"Most reasons have been mentioned such as 1) no one's paying for a browser anymore, 2) no one likes adware, and 3) this is an OSS place."
I have already addressed most of these points.
1. Opera is not just a browser, and it has massive geek appeal. And people do pay for Opera, otherwise it would be going out of business. And no, the Slashdot story insinuating that Opera was in big trouble was not correct. Opera's revenues are higher than ever. People have been paying for Opera for nearly ten years. Don't kid yourself with your lame open-source fantasies. People even pay money for Linux distributions, even though they can be downloaded for free. Why? Convenience. Opera offers a convenient way to install a smaller download than Firefox, with all features available right away. I'm not going to waste my time with crappy extensions and building my own browser when Opera has already done it for me.
2. Slashdot has ads...
3. So what? I've already mentioned several closed-source companies that are hyped on Slashdot. And Opera is available for Linux, too.
"In addition, you answered your own question. So 4), people want something to beat MS and throw their support behind it. Opera's been around forever, and has never mounted any contest against MS. Firefox just hit 1.0, and it's stealing share from MS. Ergo,/. likes firefox, not opera."
There is nothing logical about Firefox stealing market share from IE, therefore Slashdot must ignore Opera, or spread anti-Opera FUD. Nintendo is a has-been "evil empire", yet it get lots of positive coverage on Slashdot. It is losing out to Microsoft in some areas. According to your logic, I would have to say "ergo, Slashdot does not like Nintendo", but this has got nothing to do with it.
You are basically trying to contradict all the points I mentioned in my post, without actually giving any substance to your arguments. I've mentioned several closed-source companies that are hyped by Slashdot. Why does Slashdot spread FUD about Opera? It's an all-round "nice player" and has stayed that way for nearly ten years.
Who cares about ethics? Valve certainly doesn't. Making their customers jump through hoops to play the single player part of the game, and all, while pirates happily download it and play it without activation.
Yeah, ethics... I've heard it's only for private individuals, and not for corporations these days.
Opera's standards compliance is just fine. The guy who invented CSS works for Opera, actually.
That is not the point. People don't pay for standards compliance anyway.
Why pay for Opera? It offers loads of useful features, tightly integrated, in a small package. Not everyone has the time to spend hours setting up extensions for features that come out of the box, and work seamlessly together, in Opera. Extensions aren't exactly known for their seamless integration with each other.
Oh yeah, and it's small and fast and doesn't make your lower to mid-end system screech to a halt, even with 30 pages open:)
This is moving in a direction where you don't buy the game and own it, so you can play as often as you want. It's moving towards pay per play... I mean, come on! What's the point in having online activation for single player? It doesn't make sense today. But it might, if they are aiming for 3P.
I guess the main point someone was trying to convey was that he bought this thing, and when it didn't work as something it isn't supposed to work like (a PDA), he handed it back.
I guess the comment about the warning you have to read was just a satirical jab at how helpless he appears when he buys a handheld gaming system and thinks it should act like a PDA.
Funny how a self-professed Nintendo zealot crushes your arguments to dust and comes across as far more unbiased than you do. He explains why he likes the DS, while you are on the defensive, explaining why the PSP's sucky battery time doesn't matter to you. Excuses, excuses, excuses...
You go on about how it's all a gimmick and blah di blah di blah. Seems to be rather popular for a gimmick, don't you think? Sold out, in short supply, and all that?
It's strange, though. Closed-source companies like Nintendo and id Software get plenty of coverage, and are almost worshipped by large parts of the Slashdot crowd, it seems.
So I can't imagine why Slashdot would ignore Opera. So, it's closed-source, but it is also "the third browser", and has been around since the days of Mosaic. And as I said, Slashdot generates a lot of hype for other closed-source companies, including Apple.
Funny that. This impatient potential customer might actually turn into a pirate instead. Requiring online activation for single player is an insult to me as a cusomter, and it causes me problems. It seems that they are more concerned about pretending to do something about piracy, when, in fact, it only inconveniences their customers. Pirates will just use a cracked version, and it's rather tempting, I must say.
And I haven't bought the game, actually. After this, I am very hesitant to support Valve with my money. If I'm going to play HL2, I might just download the cracked version for free.
When did Valve lie? When it was supposed to be out at a certain date. When they said it was complete, but the leaked version showed that it wasn't (the releaser even taunted them for it). When they said that the E3 demo was the actual game. It wasn't. The "AI" was pre-recorded.
It's Valve's fault because they require online activation for single-player, which is completely unnecessary, and as proven, a nuisance to people who pay for the game. Pirates remain unaffected.
