3 ms·

I don't get it. Maybe i misremember but I thought Opera was a feature rich browser with an email client, widgets and a bunch of other stuff. Now mail has been

by bobsy 13y ago

I don't get it. Maybe i misremember but I thought Opera was a feature rich browser with an email client, widgets and a bunch of other stuff. Now mail has been shunted into its own product. I don't see widgets. It really looks and feels like a skin for Chrome and nothing more which makes me wonder what the point is. If I want Chrome I will use Chrome. OK, this is a preview but the news doesn't suggest any of these old features are coming across.

andreastt 13y ago
I'm biased since I've worked on it, but I personally find the native UI a pretty major thing.
- hobbes 13y ago
  It is a major thing but, as someone who's worked on it, how about addressing the parent's point?
- dreadynot 13y ago
  I wish I could have tried it but as usual no love for linux users from opera, or much delayed love. But still I have a hard time thinking that removing many features, not improving features that have been broken for years while almost doubling the size of the download is any kind of improvement. I wish opera would release their engine as opensource so people can take it up from there. I don't want no google/apple browser or webkit only web experience.
  - Ziomislaw 13y ago
    you are mistaken, there is a lot of love to unix'ish systems. for example opera is the only "popular" browser with packages for freebsd. This is a new product so I would be _very_ suprised if they didn't limit the amount of platforms they released it initially to.
- miloshadzic 13y ago
  It looks and works great so far. Good job.
peroo 13y ago
Widgets have been a zombie product for years, with virtually no users and no development. It was actually removed from Opera about a year ago IIRC, so Chrome had nothing to do with it. The only thing I'll miss from O12 is Dragonfly. Probably just a habit, but I found it much more intuitive and well designed.
- fetbaffe 13y ago
  Dragonfly is one of the best! Maybe its still alive but not released yet depending on what they mean with this job offer http://business.opera.com/company/jobs/opening/372/ http://business.opera.com/company/jobs/opening/372/
  - nightson 13y ago
    Really miss that. https://twitter.com/runeh/status/301616059729969152 https://twitter.com/runeh/status/301616059729969152
manojlds 13y ago
Widgets? They have been replaced by Extensions.
Indyan 13y ago
I agree. I used the inbuilt RSS feed reader a lot, and I preferred it over other solutions because of the integration. As long as I am surfing the web, I will keep Opera open, and I will automatically get the latest RSS feeds. I didn't need to open a different website or launch another app.
pornel 13y ago
"Opera is bloated!" is a common complaint and users assume that having e-mail/rss/irc client makes browser fat and slow (even though Opera with those features used less RAM and disk space than some other "lean" browsers).
- bobsy 13y ago
  Did Opera ever target these users? I always thought the selling point was the e-mail /rss / irc etc. The things Opera came bundled with. I am sure these will still be available via extensions but then again I don't see the point of Opera now. It is now the same as Chrome. Each browser has its own selling point. I feel that Opera has lost its by stripping out email and providing no news on other features. I always interpreted these features as the differentiators, the soul of the Opera browser. Opera users were people who embraced these things. Opera used to ship with a built in bittorrent support.. how sweet was that!? I moved away from Opera when I used IRC and bittorrent far less. I also realized I could test less if I built a site testing as I go in a popular browser rather than a fringe one. I probably could have done everything I did in Opera using extentions in another browser but Opera just did it out of the box. Its features had consistency and were easy to access. The reason I would choose Opera is because of what it used to be packaged with. In it's current form it is an alternative version of Chrome.. I guess I could develop in it and have Chrome covered but realistically it would be simpler to just use Chrome. I just don't get it.
  - dgesang 13y ago
    > I always thought the selling point was the e-mail /rss / irc etc None of these are 'selling points'. There is better software available for Email, RSS and IRC. If you don't want many tools, ok, you might like Opera more, but they are no reason to choose Opera over any other browser. The reasons I choose Opera for my daily work are: - awesome UI (yes, it actually *is* better than Chrome or FF) - feature-rich - fast - smart caching - best incognito mode integration - superior integrated download manager - pages actually do scroll smoothly - stable with dozens of tabs, see http://i.imgur.com/Z55rPDh.png Also, Opera has always brought innovation with it, e.g. tab-sessions, Speeddial, Tabgroups, Opera Link, Opera Unite, reloading tabs on startup, etc ... At the end of the day a browser is a tool and you have to pick the right one for your task. For browsing, Opera clearly wins - at least it does for me. See also my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5176327 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5176327 @Topic: Opera Next is currently just another Chrome skin. Lets hope they don't forget to implement what makes them special.

