Two good lessons:
1.The success of Firefox is its attention to mainstream even when I do not agree that removing features to get a “simple product” is the only way.
2.Opera does not need to be open source to grow. Opera already has communities and more / better features than Firefox and IE may have in four years.
Ross used OpenSource to defeat the AOL and Mozilla bureaucracy but the success came after the “media circus” in North America.
There are many very good free free browsers but I had never seen comments about them as “Microsoft’s Worst Nightmare” from a business magazine.

Saludos,

Roberto

You should of asked Blake why it is necessary for everyone to lie about Firefox? Including people lie Asa.

http://www.FirefoxMyths.com

even those distros which have strong policies about it include “non-libre-software” by default or make it easy to install them

Hmm, there’s a thought. Has anyone from Opera been in touch with the people at rpm.livna.org? That would make it easier to install Opera on Fedora. (Fedora won’t include it because it does have a strict Free-with-a-capital-F policy.)

Opera is already included in some distros and easily available via official repos when it is not included.

There’s no need to be “libre-software” in order to be included in a distro, even those distros which have strong policies about it include “non-libre-software” by default or make it easy to install them (drivers, codecs,…). Not to mention the BIOS…

The old “libre-only-software” zealotry is coming to an end; take Ubuntu as an example, it’s the most famous distro and ships with “non-libre” drivers, it has a “non-free” official repo and will provide an easy method to install codecs.

Also, it’s quite ironic that you mention it after the whole Firefox-Debian fiasco or the less important feed icon issue (seems that Mozilla.corp has a thing for icons).

I can currently export my bookmarks, contacts, and newsfeed lists. Why should I sacrifice using a great mutliplatform browser today for things I can’t predict tomorrow?

And if Opera’s browser does become unsupported and riddle with exploits, can’t I export my stuff and open up another browser and import them? Can’t I just use the current version until it’s unstable or bug ridden and then migrate over if necessary?

People act like this is iTunes Music store or something (songs purchased). Browsers are different than iTunes or word processors, or anything that your storing data in. What I view the web on tomorrow isn’t dictated by the software on my computer today.

The only think I would worry about at all is my “Opera Notes” data being lost, but that’s not reason enough for me to drop it (and not like I can’t copy and paste it anyway! lol)

I still remember when Opera was an adware and now it is just a freeware, not a free software.

Free software is the warranty that the software can be actively mantained even when the product development is closed by the company who created them.

Opera should open its engine or even the entire PC browser using a double licence like MySQL and Qt for example. Making opera as free software for people who will distribute it included in another free softwares (like linux distribuitions) and as proprietary software for companies who put it on mobile phones or other embedded applications would be a smart strategy.

He isn’t.

Then why is he prominently linked to at Mozilla’s site? If Mozilla Corporation wants to pretend that Asa doesn’t work for them (which they should, as he’s damaging their reputation), then they should make sure that they don’t officially send people to his blog.

He isn’t. He is just one of many faces, and most of the stuff that people argue about is on his blog, which is most definitely his personal view. I don’t think Asa has ever claimed otherwise.

If he gets seen as the face of Mozilla (which I think does happen less now), it’s because he posts more than either the official face of Mozilla, or its other unofficial faces…

Having said that I was looking for a way in opera:config or somewhere to disable shortcuts…? Enhancement request?

MO, if IE7/Vista is “perfect,” and competitors shut down, it will stagnate again. After a few years, perfect-for-2007 will start looking a bit ratty around the edges. On the other hand, if Firefox and Opera keep pushing the envelope, Microsoft will be forced to keep going. In the long run, pushing IE to improve will also help serve users.

If IE is already perfect, how could you possibly improve it any further? Anyway, all Blake is saying is all this innovation is done for the user, not for market share.