Opera CEO on Devices, Linux, and Web 2.0

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has an interview with Jon S. von Tetzchner, co-founder and CEO of Opera Software, on the growing importance of device computing, Linux in the device space, browsers as an interface platform for Linux devices, and how future WHAT standards like WebForms 2.0 and Canvas will make the Web more usable on mobile computing devices of tomorrow."

Comments

WHAT is Ajax...?

[TopSpin]

Simultaneously both a question and a statement!

The WHAT working draft Web Applications 1.0 certainly looks like Ajax with its XMLHttpRequest, drag and drop and other Ajaxish stuff.

Re:WHAT is Ajax...?

[AKAImBatman]

Actually, it looks to me like a stripped down HTML DOM and XMLHttpRequest implementation combined with several "standard" components of questionable necessity. For example, I can understand the need for a "datagrid" component, but why is a calendar component considered important enough to make a requirement?

Also, why are TCP Connections considered part of the specification core? IMHO, accessing direct connections via scripting represents a HUGE security hazard. What does this offer that isn't better offered by XMLHttpRequest? (Which really should be renamed XMLUrlRequest, considering that it can do more than HTTP.) If any webapps are complex enough to require a TCP connection, they should really become an application instead.

Re:WHAT is Ajax...?

[Anonymous Coward]

why is a calendar component considered important enough to make a requirement?

What's your alternative - table tags? ;)

It's a question of semantics and structure. Because the browser knows it's a calendar rather than a table means the browser can provide a better interface. Obviously there are simple things like "how do I select multiple days" and "Can I upload .ics files to this calendar?" but there's also integration possibilities. Opera has browser / email / appointments -- so what if you could right-click a web calendar and have it added to your appointments (the current download file way isn't quite as integrated as it could be). You could even have existing appointments overlayed on web calendars so you knew you were planning to do something that day already.

Because you're telling the browser your intentions more clearly (rather than just saying "table!") it opens it up for programmers to improvise and create.

Not just a web browser

[LordMyren]

With widgets (new in Opera9 Tech-Preview 2, examples here), opera is not only a web browser, its truly an application platform, capable of running independent programs. The current examples are true to the namesake, widgets, little gizmo's to show time &what not, but its the first time the graphical web is begin used as more than a browser page.

A little bit of polish is needed, but basically it's the only platform available for developing real SVG applications.

I hope Opera attempts to bring some real conformance to this entirely new class of web application. If it gets too proprietary its useless.

Myren

Re:Not just a web browser

[baadger]

One of the bits I love most from this interview is that Opera have a build that will run from a floppy (without compression, mail, news, rss or irc compiled in). Awesome.

Re:Not just a web browser

[AKAImBatman]

>a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNX">QNX used to advertise in a similar fashion. They had this "complete OS on a floppy disk" download that contained a full desktop environment, Spyglass Webbrowser, Towers of Hanoi game, and a few other utilities. (I believe it also had complete Ethernet and Modem code, but only one or the other on a given disk.) To use the OS, you simply put the disk in the drive and rebooted. QNX automatically detected the VESA hooks in Protected Mode (a highly underused feature at the time) and kicked your system into a graphical shell.

All in all it was very impressive.

Re:Not just a web browser

[AKAImBatman]

I think it's nice that they can make a cut down version that small, but who will ever use it?

No one. The floppy disk merely provides a nice frame of reference that directly contrasts the out-of-control growth in modern programs and data files. Given how useless floppies are these days, most people would be amazed if you could fit the equivalent of 50 megs of Desktop data into 1.44 megs. The floppy suspended on a rotating pedestal thus serves as a visualization of how small that really is.

Personally, I think that's kind of big. 1.44 megs could fit 368 different 4 kilobyte games! (Story)

Re:Not just a web browser

[LordMyren]

ya, i wget'd opera four times before i realized the download for TP2 really was only 4.0 MB.

shows in the runtime too. 224 mb linux laptop and i can still run 200 tabs fine. lightweight, well built, nicely async design. if for no other reason, i use opera because its the only thing that works.

Re:Not just a web browser

[:jax:]

Our smallest client is smaller than that, at 55KB (though the full-featured Opera Mini client is just below 100KB).

The reason why we need them so small is that size matters when on phones and embedded devices, and as phones get more powerful there are other devices coming in on the low end. As these devices not only come with little memory but also usually very slow processors (to save both money and battery), speed matters too. Thus we optimise for speed and memory, and we optimise pretty hard.

