      suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
    2. Re:Add one more to that by DeMorgon · · Score: 1

      umm, you would end up with 2,000,001 downloads then.

  23. you're a moron by rebug · · Score: 1

    "I think there's no reason for anyone to use anything but firefox"

    Ever use Firefox on Mac OS X or FreeBSD? It sucks, badly.

    People will always have a reason to use alternative browsers, whether it's usability, suitability for their platform, or (gasp) personal choice. If you're such a hack of a web developer that you can't make your sites work in different browsers, perhaps you should find another line of work.

    --

    there's more than one way to do me.
    1. Re:you're a moron by NakedPenguin · · Score: 0

      I have used Firefox on MacOS X. I prefer it to Safari. And way to be a jerk. I never said I couldn't make my code work cross-browser. It makes more work for me, though, and many developers won't do it. Maybe try making a better argument than, "Firefox sucks. You're a hack."

    2. Re:you're a moron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone who resorts to personal insults usually doesn't know what they are talking about. Can you name all of the browsers out there that fully support CSS 2.1? Guess what: There are none. You can not download today a browser that passes the Acid 2 test. Until browsers support the standards, people can't just code to the standards and expect their page to work in a standards-complient browser.

      Yes, a page that looks good in Firefox will usually work in Safari. Usually. But Opera doesn't support some things that Firefox and Safari support. Such as the "opacity" tag.

      About Macintosh browsers, there is a lot of cruft there that I can't test my pages to, such as iCab, older versions of OmniWeb, and, yes, Cyberdog. I really with iCab had no CSS support whatsoever so a page rendered in iCab looks like the page in Dillo or another non-CSS browser.

    3. Re:you're a moron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Firefox runs as well on FreeBSD as it does on Linux. Which is to say that it's easily the best browser available for FreeBSD.

    4. Re:you're a moron by evilviper · · Score: 1
      Ever use Firefox on Mac OS X or FreeBSD? It sucks, badly.

      Uhh, what? I'm using Firefox on FreeBSD right now, and it's been the most stable browser I've ever used on any platform.

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    5. Re:you're a moron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would just like to congratulate you for being the first slashdot user I have ever seen that writes you're instead of your in the correct context! Well done.

    6. Re:you're a moron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ever use Firefox on Mac OS X or FreeBSD? It sucks, badly.

      Amen. Actually, by the standard set by Mac browsers, Firefox for Windows and Linux suck too. But I guess that's just because the Mac has better browsers: Safari set a new standard for nimble (fast, small, and simple) web browsers, and OmniWeb is, well, God.

  24. A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There is no browser out there with full CSS 2.1 support. Not one. Certaintly not Trident (IE's engine). Not Gecko (Firefox's engine). Not KTML (Konqueror's engine). Not Webcore (Safari's fork of the KHTML engine). And not Presto (Opera's engine).

    People talk about designing to the standards, but without a single web browser actually following said standards, web designers on the front lines have to work around different browser's quirks.

    For example, a number of browsers support bits and pieces of CSS 3.0. Gecko and Webcore have support for opacity (translucent elements on a web page); Trident can do the same thing with the non-standard "Filter:" tag. However, Presto in Opera 8 has no support for this.

    The workaround for Opera users is to use a translucent PNG instead. However, a translucent PNG used in mouseovers triggers a Firefox/Windows 1.0.x bug (probably fixed in Deer Park) where the mouseover image will not be loaded unless visible somewhere else on the page (I can mostly eliminate this bug by making the PNG in question visible on the page as a single 90% transparent pixel in the upper right hand corner. Which mostly, but not completely, works around the bug.)

    Basically, with yet another CSS rendering browser out there gaining market share, while only implementing a subset of the CSS standard, web designers now have to work around the quirks of yet another browser. I like this kind of work, but a lot of designers hate this stuff and just throw their hands in the air and make their web page a 100% flash web page or what not.

    1. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by vcv · · Score: 1

      On the whole image not loading unless it's visible thing, that's what image preloading is for. Pretty easy to do.

    2. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The client would not allow any javacript on the page. Don't ask.

    3. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's the great thing about standards... there's so many of them to choose from!

    4. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by vcv · · Score: 1

      If JS wasn't allowed, then you can't do rollovers. ;)

    5. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not true. Pure CSS rollovers are possible. See ALA for details.

    6. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by vcv · · Score: 1

      In IE? I didn't think IE could handle :hover for anything but links.

    7. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Bogtha · · Score: 1

      I think you're distorting the truth a little by using an example from CSS 3. Browser vendors have been concentrating on implementing CSS 2 first.

      When you actually look at CSS 2, you'll find that, apart from the obvious exception of Internet Explorer (which is getting a big upgrade in CSS support for version 7), there's pretty consistent support for it. Yes, there's the odd rough edge, but for the most part, for what people need it to do, it works fine across multiple browsers.

      Perhaps when the CSS 3 specifications are finished, you'll have a point in complaining that it's not implemented consistently. But right now, you shouldn't expect any browser to support it, especially when there's still work to be done with CSS 2.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    8. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since CSS 3 is NOT A STANDARD, its still a document in progress, no-one should be surprised that experimental implementations of possible CSS3 features are not compatible across the line. With ff1.5, o8.5 and ie7, the job of implementing CSS 2.1 is more or less done.

    9. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by dos_dude · · Score: 1

      I don't really understand that line of reasoning.

      The question isn't really whether browsers support standard this or standard that. The question is whether browsers support what designers are trying to do.

      Some desginers seem to be looking at the standards when they decide what they want to do. I agree that it's about time browsers started fully supporting css 2.1. But css 3? Isn't that a little early?

      Try to see it that way: Either standards are ahead of browsers or standards get created after the fact. That latter mode of operation gave us lots of browser-specific features. Remember <blink> and <marquee>?

      What we really need are versions of the standards documents that tell us what browsers support which features. People shouldn't be forced to find out the hard way which browser support what.

    10. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by fbjon · · Score: 1

      You can do rollovers with pure CSS, no javascript. Try the :hover pseudo-class.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    11. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by vcv · · Score: 1

      "In IE? I didn't think IE could handle :hover for anything but links."

    12. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by fbjon · · Score: 1
      Oh, didn't spot the AC.

      Anyway, I find that IE is the odd one out. I can code for Opera, then make minor adjustments so the code works in both Opera an Firefox. After that, I have to do some heavy-handed bughunting to make things work in IE, and it's never small adjustments. Or, I could code for IE and pray that it doesn't fall apart in every other browser.

      If the client really doesn't want any javascript, then a good solution is to just include the image somewhere on the page, by making it really small and covered with something, perhaps. You're going to have to do hacks anyway with IE6...

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    13. Re:A thought on how this affects CSS designs by vcv · · Score: 1

      No doubt. IE6 is retarded, but you gotta sites work for it sadly.

      I usually use javascript for rollovers. If a person has javascript disabled, then oh well, no rollovers for them. No biggie.

      The only browser they should even consider having JS disabled on it IE anyway.

  25. Still sticking with FireFox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With extensions like flashblock, adblock, linky, etc, I don't see myself switching to Opera any time soon.

    I did see the adblock solution on the last story, and it seemed to be a convoluted scheme. So did the flashblock CSS suggestion, which seems to just block all flash objects unless you click one of them.

    Still, it is nice to have another browser for testing HTML, and not having to see their ads is a plus(although, I wasn't too bothered with them to begin with).

