I wrote comments on this topic several times and I think the reason why Opera is popular in Centra/Eastern Europe is quite simple. I'll rewrite it once again:
It was the best browser out there for a long time without a doubt. While in west people used IE since it was free, people in east didn't care whether software is paid or not, they just used cracked versions[sidenote 1]. If copy of Office was about as expensive as your monthly income, it's understandable. So it was normal there, and not really frowned upon. Even when FF came out, the Opera was much better[sidenote 2]. But Firefox erupted in the west and as it evolved it found its way to the east. Opera stayed popular in many countries because a) it was still great b) people were used to it c) it still spread by a word of mouth. But as the "Internet" hit new generations, Firefox slowly took over. Fast forward to Chrome and its never ending multi-billion campaign. Ads in TV, radio. Billboards and posters all over the place. Banners (or even feature blocking) on most visited sites out there (.google.com/, youtube.com, ...). All that with comeback of ie5+ only sites (now for chrome of course) meant that Opera's user base slowly evaporates.
It's quite sad really, especially when I see it here on HN since Chrome is dumb-dumb browser meant for people who use the Internet for the first time while Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there. Not better (when you consider the extensibility of FF/Chrome) but one would think it would appeal to "hackers".
PS: Of course the "turbo" aspect played its role but I think it was just a side thin on desktop.
PPS: Firefox had unreasonable amount of money in advertising as well, but I think it mostly hurt IE, not Opera.
sidenote 1: Cracked software meant an easy way to spread viruses. One of the biggest/best antivirus vendors that still exists are from that place and era (Avast, AVG, ESET, Kaspersky).
sidenote 2: If Opera had become free before Firefox was released, I think it would have dominated the west market as well (at that time at least).
Tried shifting to Opera from FF recently (last time I was trying few years ago, there was no suitable Adblocker available). Backed out this time as well because it has no official support for moving your history (which I would not want to loose). Makes no sense why would Opera not make it simple for people to move.
All very good points. Nice comment! I wish more people upvoted this to bring it up.
Especially right about "Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there" I still find things to configure and customise to this day... and I have been using it since its "ad-supported" days.
It was the best browser out there for a long time without a doubt. While in west people used IE since it was free, people in east didn't care whether software is paid or not, they just used cracked versions[sidenote 1]. If copy of Office was about as expensive as your monthly income, it's understandable. So it was normal there, and not really frowned upon. Even when FF came out, the Opera was much better[sidenote 2]. But Firefox erupted in the west and as it evolved it found its way to the east. Opera stayed popular in many countries because a) it was still great b) people were used to it c) it still spread by a word of mouth. But as the "Internet" hit new generations, Firefox slowly took over. Fast forward to Chrome and its never ending multi-billion campaign. Ads in TV, radio. Billboards and posters all over the place. Banners (or even feature blocking) on most visited sites out there (.google.com/, youtube.com, ...). All that with comeback of ie5+ only sites (now for chrome of course) meant that Opera's user base slowly evaporates.
It's quite sad really, especially when I see it here on HN since Chrome is dumb-dumb browser meant for people who use the Internet for the first time while Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there. Not better (when you consider the extensibility of FF/Chrome) but one would think it would appeal to "hackers".
PS: Of course the "turbo" aspect played its role but I think it was just a side thin on desktop.
PPS: Firefox had unreasonable amount of money in advertising as well, but I think it mostly hurt IE, not Opera.
sidenote 1: Cracked software meant an easy way to spread viruses. One of the biggest/best antivirus vendors that still exists are from that place and era (Avast, AVG, ESET, Kaspersky).
sidenote 2: If Opera had become free before Firefox was released, I think it would have dominated the west market as well (at that time at least).