Mobile Computing Sucks

[pHatidic]

There isn't one single program capable of running on every single cellphone today. Not one. Even if you could get past the different screen sizes, processors, and operating systems (which is almost if not entirely impossible) then you run up against the carriers who turn of Bluetooth and other services to prevent you from buying third party ringtones. I have seen the future of mobile computing, and it is not on cellphones.

Re:Opera

[mac123]

Opera Mini is running fine on my Treo 650...I grabbed the java files from here

Don't believe the claims that it won't work on t650 from Verizon...it works fine.

Re:Question

[TubeSteak]

Actually, the answer was sortof at the end of TFA

Q25. In a quantitative sense, how significant are embedded and mobile to Opera from a business perspective at this point?

A25. We've been [deriving] two thirds from embedded and mobile, and one third from desktop.

Q26. Of revenue?

A26b. Yes.

Q26c. What about profit?

A26c. We haven't been providing profit data from the different sections. The way we see it, they're intertwined. To be able to make a good embedded browser, it needs to be a good desktop browser.

He's just stalling

[JourneyExpertApe]

Who cares about devices, linux, and Web 2.0? I want to hear about swimming the Atlantic Ocean.

My favorite quote

[imess]

I'm kind of proud of that; if Microsoft fails, you have a rescue system with Linux and Opera.

That's nothing

[CarpetShark]

Entire operating systems, including TCP/IP stacks and browsers, can run from a single 1.44MB floppy disk. I believe QNX is one example, unless I'm thinking of another OS. Don't let bloated things like Windows and Linux make you believe that it you can't fit a desktop in less space.

WebForms 2.0?

[Dasch]

WebForms is a fundamentally flawed specification. The data model and the presentation are combined, making it pretty inflexible. I've been playing around with XForms for a some time now, and while it's definitely very different, it's much more powerful than WebForms can ever be.

Re:Question

[rm69990]

Opera has a partnership with Google, so everytime you do a Google search from the Opera toolbar, Google pays Opera. This is where the money for the desktop version is coming from.

Please, it's time for a news category upgrade!

[Samawi I]

The number of Opera stories on Slashdot has now gone way beyond the point where a dedicated Opera category/icon for Slashdot is needed. Even Mozilla and Netscape each form a subcategory on Slashdot, and they could arguably go under a single one.

The same goes for Qt, which always ends up under the KDE category, even when the story has nothing to do with KDE...

What about Dashboard?

[Kelson]

its the first time the graphical web is begin used as more than a browser page.

Umm... what about Dashboard widgets in Mac OS X tiger? They also are built out of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (in that case, using Safari's WebKit rather than Opera's engine). In fact, the main differences seem to be that they use a different config file and the zipped bundles use a different structure.

There's been some discussion on the Opera forums as to compatibility, and last I looked the running theory was that it should be really simple to convert most widgets between Dashboard format and Opera format.

What is new is that this is (AFAIK) the first platform of its type that works on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Dashboard is Mac-only, Konfabulator is Windows/Mac (and I beleive it's possible to write Windows-only or Mac-only Konfabulator -- excuse me, Yahoo Widgets). But you can write an Opera widget and run it on Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, etc. Add in the fact that Opera's big in the mobile market, and you've got a very wide non-web platform availble using web technologies.

Fridge?

[flamingnight]

This is the part that caught my attention:

(stuff about Linux on a fridge at IBM)
Q23b. Really? To look up recipes?

A23b. It's kind of cool. It will actually recognize what's in there, and that kind of thing, with barcode reading and other technologies. I have to be careful not to say too much, but a lot of it is based on Linux, and they're using Opera.

I want to hear more about this. It would be so very cool to be able to connect to my fridge (via email, web, SMS, whatever) while at the grocery store, and find out what I need more of.

greedy mobile operators

[wwmedia]

in there quest for ever larger profits (as if making billions is not good enough)

the mobile phone operators (on whose networks these devices run on) are killing inovation and use of networked services

i mean what good is having a mobile with the latest opera browser if that "really cool widget i want" will cost me a fortune to get at 10 a megabyte (yes vodafone and Co. do rip us off blindly!!!
i mean come on! on a broadband connection i can get 20 gigibytes of data for same price, which is ALOT of heavy browsing)

Opera NOT promoting software patents

[hkmwbz]

"So Opera (we) clearly side with the pro-patent lobby."

Um no, if you actually bother to read it, you will see that the first round was won by those opposing software patents, and the second round was also won by those opposing software patents. Therefore, "we" are those opposting software patents.

Indeed, you can read more about Opera Software's position on software patents. Opera is against software patents.