  26. stats by tuggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    now that opera changed the USER AGENT ID, what i'm really interested is in seeing how much will change in the stats for IE...

    1. Re:stats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It won't change anything, because most stat software could recognize Opera anyway.

      You know, it didn't really identify itself as MSIE. Its User-Agent String may have contained 'MSIE' but it always ended anyway with 'Opera/8.0'

    2. Re:stats by teh_winch · · Score: 1

      Not this again.
      For a very long time opera has used a UA string that contains "Opera" somewhere in the string. For example when pretending to be msie it would use a UA string like this,
      Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; en) Opera 8.50
      It is easy to detect Opera when pretending to be msie. Pretending to be msie used to be the default. Now the default is to be Opera which sends a UA string like this
      Opera/7.50 (Windows 98; U) [en]
      The fact they have changed the default will make no difference to the stats because reliable browser sniffers where not mistaking the previous default for msie.

    3. Re:stats by pharwell · · Score: 1

      They haven't changed the default, at least as far as I see. The one that I downloaded still defaulted to MSIE, so I changed it manually. But I guess if it's still ID'ing as Opera either way, that shouldn't really matter.

      --
      I quote others only in order the better to express myself. -- Michel de Montaigne
  27. Opera by Saiyine · · Score: 1


    Opera is a nice browser, but I just can't understand their policy on the keyboard. If you use KDE it says you have to change some hotkeys of the enviroment, instead of changing them on the program.

    And they really should change to Ctrl+T to open a new tab, IMHO.

    --
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    1. Re:Opera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they really should change to Ctrl+T to open a new tab, IMHO.

      No they shouldn't. Firefox should use Ctrl+N to open a new tab. Ctrl+N to open a new document and view has been a standard in MDI user interface design for a long time.

    2. Re:Opera by nagora · · Score: 1
      And they really should change to Ctrl+T to open a new tab, IMHO.

      What on earth is wrong with Ctrl-N for "New"?!

      Besides that, can't you just change the setting in Opera anyway?

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    3. Re:Opera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen. Control-T is one of the things I hate about Firefox.

    4. Re:Opera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they really should change to Ctrl+T to open a new tab, IMHO.

      And you should change your sig to be a real sig, so I can disable the fucker.

    5. Re:Opera by Haeleth · · Score: 1

      What on earth is wrong with Ctrl-N for "New"?!

      Nothing's "wrong" with it, it's just different.

      IE uses Ctrl-N for "New Window". Firefox uses Ctrl-N for "New Window" and Ctrl-T for "New Tab". When Opera uses Ctrl-N for "New Tab" and Ctrl-Alt-N for "New Window", people who are used to the way the other browsers do it are momentarily confused. That's all. Not a big deal, just a brief and minor annoyance.

      Besides that, can't you just change the setting in Opera anyway?

      Apparently you can, but after five minutes of scratching my head I still can't figure out how to use Opera's keyboard shortcut changing UI, which must go down as the least intuitive interface I've ever seen in my life. It seems to expect you to type in the shortcut you want to use (most programs just let you press the keys), and it seems not to have any automatic way of resolving or even detecting conflicts.

      (Yes, it's still better than Firefox, which AFAIK doesn't have any way to change the shortcut keys except maybe with an extension. But seriously, this sort of shoddy UI is inexcusable - crap is crap, even when the competition doesn't even have crap.)

    6. Re:Opera by gasaraki · · Score: 1

      When you learn to use it it makes sense, but if you refuse to do that you can just edit the .ini file for keyboard shortcuts. It's basically plaintext. Even still, I can't believe a slashdot user can't in five minutes figure out how to use a simple two-column list of keystrokes and commands (searchable and with sections).

    7. Re:Opera by muszek · · Score: 1

      What I hate the most in ff is the lack of ctrl+alt+shift+N (new tab with the same content) which I use all the time. Oh, and new windows opening on several different occasions (getting extensions to name one) pisses me off, too. Why do they do that?

    8. Re:Opera by elcid73 · · Score: 1

      I normally defend Opera on slashdot since there are few voices of support (hopefully there will be more now!); but I have to agree with you on your points. I've brought this up in the opera forums before. That UI is not very friendly- also to edit the mouse gestures, you have type "GestureUp, GestureDown" instead of "Up,Down" or even "U,D" Opera does not error check either- I think it just ignores it if you typo'd it. Not that I'm against FF or totally for Opera use what you like and what works for you. I still want to make sweet love to Opera.

    9. Re:Opera by xiando · · Score: 1

      Very well put. It does not confuse me, though, it just annoys me since always have many browsers open and since ctrl-t opens a new tab in all of them, just like ctrl-u views the source and so on, Opera is out of the question since it is the only one who does not work as expected. And I also found the UI for changing keyboard shortcuts trash, but I figured out that the reason you can not change between keyboard schemes like you would expect from that UI is because it uses the last one edited. And yeah, as someone pointed out, you can edit the .ini file - but that is also out of the question since Opera needs to change almost ALL the keyboard shortcuts and that is simply not worth it just to test if the web pages I make look alright or not (Firefox/Mozilla/etc sometimes shows pages different than the Quanta/khtml preview...). I refuse to spend ages making the keyboard shortcuts comply with the standards ALL OTHER linux browsers follow simply because there are plenty of other choices who do follow the standards.

    10. Re:Opera by sankeld · · Score: 0

      What on earth is wrong with Ctrl-N for "New"?!

      Because "n" is on the right hand side of the keyboard, it requires someone to take their right hand off of the mouse to create a new tab. Ctrl-T can be typed entirely with the left hand.

      It is for this reason CTRL-X, CTRL-C, and CTRL-V were chosen for clipboard commands.

    11. Re:Opera by nagora · · Score: 1
      Ctrl-T can be typed entirely with the left hand.

      With Caps-Lock redefined as a Control key, which I heartily recommend, ctrl-n is doable with the left hand (I usually move caps-lock to the un-used Pause key).

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  28. Firefox on Mac OS X by pauljlucas · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ever use Firefox on Mac OS X or FreeBSD? It sucks, badly.
    I agree. Safari has its weaknesses, but it's way better than the OS X port of Firefox. I really don't "get it" when it comes to all the hullabaloo over Firefox other than weening people off IE. If you ignore the IE factor and consider Firefox on its own merits, there's nothing special about it: it's just another browser (at least for OS X).
    --
    If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    1. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by blibbler · · Score: 1

      While Safari is much better than Firefox on OSX, Firefox is much better than IE on Windows. I am not sure whether this is because Firefox is actually worse on OSX, or just that Safari is worlds ahead of windows IE.
      I suspect a bit of both.

    2. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by bladx · · Score: 1

      As I'm typing this reply in Firefox on Windows and through using Safari on my laptop--I agree.

    3. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by Nomad37 · · Score: 1

      I use Safari, but Firefox does have its advantages. Due to its 'open' nature, it's easy to extend it a thousand different ways. And if mouse gestures don't work *exactly* like you want them to, you can likely find another plug-in that caters to your quirks (or if all else fails, write one yourself or pay someone more talented to write the trivial code for you).

      More importantly, if you use a number of different platforms (eg, at work and at home) Firefox's cross-platform consistency means you don't have to adapt your behaviour as much. I think this will actually become more important if web-apps start to take over more and more from their desktop counterparts (see the Slashdot story today about Gmail vs Yahoo!'s new beta).

