If you’re using Opera on a Linux box, be sure to vote for Opera in the DesktopLinux.com (eWeek) annual desktop Linux market survey.
(Hat tip to Suribe)
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Note: I encourage you to copy and translate my blog posts to your non-English blog. Do you have an Opera blog (with more than 90% of the content Opera-related)? Let me know and I'll add it to the list above.
Q: What is Opera?
A: Opera is one of the most powerful Web browsers around. A Web browser is the program that allows you to view Web pages. Opera is well known for innovation for PC browsers and bringing the full web to mobile phones and devices.
Q: Is Opera free?
A: Absolutely free.
Q: Why should I download a browser? Doesn't my computer already come with one for free?
A: It's about getting more out of the time you spend on the internet. Opera is designed to be much faster than these browsers and gives you powerful features that the default browser lacks. Default browsers like Internet Explorer are also more likely to be subjected to dangerous software such as viruses and spyware.
Q: Will Opera keep me safe from fraudulent websites and malicious hackers?
A: According to Secunia, a respected firm that tracks security in browsers, Opera has the best reputation and track record when it comes to browser security. Keeping our users safe from security vulnerabilities, fraudulent websites, and malicious hackers is a top priority for Opera. Opera is maintained by hundreds of engineers, developers and security experts who are constantly looking to make the browser even safer.
Q: Doesn't Opera copy all of their features from other browsers?
A: Absolutely not. In fact, many of the features that are popular in other browsers today were invented and pioneered by Opera a long time ago. Opera invented the precursor to tabs (in 1994), Page Zoom (1994), was the first browser to block pop-up ads (2000), first to add a Search field in the browser toolbar (2000), Sessions (1996), deleting private data (2000), Mouse Gestures (2000), User JavaScript (2005), BitTorrent support (2005), Widgets (2006), Speed Dial (2007), and much more.
Q: Does Opera support extensions, such as those found in Firefox?
A: Much of the functionality provided through Firefox extensions is already built directly into Opera, so you don't have to download additional extensions in Opera. In addition, Opera is highly customizable and supports all standard plug-ins.
Q: Can I also use Opera on my mobile phone?
A: Yes. And your Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS or almost any connected device and mobile phones. Opera Mobile oftens comes preinstalled from the manufacturers, but if it doesn't you can install Opera Mini which runs on nearly all phones.
Q: This all sounds great, so how do I download Opera?
A: -- Opera on your computer
-- Opera Mini on your phone
-- Opera Mobile on your phone
-- or learn more about Opera at www.opera.com
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Opera 11.6 %
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2007 - Opera 11.6% (poll still in progress)
2006 - Opera 12.0%
2004 - Opera 7.9%
To say the least, Opera’s gaining marketshare on the linux platform.
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And another one interesting thing: the Opera browser is more popular in the Linux community, than in Windows area. So, in Windows the Opera browser have less than 1% market share, but in Linux - more than 11%. And it’s twice interesting, because Linux-users don’t like to use the non-open source software (especially if there is a few free alternatives) and they do it by one reason only - if the proprietary application is a very good.
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Given that Firefox and Konq are installed by default on most popular distros, Opera’s numbers are not bad at all. And yes, Opera is popular in the Linux platform, now if only the guys at opera could give more attention to the platform…ditch the Qt dependency or at least provide a pure X version and a GTK one, use the CLI as an Opera interface, etc…
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Opera 11.8 %
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I’m very surprised at FF (or Iceweasel) only being at the 57% mark, in a survey where IE doesn’t get a look in. I guess Linux users are more likely to experiment with other tools…
Also, Opera may have a higher %age of users in Linux, but don’t forget that the absolute number of Windows users is much higher.
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Sorry, but didn’t the poll website say specifically:
“Participants are asked to refrain from promoting or advertising the survey to mailing lists, or encouraging friends or co-workers to vote for specific software choices. This will ensure that the survey represents a broad sample of Linux desktop users rather than being used to advance a particular open-source software cause.”
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Ilya,
I’m not sure that this is a very accurate account of Opera’s marketshare among Linux users. This survey is not very scientific.
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Of course. But at any case this survey is showing what the amount of Opera users in Linux dramatically more than in Windows (in the market share percentage). And it’s strange because the Opera browser is not Free or Open Software.
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Correction:
The Opera Browser is free!
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To Benjamin
Heh, this is a most popular mistake. Well, read the original source:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
I think, now you understand what the Opera browser is not a “free software”. Really it’s a “free of charge proprietary software”. It’s not bad because the all business models must be at the market, but you and others should have a better understanding who is who
P.S. So, the “Open Source” is not always a “Free Software” too
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“Participants are asked to refrain from promoting or advertising the survey to mailing lists, or encouraging friends or co-workers to vote for specific software choices. This will ensure that the survey represents a broad sample of Linux desktop users rather than being used to advance a particular open-source software cause.”
