Opera 11.51 Final

This is the first time I've tried an alternative browser. I'm liking it so far although I have to get accustomed to navigating it.

 

On what OS? Fine for me so far on Win7 Home Premium 64 bit.

 

No! I'm genuinely shocked ... ... Maybe not.

 

This browser could use it's own configuration / customization thread.

 

but the opera installer could let you use opera usb portable


does the opera installer usb portable update a previous portable version ?

or does it overwrite the config files ?

thanks

 

This is the bug that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends..and so on and so forth

 

its confusing because there are three different portable versions of opera
operausb
portable apps opera
www.opera.com (offical)

the installer from opera.com is the only officially supported version I believe.

the offical opera installer from opera.com will allow you to do a stand alone install and will update without overwriting any user changed settings just like the regular installed opera update.

I hope the above makes it more understandable

I used to use operausb but now I only use the offical installer.

 

"So it goes." ~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

 

Posted elsewhere on the Forum

 

Food for thought or a night at the opera? ~

David's story.

"Looking back at everything that has happened at Opera since I started, these are the things I think Opera would benefit from.

Polish and refine the user experience of Opera desktop rather than adding more new features. There are enough good features already, they just need to be made useful and look good.

Open up the bug tracking system to developers as soon as possible. It will not be easy but it needs to be done.

Build Opera Widgets into a real platform with high quality tools and libraries or scrap it entirely. This will take a lot of investment to get it done right so it has to be worth it.

Scrap Opera Unite in its present form. Either keep it as an API for other technologies such as Extensions, standardise it or put it out of its misery

Invest more in the developer tools such as Opera Dragonfly. The team is very good and has grown over the last few years, but rivals are throwing a lot of resources into their dev tools teams. More developers and QA wouldn't harm.

Figure out how to get users to upgrade from Opera Mini to Opera Mobile when the markets are ready. Opera Mobile is much more powerful of a development platform than Mini and thus is of more interest to developers.

Keep on focusing on the consumer products rather than selling custom solutions to partners that require custom work in Core and on the platform code. Opera is more or less doing this right now."

Is he hitting the right notes or is it time to throw the rotten fruit?

 

No need to throw rotten fruit I agree with his opinion.

 

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense, especially about the bug tracking system. It's interesting what he has to say about marketing as well:

"The other issue beyond the product is marketing. Opera's marketing is often criticised but that is a little unfair. It is mentioned how fast Chrome took off compared to Opera, but it feels that you can't move these days without seeing Chrome ads on every page on the net (only a slight exaggeration). At least here in the UK. Opera can't compete with the kind of exposure that Google can give to Chrome, or MS or Apple can give their browsers by making it the default. Mozilla is the closest you can compare to Opera, but they too used to get advertising from Google before Chrome was released. Mozilla have done a good job at marketing their product though, and appealing to people through the open source nature of the product. I'm not a marketer so I'm not sure what the solution is for Opera, beyond staying creative and spending their limited budget wisely."

 

I'm putting opera aside for now. Too much stuff under the hood.

 

Yeah, I like to take it for a drive every so often, but as you say; too much under the bonnet. And sometimes stuff breaks or disappears ...

 

Went to Chrome when I found out that Opera is not fully compitable with a popular site like Amazon (some functions broken etc)

 

There's a lot of wise advice coming from that article, here's to hoping someone listens. I actually never knew that the bug reporting system wasn't open, that's just silly. As far as marketing, I don't think they need to compete for advertising just yet. First they actually need to try to advertise it, I personally don't think they are. As the article states, Opera has plenty of features (for a standard browser, nitpicking about sandboxes and hardware acceleration and all that, is a bit silly for a desktop browser that is barely on the radar). They need to kill the "lab work", and start throwing some money into getting it mentioned in more places than just the Wilders' of the world, and a couple of also ran mentions in the monthly "browser war" articles tech sites are obsessed over.

Me, I'd scrap both Unite and widgets, and just put emphasis on extensions. Try to compete with Mozilla in extensions, and you are likely well on your way to becoming relevant. Throw money at advertising, get extensions working properly and powerfully, and stop throwing features at the wall just to see what sticks (just for a while, no need to grow stale, but focus on weak areas first). Work on bug reporting and bug fixing (please fix Daveski's favicon issue, kthnxbye), and then let's see where Opera stands.

P.S, site compatibility is certainly an issue, but that will get better as Opera sees more usage (and makes reporting bugs easier). Devs won't test for browsers that are barely used.