      --
      Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will! - Antonio Gramsci.
    4. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by pauljlucas · · Score: 1
      Due to its 'open' nature, [Firefox is] easy to extend it a thousand different ways. And if mouse gestures don't work *exactly* like you want them to, you can ... write one yourself or pay someone more talented to write the trivial code for you.
      And how often have you done that?

      I'm as big a fan of open-source as anybody (I'm an open-source developer myself), but the above argument is a white elephant since most people will never take advantage of it. (Most people don't even mail in mail-in rebates to get some of their own money back and you expect them to write their own mouse-gesture code or contract somebody else to?)

      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    5. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by Nomad37 · · Score: 1

      You're right, I've never done this. But I don't think it's a white elephant.

      In your reply, you snipped the main point of my argument, that you can usually get multiple implementations of a plug-in that have already been written. The second two options, which you take exception to, were just minor additions.

      The comment was made in reply to the 'what advantages does firefox have over [insert browser here]'? question, and this is one. The fact that the possibility exists is important. (Refer to various RMS rants about free as in speech).

      But even if you or I as individuals don't write or pay someone to write mouse-gestures, a business (eg, a web design co, library, etc) that could streamline its work by implementing specific behaviours without writing a new browser might significantly benefit from this. This feeds into the software writing as a service idea that is important to oss... just some thoughts.

      --
      Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will! - Antonio Gramsci.
    6. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by pauljlucas · · Score: 1
      The comment was made in reply to the 'what advantages does firefox have over [insert browser here]'? question, and this is one.
      Except what I meant was that its features, UI, and overall usability -- not its extensibility due to its open-source-ness -- is what really matters to most people.
      But even if you or I as individuals don't write or pay someone to write mouse-gestures, a business (eg, a web design co, library, etc) that could streamline its work by implementing specific behaviours without writing a new browser might significantly benefit from this.
      I use a piece of software because it does what I need it to do in an efficient way, not because it may foster somebody else's business. I think your trying too hard to justify Firefox.
      --
      If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    7. Re:Firefox on Mac OS X by Nomad37 · · Score: 1

      Hey,

      I fear we've really gotten OT here, but I'm assuming we're the only ones reading this far, so I might as well answer. Firstly let me reiterate that I prefer Safari too, the only point I'm trying to make is that Firefox does fill some niches and does have some promising capabilities that other browers don't offer. Again, I never meant to suggest Firefox ought to be hailed as The Ultimate Solution.

      But to respond to your points, I think we're speaking at cross-purposes. You're explaining why *you* don't use Firefox - your focus is on UI, efficient workflow, etc. And obviously Safari fits the bill for you. (It does for me too). But I don't think that Safari, Omniweb, etc fits that bill for everyone. Going back to my original post on the subject, I know of a number of people who use Firefox because they use Windows, Linux and Mac OS because of work and Firefox is one of the few solutions that presents a consistent interface across all.

      The other points were just examples of other reasons why Firefox may be useful. To clarify, *A business* such as a law firm might find they need some feature that is not present in Firefox or Omniweb or Safari. Out of these, Firefox is the only one they can get their local IT guru to write an extension for - because it's open source. I agree that neither you nor I would use it to "foster somebody else's business". I'm suggesting that *a business* might use it to foster their own business... *phew*

      I really do think that we're arguing over misunderstandings than a genuine disagreement, but whatever.

      --
      Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will! - Antonio Gramsci.
  29. Google as a many-tentacled monster by l00k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So Google infiltrates yet ANOTHER aspect of the Internet. This strategy of embedding itself into the fabric of the Internet looked cute before the company went on to become the next stockmarket darling, now I can't help but see each new step in increasing its mind-share as Bill Gates in double.

    This stockmarket-listed company's strategy is to 'organise the world's information'. The Internet is resembling one large Google Ad to rule them all!

    Do we believe in the inherent goodness of this corporation's dollars as it buys, sponsors, advertises its way into open source?

    1. Re:Google as a many-tentacled monster by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      Them having a business relationship with a browser company that has 1% market share is worrying to you?

  30. Unclear summary by TrentL · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary of this article is very unclear about the point. To be clear: people didn't download Opera because it uses Google. Rather, they were *able* to get Opera for free because Opera had an alternative revenue stream with Google.

  31. Re:Yay, Mountain View! by merreborn · · Score: 1

    What with yahoo just down the street in sunnyvale, HP up north a touch in Palo Alto, and Apple a bit South West, in cupertino, A microsoft campus, and S3 in santa clara, the greater mountain view area hits slashdot quite often, I think.

    That's why they call it sillicon valley.

  32. :D by JordanL · · Score: 1

    Opera, my favorite browser, supported by Google, my favorite search...

    It's paid placement, and I realize that, but I would probably end up at google anyways, even without the placement. For me, its a feature.

  33. by selling licenses for other platforms by petermgreen · · Score: 1

    IIRC they are giving away thouer browser to PC (both windows and linux) and MAC users but they are not giving it away for other platforms. Presumablly thier aim is to gain mindshare (among both users and web developers) with thier free PC browsers and then sell browsers for platforms like mobiles either to the mobile vendors or direct to end users.

    --
    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  34. Thanks to Google by loconet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Thanks to Google"

    It goes side by side with the story about MS's worst nightmare being the web as the next platform. In order for this to happen, the web needs to become truely standard across all browsers and platforms. This will not happen with IE the way it is. Google being a major player in that nightmare, needs to make sure MS's handle on proprietary web technologies ends soon. This can be achieved by helping Opera and Firefox which is exactly what they are doing.

    --
    [alk]
  35. Similar results: by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "free internet browser", gives you www.mozilla.org
    "best internet browser" gives you www.opera.com
    "bad internet browser" gives you an article on Internet Explorer
    "worst internet browser" gives you home.netscape.com

    Amazing. Simply amazing.

    1. Re:Similar results: by kesuki · · Score: 3, Funny

      sexiest browser = fourm about opera
      sexiest internet browser = an aol music store
      sexiest web browser = article about cell phones
      sexiest webbrowser = a 'men's' magazine website

      so i guess the sexiest web browser is one that is reccomended my a mens magazine runs opera is a cell phone and has an aol music store built in ;)

  36. Search Engine Search by Kjuib · · Score: 1

    Do a google search for: internet Search and google will be number 7. A little odd... putting themselves so far down the list. http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=&q=in ternet+search&btnG=Search/

    --
    - Your stupidity got you into this mess, why can't it get you out? -Will Rogers
  37. I Like Opera by obarthelemy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I bought Opera a few years back, and it's till my main browser because

    - no virus / exploits, prolly not because it's better code, but because it's so little used that hackers don't bother
    - native tabbed browsing (years ago, Ffox didn't have THAT, and Opera's is still good now)
    - native mouse gestures, I can lay back and browse without the keyboard, and without endlessly monving the pointer back to the tool bar (I actually switch those off, and use it full-screen most of the time: F11)
    - it just works, very few sites have problems with it
    - it's easy to switch plugins on/off (flash...)

    -> I still haven't found a compelling reason to switch to FFox (which I also installed). But then again I doubt there IS a reason to switch from Ffox to Opera nowadays, except maybe security IF all those alerts about FFox result in a major problem sometime.

    The mail client sucks, they should just give up on it. It doesn't support ActiveX, which is a blessing and a curse. And of course, it's closed source. But at least it's NOT M$.

