Opera: Our New Browser Will Change the Web

[jerther]

[citation][nom]Gin Fushicho[/nom]We are still gonna need servers..... thats how most people find things , I mean how am I supposed to find something if the person doesnt have they're computer on or only allows people to ask for URL's? I dunno about you , but I like keeping my stuff on my computer to myself. If I want to upload it I upload it to a server. If we had no servers what would happen to websites?[/citation]

I believe it could become a bit like a torrent network

 

[darkxuy]

[citation][nom]duckmanx88[/nom]can someone explain to me why companies compete to have the best browser? what do they get out of it?[/citation]

Ever wonder why the Firefox start page has a google searxchbox?

Every time this http://www.google.com/firefox receive a hit, Firefox Corporation earn money.

 

[antilycus]

Apple tried it with Safari 4 and it sucked so much balls that I switched to Firefox on my Mac after 5 years of Safari. Burn me one, shame on you. Burn me twice, shame on me. I WILL NOT BE USING SAFARI EVER AGAIn

 

[ericgunnerson]

The level of stupidity here is AMAZING!!!

I just downloaded and tried it. It's okay. Most of the concerns raised prove that not only did you not try it out (something that takes all of 5 minutes), but you didn't really bother to read anything about it either.

Opera hosts the HTTP server. You simply have files/images/etc that you choose to share, and when the Opera server receives a request, your browser sends the data to wherever. You get a url like http://..operaunite.com/

If you really paid attention to their video, you'd understand that they're not saying youtube is going away. They're saying that you don't NEED site like youtube, you can share content with people you want to share content with, without doing anything more that saying "share".

Did you notice in the video that it shows ONE person sharing something with ONE other person on a bench?

It's not meant for large scale hosting. You should not be getting 100 hits per minute.

The comment that it is ironic that they are hosting it on you tube is VALID. Opera Unite has a mechanism for sharing video with NON Unite users. The reply to that comment was UNINFORMED and misleading. I repeat, you can share whatever you want with whomever you want as long as YOU have Unite turned on. Nobody else has to have it to see your stuff.

Come on people. Try to be a community that has at least a tiny amount of intelligence and make comments AFTER read about/try the product.

Most of the comments that precede this one are completely irrelevant to what Unite does. Pathetic.

 

[ericgunnerson]

crap, the pseudo url i typed got scrubbed. let's try that again, the url you get is something like:

http://yourcomputer.youraccount.operaunite.com/whateverservice

 

[ericgunnerson]

[citation][nom]cielmerlion[/nom]Ironic that to see the video you have to go to Youtube, one of the nasty middle men they seek to replace.[/citation]

Yes, you are correct. Anybody who disagreed with you is full of crap and they need to learn how to research something before they make bullshit comments that mislead other users.

Opera should have shown how powerful their tools are by providing a link to a Unite "server" with the video on it. Why they did not, I do not know...

 

[jerther]

@ericgunnerson

I didn'T even know it was out already. Most if not all stuff that make news here is a project to be released.

The results of your research should have been in the news itself

Thanks for the information, and yeah, I'm lazy... I already feel I'm wasting a bit of time here I would want to waste any more trying this.

 

[jerther]

crap, typo.. I meant I would NOT want to waste any more

 

[Guest]

fail.

instead of uploading the file once to a media sharing site so that any number of people can see it any number of times, with 'Unite' it become 1 upload per view..

 

[Guest]

That's great and all, but chances are that by the time my friend sees the link,my computer will be offline.
Besides, with bandwidth limitations in many countries, I'm not sure many people will want to send one file to all their friends having to upload it to each one.
It'd be much better to upload the file once on a server, and let as many friends watch it as can.

 

[stradric]

[citation][nom]ericgunnerson[/nom]Yes, you are correct. Anybody who disagreed with you is full of crap and they need to learn how to research something before they make bullshit comments that mislead other users.Opera should have shown how powerful their tools are by providing a link to a Unite "server" with the video on it. Why they did not, I do not know...[/citation]

Because YouTube serves up flash video, which is platform independent and embeddable.

But Opera Unite couldn't possibly replace picture sharing sites like picasa or flickr. Serving up individual image files is far less convenient than a nice web interface to view thumbnails and all that.

Opera unite does have some nice features though, I have to admit. It's basically an idiot-proof way to setup a web server.

 

[sykozis]

I'm more concerned with the security holes that this will cause. Not the ones it "might" cause...but the ones it definitely WILL cause. Having a browser that effectively turns your computer into a server is going to open up a LOT of security holes that, if anyone actuallyt cares to, will be exploited. At least FTP server software allows you to control access. Also, how many IPS's have policies that specifically ban this type of activities on consumer/home connections? My ISP doesn't permit me to run a server on my connection, so the first time I try to share a file using this crappy software...I'll be violating my contract with my ISP, which under their policy leaves me subject to termination of my service and a rather large termination fee. I don't like software that creates extra security holes, while violating my service contract with my ISP. I can deal with the security holes...but I value my 15mbps internet connection too much to even consider this software. Also, I've never found a single Opera release to be anywhere near stable...

 

[justjc]

You can try it yourself by downloading the package from http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/06/16/ it contains Opera 10 Beta(Browser) with a built in Alpha release of Opera Unite. They have made builds for Windows, Macs and Linux/Unix machines.