by bobsy 13y ago

andreastt 13y ago

I'm biased since I've worked on it, but I personally find the native UI a pretty major thing.

hobbes 13y ago
It is a major thing but, as someone who's worked on it, how about addressing the parent's point?
dreadynot 13y ago
I wish I could have tried it but as usual no love for linux users from opera, or much delayed love. But still I have a hard time thinking that removing many features, not improving features that have been broken for years while almost doubling the size of the download is any kind of improvement. I wish opera would release their engine as opensource so people can take it up from there. I don't want no google/apple browser or webkit only web experience.
- Ziomislaw 13y ago
  you are mistaken, there is a lot of love to unix'ish systems. for example opera is the only "popular" browser with packages for freebsd. This is a new product so I would be _very_ suprised if they didn't limit the amount of platforms they released it initially to.
miloshadzic 13y ago
It looks and works great so far. Good job.

peroo 13y ago

Widgets have been a zombie product for years, with virtually no users and no development. It was actually removed from Opera about a year ago IIRC, so Chrome had nothing to do with it. The only thing I'll miss from O12 is Dragonfly. Probably just a habit, but I found it much more intuitive and well designed.

fetbaffe 13y ago
Dragonfly is one of the best! Maybe its still alive but not released yet depending on what they mean with this job offer http://business.opera.com/company/jobs/opening/372/ http://business.opera.com/company/jobs/opening/372/
- nightson 13y ago
  Really miss that. https://twitter.com/runeh/status/301616059729969152 https://twitter.com/runeh/status/301616059729969152

manojlds 13y ago

Widgets? They have been replaced by Extensions.

Indyan 13y ago

I agree. I used the inbuilt RSS feed reader a lot, and I preferred it over other solutions because of the integration. As long as I am surfing the web, I will keep Opera open, and I will automatically get the latest RSS feeds. I didn't need to open a different website or launch another app.

pornel 13y ago

"Opera is bloated!" is a common complaint and users assume that having e-mail/rss/irc client makes browser fat and slow (even though Opera with those features used less RAM and disk space than some other "lean" browsers).

bobsy 13y ago
Did Opera ever target these users? I always thought the selling point was the e-mail /rss / irc etc. The things Opera came bundled with. I am sure these will still be available via extensions but then again I don't see the point of Opera now. It is now the same as Chrome. Each browser has its own selling point. I feel that Opera has lost its by stripping out email and providing no news on other features. I always interpreted these features as the differentiators, the soul of the Opera browser. Opera users were people who embraced these things. Opera used to ship with a built in bittorrent support.. how sweet was that!? I moved away from Opera when I used IRC and bittorrent far less. I also realized I could test less if I built a site testing as I go in a popular browser rather than a fringe one. I probably could have done everything I did in Opera using extentions in another browser but Opera just did it out of the box. Its features had consistency and were easy to access. The reason I would choose Opera is because of what it used to be packaged with. In it's current form it is an alternative version of Chrome.. I guess I could develop in it and have Chrome covered but realistically it would be simpler to just use Chrome. I just don't get it.
- dgesang 13y ago
  > I always thought the selling point was the e-mail /rss / irc etc None of these are 'selling points'. There is better software available for Email, RSS and IRC. If you don't want many tools, ok, you might like Opera more, but they are no reason to choose Opera over any other browser. The reasons I choose Opera for my daily work are: - awesome UI (yes, it actually *is* better than Chrome or FF) - feature-rich - fast - smart caching - best incognito mode integration - superior integrated download manager - pages actually do scroll smoothly - stable with dozens of tabs, see http://i.imgur.com/Z55rPDh.png Also, Opera has always brought innovation with it, e.g. tab-sessions, Speeddial, Tabgroups, Opera Link, Opera Unite, reloading tabs on startup, etc ... At the end of the day a browser is a tool and you have to pick the right one for your task. For browsing, Opera clearly wins - at least it does for me. See also my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5176327 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5176327 @Topic: Opera Next is currently just another Chrome skin. Lets hope they don't forget to implement what makes them special.