    --
    The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    1. Re:I Like Opera by Norgus · · Score: 2, Informative

      I _almost_ switched from firefox to opera, as firefox can be a little clunky on rendering some pages (gets slowed right down by a few sites) and the ram usage is crazy.
      But the thing that dragged me back to firefox was that in opera the mouse gestures were utterly poor, even after I changed to a custom set of gestures that took me about 10 minutes to figure out. It wouldn't always recognise a gesture, my gesture that was supposed to close tabs wouldn't always work, of my gestures for next/previous tab only 1 would ever work.
      In short the firefox 'all-in-one-gestures' extension works a lot more reliably and the Opera gestures were hell (for me at least)

    2. Re:I Like Opera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      opera invented mouse gestures and they're way better than firefox, what are you talking about?

    3. Re:I Like Opera by TheoMurpse · · Score: 1

      Are you kidding? M2 (Opera's mail client) is the only reason I won't switch to Firefox/Thunderbird -- it's just that good.

      For those of you not in the know -- it's like having GMail on your hard drive -- instantaneous searching of message bodies and headers, filters, etc.

      I urge you all to try it out -- it takes some getting used to, but WOW. I hated M2 for about 2 months, until I learned all the features, and now I won't use anything else unless Opera just up and disappears. And then I will be sad.

    4. Re:I Like Opera by obarthelemy · · Score: 1

      I'm not kidding:

      - answers are added at the bottom of the mails. That may be standards-compliant, it's just not people-compliant, nobody does that, it's very confusing (people don't see my answers)

      - I never found out how i can move mails from one server to another (I receive most mails on a POP server, but then archive the important ones on an IMAP server). That's a deal-breaker to me.

      - I found the fact that all incoming mails show up in the same inbox confusing. I have several adresses for a reason (pro, perso, junk...). I tried to use filters to re-segregate unread mails by origin, but couldn't get it to work.

      - I don't have a problem with everybody else's (MSO, MSOE, Tbird) search fonctions. I understand where filters can be handy, but even my 1.5-gig mailstore doesn't justify them. I have less than 100 "active" mails at any time, a classic search suffices for these, and for the occasional foray into archived mails.

      - The interface is confusing, I don't understand why some stuff is in the menus, some in the panel (which I hate, eats up screen real estate)

      - I didn't find any strong point that overcomes these shortcomings. "Quick reply" is kinda nice, but nor that much quicker than hitting the reply button, or ctrl+r ;-)

      - I certainly didn't try it for 2 months, I commend you for sticking it out that long while you hated it. I gave up after 5 days, as will most people.

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    5. Re:I Like Opera by dekket · · Score: 1

      JUST what I was about to say!
      Hell, I can't live without M2. And I'm forced to use Outlook at work... gah, life blows sometimes ;>

  38. Search just "browser" gives Mozilla. by MTO_B. · · Score: 1

    Most people as far as I know just say you need a "browser", not an internet browser, free browser, web browser, or other two word compositions.

    Searching for "browser" gives Mozilla & Firefox number 1 & 2 position.

  39. Nothing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All statistics already counted Opera properly. They included Opera in the USER_AGENT, and it was duly noted. Only poorly written scripts were fooled, which was the whole point.

  40. No problem at all by Al+Dimond · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It doesn't spell anything for other browsers. They just have to have their own way to raise funds. They can do that however they want.

    If FF and Opera can get Google to pay them for their users searching with Google, more power to 'em. Many would already be using Google in the first place, and the "Google box" is really convenient and easily switchable to some other search engine.

    Of course, that last sentence reminds me a lot of "It's very convenient to bundle a web browser with an operating system and it's easy to choose a different one". Which is a true statement as well. With MSN and other competitors trying to take Google's place in search, Google is trying to keep their name first in the minds of the population running Opera and FF -- the population that often thinks of itself at the "net-elite" and is very likely to recommend things to "not-elite" friends. Which is exactly the advantage that Microsoft's IE has, that it's the first one there.

    Interestingly enough, at least on FF1.0.6/GNULinux, you can't add new searches to the "googlebox". There's an "Add buttons" item, but it only adds a particular kind of bookmark that lets you type, say, "wp foobar" into the address bar and give you a wikipedia search for foobar. And they don't exactly document that fact well at all. So it does look like the "googlebox" is an exclusive space for Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Dictionary.com, eBay and Creative Commons (one of these things is not like the others?). I mean, of course, FF is open source and I could go through the code and change it. It's probably really easy. But what's interesting is the total lack of acknowledgement of the pay-for-space aspect of FF/Moz. I'd have thought I would have heard of it by now.

    Whatever. It's non-intrusive and useful. If it gets intrusive I'll use something else. (Actually Opera getting rid of its adbar caused me to download it and I use it from time to time... so that bit of non-intrusiveness does count.)

    1. Re:No problem at all by LordSnooty · · Score: 1

      you can't add new searches to the "googlebox".

      Strange, cos on 1.06/Windows you get an "Add Engines" option which eventually takes you to http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html and more engines to add to the box than you can shake a stick at.

    2. Re:No problem at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Interestingly enough, at least on FF1.0.6/GNULinux, you can't add new searches to the "googlebox".
      Click the icon, then click "Add Engines...", then obviously add an engine, and what do you know, it works.

      There's an "Add buttons" item, but it only adds a particular kind of bookmark that lets you type, say, "wp foobar" into the address bar and give you a wikipedia search for foobar.

      That would be keywords for bookmarks.
    3. Re:No problem at all by rodoke3 · · Score: 1

      You can do it two ways (AFAI can remember):

      1. Start firefox as root (preferably from an xterm window), and follow LordSnooty's directions.
      2. Give yourself write access to the plugins' directory (/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/searchplugins/ on my gentoo box), follow LordSnooty's directions.

      That mozdev page also contains an extension that makes it easier to remove plugins, which is useful given that every update seems to reinstall the deault plugins.

      --
      There's nothing like a good gunfight to uplift the spirit--Calvin
    4. Re:No problem at all by Al+Dimond · · Score: 1

      Yeah, so I've seen the "Add engines..." button and clicked on the links there. And exactly as I said, it doesn't do anything to the googlebox itself. Well, unless you're root, that is. Don't you think that should at least be advertised to users? Shouldn't there be an error message, "hey, we couldn't actually install this search plugin to the Googlebox because you're not root".

      And doesn't that seem like something that should be configurable per-user and not system-wide? Ah well, I think I'm making a trip to ye olde Bugzilla.

      Well, thanks for explaining this to me, I was getting to think that there was a menu item in FF that was really badly placed. So LordSnooty runs as root all the time? Hope all his net-facing software is secure!

    5. Re:No problem at all by rodoke3 · · Score: 1

      No! With a default setup, you'll only need root to change the "googlebox" entries. I do agree though, that this should be a user-controlled setting, like extensions and themes.

      --
      There's nothing like a good gunfight to uplift the spirit--Calvin
  41. Good browser when memory is tight. by WoTG · · Score: 1

    I'm now firmly committed to using Mozilla for web browsing. But for folks who have older computers with say, 64 or 128 MB of RAM, Moz is just too much of a memory hog. For me, Opera is a nice medium between the overly vulnerable IE (especially pre XP SP2 - ie. almost everyone who has less 256mb of RAM) and Mozilla.

    Now, without the ads, their 800x600 15 inch monitors are much more useful too. =)

    Isn't competition nice when it works?

  42. Re:Yay, Mountain View! by pauljlucas · · Score: 1

    But it's not that often the towns are mentioned by name.

