I personally switched from Firefox and I'm happy. Haven't tried M2 yet, but I've been wanting to give Opera a spin for a while, and getting a free license is just great.

The sheer configurability of this browser rocks. I can change key bindings, menu strings, menu order, and other things which I don't know how to change on FireFox (might be possible -- I just don't know how, even after 2 years of using FF).

First of all, Congrats Opera, you've come a long way since I've used 2.x versions. Without a doubt it is the fastest graphical browser. I use Firefox though since using high-security sites like online banking have slack site-designers which aren't very Opera friendly. However, even with this technical dificulty in the @#$%&, Opera still is, and will always be the browser of choice.

"The browser that once had the potential to steal IE's crown...has a fight on its hands. Not with IE: that one's already been lost. This time, it's biggest threat is Firefox."

Hah! The fight's not over yet! The amount of features that Opera has is *incredible*. If site compatibility was better and they got rid of the ads, it will be able to regain its crown once again. Too many people have been turned off by the ads. Even if there wasn't any difference between the free and paid versions, I'd still be happy to purchase Opera to support them. Donations? That's a degrading term to many, however great authors (Jan Fiala of PSPad and Bram Cohen of BitTorrent) constantly recieve donations as they really chose to stand out. Sure, many people say Opera is an appauling browser but even more would like to see it get ahead.

Happy 10th Birthday Opera! Let's hope your new birthday gift is more users...

It would be great if Opera had a valid download signature. That way I could try it out. But seeing as how they do not, I guess I'lll never know how great they truly are.

What in the world is a download signature? Just go to the site and download it, what is the problem?

oh, please Poz! You're only hurting yourself thinking like that.

Just a FireFix fanboy boasting that Mozilla downloads have recently been digitally signed.

After trying "theirs" (who could help it!) and then the "other," Opera is by far the best of them all. Happy Birthday, Opera!

O Happy Day! Happy BD!

Thanks for the Reg Key, it's nice to finally get rid of the Ads! :o)

Wink Wink nudge nudge say no more ;o)

I am checking out the kewl skins I can download... l8rs.

I do have one little question though... how do I get the Java to run my Banner rotator on my own web site? The banner changer works in every other browser, so all I can figure out is something is shut off in the settings only I checked the Jave and it says that Java is Enabled?.?

Happy Birthday Opera!
Opera is the fastest web browser.
Opera is the most secure browser.
Opera has the most functionality out of the box.
Opera uses much less resources than the competition.
If only Opera had a plug-in like Adblock...
Admuncher is the answer.

No Firefox spammers please. :)

At theirs birthday, shouldn't they be getting presents from us? :)
Anyway, I've been using Opera all through the 7th version (the Ad version) and I simply love it!

Happy birthday Opera!

Opera has been and is superior to FireFlack. This product was the first REAL challenger to IE after the demise of Netscape. The product is robust and feature rich. You blow bots would do well to take advantage of the free license. By the way with OPERA you dont have to search all over the net to find updates and add ons. Enjoy a real alternative browser.

I've tried Flopera many times, and I did not enjoy it at all. It doesn't hold a candle to Firefox. The interface sucks, even IE has a more clean and logical layout. It is much slower at loading pages despite the hype about it being fast, and you can't use any of the thousands of Firefox extensions with it. By the way you don't have to search all over the web, they are all on one offcial page so unless you are an idiot and can't click the "Get more extensions" link I don't see the problem there. That is just my opinion of course. After all if Opera really is so great I'm sure it will show up in it's huge share of users...oh wait. It hardly has any share, even after ten whole years. LOL, I guess that says it all.

Slow? Hardly, opera is by far the fastest browser around, and it has lots of killer features. The only thing that stops me from buying it and using it as my primary browser is that they dont allow 3rd party functionality to be added to the browser. I purchased roboform, and the wand is very inferior to it, and I dont want to throw away that my investment of time and money in any other programs I've purchased to enhance my browsing experience. A browser should be able to grow if I need it without having to wait for a developer to add something to it, I should be able to extend it. With opera I cant, that is my ONLY complaint with it

obviously your opionion doesnt count too much or maybe its your breath, well either way youre a moron.

Is your spelling really that bad or are you just upset? I can somehow picture a trembling, angry Opera fanboy plucking away at his keyboard. Perhaps my opinion doesn't count, but if that's true than neither does yours. So how about the pathetic 1% market share? In ten years your wonderful browser hasn't made a scratch on the market. It never will either, it's just a niche product for elitists who think they are better than everyone else because of the browser they use. Kind of pathetic actually.