As for how it practically works look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-omonwFkkrY where the setup process is shown.

I look forward to sharing my images with family and friends, without having to worry about what the service provider wants to do with my pics(no worry Facebook uses them in an add)

For the people who claim you could just install a webserver I will ask how that works with a dynamic IP like the one most of us has. With Opera Unite the IP is updated when you log on your MyOpera account so the address is always computername.username.operaunite.com/service

 

[jerther]

For the people who claim you could just install a webserver I will ask how that works with a dynamic IP like the one most of us has. With Opera Unite the IP is updated when you log on your MyOpera account so the address is always computername.username.operaunite.com/service

www.dhs.org

Dynamic DNS services

As I said in my first comment, we can already do this but... most people won't be able to do it because it's too complicated or aren't aware of the possibilities, like you.

But firewall/router/nat configuration would still be a hell to configure and I guess Opera takes care of than with the URL they give, sort of what logmein does.

 

[ericgunnerson]

[citation][nom]sykozis[/nom]I'm more concerned with the security holes that this will cause. Not the ones it "might" cause...but the ones it definitely WILL cause. Having a browser that effectively turns your computer into a server is going to open up a LOT of security holes that, if anyone actuallyt cares to, will be exploited. At least FTP server software allows you to control access. Also, how many IPS's have policies that specifically ban this type of activities on consumer/home connections? My ISP doesn't permit me to run a server on my connection, so the first time I try to share a file using this crappy software...I'll be violating my contract with my ISP, which under their policy leaves me subject to termination of my service and a rather large termination fee. I don't like software that creates extra security holes, while violating my service contract with my ISP. I can deal with the security holes...but I value my 15mbps internet connection too much to even consider this software. Also, I've never found a single Opera release to be anywhere near stable...[/citation]


Yeah but they can put their own flash video player in an html page in the "Web Server" service of the Unite app.

The point of Unite is to let the average joe do things on his own that he would typically need a "middleman" for. I'd probably resort to hosting a video for mass use on youtube any day, but I mean for demonstration purposes... why not throw it onto Unite?

 

[ericgunnerson]

Crap that was supposed to be a reply to stradric, not sykozis...

 

[Hellcatm]

I think the idea is interesting but they should still have online backup of all this info in case something happens to your computer and you don't loose it all. Thats one thing about putting your pictures on facebook, myspace and such (same with videos on youtube), is they're backed up. If this does catch on and people forget to back up then they'll be in for a shock if things go wrong. I think if Opera has some kind of offsite backup service or points people to one then it may work.

Another thing, are people going to want to keep all their stuff on their computer? I mean I know my music I put on my ipod, then I back it up on DVD and delete it from my PC to save space.

It sounds like an interesting concept but I don't know if people will actually warm up to it. Plus Opera is in last place in the browser war. Its a good browser but Firefox with its extensions and Chrome with its small footprint and promise of extensions later on, make them more likable. Unless Unite is really something special and they can show it, I don't think this will change much. Opera is strong as a mobile browser and maybe they should put more effort into that because as more mobile phones start using Webkit for their browser, Opera is going to get smaller and smaller.

 

[IzzyCraft]

I find it more novelty then life changing. Most people who have the bandwidth and know how for a web server would rather just have one that can be more consist instead of a browser biased connection that goes though opera.

File sharing is more or less a waste of your available bandwidth, sites like megaupload and mediafire all you need to do is upload once and you friends and dl it as many times as probably a much faster rate.

Fridge is novelty but nice

Chat room is nothing really most people already have a im service which will allow you to make your own chat rooms.

Music sharing probably is the most useful service and thats about it.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

[citation][nom]Jerther[/nom]I believe it could become a bit like a torrent network[/citation]
That would suck. ;-; Torrents are slow no matter how fast your internet is.

 

[tlmck]

Opera is not now, nor has it ever been, relevant. The only time it is ever mentioned is when a tech writer has nothing better to do.

 

[Hellcatm]

If this does become something semi-big then it'll be used for just sharing (like with torrents and such) and Firefox, Chrome or IE will be used for browsing the web. Opera won't gain any real stake as a browser. I like the idea that they have voice recognition in their browser but its still pretty infantile and not very usable. I haven't seen any difference in it in years (I try Opera out every main version to see what changes they've made and I always go back to the browser I was using before).

 

[_Cubase_]

So anyone can share anything on the web becuase they don't have to actually get regulated or routed via servers. It will be like Geocities over again! only this time non-server based. Can you imagine the kinds of crap a search would return if people are able to host content themselves and your search was returning results from direct connections!? Not to mention the fact that servers exist in order to keep an eye on things and track down malcontent. It will be like making telephone call that does not have to go through any form of exchange, not only difficult to trace and regulate, but very unsafe. I'm sure many fathers will feel their daughters are safe knowing that potential internet predators are enabled direct access to their children online with little to know way of tracing it back.

 

[sykozis]

Hate to burst your bubble _cubase_ ...but this is easy to trace. If you know wtf you're doing, as soon as you connect, you can retreive the IP address for the computer you're connected to. Not very hard to connect to a windows system from there. This idea will definitely increase virus sharing though...

 

[zodiacfml]

sounds like microsoft live mesh or google wave to me.

 

[Guest]

I liked the sci-fi style of the video