    --
    If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
  43. Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by linguae · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Opera, while certainly better than IE, hurts the world wide web by dividing the population even further. With more browsers out there, I can't count on my (standards compliant) code working everywhere, and I have to add hacks for each browser to make it work. Things get even uglier when I try to write a "fat" web app - different browsers support radically different scripting standards.

    That's funny, because last time I checked, Opera is standards compliant. I never had a problem opening web pages that used proper CSS and XHTML with Opera. As long as you stick to standard HTML or XHTML/CSS, you shouldn't have problems opening your web pages in Firefox and Opera. (IE still doesn't support all of the web standards, unfortunately).

    As a web developer, I think there's no reason for anyone to use anything but firefox,

    Hate to break it to you, but not everybody thinks Firefox is the best thing since sliced bread. I switched to Opera from Firefox a few days ago because it is much faster and much more responsive on my machine (an old 266MHz Pentium II with 64MB RAM). Free Opera was a godsend to me; I couldn't deal with Firefox using my hard drive swap space any more. And then Konqueror and Safari are also nice, standards-compliant browsers. Opera, Konqueror, and Safari users don't need to drop whatever they are doing and switch to Firefox. Heck, I wouldn't even force an IE user to switch to an alternative browser. Hey, whatever floats your boat....

    1. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I'm not trying to force anyone to switch. And I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of other browsers, as long as they all render standards-compliant code CORRECTLY (meaning there is no room for them not to agree on what the correct interpretation is).

      This will never be the case. Everyone is commenting that Opera renders correctly, and you even go so far as to say that standards compliant code will render the same in Firefox, Opera, and Safari. I'm sorry, but you're wrong.

      If Opera is truly better than Firefox, fine - open source it and I will shut up. Firefox itself is not what's important to me here (I'm not a "Firefox zealot" as you say). What's important to me is that the public see pages (not just my pages) the way they were intended to be seen, as long as the developer has made the code standards-compliant. As long as there are multiple browsers which claim to be standards-compliant but render with their own little quirks, how is this to happen?

    2. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      What the hell does open sourcing Opera have to do with anything? You argue against Safari, which uses an open source core...yet open sourcing Opera is supposed to help how?

      In-case you didn't know this, not everyone can just open source their code. There is this thing called license agreements. If a company licenses code from another company, then they can't open source their products. It's a very simple concept...but it seems to be beyond the scope of the average Slashdot reader.

    3. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      My argument for a browser monopoly relies on open source. If there is a browser monopoly and the winner is closed source and/or for-profit, then there is no guarantee that the browser will continue to be of high quality or keep up with changing standards.

    4. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by rm69990 · · Score: 1

      Or else we could have competition and the competition could work towards supporting the standards? A Monopoly, whether closed or open source, is not good. Look at KDE and Gnome...they are innovating because they are racing against each other.

    5. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      But the competition is not for standards. The majority of users have no idea what the W3C even is.

    6. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by santouras · · Score: 1

      I can hardly believe these comments. Why is everything rosy and beautiful once it goes open source? I hate to tell you this, but Opera ASA is a business, and the only way a business stays in, well, business is because (generally) they produce high quality goods that people want to use. Maybe not with MS ;), but when you're in a position like Opera, the only reason the company has survived for the past 10 years is because they have produced a high quality web browser that conforms to standards and people feel more than happy to (previously) pay for. Opera need to continue to create the highest quality browser to stay alive. They have hundreds of employee's to pay and the only way they do that is by making (IMHO) the best browser. Open Source != high quality Everyone loves to jump on the Firefox bandwagon, and while I do very much believe it is far better than IE, it is not IMO the best browser.

      --
      my utility belt tells me its to the bar batman
    7. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by NakedPenguin · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure HOW opera has survived this long. I tried it long ago (version 3, I believe) and it was VASTLY inferior to the other browsers of the time, even IE, in terms of compliance.

      Furthermore, even if it has been at the forefront of standards-compliance, it has such a small marketshare that many clients disregard it entirely.

      Just to make my point, I installed opera and viewed some pages in it and in firefox side by side. All of the pages validated in both markup and CSS. Sure enough, opera was slightly different - not enough to ruin usability, but enough to make the page fail to render as intended in Opera. Now, Opera may be more correct; it's not for me to say. What I can say is that using Opera would give me an inferior browsing experience, because I want pages to render the way they were intended.

      This free giveaway is a desperate attempt on Opera's behalf to grab marketshare because theirs is dwindling. Once they have it, expect their tune to change.

      Also, this doesn't apply to you as much as others, but I would like to say the following: I may have come off as a Firefox zealot/fanboy/your choice of derogatory term, but that's no reason to question my intelligence or mod me down. The purpose of moderation is to weed out trolls, spams, and lame jokes (of which I've admittedly posted my fair share), not to quelsh dissenting opinions or intelligent discussion. I would love to have an intelligent debate but instead people call me a moron or a retard or an idiot rather than simply making their case and letting it speak for itself. You can't blame me for getting a little defensive when all I'm getting are personal attacks.

    8. Re:Somebody mod this Firefox zealot down, please? by neko9 · · Score: 1

      amen to that!

      from now on, since Opera is now FREE, i will recommend it (and not taht bloated FoxOnFire) to my friends and relatives with old(cause FoxOnFire is teh fat and slow as hell there) and new boxes...

      Opera fan since version 5.0 :)

      ehh... and this is slashdot... now argument against Opera because it's not FREE is dead. but oh my... it's not open source... so FireFox zealots with foam at their mouths will continue to argue... oh well not all BEST things in life is open sourced ;)

  44. Re:So what is their business model?-Counterfitting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    besides selling to the alternate (mobile) platforms, they're offering direct support for about the same price (annually) as the previous windows purchase price.

    didn't you get that anyways when you purchased it before? so in a sense, nothing's really changed except the "shocking" and wildly publicized press release announcing it is now "FREE". anything for free air time, i guess.

  45. Personally, I like Opera better than Firefox by niteblade · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After the 'going free' announcement, I decided to give Opera another shot (I had previously used it when it had that aweful MDI interface) Anyway, I love it! All around it seems really slick - very quick response, very nice look, and it had a really tight feel (not sure what that is - it just seems very responsive). Overall the most 'professional' feeling browser out imho. I'm just hoping they come out with a badly needed googlebar (I like to do google news and groups searches - not just the web). Once they include that, I'll probably make it my primary browser.

    Bob

    1. Re:Personally, I like Opera better than Firefox by Tecfreak7 · · Score: 1

      Just edit the search menu. There's an app called opsed that'll make it easier for you, but I just edit search.ini by hand.

    2. Re:Personally, I like Opera better than Firefox by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      "I'm just hoping they come out with a badly needed googlebar (I like to do google news and groups searches - not just the web)."
      Type "r group search" and "n news search" in the address bar...
      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    3. Re:Personally, I like Opera better than Firefox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This function is already there ;)

      Right-click on the menu bar and say 'customise'. Go to Buttons > Search. You can find a number of search options, including Google News and Google Groups, that you can drag-and-drop anywhere on the Opera interface.

      And if there's anything you want that's not there, you can add it by editing your search.ini file (remember to close Opera before you do this, otherwise it won't save properly).

