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Free Opera Hits 1 Million Downloads

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

September 22, 2005, 2:59 PM

Just 48 hours after Opera Software removed the ads and license fee from its popular Web browser, Opera 8.5 has been downloaded by over 1 million people, the company said Thursday. The number is double Opera's previous download record, which it achieved in April with version 8.0.

Opera's new freeware status puts added pressure on Microsoft's aging Internet Explorer and even Mozilla Firefox, which soared to popularity as a free alternative to IE 6. Opera says the majority of downloaders were IE users. "The success of our free browser proves the world is ready for a fresh option," said Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner.

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By puffin

edited Sep 26, 2005 - 8:55 AM

Bon, d'abord, je me servis du firefox,mais pour le moment ,j'ai change au Opera

Score: 0

By d3bruts1d

posted Sep 26, 2005 - 7:34 AM

As of this morning Opera 8.5 has passed 2.1 Million downloads. :)

Score: 0

By HalfGeek

posted Sep 25, 2005 - 11:31 PM

I've read all the posts and not one mention of Mouse Gesturing.. my favorite thing about it!

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 11:01 AM

Count me as one of the downloads. I've opened it twice, however, neither time was I able to accomplish what I wanted to with it. (Get an adblock working, and logon to a cisco router interface that uses Java)

Score: 0

By BadIronTree

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 8:45 AM

do you have the java 1.5 sp5 installed?

if not download it... opera dont have it and need it to work

Score: 0

By sophist_dreams

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 11:24 AM

I never was able to get Opera to open more than several websites I visit properly. I wont download this version and waste my time trying....now, some one tell me that making it free wasnt a marketing ploy to get more users.

Score: 0

By Kramy

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 3:45 PM

Apparently the latest version has a lot less broken websites(none?)

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 4:27 PM

Lol. I would say so. Although it still chooses to ignore very specific CSS code on some of my websites. I don't get it. Opera would be my favorite if it wasn't for that. =(((

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 11:42 AM

"some one tell me that making it free wasnt a marketing ploy to get more users."

They came out and said it was.

Opera is doing this to expand their user-base and increase revenues from affiliate projects.

That's what they're trying to do anyway.

Score: 0

By slepax

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 10:56 AM

Since there are many Opera users reading here, maybe you can help with two questions:
1. How can I create a bookmark toolbar? Just like IE and FF have.
2. How can I open a link from my bookmark menu in a new tab straight away?

Thanks.

Score: 0

By alebo

edited Sep 25, 2005 - 2:06 PM

For Slepax:In OPERA

1. To see-bars of hardware-personal bar.
2. Hardware, Options Advanced, To mark to open new web next to the current one.

greetings,

Score: 0

By BadIronTree

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 11:17 AM

drag and drop :P

ps: i have removed all this crapy search and only puted google and astalavist.box.sk one

Score: 0

By slepax

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 10:53 AM

Since there are many Opera users here, can you you help with two simple questions:
1. How can I have a bookmark toolbar? Just like IE and FF have.
2. How do you open a link from the bookmarks menu in a new tab?

Thanks.

Score: 0

By Kramy

edited Sep 24, 2005 - 3:44 PM

Yeah, I was wondering about #1 aswell. EVERY browser since I can remember has bookmark toolbars...

Edit: And Dragging and dropping didn't work in Opera, unlike in FireFox...

Score: 0

By xippon

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 8:59 AM

I'm very glad that Opera get freeware statsus (I bought Opera 8.0 but i dont care). If more pepole will use it, then the better it can be.
Opera is fast and have useful functions. Just people must learn about it and get used.

There will be always many web browsers, but there is only 1 special Opera :)

Score: 0

By BadIronTree

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 7:38 AM

opera for life... i can open 30 tabs at no performans loss
with firefox 5 and the pc was "laging" ... + 10 plugins to install to realy work

i never realy liked firefox anyway...

time to uninstall firefox and install opera to the 129 pc i am in charge of :)

a job i am happy to do :)

Score: 0

By HurricaneGame

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 7:06 AM

Firefox are crapping it now, along with IE. :P

Score: 0

By rpavl

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 6:32 AM

Opera is so superior to FIREFLOP that its scary that people would even consider FLOPPING. This browser is pure class, and elegant at that. The integrated email client alone makes it kick FIREFLOPs bahoola.

Score: 0

By Kramy

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 3:42 PM

You keep posting the same moronic personal oppinion over and over.

I would say that in my experience(for me), Firefox's interface isn't customizable enough for my liking. That means Opera's interface is to the point that the lack of customizability is downright annoying.

Score: 0

By rpavl

posted Sep 26, 2005 - 9:54 AM

try miss clairol, it works wonders when "customizing"

Score: 0

By Squire72

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 1:01 AM

Good to see - I love Firefox, and Opera is in the same arena as far as quality and usability and such (debate which is better until you're blue in the face, but it's a matter of personal preference... there is no clear "better" except in the sense that they're both infinitely better than IE).

The more accessable competition to IE is, the better off the internet will be. Now if only we could get corporations to stop using ActiveX...

