3 ms·

This is a huge development IMHO. If executed correctly, this has the potential to change how we look at the web. This is something that can be the starting poin

by niyazpk 17y ago

This is a huge development IMHO. If executed correctly, this has the potential to change how we look at the web. This is something that can be the starting point of web 3.0. [EDIT: I agree. The example applications given are not that appealing.] I have an opinion that instead of some crappy and difficult to use address like unite://mymac.chrismills.operaunite.com/ they should register a TLD (I guess it is possible. Isn't it?) like .OP or something and start using that. So my address will be simply niyaz.op I think, (as always) someone else will come along and do it better than Opera does and opera will be forgotten again. Sad, but true. Anyway I love the Opera for these innovations. They are the pioneers in many cool things in the web. Kudos guys!

rarestblog 17y ago
I think it might be possible to use CNAME DNS record (athough needs testing) for that task or use modern registrars redirect domain / framed domain features. update: Just tested, no, CNAMEs don't work for Unite.
DocSavage 17y ago
This doesn't change how hackers look at the web. There's a reason we use servers -- 24x7 availability with network redundancies, backup power, etc, etc. Most hackers I know can run servers off their local box by using either static IPs from their provider or a proxy service. But many don't because of the reasons above. And now that there are so many great (mostly free) turnkey hosting services like App Engine and Heroku, it's never been simpler to offload all the server issues to a cloud. The main target audience for this would be users who can't use any of the cloud hosting and also don't need high availability. My folks live by a lake with satellite broadband -- bad latency, frequent dropouts due to weather, and a host of other issues, like simply not wanting to keep their computer on all day, every day. They couldn't use this service. Other users would likely confront at least one of the issues. I've just browsed the Opera material, but I don't see a database/datastore -- maybe submitted data is supposed to go to disk? (The blog example has submitted forms going to memory!) So why is this a huge development?
- niyazpk 17y ago
  This is not about reliability. We are not talking about traditional servers and applications. This is a huge development because when everyone can host applications for free in their own browser we will soon start seeing new paradigms in the way how we use the internet and how applications are served. I am not smart enough to forecast HOW this will be done, but I have a gut feeling that this will lead us to something really game-changing.
  - DocSavage 17y ago
    What kinds of apps is this supposed to unleash? If the application is sufficiently complex to require programming or a database, which is true of just about any non-trivial app, then the user is savvy enough to host apps for free in several cloud hosting services with very easy deployment. If we're just talking about file or photo sharing, then there are other services like Dropbox that work well and don't require constant connectivity and compute power on the client side. I'm typically a fan boy of new tech, but other than a nice proxy service, I don't see why this is revolutionary or game changing. Time will tell, but if there really is a market for something like this, it'll be served by a really cool and simple app development tool which autosyncs to a cloud. Building the app in a brain-dead way is the chokepoint for people coming up with personal apps, not the server infrastructure (at least now in 2009). Why bother with client-side computers for a web-facing personal presence?
    - rarestblog 17y ago
      Well, they do show how to create a Blog (without any kind of database server setup and believe me - it's very simple!), although I need to find a way to save it between sessions (when you close Opera - entries are gone). They have sandboxed filesystem, so there's probably just a way to dump JSON to a file and reload on start.
      - yankeeracer73 17y ago
        Which is cool, but again when you decide to leave for vacation for a week and take your laptop with you to look up dinner options where you're going and don't leave it running all day in your hotel room - no one can read your blog! Am I missing something?
axod 17y ago
I think it's technically impressive, but way too many barriers for widespread adoption, also it seems to lack a killer app... share photos? yeah can already do that, chatroom? Mibbit obviously, share files, check... etc Users can already do everything shown in the examples, so there isn't a clear compelling reason to use it yet.
- ovidiu 17y ago
  You forgot file sharing. It's the easiest way that I know that's guaranteed to work for both Internet and Intranet. The rest are really useless, I agree, but the file sharing service just works.
  - ja2ke 17y ago
    To attract a truly formidable user base, though, (as in, beyond college students and technophiles) I think they need a killer app which has nothing to do with "a file." Unfortunately, I think that standard computer/web users know or care less and less about what "a file" even is. Is it a photo from their Photo Library, or an album, or the photo library itself? Is it a piece of music they have which shows up in their video editing and music listening programs and also in their personal web space? Where is that file even located? If Opera's file sharing system also can hook in to everyday users' existing media and document databases, it might go somewhere, but watching the moms, dads, and other casual users of the world have to actually find a file on their computer in this era of iTunes and iMovie and Office 2007+ managing and obfuscating where things are, is fairly painful and distressing. I like that there are systems which let people use computers in this abstracted way which is a lot closer to how people naturally think about things, but I don't like that the abstraction is one layer up from the OS itself, so that when one actually has to do things like, say, find where one's MP3 player is storing your copy of Kenny Loggins' The Danger Zone, for many people it's no longer an instant "a ha" moment. Oops this post isn't entirely about what it was originally about anymore. Sorry for the ramblin.
mqt 17y ago
No, they can't register their own TLD. That's what domain names are for. You can use your own domain since Unite listens on port 8840.
villagegal 17y ago
It is not something new. Tonido (http://www.tonido.com http://www.tonido.com) did it 4 months back.
est 17y ago
there should be no TLD at all. China's GFW already blocked some of OperaUnite and all of my.opera.com So why don't Opera just use a Newsgroup-like name system

by niyazpk 17y ago

rarestblog 17y ago

I think it might be possible to use CNAME DNS record (athough needs testing) for that task or use modern registrars redirect domain / framed domain features. update: Just tested, no, CNAMEs don't work for Unite.