    4. Re:Personally, I like Opera better than Firefox by trmcdougle · · Score: 1

      Even better than that, when choosing which search box to put in the toolbar choose the last one-it has a drop down that lets you type in the text to search on, then use the drop down to choose where to search, it include Google, Google News and Google Groups

  46. I really don't understand Opera lovers by Morky · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I just downloaded it for the first time in a few years. Every other page I visit has severe flaws. I don't get why that wouldn't be frustrating unless you only used a few sites that happened to work. If you're on OS X, try Camino. It's basically what Safari should have been. Except for scrolling speed, I think it beats Safari in every category. I'd like to see a Web dominated by Gecko-based browsers. It's completely open and it's the best standards benchmark we have.

    1. Re:I really don't understand Opera lovers by gasaraki · · Score: 1

      You must have some strange browsing habits, or are exagerrating severely. 50% of sites have Opera issues? Please. I haven't had to open another browser for compatibility reasons in a week.

    2. Re:I really don't understand Opera lovers by nbarriga · · Score: 1

      Can you point me to some of these pages? I've compared firefox and opera myself, and i found that opera does a better work usually. Anyway, my point of view may be biased since i am a long time user of opera.

    3. Re:I really don't understand Opera lovers by Morky · · Score: 1

      This was pretty random, but: http://inovis.com/ http://espn.go.com/ http://www.cbgarden.org/ (compare javascript menu speed with Firefox) freshdirect.com (have to log in to see it, but there is a key section of images missing) Outlook web access - login unsupported (ooh, just saw something I like about Opera - it can rememeber the pages you had open when you last exited.) Most of these were fairly minor rendering problems, but I just don't find any sites anymore that Gecko doesn't render well. The performance was also lacking on a beefy Mac (slow scrolling, javascript). I haven't installed it on Windows yet, so I don't have an apples to apples comparative opinion.

    4. Re:I really don't understand Opera lovers by Morky · · Score: 1

      Your email and your bank site don't work properly? Two pretty important sites. "Everything looks horrible in firefox" is of course a ridiculous statement, but do you have any example sites where Opera does a better job? I can't find any.

    5. Re:I really don't understand Opera lovers by ExCEPTION · · Score: 0

      I got opera when they had the free registration number give-away, and fell in love with it instantly. For my browsing habits, I didn't see any weird pages. Why I love opera? Try it's keyboard shortcuts, super!

  47. Just to clarify... by gasaraki · · Score: 1

    I agree that the keyboard UI could use some improvements (e.g. being able to capture keystrokes instead of making you spell them out, alerting you on conflicts without having to manually search from them yourself), but I don't think it's nearly as cryptic as you're making out

  48. MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Read his other posts. The guy is obviously a clueless moron.

    1. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN by nfk · · Score: 1

      If the guy is a clueless moron, why do I want to read his other posts?

  49. Opera almost usable by xiando · · Score: 1

    Google in the searchbox is, because it is the only search engine I use, almost as good news as it becoming free and bannerless. Now, if Opera can only change the keyboard shortcuts to the standards then I may even consider using it. That is the only reason I find it garbage. For instance, press ctrl-u in Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon, Firefox, Epiphany or any other Linux browser except for Opera and you are viewing the source code. Press ctrl-t in any of them and you get a new tab. Press ctrl-l and you are in the URL bar. None of those work in Opera, and the same applies to just about everything else - not a single shortcut works as expected. Which is kind of annoying since I do web development and have a lot of browsers open in a tabbed window in fluxbox to make sure the pages look just about the same - but I will not have Opera as part of those tabs until they comply with normal shortcuts.. if I need to view the source I want to be able to do it whatever browser I happen to have open, so something that doesn't support even my basic needs don't get to be among my always-open browsers.

    1. Re:Opera almost usable by w00d · · Score: 1

      You can change any of Opera's keyboard shortcuts, as well as mouse gestures. Look under the "Shortcuts" section of the Preferences dialogue (menu: Tools -> Preferences).

    2. Re:Opera almost usable by xiando · · Score: 1

      I already looked at tools -> preferences -> advanced -> shortcuts and I found that since all the default shortcuts are totally stupid it would require ages to change them all according to the standards all other Linux browsers support... It almost seems less time-consuming to write a new browser from scratch than changing them all.

    3. Re:Opera almost usable by fbjon · · Score: 1
      I wouldn't say stupid, just different. Consder opening a new tab in Firefox, Ctrl-T. The same idea has Ctrl-N in Opera. Why? Because Opera doesn't have tabs! They are separate windows, or pages, all inside a main window (therefore it's ctrl-N as in New page). If you want a completely separate main window with pages, press ctrl-alt-N.

      It's not stupid, it's different, because that's how it's designed, and that's how it's always been. The tabs in Firefox are an addon to the window, while the "tabs" in Opera are an obvious impliction of the program design. Consider it legacy stuff if you will, but it isn't worse or less logical. It's the same as saying that the keybindings in emacs are stupid, it's much better in vim!

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    4. Re:Opera almost usable by Domo-Sun · · Score: 1

      If Opera can only change the keyboard shortcuts to the standards then I may even consider using it. That is the only reason I find it garbage. For instance, press ctrl-u in Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon, Firefox, Epiphany or any other Linux browser except for Opera and you are viewing the source code. Press ctrl-t in any of them and you get a new tab. Press ctrl-l and you are in the URL bar. None of those work in Opera...

      Aren't all those browsers Mozilla based?

      I sympathize because it took me a week to realize Ctrl + G is now Shift + G for User CSS mode. It can be frustrating, but ultimately you're lazy and you're taking it out on Opera. So basically you don't like Opera because you're lazy. That's the same thing that keeps people using IE.

      When I use Mozilla, I get confused too, but it doesn't stop me from using it. I use Opera more because it's faster and lots of useful features.

      Anyway, Ctrl + N for new is the standard for MDI, as for the rest, It's not like they said "Let's make our shortcuts unmozilla like." Opera was here before Mozilla, they're keys are just different.

      Opera has been changing some of their keys to be like Mozilla, e.g.

      Ctrl + F and Ctrl + G for Find

      but they do so at the expense of alienating their user base.

      Some Shortcuts you're too lazy to look up:
      Ctrl + F3 For View Source
      Alt + P, Advanced, Source Viewer...
      ALT + F3 View frame document source
      F8 Jump To URL Field
      Ctrl + N New

      Shift + G User CSS Mode
      Alt + P, Content, Style options... to add user css

      Shift + P Print Rendering mode
      Shift + F11 Small Screen rendering
      CTRL + F7 Toggle scrollbar
      Shift + Tab Form Elements
      F9 Focus off form

      CTRL + Tab switch tab
      CTRL + Shift + Tab reverse

  50. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  51. Re:OMG!!! Google is teh EVIL!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL, goog one.

    Oh wait..

  52. For the last hold outs... by unartist · · Score: 1

    Found an easier way to love ads - http://operaadfilter.com/

  53. Actually I did it before I saw it on Slashdot... by The+Wooden+Badger · · Score: 0

    I downloaded Opera right before the story made Slashdot, so no thanks, Slashdot!

    --
    Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
  54. Oops, note to self, learn to read. by The+Wooden+Badger · · Score: 1

    I feel smart as a bag of hammers. I saw Google and thought "Hey, this is on Slashdot so that really says thanks to Slashdot."

    --
    Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
  55. Why Opera and not anything else? Well... where to by diorcc · · Score: 5, Informative

    ..start??

