

Opera 11 will have extensions - aw3c2
http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2010/10/14/opera-11-will-have-extensions

======
metamemetics
Why you should care about Opera:

1\. More minimal interface than Chrome. New-tab Speed-dial can be a solid
background [or image] with no extra cruft. Unlike Chrome which adds bookmarks,
recently closed, help links etc.

2\. Equivalent performance to Chrome including JavaScript.

3\. Firefox-isms while offering chrome performance. Aka Pop-in sidebars for
downloads and history rather than new tabs.

5\. CTRL-Tabbing is similar to operating system alt-tabbing. _You don't even
need a tab bar occupying screen real estate._

6\. Password manager light-up button is a superior user experience to saved
password autocomplete in Chrome and Firefox.

7\. Right click mouse gestures. [and fully navigable keyboard only]

~~~
samstokes
Does Opera have an Awesome Bar (i.e. find-as-you-type in the address bar
autocompleting from browser history and bookmarks)? Does that integrate with
Delicious?

That's probably the biggest reason I stick with Firefox. Chrome's
autocompletion doesn't compare (it only does prefix search on the URLs or
entire page titles, whereas Firefox does _infix_ search on URLs and _words in
titles_ , which makes it much easier to recall a given page).

~~~
endtime
Well..."Opera 11 will have extensions" so probably.

~~~
samstokes
"Yes because you can write your own" wasn't quite what I meant :P

~~~
endtime
Well, it kind of does have that bar already. The delicious integration would
probably be an addon, though.

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cninja
This seemed to be the main excuse that people had for not trying out Opera in
the past, but people already have their favorite browser by this point.
Without a significant marketing campaign, I don't see Opera's browser share
changing significantly with version 11.

~~~
cryptoz
> but people already have their favorite browser by this point

I disagree. People were saying that in 2009 before Google Chrome _really
became popular_. Now people are switching from FF to chrome all the time for a
number of reasons.

If Opera brings new things to the table, people very well may switch. The
browser wars are not over.

~~~
Tomis
Google has a lot of money (and more importantly, exposure) to push their
browser forward and make ridiculously huge marketing campaigns. Opera does
not.

~~~
cryptoz
Opera's net income in 2008 was about $90 million. And that's from about _half
a billion dollars_ in revenue that year.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Software>

Yes, Google is much bigger. But don't suggest Opera is poor.

~~~
zck
That's not U.S. dollars, that's kroner. On December 31, 2008, that was $13
million on $71 million revenue (<http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-
converter/#from=NOK;to=USD> ; change the date to get historical data).

~~~
cryptoz
Oops! Thanks for the correction.

------
DanHulton
I was an Opera fan for-frickin'-ever, but I switch to Chrome just recently.

Opera's been light-years ahead of most in the browser industry, but then
Things Just Stopped Working. Updating my browser for any reason would mean
that bookmark syncronizing stopped for a few days until I figured out why it
was broken _this time_ , then I had to manually re-sync my bookmarks.

It has a bunch of features I don't use (torrent client, chat client, mail
client, Opera Unite), isn't supported as well, so you run into render problems
from time to time, and hasn't copied some of the REALLY good ideas from its
competitors, despite having ample time to do so (when I close a tab, I expect
the next tab close button to align itself automatically under my mouse button
like Chrome).

Opera's my #2 fave browser, but that doesn't mean it really gets any use. I
use Chrome for browsing, Firefox for developing, IE for testing, and Opera...

Opera, we had a good run. But it's over. I'm sure you'll find someone new.

------
jasondavies
Cool. Opera already supports Greasemonkey-style user scripts [1], as does
Google Chrome [2].

They're handy for writing simple browser hacks e.g. injecting additional links
into certain pages.

[1]: <http://www.opera.com/docs/userjs/examples/#greasemonkey>

[2]: [http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/user-
scr...](http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/user-scripts)

------
whatusername
Open Question for any Opera users out there: Why should I go and use Opera?
With Firefox for extensions and Chrome for performance; I'm not sure I need
another browser. What benefit does Opera give you? Why do you use it?

~~~
powrtoch
For me, it's mouse gestures. Last time I tried getting them in FF with a
plugin, it just wasn't as well done (forces you to make distinctions between
tabs and windows, for example, that you aren't used to having to think about).
Mouse gestures get to be very addictive, and they really are a faster and
better way to work.

I'm also a big fan of the developer tools. While similar to Firebug etc, I
prefer some of the minor differences in Opera.

I also think built-in support for torrent files is a really nice feature
(don't know if any other browsers have caught up with this yet).

~~~
cpuddle
Besides mouse gestures I've gotten so used to browsing via keyboard
(especially when using Shift+arrow keys) that switching to another browser is
nigh impossible, because I get irritated too easily.

And the builtin RSS reader is better than anything else I've come across (not
that I spent that much time looking ;-))

~~~
JoCoLa
I love the rss feed: no signing in, no opening tab upon tab upon tab, no silly
magazine layout. Just the feed menu on the top of the page, the individual
feeds displayed on the bottom- it's perfect.

------
Tomis
Useless for anything except media exposure. Opera already has all the
functionality you would need in a browser (as a regular user, at least). This
is probably a move for bonus point with Firefox users who can't do sh*t
without extensions - again, not the case in Opera.

Sorry, that's the harsh truth. Might be good news for advanced users that need
to do some esoteric stuff but most people using Opera already have all they
will ever need, out of the box.

~~~
ugh
Firefox has everything I need in a Browser. As has Chrome. Or Safari. I don’t
need all that stuff Opera can do.

~~~
Tomis
You know what the greatest common divisor of Firefox, Chrome and Safari is?
Internet Explorer 6.

That's right Jack, all the functionality you're using in a browser is the one
Internet Explorer 6 has. Sadly, most of the people using the browsers you
mentioned do the same.

The world you live in is the cave mentioned by Plato. You have never went
outside and see there's so much things a browser can do, you're content in
your small little world thinking "meh, my browser already has anything I would
ever need".

Wrong. You could use a better interaction with the browser, you could use some
extra features to make your life easier and stop checking your webmail when
you have pop3 and smtp. You could have a lot of things if you would just come
out of the cave.

Sure thing, Firefox has the extensions, but Chrome does not. You're missing
out on a lot of functionality that you never knew existed.

How are you supposed to know that there is such a thing since you usually
search for an extension when you KNOW you need (such as ad-block) but it never
occurs to you that you might use a neat clever feature? You're stuck in the
dark because you don't know light exists.

~~~
ugh
Now I’m depressed.

I never said that I will never use extensions. I never said that I will never
use Opera. I have Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera on my HDD and ready to go.
If somebody on HN or anywhere else tells me about a cool new extension or a
cool new feature I will of course want to try it out. I love doing that, I
really do!

It’s just that for my day to day usage I have until now always returned to
vanilla Safari [+]. That’s just how it is and I can’t change it. That’s how I
like it best.

[+] The only extension I have installed is ClickToFlash.

