Why Opera thrives in Europe’s last dictatorship
qz.com
qz.com
Sorry for being off topic, but it infuriates me when people screw up the web this much.
-webkit-text-size-adjust: none;
I made a userstyle that fixes this problem on all the sites that have it:
And no, I don't know the bug number or if it's tracked or if it's been fixed. I just deal with it and hope it will be fixed eventually.
I use it nearly every day, and it's really annoying how some major websites (cough Google Apps) don't support it. It is very competitive on html5test.com (beats out Firefox) and works really well for everyday browsing.
You don't have to be socialist to use Opera...
Actually, Opera can use a (Opera operated) proxy to scale the images down, compress html, css and js. This feature is called "Opera Turbo", I think, and is unique to Opera (browser and company) - at least as a built in from the start.
The second reason is Opera Mini, which can run on "dumbphones" and is a fast, modern browser, which can use "Opera Turbo" too. People there didn't have access to newer hardware, stuck with "dumbphones" were essentially abandoned by everyone else - only Opera was there for them.
Third reason was Opera's good support for cryptography, which is nice to have when you know every byte you send is archived and can (and will be) used against you if you happen to become inconvenient.
So, to summarize: your summary is inaccurate, misleading and not necessary.
1. Opera has also option to show only cached images and option to load selected image.
2. Chrome has not option to disable images.
It did have a hard time recovering from the early backlash against it for not being open-source, belying the involvement and contributions of Opera engineers to the open standards web.
So I think it showed the ads for about 6 years? Just curious.
> Up to this point, Opera was trialware and had to be purchased after the trial period ended. Version 5.0 (released in 2000) saw the end of this requirement. Instead, Opera became ad-sponsored, displaying advertisements to users who had not paid for it.[25] Later versions of Opera gave the user the choice of seeing banner ads or targeted text advertisements from Google. With version 8.5 (released in 2005) the advertisements were removed entirely and primary financial support for the browser came through revenue from Google (which is by contract Opera's default search engine).
So 2000 through 2005.
This seems to be borne out by the more specialized History of the Opera web browser page:
> Opera 5, released on December 6, 2000, was the first version which was ad-sponsored instead of having a trial period.
[snip]
> Version 8.5 was released on September 20, 2005, Opera announced that their browser would be available free of charge and without advertisements from then onwards, although the company still sells support contracts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Opera_web_browse...
> Later versions of Opera gave the user the choice of seeing banner ads or targeted text advertisements from Google
is suspicious - I remember that when Opera was showing ads it had an ad bar above (or below) address bar. So maybe I got served ads but didn't consider them as such.
Or maybe I just idealize my youth :)
Right, I forgot. One question: isn't loading of selected things used for any element, not just images? So I could disable loading of header div and such?
For me the crucial difference is that Opera could toggle between loading images/cached images with a single keypress: 'i'. These days you have to press Shift-i. Toggling CSS on/off is Shift-g. Having this so easily accessible makes a big difference. I don't know how to do this in Chrome. Looking quickly through the menu, I can't even find the options for this.
I have been using Opera since its "ad-supported" days. It was bundled with one of those PC magazines that gave out free software/shareware for the bandwidth challenged in those days and fell in love instantly. Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there up to this day, and I still find things to configure and customise to this day (now on Opera 12.10). Opera also provides the user with an option to install itself as a portable version which I found very cool. It is also very light on PC resources (YMMV -- anecdata)
I also find it very annoying that a looot of websites do not support this browser.... at all despite its being on par (if not better) in most if not all browser tests (I heard they lagged behind on the most recent ones).
Opera Mini is blazingly fast on not-so-smartphones (used it on the Nokia ASHA series) and Android smartphones as well (anecdata -- my experience). It beats out Nokia's own browser which incidentally has adopted the "Turbo" architecture for its own browsers.
IMO the article does great disservice to Opera's technical/technological advanced capabilities by ingnoring all of those and solely focussing the article around socialism and dictatorship and internet speeds ( [almost] creating a straw-man in the process). Booo!
And for those wondering about Opera's business model, see here [1].
[1] - http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2011/01/03/how-does-ope...
It was the best browser out there for a long time without a doubt. While in west people used IE since it was free, people in east didn't care whether software is paid or not, they just used cracked versions[sidenote 1]. If copy of Office was about as expensive as your monthly income, it's understandable. So it was normal there, and not really frowned upon. Even when FF came out, the Opera was much better[sidenote 2]. But Firefox erupted in the west and as it evolved it found its way to the east. Opera stayed popular in many countries because a) it was still great b) people were used to it c) it still spread by a word of mouth. But as the "Internet" hit new generations, Firefox slowly took over. Fast forward to Chrome and its never ending multi-billion campaign. Ads in TV, radio. Billboards and posters all over the place. Banners (or even feature blocking) on most visited sites out there (.google.com/, youtube.com, ...). All that with comeback of ie5+ only sites (now for chrome of course) meant that Opera's user base slowly evaporates.
It's quite sad really, especially when I see it here on HN since Chrome is dumb-dumb browser meant for people who use the Internet for the first time while Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there. Not better (when you consider the extensibility of FF/Chrome) but one would think it would appeal to "hackers".
PS: Of course the "turbo" aspect played its role but I think it was just a side thin on desktop.
PPS: Firefox had unreasonable amount of money in advertising as well, but I think it mostly hurt IE, not Opera.
sidenote 1: Cracked software meant an easy way to spread viruses. One of the biggest/best antivirus vendors that still exists are from that place and era (Avast, AVG, ESET, Kaspersky).
sidenote 2: If Opera had become free before Firefox was released, I think it would have dominated the west market as well (at that time at least).
Especially right about "Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there" I still find things to configure and customise to this day... and I have been using it since its "ad-supported" days.