Opera for free!

[az]

In the latest c't (computer magazine) is a CD which contains a code with which you can legally obtain a registration code for Opera 7 for free, and which also enables you to register Opera 8 for 8 EUR once it becomes available.

I haven't tried this yet, and I don't know if I could just give y'all the code without you having to buy the mag (because it may not be available where you live), but I find this unethical and so I don't think I'll do this. Still, if you can get the magazine where you live, this is an awesome deal (and if you understand german, this is definitely one of the best computer magazines out there).

AZ

[The PIT]

Mmm let me think about it err no thanks.

[xortam]

Gee, I though they were giving away Opera. What do they normally charge for it?

[az]

39 EUR, I think, half that for students (and i think the disabled); free program for universities etc., massive discounts for multiple licenses. Or free with banner or text ads.

AZ

[xortam]

I expected that they still gave away browsers. Do they charge similarly for FireFox and others? It's surprising that people hate IE that much that they're willing to spend that kind of money on something else. How many copies of Opera do they sell at full price?

[az]

The only company that sells desktop browsers is Opera Software (and they've done so for ten years). Firefox is given away for free.

Opera has gone public a while ago, but I cannot find any hard numbers on how many full licenses they sold. Nevertheless, you can find extensive information on their site, www.opera.com .

People pay for Opera not because they hate IE (well, some may...), but because Opera is just better for their needs (much faster, much more secure, much more customizable, hugely better usability, much more feature-rich, includes mail & chat client, newfeed aggregator, all three disabled by default in Opera 8. It has downsides of course: compatibility with badly coded pages, though this has gotten better, no ActiveX is both a plus and a minus, and Sasq will be happy to point out many WebApps won't run on Opera, but why this is is too techy for me ).

The free, ad-sponsored version is also used by many, and I must say, the google text-ad sponsoring is really very modest and doesn't even take much screen space.

In the future, the main revenue for Opera will lie in the obile market though, I think (but they have promised not to leave the desktop market).

AZ

[Jessterw]

The only company that sells desktop browsers is Opera Software (and they've done so for ten years).

Only if you are leaving out the Mac platform. The Omni Group has been selling it's Omniweb browser for years as well, and it's quite popular as well as innovative.

[az]

Oh OK. Didn't know that. Mea culpa

What rendering engine is OmniWeb based on?

AZ

[Jessterw]

Webkit, which is what Safari uses in a round-about way. Webkit itself is based on KHTML, but with a lot of extra leg-work done by Apple. And yes, I realize that means that Opera has an extra bragging point in that they also created the rendering engine their browser uses

[az]

That never was a bragging point for me. Frankly, I don't really care what rendering engine my browser uses as long as it's fast, standards compliant, compatible (an oxymoron? ) and does the things I expect of it. I use Opera because of its absolutely superior UI, and now that I've grown attached, out of habit and because I don't want to re-learn, and because I've grown used to its features.

AZ

[xortam]

The only company that sells desktop browsers is Opera Software (and they've done so for ten years). ...

Perhaps that's why they have such a relatively small user base and why site developers don't bother coding for it.

[Jessterw]

Site developers don't have to code for it if they code using standards, except for a few instances where they might have to code around a few "bugs" in how Opera handles things (largely DHTML related issues). Usually these are developers who code for IE anyhow.

But yes, the fact that the browser costs money is probably a big reason it doesn't have a larger market share. History has proven that people love cheap (free). The fact that when IE became free it beat out the far superior Netscape Navigator says it all.

[xortam]

Site developers don't have to code for it if they code using standards, except for a few instances where they might have to code around a few "bugs" in how Opera handles things (largely DHTML related issues). Usually these are developers who code for IE anyhow. ...

I should have said site developers don't generally test for Opera compatibility (and therefore code accordingly) and that hurts its acceptance, but as I've stated before ... IE became the de facto standard so that's what really matters.

[Jessterw]

[insert standard rant about web standards here]

[Marshmallowman]

Az what issue/month was it?, I am not sure I will be able to find ct around here but I'll have a look.
I was a fan of opera between using netscape and mozilla appearing...but I don't like ads or paying for a browsers