DocSavage 17y ago

This doesn't change how hackers look at the web. There's a reason we use servers -- 24x7 availability with network redundancies, backup power, etc, etc. Most hackers I know can run servers off their local box by using either static IPs from their provider or a proxy service. But many don't because of the reasons above. And now that there are so many great (mostly free) turnkey hosting services like App Engine and Heroku, it's never been simpler to offload all the server issues to a cloud. The main target audience for this would be users who can't use any of the cloud hosting and also don't need high availability. My folks live by a lake with satellite broadband -- bad latency, frequent dropouts due to weather, and a host of other issues, like simply not wanting to keep their computer on all day, every day. They couldn't use this service. Other users would likely confront at least one of the issues. I've just browsed the Opera material, but I don't see a database/datastore -- maybe submitted data is supposed to go to disk? (The blog example has submitted forms going to memory!) So why is this a huge development?

niyazpk 17y ago
This is not about reliability. We are not talking about traditional servers and applications. This is a huge development because when everyone can host applications for free in their own browser we will soon start seeing new paradigms in the way how we use the internet and how applications are served. I am not smart enough to forecast HOW this will be done, but I have a gut feeling that this will lead us to something really game-changing.
- DocSavage 17y ago
  What kinds of apps is this supposed to unleash? If the application is sufficiently complex to require programming or a database, which is true of just about any non-trivial app, then the user is savvy enough to host apps for free in several cloud hosting services with very easy deployment. If we're just talking about file or photo sharing, then there are other services like Dropbox that work well and don't require constant connectivity and compute power on the client side. I'm typically a fan boy of new tech, but other than a nice proxy service, I don't see why this is revolutionary or game changing. Time will tell, but if there really is a market for something like this, it'll be served by a really cool and simple app development tool which autosyncs to a cloud. Building the app in a brain-dead way is the chokepoint for people coming up with personal apps, not the server infrastructure (at least now in 2009). Why bother with client-side computers for a web-facing personal presence?
  - rarestblog 17y ago
    Well, they do show how to create a Blog (without any kind of database server setup and believe me - it's very simple!), although I need to find a way to save it between sessions (when you close Opera - entries are gone). They have sandboxed filesystem, so there's probably just a way to dump JSON to a file and reload on start.
    - yankeeracer73 17y ago
      Which is cool, but again when you decide to leave for vacation for a week and take your laptop with you to look up dinner options where you're going and don't leave it running all day in your hotel room - no one can read your blog! Am I missing something?

axod 17y ago

I think it's technically impressive, but way too many barriers for widespread adoption, also it seems to lack a killer app... share photos? yeah can already do that, chatroom? Mibbit obviously, share files, check... etc Users can already do everything shown in the examples, so there isn't a clear compelling reason to use it yet.

ovidiu 17y ago
You forgot file sharing. It's the easiest way that I know that's guaranteed to work for both Internet and Intranet. The rest are really useless, I agree, but the file sharing service just works.
- ja2ke 17y ago
  To attract a truly formidable user base, though, (as in, beyond college students and technophiles) I think they need a killer app which has nothing to do with "a file." Unfortunately, I think that standard computer/web users know or care less and less about what "a file" even is. Is it a photo from their Photo Library, or an album, or the photo library itself? Is it a piece of music they have which shows up in their video editing and music listening programs and also in their personal web space? Where is that file even located? If Opera's file sharing system also can hook in to everyday users' existing media and document databases, it might go somewhere, but watching the moms, dads, and other casual users of the world have to actually find a file on their computer in this era of iTunes and iMovie and Office 2007+ managing and obfuscating where things are, is fairly painful and distressing. I like that there are systems which let people use computers in this abstracted way which is a lot closer to how people naturally think about things, but I don't like that the abstraction is one layer up from the OS itself, so that when one actually has to do things like, say, find where one's MP3 player is storing your copy of Kenny Loggins' The Danger Zone, for many people it's no longer an instant "a ha" moment. Oops this post isn't entirely about what it was originally about anymore. Sorry for the ramblin.

mqt 17y ago

No, they can't register their own TLD. That's what domain names are for. You can use your own domain since Unite listens on port 8840.

villagegal 17y ago

It is not something new. Tonido (http://www.tonido.com http://www.tonido.com) did it 4 months back.

est 17y ago

there should be no TLD at all. China's GFW already blocked some of OperaUnite and all of my.opera.com So why don't Opera just use a Newsgroup-like name system