The poll has been advertised on every general-linux/specific-distro website since the dawn of man…
@Daniel, this poll is run every year and it is usually referenced as a source when info is needed about which desktop enviroments are used by Linux users, which distro is more popular, which applications are used, whether or not Linux users run Windows apps on the platform… Yeah, it’s not highly reliable, but which poll is?; besides, just in case you are not familiar with the platform, Opera is popular on the Unix/Linux world, perhaps because Linux/Unix users tend to be more tech savy but point still remains, Opera is widely used among Linux/Unix users.
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The 2004 results and the 2007 results are not directly comparable.
2004:
Which web browser(s) do you primarily use as your primary Linux browser?
2007:
Q: 3. Which web browsers do you frequently use on your Linux desktop(s)?
The word “primary” has a very different meaning to the word “frequently”.
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Voted!
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Cassidy:
“The poll has been advertised on every general-linux/specific-distro website since the dawn of man…”
So? Advertising it here, asking the people to go vote for Opera just runs contrary to the idea of that poll and the results will be less useful because of that.
Besides, telling about it on general-linux sites is ok, because it’s a Linux poll. And I haven’t seen it on my distro’s website at least.
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How so?. Some Linux users that also happen to run Opera know about the poll thanks this blog post (same as, for example, some Ubuntu users know about it thanks to the gazillion Ubuntu websites/blogs that have advertized it), they will vote for Gnome/KDE, Mandriva/SUSE/Debian/Gentoo/Arch/Ubuntu/Whatever, and for Opera.
It’s not like someone is cheating here just giving more publicity to the poll so more Linux users know about it. What exactly am I doing wrong if I’m voting for Opera in the browser section (among other votes in other categories) of a poll that I didn’t know was out but thanks to this blog post I know about it now?.
Check out some blogs and/or sites that are specific to your distro and you will probably see it there, if not I owe you a beer…
Seriously, the poll has always been advertized everywhere and it has never been a problem. Besides, how come is it ok to tell about it in a general-linux site and not in a distro-specific one? Is that because only general-linux sites readers have the right to vote or something?. The point of the poll is voting in different categories in order to show some stats about linux users so as long as thay don’t vote more than once everything should be ok.
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i know i came very late, but i will write in case someone still interested
Ilya and Cassidy said almost everything in their first posts, of course opera has wider user-base on linux in compare to windows (by percentage not absolute value), i can say that’s due to linux users themselves being what windows users call “software geeks” so they want to try every single piece of software, hence they can evaluate them better, and since opera is the best browser existing now day (as a matter of fact) it gains more interrest.
so why doesn’t they prefer it over others (namely gecko’s browsers) ?
personally i think opera is 5 times better than firefox,galeon and other geckos and 4 times better than konqueror, but for non-opera-fanatic users they may find it just twice better, the issue here is that most linux users are free software activists and/or fans (including this comment writer) who want to promote free softwares (in term of freedom) or just the open source model even for commercial products instead proprietary softwares.
2. the last couple of years many windows users came to linux distros (especially ubuntu) thinking with windows-user mind (which have nothing to do with windows or its users, just mean software civilians) whom will use the browser they get out-of-box whatever it is (=ie in windows, safari in mac), while almost all distro makers want to deliver a completely free distribution for the previous point.
3. it’s the fashion, firefox got a propaganda that usa never dreamt about in any of their wares, or is it really better than konqueror (which is gpl, much older) at any side ? when it comes to propaganda logic has nothing to do.
my conclusion: opera could easily take a better percentage than firefox+other geckos today if they adopted an open source licence, but that could take some time for users already accustomed to other browsers
i am not requesting (nor even suggesting) opera for any thing like this, but i just wanted them to know how the market flows in linux domain.
more about the statistics, now the desktoplinux poll is closed with opera 12.8% while konqueror 16.8% and mozilla+galeon(gecko) 63% (46+17)%
5742 votes is reasonable i think, though may be not accurate enough, depending on who visits the site more, which varies depending on the user model and external ads.
i think it will be more accurate for one of the most known general linux forums, linuxquestions.org make an annual polls for the most popular apps (each poll for specific app like web browser) for the past year, where for 2006 opera took 10.75% of voters (232/2158)
after a quick search on ubuntuforums.org (the official forum of a popular distro) you can find results like this regarding opera: 8.00%, 12.03%, 19.50%, sometimes even 26.11%. what does this sounds to you ? didn’t got me yet?
a couple of other polls about just opera and firefox and another alternative, one about “which do you PREFER” opera got 25.48%, the other about “which should be the DEFAULT browser” opera got 5.54%; here is it, they think the default should be completely free, while alternately they may choose another one which may be proprietary like opera is.