Score: 0

By indoguys

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 12:30 AM

Come on a normal consumer doesn't need extensions they need a simple browser to simple surf the web and the normal consumer. Maybe that's why IE is having the biggest share in the market? Do people really need all those bells, buttons, sounds, extensions like a fun fare? A small part on the internet always wants everything but that everything is not where the companies should go blind on, fact up till now that not one company besides og MS with IE can take the market they all stay on levels between 0 and 10% max.

Opera is good, tough I always stayed away from it due the same reason, to much from everything which I don't need to read a online news paper. Fast it is the Opera you see esp. the performance on modem connections it leaves Firefox and others behind. They made a good commercial move right now and I won't be surprised if Opera would grow bigger as Fire Fox in a very short time. Google is around the corner and some buzz is already going on about Google starts to sing Opera...

Score: 0

By Sabz

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 12:13 AM

Opera is Nice but really Who needs al lthat BLOAT on a DEFAULT install? when Firefox you can install EXTENSIONS to SUITE YOUR REQUIREMENTS AN OR NEEDS, i did try Opera8.50 in Linux but dont like the way it handles its password manager so i sticking to FF for now,

Score: 0

By Kramy

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 3:35 PM

That's not bloat. Bloat is where they include a 20mb codec in the browser that loads when it starts(doubling the start time) so that you can play .mov files...

Opera has "efficiency", similar to GoogleTalk(so far) it seems.

Score: 0

By akumulator

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 2:55 AM

What bloat dude? Opera after installation takes about 13 MB on harddisk, Firefox aboit 15,5 MB. So where's the bloat?

Score: 0

By tobypowell

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 7:18 AM

Yeah, If 2MB is a space issue on your hard drive then I suggest you go to Dell / ebay / Walmart / whatever and buy yourself a new PC.

Hell, I have one lying around at home that will help. You can have that for free

Score: 0

By mrp-

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 10:35 PM

I switched from IE to Opera when Opera 5 came out, been using it ever since. I had tried previous versions but 5.0 was the first one that I really loved.

I've also use the many Mozilla/Firefox versions (from the early days of mozilla, the 0.x and MX milestones, and Phoenix/Firebird) but I've yet to find any reason to switch to FF from Opera, Opera just works better and I love it.

I also have my Opera customized to meet my needs perfectly, I love Opera.

I'm so glad its 100% free now, so more people can see how good it is.

Score: 0

By googun

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 7:03 PM

I've never really been into Opera until now. I had enough of IE and its myriad fixes and patches. It has a lot going for it but oh the hassle!
I moved to Firefox and it suits me fine. Now that Opera has ditched the charges and the adverts, I am happily using it alongside Firefox and occasionally IE. Opera does "feel" quick, tho I have not put a stopwatch to it to check. On a minor point, it handles skins very nicely, installing them fully and then asking if you want to keep or discard them. It works well. I prefer the way tabs work in the newest beta of Firefox.
Presumably Microsoft has got off its butt and is busy preparing a new IE that will steal features - I mean add features that look very like what the others offer - to maintain their market share. That won't be enough to push me back to IE. To mix my metaphors a little here, if browsers are boats then IE is a brick.

Score: 0

By integrii

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 5:26 PM

i was one of them. i switched to opera from firefox. it is better, has over double features when it comes installed, has a better interface, more options for privacy and everything. i am switching to opera, bye firefox.

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:44 PM

That's awesome. I'll bet Opera will one day be at least neck-and-neck with Firefox as far as market share, if not better.

Score: 0

By rpavl

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 6:33 AM

Opera will easily surpass FireFlop in downloads due to enhanced features and its simply better

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 4:05 PM

I hope so. I'd love to see the kind of script/add-on following FireFox has drawn extend to Opera as well.

Don't know how realistic that hope is though.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 4:09 PM

I dont think many of the firefox junkies will move to opera simply because opera doesnt offer the extension system which allows them to truely customize every aspect of their browser. Thats the main thing firefox has going, and that (in my opinion) is what opera needs to truely take the market

Score: 0

By wat0114

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 4:55 PM

You have a point about that aspect of FF, but after 3 days use, I'm having difficulty choosing between the latest release of Opera and FF. Actually, I'm very pleased with the built-in functionality of Opera and don't feel the need to have more control over it. Until version 8.5, I had always encountered rendering promblems with Opera, but that doesn't seem to be an issue any more. The omission of the ad banner is a special added bonus as well. Add to that the very slick and pleasing interface, the speed at which it loads pages (Seems at least comparable to FF) and I may just become an Opera convert! Anyways, it seems that whether one chooses FF or Opera as a browser alternative, it's hard to go wrong.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 4:15 PM

I'm sure they could improve on it, and you are right.

