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Opera's made no bones of the fact that you'd like to take market share from Microsoft. That's a pretty ambitious goal. Are you making any progress?
Wium Lie: We've been able to retain a 1 percent share across the whole world. In some markets, it's much higher. For example, in Australia, it's 5 percent, and in Russia, it's 10 percent. So you know, if I can challenge America here, like in the space race in the '50s: Russia is ahead of you, and you need to catch up! (Laughing.)
Of course, on the phones, we have a very different market situation. There we are, the market leader. We're shipping Opera in all sorts of phones; we're strong in the Japanese market. We've launched Opera Mini, which is a neat little application that enables the Web to be on almost every cell phone out there now.
I think the mobile market might be what forces Microsoft down from their dominant position. I'm sure a lot of people will just accept IE 7 as it comes along, and they will force it on people by putting it as part of a security update.
Could it be that most people will say, "Well, it's included with the operating system, so let's just use it"?
Wium Lie: Yeah. Indeed, our big challenge is the distribution channel.
Have you made any headway with the PC box makers?
Wium Lie: I don't think I have anything to report there. We need to convince users that we have a superior product that's free, that has many of the features that users would like to have. For example, we offer one feature, which is underestimated--or maybe just people don't know about. With Opera, a few mouse clicks let you delete all traces of what you've been doing.
What about your plans for rolling out more widgets? It seems that there are some gaps, with certain countries not represented.
Wium Lie: That's what the widget creators decide. We don't control them. That's like writing Web pages. It's not up to us; it's up to the widget creators.
Where are you, in terms of developing tools? Has the company has been talking about doing more in that sphere?
Wium Lie: I think you will see things like debuggers and a developers' toolbar. I think it's a very good idea to help support the developer. It's hard to be a Web developer if you want to ensure interoperability and correctness and things like that.
We want to do our part in helping. I don't think you're going to see a suite of authoring applications from us. I think there are enough other people who are doing AJAX toolkits. We don't have to do that.
Conceptually, as you look at the way operating browsers have been developing, do you think the browser of 2011 will look pretty much the same as it does today?
Wium Lie: It's an interesting question. I think some things are going to remain constant. For example, 10 years ago, I took a bet with somebody about whether HTML would be around 50 years from then. Now there are only 40 years left, but the computers we buy years in the future are going to be able to read the HTML created as of 1996.
Formats are going to be with us. There's so much content there, and there's really no reason to change them: HTML is here to stay; CSS, I hope; XML--all these acronyms that we're dealing with are here. They're going to evolve, but they're basically going to remain part of the same functionality. The user interface--that's the other part. I think the user interface is going to change a whole lot.
How so?
Wium Lie: We're going to see browsers in all sorts of units, not just mobile phones or game consoles or laptops. There's going to be a range of products. As people get addicted to these Web sites like CNET or Slashdot, they're going to want access to those all over. They're not going to be tied to a stationary PC or a laptop. They want ubiquitous access. So we're going to see browsers enter into places that we never thought about before.
Does the line between the browser and media player disappear?
Wium Lie: I think the browser will evolve into a media player. There is no reason why you should have a separate media player from an HTML viewer. Any data you throw at a browser should be able to be handled in a reasonable manner. You need to have some codecs, and there are some patents involved, probably. But I think it can be resolved.
See more CNET content tagged:
Opera Software, CTO, focus, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Web browser
Opera is one of few browsers which pass acid2 test. IE and firefox 2 don't pass it yet.
compare 7.0 to rebuilding a "total wreck".
Personally I think the the best thing MS has done lately is
publish ie70blocker.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
FamilyID=4516A6F7-5D44-482B-9DBD-869B4A90159C&displa
ylang=en
you have with it?
Unfortunately being the most compliant browser doesn't make it the most convinient. In the real world I don't have the option of only visiting compliant websites. There are some features withing Opera that are supposed to deal with those issues but they just haven't worked for me. I have finally given up and wen't with firefox, out of convinience.
http://www.teckmagazine.com/content/view/690/43/
end making our sites Opera-compatible. The web-based company is now on brink of bankruptcy because the sites weren't compatible with ALL other browsers. To the surprise of no one, the webmaster is now out of work.
Because of my knowledge and experience I can create valid sites that are compatible with most major browsers. It does not take more time, it takes less time.
You can be a 'web designer' and hack up something awful. Or you can be a 'web developer' of standards advocation and build something solid.
Some of them are the same people who use Frontpage to create a website and call them selves web developers. They are the same people who think standards stink or the IE is the standard by which all sites should be created.
Please stop trying to explain anything to users. They will never understand and they will never care.
PS: Not bashing Firefox. It rocks too. I just prefer Opera.
- the first with tabbed browsing
- the first with mouse gestures
- the fastest
- the most secure
- standards compliant
And now that they're free... awesome...
- ...don't forget NINTENDO!
- by kuguy3000 October 14, 2006 5:49 PM PDT
- Amazingly this article focused on everything except the one thing that may ultimately save this company...their singular partnership with Nintendo.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(41 Comments)For those who don't know, Opera will be the sole provider of web browsing for both the Nintendo DS and upcoming Wii consoles. Word has it that both offer a great experience, and tech-heads should welcome the marriage of free-software and console hardware.