I don't think there's anything wrong with Opera's business model.

Don't Firefox also get money through content partners (eg: Google Search?).

I'm aware that you have had to pay for Opera before - Wii points on the Wii, and also for the DS/DS Lite version of the browser.

Opera have always been at the cutting edge of web-standards. They're always good with the ACID tests.

There mobile versions are excellent and render stuff quickly and efficiently on all the mobile phones I've used and played with.