This matters. It's part of a pattern - corporations and their attitude towards customers. We are evil, we don't know our own good. We need to be whipped around, or we'll steal. Corporations want to control us, they want to limit our freedom, either by lobbying for citizen-hostile laws, or by doing things like trying to decide on what kind of software the customer is allowed to install, or forcing the customer to jump through hoops to be able to use the product he or she just bought.
DMCA, for example? This is a serious problem. This is yet another step towards even more corporate control. We are worth nothing to them as individuals. Only as good sheep are we worth anything. We only exist to serve corporations. Or that's the way they'd like it to be anyway.
Recommended reading: Gangs of America - a historical view on corporations and their rise to power.
From the moment I heard that even single player would require online activation, I knew it would be a punch in the face of those who actually pay for the game. There are many reasons why this could lead to problems, such as proxies/firewalls, and what happens in many years when you want to take a trip down memory lane? Will the activation servers still be up then?
And now it is even clearer that this is nothing but an insult to those who actually buy games instead of pirating them. Who are inconvenienced by this? Certainly not pirates. They download a cracked version anyway. This is apparently supposed to prevent piracy, but it obviously fails miserably!
No, the real losers here, again, are customers who actually paid for the game. They are the ones who need to connect to the Internet to activate the game. They are the ones who have been stuck all day, unable to activate the game, even for single player!
I held off buying Half-Life 2 exactly because of this online activation nonsense, and I was right in doing so. I hope to play the game, but I am very hesitant to give my money to a company like Valve, a company which lies to and deceives its customers, and adds hurdles that do nothing but inconvenience them, while pirates are completely unaffected.
If I sound like a troll, it's because I am extremely disappointed, and I am angry at Valve for being so stupid as to think that they can prevent piracy by forcing their customers to jump through hoops. I am angry because this is the way the industry is headed, and I don't like it.
Now games have started trying to decide for you which software to have installed (Doom 3 vs. various CD image programs), and they want you to activate it online, even for single-player... This is how the PC gaming industry will ultimately kill itself. By basically punching its customers in the face, while pirates remain unaffected.
Opera's available for the Nokia 6600, which has 6 MB RAM. And it is a full web browser.
Face it, Gecko is bloated compared to Presto. Even Opera for PC, with a built-in e-mail client, newsreader, chat client and RSS reader, is far smaller than Firefox.
Can't you just accept the fact that I find Firefox's UI to be unintuitive, buggy and unpredictable?
I find it to be predictable and handy when Opera opens the last active page, rather than some random page I opened at some point. End of discussion. You can't convince me that you are right, and I can't convince you that I am right. But the simple fact remains that Opera's UI works far better than Firefox's for me. Accept it and move on.
Geez, now I remember one of the reasons why Firefox is getting a bad reputation in some places... Firefox zealots refuse to let you get away with it if you dare to criticize their browser...
Slashdot Mirror
1. Opera is not just a browser, and it has massive geek appeal. And people do pay for Opera, otherwise it would be going out of business. And no, the Slashdot story insinuating that Opera was in big trouble was not correct. Opera's revenues are higher than ever. People have been paying for Opera for nearly ten years. Don't kid yourself with your lame open-source fantasies. People even pay money for Linux distributions, even though they can be downloaded for free. Why? Convenience. Opera offers a convenient way to install a smaller download than Firefox, with all features available right away. I'm not going to waste my time with crappy extensions and building my own browser when Opera has already done it for me.
2. Slashdot has ads...
3. So what? I've already mentioned several closed-source companies that are hyped on Slashdot. And Opera is available for Linux, too.
There is nothing logical about Firefox stealing market share from IE, therefore Slashdot must ignore Opera, or spread anti-Opera FUD. Nintendo is a has-been "evil empire", yet it get lots of positive coverage on Slashdot. It is losing out to Microsoft in some areas. According to your logic, I would have to say "ergo, Slashdot does not like Nintendo", but this has got nothing to do with it.You are basically trying to contradict all the points I mentioned in my post, without actually giving any substance to your arguments. I've mentioned several closed-source companies that are hyped by Slashdot. Why does Slashdot spread FUD about Opera? It's an all-round "nice player" and has stayed that way for nearly ten years.
Yeah, ethics... I've heard it's only for private individuals, and not for corporations these days.
That is not the point. People don't pay for standards compliance anyway.
Why pay for Opera? It offers loads of useful features, tightly integrated, in a small package. Not everyone has the time to spend hours setting up extensions for features that come out of the box, and work seamlessly together, in Opera. Extensions aren't exactly known for their seamless integration with each other.
Oh yeah, and it's small and fast and doesn't make your lower to mid-end system screech to a halt, even with 30 pages open :)
This is moving in a direction where you don't buy the game and own it, so you can play as often as you want. It's moving towards pay per play... I mean, come on! What's the point in having online activation for single player? It doesn't make sense today. But it might, if they are aiming for 3P.