I am one of those that has become quite attached to the extendability of FireFox. I'd love to see this in other browsers...right now my options are rather limited in this respect.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Sep 22, 2005 - 5:03 PM

This is one area I dont see opera going in anyways. The fan boys on their fora are very adament about not wanting extensions due to them being a huge security risk (although I've seen only ONE risk in firefox's extensions, and that was greasemonkey). They are far worse than any firefox fan boy I've seen when it comes to suggesting opera open up and develop an extension system. I love opera, and the extension system or ability to tie third party apps into the browser would make me a permanent user of it. Opera is a superior browser in every aspect but this one. Many of the users, when you say a feature doesnt work the way you want, flame you on their fora and say "Just do it this way". I disagree with that reasoning. A browser should function the way I do. I shouldnt have to adjust to use a browser, and with firefox currently I can do that in EVERY ASPECT of the browser, not just the way it looks, but the way it acts in EVERY FUNCTION POSSIBLE.

In summary, in my opinion, opera would be a whole lot better if they let an extension system in (even one where they have to approve an extension and white list it in the browser for you to use it, that would work).

Please note, this post isnt meant to start a flame war, its my experiences over the past 3 years using opera and visiting its fora and observing its users, your results may vary

Score: 0

By lemonlovr

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 12:11 AM

I won't argue with you that extensions are useful and that having a method to implement extensions would be an interesting addition.

However, in my experience there are two kinds of browser users: those who want something to work right out of the box, and those who want to add endless bells and whistles to their browser to make it conform to their needs.

As someone who has been using Opera since 3.62, it's not a matter of doing things the way I want to and making the browser to conform to them. Opera IS the way I want to do things.

That said, even if Opera didn't do things EXACTLY the way I wanted it to, I'd much rather make small sacrifices to avoid spending hours going through hundreds of extensions (even if they were verified to be perfectly safe) trying to find one that does what I want or makes the browser do what I want.

I'd much rather have a software developer decide what works best - that is their job after all - and give me the best end product possible. And now that it's free, I can't imagine anything better.

To me, the need for extensions points to deficiencies in the development process. If there extensions that are that "essential," then they should be made standard features.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 8:09 AM

Making small sacrifices is no problem, its when I've paid money for several addons that the problem occurs. I dont want to give up my time and money investment in other products just because a browser doesnt want to allow them to integrate. Especially when the functionality provided by that browser is sub par anyways, we should be allowed to use a superior solution as opposed to sacrificing time and money invested as well as waiting for the dev to enhance the features.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 5:47 PM

*sigh*

Fanboys...gotta love 'em.

Now If only I could get FF to load a bit faster (with all 20 extensions)....

Score: 0

By rpavl

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 6:34 AM

FIREFLOP LOADING FASTER...get real LOL

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 9:15 AM

Firefox with 14 extensions loads just as quick on a 3400+ athlon 64 as opera. I currently have a 3 second load time on a fresh reboot for firefox.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 8:58 AM

Okay...so maybe I need to jusnk my 1Ghz POS?

Well...maybe.

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 11:03 AM

"so maybe I need to jusnk my 1Ghz POS?"

No way. Turn it into a mail server. Then buy a new compuer to be your pc! =)

If you do throw it away though... could you throw it in my direction? =p

Score: 0

By ServerMechanic

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:06 PM

I really like it.

I however need to find a good adblock solution like Firefox has.

I tried editing a couple of .ini files as recommended but it still doesn't work as well as Ad Block for Firefox.

IMO, anything is better than IE.

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:43 PM

oh great... let's not start this argument again lol

Score: 0

By Neksus

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:36 PM

Here is a adblock solution for Opera: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

I don't use it myself as I have AdMuncher!

Score: 0

By BklynKid

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 9:52 PM

Me too. AdMuncher + Opera = Heaven!

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 10:34 PM

Agreed - Admuncher + Any Browser == Heaven

Ad Muncher beats the pants off any other ad filtration application to include the adblock extension on firefox

Score: 0

By wat0114

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 9:13 AM

Absolutely!! Hey people, just try ad muncher once. You probably won't want to go back to your previous inferior ad blocking utility. BTW, the $25.00 includes free updates/upgrades for life!

Score: 0

By foxtyke

posted Sep 24, 2005 - 12:09 PM

I use the Proxomitron, freeware and it works well...

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 6:19 AM

but did you write it?

:-P

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Sep 23, 2005 - 7:56 AM

What difference does that make? Did you write ad block?

Score: 0

By zpeef

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 4:01 AM

I agree with the people above. Admuncher + Opera (or firefox) is the best tool for adremoval :D

Score: 0

By wincement

edited Sep 22, 2005 - 10:51 PM

"to include the adblock extension on firefox"

You just had to add that last part didn't you? =p

***DISCLAIMER***
I couldn't give a crap less about the 'adblocker wars'

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 5:17 AM

Just like you had to add this reply didnt you ;-)

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 11:04 AM

yup =p

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 9:03 AM

feel....compelled....to.....respond....must....not.....submit....

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Sep 23, 2005 - 1:20 PM

DOH!

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:44 PM

Is that part of UserJs?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:28 PM

I've heard there is one out there, but have been lax in the searching of it since I have yet to bother with Opera.

Don't rush me...I'll get around to it.

Score: 0

By citizen420

posted Sep 22, 2005 - 3:05 PM

this might just be another step towards the end of ie. ;-)

Score: 0

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