[thelist] Opera browser- now with a (free) new version

Shirley Kaiser (SKDesigns) skaiser at skdesigns.com
Wed Dec 6 19:45:43 CST 2000


James,

Ah, your opinion is interesting to hear, and I'm anxious to see how the 
overall acceptance is to their new adware approach. Personally I'm not 
too thrilled with adware and don't use it, either. On the other hand, 
I've been thinking today that Opera now may have a far better chance to 
be more widespread now that it's free. My impression is that people are 
interested in it but also don't want to have to pay for a browser when 
there are others that are free. If the general population doesn't like 
adware, then they may not grow to be big competition.

I'm hopeful, though, that the free version will provide them a more 
competitive base with Netscape and Internet Explorer. I've been using 
Opera for quite awhile, initially for testing, but increasingly more for 
web use as they've improved the versions. I've especially liked their 
version 4 and have been using it far more for my web reading and 
browsing, etc.

I just downloaded version 5. Since I have the paid version 4 I get a 
free upgrade, so I won't have the ads to contend with. I'll be 
interested to see how that works and what the response is to it, in 
addition to checking out the improvements.

It will be interesting to follow this.

Warmly,
Shirley
-- 
Shirley E. Kaiser, M.A.
SKDesigns mailto:skaiser at skdesigns.com
Website Development http://www.skdesigns.com/
Pianist, Composer http://www.shirleykaiser.com/

Aylard JA (James) wrote:

> Shoshannah,
> 
> 
>> Opera ( http://www.operasoftware.com/ ) just come out with Opera 5, this
>> time free (add supported. pay to get rid of them).

> 	Hmm. Interesting. I'm downloading it now to take a look...
> 
>> I wonder if this will actually increase there user base?
> 
> 
> 	Personally, I doubt it. My suspicion/contention has long been that
> the two primary groups of Opera users are 1) developers who prize its
> relatively strong standards compliance and use it to test their pages, and
> 2) Norwegians proud of a home-grown product. With the release of Netscape 6,
> the anti-Microsoft crowd have an up-to-date alternative to IE, so I'd say
> few of them are going to bother with yet another download (except for those
> that also fall into categories one and two, above).
> 	That Opera has gone down the adware route suggests the degree of
> trouble they are having promoting their product. Many people won't touch
> adware for any reason (I'm selective, but generally very wary of adware),
> which will also crimp its acceptance.
> 	IMO, the browser market is much like the political system in the
> U.S. -- there is only room for two big titans, while the rest are
> interesting diversions. Except that the browser world has become something
> of a one-party state in the last couple of years. Oh, well, so much for
> analogies... :)
> 
> James Aylard





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