    -First to have true tab support, reaaally fast tabs not chunky pieces of flab. Hit Ctrl+N one minute, you end up with a bazillion tabs. Yeah you can fill all those up and use them. Try clicking (shift+clicking) to open new links everywhere.. And then use the smart Ctrl+Tab to browse the last viewed pages, or all of them easily. You can easily figure out which page is what (from the titles) in a list of 500. How more pages would you want to fit in a browser?? Aside for that, really cool cascading or even tiling (right click on the tab for more options)

    -Actually, if you're new and learning right click everywhere and pay close attention to the options revealed. The true power of the Opera is under the hood. And that is the OPTIONS everywhere. The older Opera versions had the options more out front, but that seemed to scare a lot of "lazy/zombie" users away, thus the new slick interface with more options as you go was created.

    -Just think about this, compare the flab of FF or anything else to the slickness and tightness of Opera. So tiny, yet so many features well integrated. Thats one thing that adds to security, WITHOUT limiting any plugin possibilities. The set features are good, they have a reason of existance. If you need anything extra, all you have to do is know java, and you can stick it right in the interface WHEREVER you want it. For example, I have a bunch of applets here and there, one as a dictionary to pick up German words and give me English/Greek equivs. You could make anything, its up to you.

    -If you're more of a seeker, once examining of all the interfaced options, go ahead and dig in the O dir, view all the ini files and see what you can do there. Opera's options are everywhere, left and right. But the idiot, even if he stared, would see nothing but pixels.

    -I read a lot of silly comments like, oh, why can't opera have X behavior, X keys, X mouse gestures X whatever... Geez folks, are you that dumb? I was expecting to find nerds on here, not a bunch of hillbillies :P All the above and a lot more can be changed and defined in the said options/prefences, just look around! Getting to know Opera will only benefit you, your surfing speed, and yields from the web.

    -E-mail, and irc client also included. The e-mail client is more than I could ask for as far as e-mail goes. I read something about Active-X, and was like WTF??? E-mail was supposed to be, and SHOULD be text, and just text, no stupid html, with active x and active S and whatever else could bloat it more and make it a whole lot buggier. Opera's mail client is really powerful, smart and above all tiny and integrated. All in one sort of thing. The irc client is basic, but what else do you expect from a browser? Opera is basically your working swiss army knife, but don't expect a generous spoon for irc, why bload the code? Its pretty good for when you only have 5 mins, and want to use e-mail, irc and browse on someone else's comp.

    -As mentioned somewhere above, opera can still run on my old crappy 333 laptop, FAST and efficiently. I barely notice the difference between my AMD 64 3400 and that piece of shit. (Except for screen size, and well, you can't overtab it.)

    -But thats not all, I have been following and watching the behavior of those behind opera. And their stance on things. For example, the whole of Opera as a team are strong believers that all the options/prefences should be in the hands of the users. After reading the really dumb comments above, I must say, that if you don't like that overmentioned placed google search box. GO AHEAD AND REMOVE IT. I don't see why you would, since it IS USEFUL, but if you really want to... You have to dissasemble Opera, then find string x.... NO All you have to effing do is right click on the said box, and do.. remove from toolbar. TADA. Now you can go ahead and replace that with Yahoo, Xoo, Kaboo, kazavooo Whatever the heck you use. (I personally use fravia's set)

    Sometimes slashdot is funny, but sometimes it is truly

  56. blantent karma whore by Neuroelectronic · · Score: 0

    how pathetic is the slashdot community that something like this gets modded funny? wait I have one! Linux Rules and Micro$oft druels!

  57. On behalf of the other Opera users by whitehatlurker · · Score: 1

    I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our new Google overlords and welcome their money ... unh support.

    --
    .. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
  58. Re:Why Opera and not anything else? Well... where by daddyrief · · Score: 0

    Amen brother. This is the only browser i've gotten customized PERFECTLY. Opera, man, its the way to go.

    --
    "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." -Thomas Jefferson
  59. Opera does RSS (almost) right by grikdog · · Score: 1

    Almost as well as FeedDemon or NetNewsWire, depending on your platform. A few things skimped or just wrong, but mainly right and very much better than Firefox's headlines-only "Smart Bookmarks". In other words, Opera includes an email-style Description panel, and implements external urls (i.e., pictures, mainly podcasts I didn't check). That's nice. Otherwise, it's so darned foreign (like driving on the left side of the road), that I haven't taken the time to learn it yet. I've also got cookie-foot, which makes it hard to slog out of the Camino swamps to drier pastures. But I do like Opera. Just slowly.

    --
    ``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
  60. Two reasons to use Opera by vmalloc_ · · Score: 1

    1) SPEED. People love to say "it goes fast even on old equipment". Opera goes faster on fast equipment too. Firefox still has that annoying lag time when you click the back button, and Opera is nearly instantaneous. It is more memory efficient too, so it lasts for a longer time before a restart. It reloads to your previous position on crashes (which almost never happen). It can save your old pages you were viewing too, so if you close the browser, it will load them all back up. On benchmarks, Opera takes almost every single benchmark, as is shown here: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

    2) Configurability. Opera is configurable as hell. Basically everything on the browser can be changed. Don't like the skin? Change it. Don't like the status bar on top? Move it to the bottom, or turn it off completely. Don't like the fast forward button? Get rid of it. It's this that gives you a highly functional browsing experience, while at the same time taking up a lot less space so you get more web page viewing. Choice is power.

    The one down point that people like to point out is that occasionally Opera won't work on a page. The opera guys have spent years engineering little differences out of the engine, and that almost never happens anymore. And the thing is, that will start to change when a lot of people start using the browser. That, and I mean even Firefox misses on some of those gross IE designed garbage pages.

    Look, I know a lot of people here are set on Firefox exclusively because its open source and blahdeblah, but don't decide your browser on nontechnocratic grounds. I've been surfing the net for over 10 years, and I remember when Opera 3 was out. Opera used to be a slow, buggy peice of crap that didn't work on anything. It's now an incredible browser, and it blows the competition away.

    In short, just try it.

    1. Re:Two reasons to use Opera by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 1
      Look, I know a lot of people here are set on Firefox exclusively because its open source and blahdeblah, but don't decide your browser on nontechnocratic grounds.
      1. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.
      2. I value the liberty free software gives me. Why should that not affect my decisions?
    2. Re:Two reasons to use Opera by diorcc · · Score: 1

      Very nice, didn't know there was an actual benchmarking site ;) Yup, looks like Opera even beats lynx in some :P

    3. Re:Two reasons to use Opera by fbjon · · Score: 1

      You mean you're using Firefox because you can make it a better browser for everyone. That's admirable, but that desn't make Firefox the better browser. Maybe it will be someday, though, and I guess that is your goal. For now I'll stick mostly to Opera, for software quality reasons. And no, I'm not trolling, I'm merely making the point that a superior ideology of a group of devs doesn't automatically mean they'll make superior software. Exceptionally (!) high quality software like Opera is something I'll gladly use, regardless of ideology.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    4. Re:Two reasons to use Opera by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 1
      You didn't understand. Firefox is the better browser today -- for me, because I let politics affect this. You obviously think that is stupid, but please let me make up my own mind. This was my point from the beginning.

      And no, I'm not a Firefox developer, never have been, and probably never will be.

    5. Re:Two reasons to use Opera by fbjon · · Score: 1
      Ah, in other words, you prefer a libre/Free program over a commercial package, as a first criterium. I happen to prefer quality as first and Free as second criterium, with price as a limiting factor. :)

      Besides, I bought Opera a long time ago, and it has only gotten better since then. Some of the best 22 euro (student discount) I've ever spent .