Opera need to seriously look at making their Ad free browser free from now on. A paid for browser will never make much of a dent in a world of free browsers. But I suppose it's a source of revenue for Opera, and there is a small base of people prepared to pay for a browser. Opera is nice, but it does exactly what IE and Firefox do... render web pages! That's all I need.
Many users of Opera were keygening a code anyway. At least with this giveaway keygens are obsolete for, well 24 hour!

Get your license code in 10 seconds.....enjoy!
http://my.opera.com/community/party/reg.dml

Happy Birthday to an innovative browser!

Wow.......who would have thought to give the browser away. That is just pure marketing genuis. I've tried all the browsers and I spend ALL day with them, Firefox it is the winner. So they need something more, they need to sit around a table with a bunch of beers and say, OK.... it's 2015 what will be the need and how will we be using the computer the net, etc. No idea too crazy, ask the customer what they want.... I dunno - if you ask slashdot you'd get more than enough ideas for free. Create a compelling reason, since all I have is coffee in front of me instead of a beer the ideas I have I can't think of right now, but you get the idea.

I tried it, but I can't use this. Huge banner ads in my face all over, no thanks. I've gotten use to having NO ads anywhere, anytime. I don't really like the interface either, and that magic wand thing sucks. It's better than IE certainly though and it's great they are giving it away today. If it will get more people away from using IE I'm all for it.

Edit: For all the hysterical crybabies that are screaming about the free license, I'm talking about ad banners on web pages like Yahoo, etc.

Erm, I think computers are beyond you full stop.

YOU REGISTER USING THE CODE THEY GIVE YOU, AND THE ADVERTS DISAPPEAR, IDIOT...

Have you considered packing your computer back up into it's box, and send it back to the retailler?

You don't have to use graphical ads anymore. They do offer the option of contextual text based ads via Adsense now. It's not that great with ads but it is very good browser if you have a registered. I am not sure what your issue with the wand is but I think it is a whole lot more convenient then the way IE fills outs forms.

What an idiot. Did you look at the title of the story? "Opera Offers FREE licences" not simple enough to understand?

If you pop along and get your free licence then enter it, you'll not have the banner ads will you?

Jesus...

I do have a free license moron; I'm NOT talking about the ad banners that are part of Opera, I'm talking about ads on web pages, the kind you can block with Firefox. If you are going to call someone an idiot make sure you don't sound like one yourself first, and leave Jesus out of this.

See my post at the bottom of this thread

Oh, so I register Opera (which I already did) and ad banners on all the web pages I visit are going to disappear? I don't think so, and as for the name calling, very nice. Always love to meet a person who can discuss opinions intelligently without screaming and calling people names. Of course you're probably just a child so what should I expect; you certainly act like one anyway.

hey bozo set the preferences to b lock ads...or more simply go by a news paper

Opera rulz all

but i paid 30$ for it now free????

Why would anyone pay for a browser?

To get something that the free browsers IE and Mozilla don't offer..

Try it, what have you got to lose?

It's not as instantly accessible as perhaps FF and IE, but the more you use it, the more cool things you discover.

Such as? Name one. Meanwhile I can name plenty of things Firefox can do that Opera can't. Oh, and it's lose, not loose.

There are plenty, but one that springs to mind, is IRC.

Happy Birthday Opera and...Thanks!!! A little bit confuse efortier, but I agree with Yokozuna below:
Your license will be valid as long as you will use Opera 8.xx versions. The Future....????

Are they giving free codes for the next day, or are they giving free codes that last 24 hours?

Opera is an interesting browser, but I mainly use it for verifying my webpages render correctly in it. The skin system is pretty neat tho... I like how it doesn't need 10 minutes to apply a skin.

What browser that you know of requires 10 minutes to apply a skin? The most time its ever taken me to apply one in any of the multitude of browsers I've tested is around 20-30 seconds (and that includes a restart and getting all the pages loaded again)

I got me 4 codes for everyone in me family. :D

You could have used just one ;)
A opera license is valid for the entire household not just for one person :D

Oh, cool, didn't know that. :)

ServerMechanic, how can something/anything be evaluated in 15 minutes? "Well after only 15 minutes of surfing I think it is junk compared to Firefox. It's slower at loading pages. I cannot use CTRL + T to open a new Tab. I cannot use CTRL + ENTER to have the browser add the www. and the .com to each address I type into the URL field.

The way they implement the tabs is worse than Firefox. Also, I cannot find where to turn ON the prompt that asks to have Opera be the default browser. I would just like to know how to turn this on and off."

1. middle mouse click on tab bar
2. type your site into the address bar hit enter
3. ctrl-F12; click advanced, highlight programs and you should see the checkbox for check for default

Take some time to learn how to get it to work for you. I still am learning new ways to manipulate Firefox as well as Opera.

Very nice. Thank you Opera.

Best browser ever!

So I paid money for this and now they're giving it away for free?!

