Comments on: Opera 10.5 Released for Linux, Is Faster Than Chrome!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:09:00 +0000

Heh I actually just tried it out myself. The fonts are terrible!

I don’t think it’s faster than Chrome – it doesn’t feel faster. But not bad for a pre-alpha for pete’s sake :P

I wait with bated breath.

By: d0od

d0od — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:59:00 +0000

Funny you ask – Opera dev just posted this article answering your question ;)

http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/show.dml/6738551

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:56:00 +0000

So, that looks lovely. But… the real, *pressing* question is…

… where’s the PPA?

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:48:00 +0000

Can’t wait for the full release. Opera has always been one of my favorites and they just keep getting better.

By: Yfrwlf

Yfrwlf — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:59:00 +0000

Like I said, even if you would not ever use a program outside what a closed source license restricted you in doing, it still effects you, because others having freedom benefits you as well as just you yourself benefiting from not having to deal with an abrasive, mean program (in the cases of DRM any way, tho not all closed source is DRMed of course). For instance, you often can’t modify, say, a game unless you have the kind of access that comes with open source programs. Otherwise, changing a theme or adding certain sounds or whatever is much easier, so that means if you like something, and someone else does too who knows how to modify something, they can do it, and you’ll both get what you’d like to see.

Commercial software as well as open source software tries hard to cater to what users want. The difference is open source almost always will cater better since it can be directly modified without permission.

Just like Microsoft wants you to use their OS even for free at the *very least*, because doing so makes it have more power over what developers are going to join together on programming, which in turn pushes their OS, just using open source software propels it as well. Even if you don’t file any bug reports, the fact you’re using it makes it more forceful, i.e. more popular, which means more attention from open source developers working for companies, working for free, and from closed source developers making extensions when and where possible, i.e. more attention from everyone. That helps the app and so good apps will prosper and have more potential to turn into even better apps.

So, there’s some software ecosystem reasons why wanting something to be open source helps. Last but not least, this is a GNU/Linux/Ubuntu blog, and Linux is (mostly) open source, so reading “open source is good” comments shouldn’t come as a surprise.

By: bhm

bhm — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:31:00 +0000

It wouldn’t bother me that much year ago. Hell, half year ago, but when suddenly “geek is sexy”. When Ashton Kutcher “is a geek” everyone seems to be catching on this. Slogans wear off, especially when repeated.
Often great piece of software is ignored because someone just does not want to change habits. Argument brought up to the table is “It’s not Open Source”, often without knowing with what this means.
Sadly those type of people are catching in while Linux and Open Source goes more mainstream. Guess, it’s price to pay, but still feels bitter.

By: Flimm

Flimm — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:51:00 +0000

I’m glad we’re agreed. ;)Do I directly gain any profit from a program? No. Who cares whether I profit directly or indirectly? I do benefit from it sooner or later.I agree that people should understand what they’re talking when they praise FOSS. But there’s nothing wrong with slogans. They’re catchy. And frankly, if people use open source software without understanding why, it’s not the end of the world.Personally, I’m not annoyed at mantras like “Open Source, Extensibility, Secure” (your words), because I understand what the mantra is summarising. The real issue is when real problems or issues with the software are ignored because of its free license.

By: bhm

bhm — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:32:00 +0000

Altho I agree, ask yourself. Do you directly gain any profit on this? No. Devs do.

For security argument. True to a degree, you are not safer on the streets with people around you. Most valuable patches come from closed dev teams – hence SELinux.

It’s all good to praise FOSS, but to a degree. Some people just repeat “Open Source, Extensibility, Secure” like a mantra. Just to sound techish. Fancy. Geeky. Without knowing what all of that exactly means to them as users of OS software, not programmers.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:25:00 +0000

so maybe try sunspider not google v8, you will see difference

By: re5et

re5et — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:48:00 +0000

nailed it.

the most important thing on this list for me is the security benefits of the many eyes on the code, especially for something as potentially dangerous as a web browser.

By: Flimm

Flimm — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:26:00 +0000

You don’t have to be a programmer to benefit from open source. Just off the top of my head:
- you benefit from other people fixing bugs and adding features who aren’t in the core team. Example: because Chrome is open source, it got ported to Linux sooner rather than later as Chromium.
- you can hire people to work on your pet issue or your wish-list, although, I admit, this isn’t as easy as it should be for individuals.
- you can have more confidence in the security of the application, as the code can be examined by many people around the world, skilled and unskilled.
- you can have more confidence in the future of the software, and avoid proprietary lock-in.
There are also ethical arguments for keeping the code freely licensed, as the FSF has long argued, the simplest being: you should be able to do what you want with the software you purchased or obtained free of charge.

By: Flimm

Flimm — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:25:00 +0000

Opera using Gstreamer is impressive.

By: bhm

bhm — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:36:00 +0000

I wouldn’t do that tbh.
Deb files are just binaries with other files needed to run.
Copy over whats inside package to /bin.
Better off make ‘bin’ folder in your home directory. Unpack that tar file there, Then rename opera binary file to opera-prealpha and add launchers to menu or dock. You’ll have both stable and pre-alpha.

By: artoflinux

artoflinux — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:07:00 +0000

it’s fast but still have a buggy :p

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Is there a DEB package? I want to replace my Opera 10.10 with this one.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:28:00 +0000

OMFG. It is NOT faster than Chrome. It’s not even HALF as fast as Chrome.
I ran the v8 benchmark suite, where the bigger the number the better.
Opera 10.50 got 1454, and Chromium 4.0.287.0 (35422) got 3677.
Please change the title.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Well, I wanted to give it an honest try, but it literally crashed and closed within the first ten seconds of using it, so I won’t be trying again any time soon.

By: bhm

bhm — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:58:00 +0000

So you are full time dev or experienced one, that modifies code every time he needs some function in the app.
Otherwise do not sing about Open Source and how much freedom it gives. You are just repeating slongans from Mozilla..

By: Yfrwlf

Yfrwlf — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:11:00 +0000

I’ll bite, regardless of whether or not that was a serious comment. Open source means more freedom, so yes it does matter, but if you just want to use what exists right now as it is, without doing your own things to it, etc, then no, right now for you it doesn’t matter. Just hope the company implements the things you want/like though in the future, because closed source has no forking, among many other things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software#Open_source_vs._closed_source

I run both closed and open source programs, but the open ones are clearly better for me as a user of them as it means I have more freedom. :P

That’s like someone at an amusement park asking someone else if it would be better if they were the owner of the park so they could do what they wanted. Yes, you can still ride the rides as they exist at the time, but you could do a lot more if you wanted to if you had more control. Even if they didn’t want to change anything, it means others can, and who knows if one of their creations might be interesting to you.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:26:00 +0000

Cool, looks good – I’m excited for the alpha release, and whenever we get a PPA that’ll add it to the menu :)

Of course, I could add it myself but… meh.