Opera and its lack of support of H.264 video

Gawd, there is just something about these Opera guys that has always irked me.

Here is a company that has never made a successful product... ever, yet who feels it necessary to constantly scream and shout and wave their arms in some futile attempt to be seen as relevant. Instead of going the way browsers seem to be going (lighter/less visible), and the direction consumers seem to be asking for, Opera seems to be intent on doing the complete opposite, bogging the browser down with more and more unneccessary and useless "features" (I mean a web server built into the browser... seriously?).

Now, before someone from Opera searches on Google, finds this post and has a mid life crisis because he/she thinks I'm deriding their baby, I would like to add that it's patently obvious that Opera has some very smart people working for it (the browser has many "cool things" albeit things that people don't want nor need), it's just unfortunate that it's so blind to the needs of the market.
 
Tharaxis said:
Here is a company that has never made a successful product... ever
Click to expand...

Opera mini, opera mobile, wii's browser, DS browser... :confused:

I like that opera is throwing some innovations out there [even if some of them are a bit misguided]. Mouse gestures, email clients, tabbed browsing, build in adblocking. Keep the innovations coming, a few gems get through for a better internet.
 
eltherza said:
Opera mini
Click to expand...

That's the only success I see plus Opera Mobile used to be a paid app, nothing to brag about and it even looks like Opera Mini at this current moment in time, and Opera has just been playing playing catch up with speeds and basically inheriting its compression forte from Opera Mini.
 
Opera's browser used to be the best browser, even on PC. It wasn't until firefox that they lost the crown. A few years back, opera was light years ahead in terms of features and security.


That said, I dont think they have what it takes to play with the big boys at mozilla, microsoft and google any more.
 
Opera is actually very nice (used it on Ubuntu 10.04), but I've got no idea why it never got as big as Firefox or Chrome.
 
Personally - I still use Opera myself. Perfect for my needs.

It doesn't play nice with FNB thou :/
 
rpm said:
Despite H.264 announcing it would go royalty free, Opera says the standard isn't open enough for them to support it
Click to expand...

Writing a decoder for H.264 would still require a license from the MPEG-LA. Therefore Opera and Mozilla cannot incorporate H.264 for free, and in Firefox's case they cannot allow the H.264 plugin to be used by derivative projects. Each project would need their own license. The royalty-free clause is for video that are streamed over the net for free. This is currently royalty-free, so there was no change to the status quo. MPEG-LA merely announced they would not revise the royalties on this specific class of media.

I agree with Opera here, and the Mozilla Foundation and Google do as well. H.264 is not even close to an open standard.

I still prefer Firefox over Opera, though.
 
Last edited:
Tried it a year ago... had big problems with some of my network appliance gui's... haven't touched it since.
 
eltherza said:
Opera mini, opera mobile, wii's browser, DS browser... :confused:
Click to expand...

A good argument being made there, but here's my counterpoint:

1) Opera Mini/Mobile - How popular is this now? Opera was popular in the past because it was the only mobile browser engine out there with good->great standards compliance. It was popular by default - I mean what was the alternative, IE on Windows Mobile? Yikes! Now that a competitor through WebKit is available and we have iOS and Android using it, nearly everyone (and in the long term probably everyone) is switching to WebKit for their mobile browser needs - whether for good or bad.

2) Wii/DS Browser - How popular are these really? I suppose if you're without a cellphone & PC then perhaps it's useful, but I would say by and large people aren't browsing from their gaming machines. Keep in mind as well the console's popularity does not equate to the browsers popularity (since it's not the browser that's being sold here, it's the gaming/console), it's just a value-add that happens to be using Opera.
 
eltherza said:
Opera mini, opera mobile, wii's browser, DS browser... :confused:
Click to expand...

Opera also says they're really big on other devices, such as set top boxes for TVs to give television broadcasters a web-enabled TV to work with.
 
Tharaxis said:
A good argument being made there, but here's my counterpoint:

1) Opera Mini/Mobile - How popular is this now? Opera was popular in the past because it was the only mobile browser engine out there with good->great standards compliance. It was popular by default - I mean what was the alternative, IE on Windows Mobile? Yikes! Now that a competitor through WebKit is available and we have iOS and Android using it, nearly everyone (and in the long term probably everyone) is switching to WebKit for their mobile browser needs - whether for good or bad.
Click to expand...

Opera used to be one of the browsers who would be acid compliant first. They still put in a big show and are awesome at keeping to standard. But recently, as you say, webkit is starting to be adopted. But it's not really competition for webkit on the phone market. Webkit is owning the smart phone market, but opera is still king on the stand mobile market (but how long till all phones are smart phones?)

2) Wii/DS Browser - How popular are these really? I suppose if you're without a cellphone & PC then perhaps it's useful, but I would say by and large people aren't browsing from their gaming machines. Keep in mind as well the console's popularity does not equate to the browsers popularity (since it's not the browser that's being sold here, it's the gaming/console), it's just a value-add that happens to be using Opera.
Click to expand...

But for opera's defence, nintendo did choose them, meaning there has to be some solid confidence (and success). Nintendo wouldnt risk stuff on the wii from a 2 bit company.
 
eltherza said:
Opera used to be one of the browsers who would be acid compliant first. They still put in a big show and are awesome at keeping to standard. But recently, as you say, webkit is starting to be adopted. But it's not really competition for webkit on the phone market. Webkit is owning the smart phone market, but opera is still king on the stand mobile market (but how long till all phones are smart phones?)
Click to expand...

I agree, but as you said, how long until all phones are smart phones? That percentage is growing daily.

eltherza said:
But for opera's defence, nintendo did choose them, meaning there has to be some solid confidence (and success). Nintendo wouldnt risk stuff on the wii from a 2 bit company.
Click to expand...

Indeed, Opera is definitely not a 2 bit company, they have a good solid reputation in the mobile and embedded market, though I would still argue that as a browser, embedding it on a console constitutes next to nothing to their overall browser share (since it goes unused). That said I'm sure the licensing fees netted Opera some nice cash (additionally, keep in mind that in this case the browsers are just the embedded renderer - just like WebKit is to Safari/Chrome).

Perhaps it would be best served to qualify my original argument with "Here is a company that has never made a successful DESKTOP product... ever." (or you could say here is a company whose only success is the Opera Renderer, not the Opera Browser).
 
Opera Market cap = 400 million euro, nothing to be sneezed at so they must have done something right
 
Well Opera still supports Flash, and Flash still plays H.264, so everything still works.
 
Without Opera, Firefox wouldn't be what it is today. Without Firefox, we would have all still be stuck with the crappy old IE6. Without Firefox, we wouldn't have Chrome. Without all these alternatives to IE, the world would be much worse off, held hostage by Microsoft's blatant barstardisation of standards, and its many terrible practices of wiping out competition.

Although Opera only owns a small percentage of the browser market today, the web and internet would not be what it is today, had Opera not existed. I guess we could probably say the same for the mobile Web.

Your argument is something along the lines of telling IBM to shut their mouths because they aren't anything great, and have a tiny share of the market compared to Microsoft / Intel / Dell / etc.

Opera have earned their right to throw their arguments into the ring. They might be small, but they are well respected all over the world by IT professionals, especially those with more in-depth knowledge of the industry.
 
Last edited:
I'm browsing this forum using Opera roght now. Prefer it to Firefox and Chrome. What's this "IE" you speak of?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter