Encourage Opera to support Opera 10.5 on 98SE

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

Could I get a brief summary of what Opera 10.x does for win-98 users that, say, Firefox 2.0.0.20 doesn't do (or doesn't do well) ?

Newer, faster, technologically more advanced browser and also more secure - FF 2.0.0.20 was released in December 2008 (you can expect some security issue/issues with that version but on the other hand I don't know if they could affect Win9x users).

Hmmm. I was looking for something a little more (ok, way more) substantial than that answer. The words you use (newer, faster, more advanced) are terms I generally disregard as marketing pap (at least when it describes software). I would have thought that Win-98 fans these days would long ago have put little stock in such words. So at this point I'm not hearing about any important capabilities that Opera 10.x has that FF 2-20 doesn't.

[ojn]

So Opera 10.10 is the last stable version for the 9x systems?

Hello:

According to the Opera web site ( http://www.opera.com/support/kb/view/386/ ), the systems requirements for the current version of Opera (v10.10) is Windows 2000 minimum and at least Windows XP recommended. So while Opera may function on Win 98/ME, it's not officially supported. The recommendation of Opera is to use an older version of Opera (such as v9.64) for older systems.

Cheers,

Jerry

[Mijzelf]

So Opera 10.10 is the last stable version for the 9x systems?

Hello:

According to the Opera web site ( http://www.opera.com...rt/kb/view/386/ ), the systems requirements for the current version of Opera (v10.10) is Windows 2000 minimum and at least Windows XP recommended. So while Opera may function on Win 98/ME, it's not officially supported. The recommendation of Opera is to use an older version of Opera (such as v9.64) for older systems.

Cheers,

Jerry

Yeah right. The recommendation of Microsoft is to stop using W98, and use W7 instead. A recommendation which I also don't follow. 

[rainyd]

Hmmm. I was looking for something a little more (ok, way more) substantial than that answer. The words you use (newer, faster, more advanced) are terms I generally disregard as marketing pap (at least when it describes software). I would have thought that Win-98 fans these days would long ago have put little stock in such words. So at this point I'm not hearing about any important capabilities that Opera 10.x has that FF 2-20 doesn't.

I could fully agree with you (about marketing pap) if we talk about an commercial product (for which you need to pay) but it's a freeware browser.

I don't know, what you expect from me: some tests/benchmarks or something else?

I think, that simpliest idea would be to try Opera 10.5.

If you like it, you could use if not you will stay with Firefox.

My default browser is Firefox 3.5.8 (with help of KernelEx) and Opera (stable 10.10 version) is my third choice - after SeaMonkey.

Edited March 1, 2010 by rainyd

[Guest wsxedcrfv]

I could fully agree with you (about marketing pap) if we talk about an commercial product (for which you need to pay) but it's a freeware browser. I don't know, what you expect from me: some tests/benchmarks or something else? I think, that simpliest idea would be to try Opera 10.5. If you like it, you could use if not you will stay with Firefox.

Is there any web site, web technology or "web experience" that I am not able to experience properly using FF 2-20 that I would be able to experience properly if using Opera 10.x (or any version of Opera) on my win-9x systems?

With regard to the user interface, ease of access to frequently-used functions, screen layout of buttons, controls, drop-downs, etc, does Opera do or have anything better vs Firefox (and I mean better, not just different)?

[rainyd]

Is there any web site, web technology or "web experience" that I am not able to experience properly using FF 2-20 that I would be able to experience properly if using Opera 10.x (or any version of Opera) on my win-9x systems?

With regard to the user interface, ease of access to frequently-used functions, screen layout of buttons, controls, drop-downs, etc, does Opera do or have anything better vs Firefox (and I mean better, not just different)?

Maybe instead of asking so many questions you could simply install Opera 10.5 and learn about it yourself (I'm not you and my expectation/expectations would be different than yours most probably).

Edited March 1, 2010 by rainyd

[Usher]

Is there any web site, web technology or "web experience" that I am not able to experience properly using FF 2-20 that I would be able to experience properly if using Opera 10.x (or any version of Opera) on my win-9x systems?

Google web-based apps are written in Javascript mostly (google for AJAX) and old IE and Fx are both too slow to execute megabytes of JS code in decent time. Other lazy web coders also use AJAX-like technologies. Google programmers abandoned support for IE<=6.x and Fx<=2.x and so other coders did.

Google and other AJAX-powered web sites ignore Opera at all (see http://www.ajax.org in IE6 and in Opera), but Opera has a very fast JS engine and should work with those sites without significant problems.

[lightning slinger]

After using Opera 10.50 for a while now, my unease is growing that, although removing the check from 'Discover Local Opera Unite Users' as with 10.10 does remove the UDP Outbound connection attempt, Unite still tries to open two listening ports which cannot be closed.

In 10.10, Unite could be completely removed which in turn closed these ports but so far I have not found anyway to do so with 10.50 even after removing the checks from the neccessary items under opera:config.

I have used Opera for a lot of years since it's developers were giving what I needed from a browser, fast and light with no frills. It would seem from 10.10 onward their intent is to shoehorn as much as possible into it, turning it more into a browser suite/webserver.

I really should not need to spend time partly dismantling every later version to get back what I wanted in the first place. It seems that my unease is also shared by a growing number of 10.50 users as http://my.opera.com/...c.dml?id=433551 will show.

Meanwhile I'm back with 10.00 on this box and even 9.64 on by other box and possibly I may stay with them, perhaps my love affair with Opera is over.

Edit: Oh dear!! Started already! See this from Secunia --- http://secunia.com/advisories/38820/

Edited March 4, 2010 by lightning slinger

[halohalo]

The Web Shield HTTP proxy in avast 4.8 home obviously slows down Opera 10.50 on my Win98se pc.

Other browsers like Firefox 3, SeaMonkey 1.x, and older version of Opera are not affected.

[CharlesF]

After using Opera 10.50 for a while now, my unease is growing that, although removing the check from 'Discover Local Opera Unite Users' as  with 10.10 does remove the UDP Outbound connection attempt, Unite still tries to open two listening ports which cannot be closed.

...

I really should not need to spend time partly dismantling every later version to get back what I wanted in the first place. It seems that my unease is also shared by a growing number of 10.50 users as http://my.opera.com/...c.dml?id=433551 will show.

...

Edit: Oh dear!! Started already! See this from Secunia --- http://secunia.com/advisories/38820/

New version 10.51 is released for Windows.

Running fine here with Win 98SE!

Listening on port 1900 is acknowledged to be a bug and should be fixed quickly : 10.50 opening ports,

but not sure if it has been done yet.

The 2 security issues have already been fixed:

- HTTP Content-Length header can be used to execute arbitrary code

- XSLT can be used to retrieve random contents of unrelated documents

[osRe]

Soon we'd have people starting to repack Opera as "Opera Lite" w/o all the junk. It's really sad that companies can't keep it small/light for long and succumb to feature creep. Though Opera was relatively okay before v10 (I'd still get rid of the email client, BT client, IRC client, and possibly widgets thingie).

[CharlesF]

I'd still get rid of the email client, BT client, IRC client, and possibly widgets thingie.

I use all those features disabled, including Unite, Link, ... (even in opera:about) and the browser is running very light

(except launching which is longer than with Maxthon).

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Opera 10.52 is out!

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog

[lightning slinger]

After using Opera 10.50 for a while now, my unease is growing that, although removing the check from 'Discover Local Opera Unite Users' as  with 10.10 does remove the UDP Outbound connection attempt, Unite still tries to open two listening ports which cannot be closed.

In 10.10, Unite could be completely removed which in turn closed these ports but so far I have not found anyway to do so with 10.50 even after removing the checks from the neccessary items under opera:config.

Listening on port 1900 is acknowledged to be a bug and should be fixed quickly : 10.50 opening ports,

but not sure if it has been done yet.  

With the release yesterday of the latest snapshot Build 3344 of Opera 10.52, the problem with Unite has finally be cured!

Removing the check from Enable Unite in opera:config will now remove Unite from the browser GUI and will prevent the UDP outbound attempt and close the two open listening ports.

It seems a pity that it has taken a month to implement this fix for a problem that should never have occurred in the first instance.

[CharlesF]

Opera 10.52 is out!

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog

With the release yesterday of the latest snapshot Build 3344 of Opera 10.52, the problem with Unite has finally be cured!

Thanks for sharing

WARNING: This is a development snapshot: it contains the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues,

including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, it may not work at all.