I guess the comment about the warning you have to read was just a satirical jab at how helpless he appears when he buys a handheld gaming system and thinks it should act like a PDA.
You go on about how it's all a gimmick and blah di blah di blah. Seems to be rather popular for a gimmick, don't you think? Sold out, in short supply, and all that?
Yawn.
It's strange, though. Closed-source companies like Nintendo and id Software get plenty of coverage, and are almost worshipped by large parts of the Slashdot crowd, it seems.
So I can't imagine why Slashdot would ignore Opera. So, it's closed-source, but it is also "the third browser", and has been around since the days of Mosaic. And as I said, Slashdot generates a lot of hype for other closed-source companies, including Apple.
There was a working crack, actually. It was pulled, but later re-released with improvements.
Funny that. This impatient potential customer might actually turn into a pirate instead. Requiring online activation for single player is an insult to me as a cusomter, and it causes me problems. It seems that they are more concerned about pretending to do something about piracy, when, in fact, it only inconveniences their customers. Pirates will just use a cracked version, and it's rather tempting, I must say.
Definitely a keeper. Where are the mods? Mod parent up!
Your success does not negate the fact that Valve has insulted its customers with this totally unnecessary activation nonsense for single-player.
They spent time and money developing this, and it does nothing but bother actual customers. Wasted money. Your money.
Next time, read my post, OK?
And I haven't bought the game, actually. After this, I am very hesitant to support Valve with my money. If I'm going to play HL2, I might just download the cracked version for free.
I guess it's faster simply because it doesn't support all the stuff that modern browsers have to worry about.
When did Valve lie? When it was supposed to be out at a certain date. When they said it was complete, but the leaked version showed that it wasn't (the releaser even taunted them for it). When they said that the E3 demo was the actual game. It wasn't. The "AI" was pre-recorded.
It's Valve's fault because they require online activation for single-player, which is completely unnecessary, and as proven, a nuisance to people who pay for the game. Pirates remain unaffected.
They are bypassing the publisher with Steam. I don't see how activating the boxed version is relevant, really.
DMCA, for example? This is a serious problem. This is yet another step towards even more corporate control. We are worth nothing to them as individuals. Only as good sheep are we worth anything. We only exist to serve corporations. Or that's the way they'd like it to be anyway.
Recommended reading: Gangs of America - a historical view on corporations and their rise to power.
This does nothing to stop piracy. There is already a working warez version out there, but it needed to be repacked because of a bug in the package.
This is nothing but a lame attempt at stopping piracy which doesn't stop pirates at all.
And now it is even clearer that this is nothing but an insult to those who actually buy games instead of pirating them. Who are inconvenienced by this? Certainly not pirates. They download a cracked version anyway. This is apparently supposed to prevent piracy, but it obviously fails miserably!
No, the real losers here, again, are customers who actually paid for the game. They are the ones who need to connect to the Internet to activate the game. They are the ones who have been stuck all day, unable to activate the game, even for single player!
I held off buying Half-Life 2 exactly because of this online activation nonsense, and I was right in doing so. I hope to play the game, but I am very hesitant to give my money to a company like Valve, a company which lies to and deceives its customers, and adds hurdles that do nothing but inconvenience them, while pirates are completely unaffected.
If I sound like a troll, it's because I am extremely disappointed, and I am angry at Valve for being so stupid as to think that they can prevent piracy by forcing their customers to jump through hoops. I am angry because this is the way the industry is headed, and I don't like it.
Now games have started trying to decide for you which software to have installed (Doom 3 vs. various CD image programs), and they want you to activate it online, even for single-player... This is how the PC gaming industry will ultimately kill itself. By basically punching its customers in the face, while pirates remain unaffected.
Um, Opera renders pages a lot better than Firefox, that's for sure. Firefox can't even render Slashdot correctly! Works perfectly in Opera.
Ooh, you are a foe now! How scary! Firefox zealots are amusing creatures indeed. Have fun with buggy extensions and security holes like IE's ActiveX :)
Yawn. Firefox zealots do get boring after a while.
Face it, Gecko is bloated compared to Presto. Even Opera for PC, with a built-in e-mail client, newsreader, chat client and RSS reader, is far smaller than Firefox.
Can't you just accept the fact that I find Firefox's UI to be unintuitive, buggy and unpredictable?
I find it to be predictable and handy when Opera opens the last active page, rather than some random page I opened at some point. End of discussion. You can't convince me that you are right, and I can't convince you that I am right. But the simple fact remains that Opera's UI works far better than Firefox's for me. Accept it and move on.
Geez, now I remember one of the reasons why Firefox is getting a bad reputation in some places... Firefox zealots refuse to let you get away with it if you dare to criticize their browser...
I like it when it behaves predictably with tabs, which it does. Firefox is totally out of sync.