Captain Opera · Grey Nicholsonhttps://gkn.me.uk/entries/captainoperaGrey Nicholsonhttps://gkn.me.uk/style/icon.svg2025-10-21T12:11:00+00:00Actually-Free Operahttps://gkn.me.uk/actuallyfreeopera2005-09-20T22:29:00+00:002005-09-20T22:29:00+00:00Opera is now actually free, properly, for real.
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<a href="/freeopera" title="Free Opera"><q cite="/freeopera">I wonder how long it is before it's just plain free?</q></a> The correct answer was <a href="http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/09/20/">three weeks</a>.
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It's still closed-source though. And it doesn't have <a href="http://getfirefox.com">Firefox</a>'s extension system. But its use of tabs is far better than Firefox's.
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Also, Captain Opera seems to have been fired. Damn - I quite enjoyed taking the piss out of him.
</p>Free Operahttps://gkn.me.uk/freeopera2005-08-31T23:30:00+00:002005-08-31T23:30:00+00:00Captain Opera to the rescue!
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Yesterday, Opera gave itself away for free. That sounds odd... Opera the company gave Opera the browser away for free. Or, perhaps, <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?&q=%22Captain+Opera%22" title="Editor's note: I came up with the name independently of everyone else. I'm so cool.">Captain Opera</a> mightily morphed the in-chrome adverts into oblivion. Yes, by the way, you've missed it.
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<blockquote cite="http://my.opera.com/community/party/">
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But don't despair - you can still get Opera for free by joining our affiliate program. Just put an Opera-button on your webpage, get 250 people to click it, and you're home free!
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I wonder how long it is before it's just plain free? This would, of course, be a Good Thing™ - any more alternatives to Internet Explorer 6 are generally good.
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But also, Opera is quite a good browser. Seriously. Their implementation of tabs is better than Firefox's; everything opens in a tab - including history, bookmarks and downloads.
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And I don't care whether an “old-fashioned multiple-document interface isn't tabs” - it's better; one can view two pages side-by-side more easily than in Firefox.
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Of course, I'm still using Firefox, for its extensions, particularly <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/10/">Adblock</a> (with <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1136/">Filterset.G Updater</a>). And its layout engine (Gecko) seems less prone to hiccups than Opera's (Presto). And it doesn't have Captain Opera.
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