Version 8. You'll probably get version 9 free, while we all have to pay a moderate fee. :P

It wouldn't surprise me if the 'free' registration codes don't receive the same upgrade rights as people who have paid for their license but you can't really complain for something that has been given away for free.

If they raise the price tomorrow will you pay them the difference?, i don't think so.. why whine about this scenario then?

this rocks! I always thuoght $39 was steep. I would have payed $19, but free works!! awesome.

I like it. I refused to use it when I had to deal with ads. There's just no way I'm going to pay for a browser.

Now that I got a free registration code it is pretty cool.

I think right now I still like Firefox better but we'll see.

EDIT:
-----

Well after only 15 minutes of surfing I think it is junk compared to Firefox. It's slower at loading pages. I cannot use CTRL + T to open a new Tab. I cannot use CTRL + ENTER to have the browser add the www. and the .com to each address I type into the URL field.

The way they implement the tabs is worse than Firefox. Also, I cannot find where to turn ON the prompt that asks to have Opera be the default browser. I would just like to know how to turn this on and off.

I cannot use CTRL + T to open a new Tab.
Use Ctrl+N

I cannot use CTRL + ENTER to have the browser add the www. and the .com to each address I type into the URL field.
???

>> I cannot use CTRL + T to open a new Tab.
> Use Ctrl+N
Or just change it through Tools > Preferences > Shortcuts

darn you sound either poor or are a cheapskate, and you must be a gime to have to use "ctrl blah blah blah"

Looks like Opera is not getting the public response it anticipated. I will give them this though, The Code works, still not sure the browser is up to industry HTML standards. I wonder if the registration code will work through updatres

"Looks like Opera is not getting the public response it anticipated."

Why not? For what?

"still not sure the browser is up to industry HTML standards"

Of course it is.

ad 1. Not really. I even heard that maybe Opera for desktop operating systems will be offered for free soon. How come? Well, browsing with cell phones and PDAs (&WiFi) is popular in Europe and it generates almost all the profits of the company. Therefore the company could lower the price for Polish users to 10 Euro, give the license for 250 banner clicks, various sweepstakes and so on.
ad 2. yes, it adheres closely w3c, so it supports HTML as it should. I dare say that M$ products do not do it correctly, but their share is around 90% of the market so every webmaster must create his pages according to the faulty standard of Microsoft. Moreover, Bruce Schneier considers Opera as the most secure browser in the world. Good recommendation?
ad 3. your license will be valid as long as you will use Opera 8.xx versions. I cannot predict the future.

I just might convert over this. The ads are what I've always hated. Trying it right now.

If you hate ads why would you switch over to this. You'll be buried under them; huge banners pasted all over every site you visit. In my experience Firefox is much faster, has a cleaner interface, and with the extension blocks ALL advertising.

He would switch because now he has a legit license key and can get rid of the ad bar, then he wont have any advertisements on the toolbar.

Also, forget extensions, yes its not free, but guess what, ad muncher beats the pants off of the ad block extension. It blocks 99.99% of ad's I've ever seen, and if one is missed, simply use the GUI to submit a report and it will be removed or use the contact tab and go to live chat tech support. Ad muncher comes with a default list (which is updated about 5-6 times per week) unlike ad block (which requires you hunt for your own) and ad muncher works on ANY BROWSER, so you arent confined to firefox, or ie, or opera. Plus, it works with any application (such as kazaa, aim, icq, etc) that gather advert's via HTTP so it can block them from the interface (not remove the space they consume, but remove the ad's, and yes, this includes opera's toolbar). So, for 24.95, you get a whole lot more than what ad block offers you for firefox.

Have you seen this site: http://www.pierceive.com/ ???
Its best filter set for Adblock (or Adblock Plus), i rarely see any ads. I had Ad Muncher but its not free so i don't give a ****. Adblock Plus is the best, and i don't use other browsers, with Filterset G i don't see any ads why i have to pay for something i get for free ???

PS. I'm using FF but i'll give Opera a good name, because its best browser on earth when it comes to follow w3c standards.... something that ff and ie can dream of :P

This is a exciting moment for Opera and releasing a free license is the best move the company has ever made.

The only beef I have with Opera is that it has no integrated ad blocking or working extension. However, you can download a 3rd party application, made for Opera, but you will need to manually setup a few ini files for it to work properly.

Firefox is much more stable (but not really WC3 compliant). Firefox's ad blocker extension is the most advanced extension available on the web.

Pierceive ( http://www.pierceive.com/ ) was designed specifically for Firefox ad blocker.

exactly, why limit yourself to one browser or application? ad muncher works with ANY APPLICATION

You do understand that if everyone actually did block ads, that the internet would no longer be free?

It could be seen as a good move, of course in my opinion it's the only possible move left. I think they are simply getting desperate.