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Some thoughts about the free Opera

Published on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

Finally, the Opera web browser is for free. That means no more ads, no nothing. I expressed my opinions about Opera almost six months ago, and except for the getting paid-part, I think the other arguments still stand.

However, what’s good about this is that Opera, most likely, will see an increase of users, and this is what I like. If web-standards compliant web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Opera gain more and more market share, this will force web developers to write valid and correct code, instead of just relying on Internet Explorer’s error handling for code that should’ve never seen the light of the day.

I can just imagine projects where there will be conversations like:

- My code only works in Internet Explorer! Crying
- That’s because you didn’t do the job properly
the first time! Stop writing such sloppy code
to begin with, and learn your profession!

I guess the future will tell…

Anyway, if you like Opera, rock on! Download away and have a good time!

Posted in Developing, General | 7 comments

7 comments

Jeroen Mulder
September 21st, 2005 at 11:17

Definitely a great move by Opera Software. I just wonder how they can afford it. I suppose the premium support and other services and products are their core-business revenue-wise now?

But yes. Very good move.
Robert Nyman - author
September 21st, 2005 at 11:25

Jeroen,

I think it was a necessary move to to ever have any impact on the desktop web browser market.

I also read this: OPERA DESKTOP GOES FREE that should explain the revenue part.
Jens
September 21st, 2005 at 12:14

If you are a web developer you might check out some extensions, see the comments at my post.

http://jedisthlm.com/2005/09/20/really-free-opera/
Steve Williams
September 21st, 2005 at 12:27

Now its ad free, I can see more people using it - I think their approach to page zoom is the best so far - it works on every page I’ve tried - but it severely impacts rendeing speed, don’t know if it’s just my machines?

Purely for that feature I’ve been thinking of installing it on my mum’s ibook, the ad free aspect will probably tip the balance… whether she’ll ever use it over the excellent Safari is another story of course…

Guess I also ought to fix my valid but fragile blog layout to work in Opera…
Robert Nyman - author
September 22nd, 2005 at 9:14

Jens,

Thanks for the tips (although I will probably never start using Opera, unless they do major changes to their interface).

Steve,

Yes, I also really do like their page zoom feature.
When it comes to affecting the rendering speed, I really don’t know if that’s the case.

I just glanced at your web site with Opera and it looked good to me. Or is it something I’m missing?
Steve Williams
September 22nd, 2005 at 10:48

On my *wonktel* box, zooming layouts in Opera makes scrolling jerky, perhaps it’s just my setup?

Thanks for checking! My main site is fine (AFAIK) it’s my CCCP blog that suffers (I’ve changed my link to reflect). I had a play with a more graphical style with vertical centering and dynamic text replacement - Opera won’t wrap the images and the layout flakes… It’s my fault, I need to tweak the CSS to be more robust, it falls apart in *any* browser if text is scaled

I will fix it once I decide a direction for where I want to take the blog - with all you guys doing such a fine job, I don’t want to be another :me too: and purely corporate is so dull only SE’s will read it
Robert Nyman - author
September 22nd, 2005 at 10:59

Steve,

Ah, yes, I see what you mean in the CCCP blog.
And don’t worry, I also have the “me too”-feeling from time to time (and thanks for the compliment).

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