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
  61. Yeah but.. by zeropointentity · · Score: 1

    ...when searching just 'browser', mozilla.org shows up #1 and Opera is bumped to #4. Not only that but Mozilla.org has some fancy extra links that no one else has, not even Opera.

  62. Straight to Mountain View? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Google queries get sent to London, sorry.

  63. Screw Opera and IE by Wontsomebodypleaseth · · Score: 0

    Screw Opera Long Live Firefox and its glorius open sourceness And ?DEATH TO IE!!!

    --
    If You can read this sig you are on the internet
  64. Also... by vain+gloria · · Score: 1

    Don't forget search terms or mistyped URLs entered into the address bar.

    Matched up with all the other data they collect those Google databases on all of us must be pretty damn full!

  65. Misleading Slashdot story again... by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
    "All made possible because Opera signed a search referral deal with Google."
    They signed that deal years ago! See that search box in Firefox and IE? Opera introduced that, IIRC.

    According to the announcement, the thing is that Opera has gotten a better search deal with Google than before, so I guess it's partly true. But paid search referrals have been there for ages.

    --
    Clever signature text goes here.
  66. Works great on OS X by Zhe+Mappel · · Score: 1
    This was a very pleasant surprise, snappier at rendering than either Safari or Firefox on a G3 iBook.

    While the UI is somewhat cluttered, most of its features can be tamed or turned off.

    I'm impressed.

  67. Can't We Use Both? by Namegduf+Live · · Score: 1

    I don't see why we have to choose browsers at all, really. I use both FF and Opera (IE as well for a couple of sites that need it, but I don't like using it) and have no problem with it like that. FF is my preferred browser, due to its easy to install extensions (I have weather forcasts in the menubar, Adblock, etc, it's heavily customised), installable search engines, and UI, but I can use Opera as well, for the voice commands.

    For those who go on about Opera being first, I don't care what was first and what wasn't, I care about what's good now. And using both, I can say, for myself, that FF with extensions does all but the voice support as well as Opera for me, Deer Park having the same speed on the back button as Opera (one of the biggest changes). With FF Firetuned, 1.0.7 runs as fast as Opera (I have compared them side by side rendering pages). And FF's Tab Mix Plus gives it the better tab support, I think. Also, I like the way pages are rendered by Gecko over Presto.

    But there are things I can see Opera being used for, including slower systems, OSes where FF isn't implemented so well, and any sites which don't work in FF (yet to find any that will run in Opera better than FF). And the voice control is just fun to use. I say bring on the browser wars, competion drives quality up and, as part as that quality, encourages closer adherence to standards. I may be an FF fanboy, but I still want variety and alternatives.

    1. Re:Can't We Use Both? by diorcc · · Score: 1

      Wellp, you just contradicted yourself buddy. If you didn't care that FF lost the race, you wouldn't be going on about FF being "the same", its not the same, like no two oranges picked up in the wild are. I am not saying you should not use FF or anything else. But I was simply writing a long reply to all those short scorns about Opera, simply to its recognition. I've been using the thing since 95, every year more than before, until it completely replaced my need for a second browser. I still use FF where its available, for example Linux, or my university. And its fine, I'm happy I don't have to deal with a crappy browser ;) Oh and about those onyl IEable sites, yeah I hope they become extinct in the next few years, and move on to using actual standards. Isn't that what we're all fighting for? (Regardless of browser approach...)

      For those who go on about Opera being first, I don't care what was first and what wasn't, I care about what's good now. And using both, I can say, for myself, that FF with extensions does all but the voice support as well as Opera for me, Deer Park having the same speed on the back button as Opera (one of the biggest changes). With FF Firetuned, 1.0.7 runs as fast as Opera (I have compared them side by side rendering pages). And FF's Tab Mix Plus gives it the better tab support, I think. Also, I like the way pages are rendered by Gecko over Presto.
    2. Re:Can't We Use Both? by Namegduf+Live · · Score: 1

      Who said anything about a race? I wouldn't like any browser to become unavailable, the more choices the better. I also wouldn't like them to be the same, that'd be pointless (although I would like them all to support the same standards). In that sense, I wouldn't like anything to 'win the race' and put all the other browsers behind, and I also wouldn't want any to stop developing. I would like all browsers to work to similar standards so web sites are more compatible, but I would rather have many different browsers than one standard one. Oh, and to be absolutely clear, those 'short scorns' are just my experience. Which is best for me might not be best for you. Use Opera, use FF, use any other, the only thing I would recommend is try a good few to find out which suits you best, and be ready to try a newer verson of a competitor once it comes out. Personally, FF is good for me, but I have Opera as well and use it whenever I feel like it, as it is also a great browser. I currently dislike IE a lot, but I will try 7 when it becomes available.

      Oh, and silightly contrary to my 'bring on the browser wars' comment, while I welcome competion between browsers, I think the fans of each should focus less on arguing which is best and turn their attention toward all of them vs IE. IE needs to lose it's massive market share, not essencially all of it, but enough so IE only sites do become extinct. You know, maybe this money could go on getting a few vendors to ship alternative browsers with the computers, perhaps not as the default browser if they don't want to confuse the sort of user who thinks IE is the internet, but available as an icon on the desktop if they just click it.

  68. It will be rock-solid before it's popular by porneL · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Opera 8 supports all of CSS2.1 with the exception of: The visibility: collapse and white-space: pre-line property values [1]

    Opera's internal buils are very close to passing Acid2.

    Opera 9, AKA Merlin, is adding XSLT, designMode, more CSS3 stuff and "HTML5".

  69. All searches are there by porneL · · Score: 1

    Type "n stuff" in addressbar and you get google news. In search.ini you can add your own. Find Opera Search ini editor to do this for you.

  70. Deja Vu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just to make my point, I installed Firefox and viewed some pages in it and in Internet Explorer side by side. All of the pages validated in both markup and CSS. Sure enough, Firefox was slightly different - not enough to ruin usability, but enough to make the page fail to render as intended in Internet Explorer. Now, Firefox may be more correct; it's not for me to say. What I can say is that using Firefox would give me an inferior browsing experience, because I want pages to render the way they were intended.

    1. Re:Deja Vu by santouras · · Score: 1

      haha, good point. All browsers have their quirks, and a page can validate perfectly but not render correctly. They both might impliment the standards "perfectly" but still render things differently. Why? Cause even in the most stringent of standards, there will always be places where its up to the implimentor to interperet things as they see, and they will always interperet these differently. Opera is not making this lunge as a desperate attempt for market share. They know they have a browser that LOTS of people rate very highly. I've seen heaps of reviews for opera where the only bad points they mention is the lack of rich text editing, which is being resolved in Opera9 (yay!), and the banner ads. They are simply removing the stumbling blocks that have held people back from using what is the most fully featured (in its default installation) web browser available.

      --
      my utility belt tells me its to the bar batman
  71. $30 Million for Mozilla Foundation by g8oz · · Score: 1

    The article, if you read it, mentions that the Mozilla Foundation stands to make $30 million a year for making Google the default search engine in Firefox.

  72. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  73. Re:Why Opera and not anything else? Well... where by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As mentioned somewhere above, opera can still run on my old crappy 333 laptop, FAST and efficiently. I barely notice the difference between my AMD 64 3400 and that piece of shit. (Except for screen size, and well, you can't overtab it.)

    My experience is that the only really fast rendering engine with modern CSS support is Gecko (Firefox). Presto (Opera) becomes dog-slow on my old PIII/450 laptop when trying to render a complex CSS page with CSS mouseovers and what not.