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But the two programmers successfully negotiated the rights to the browsing software they had developed at the company and then struck out on their own. And so it was that Opera Software got its start.
Opera never generated the buzz of one-time high-fliers like Netscape. But unlike many belonging to the class of 1995, von Tetzchner and Ivarsoy are still at the helm to celebrate their company's 10-year anniversary--and this despite the challenges of surviving the Internet bust, a global IT recession and, of course, Microsoft.
Considering the odds, this is quite a story. How many of the tech hucksters touting the next big thing really offered something special? I can list the number of ohmygoshyougottaseethis! Internet breakthroughs on a half page. Web browsing did not figure among the entries. One of the reasons why I came to Opera Software (in much the same way I became a Firefox fan) had to do with my mounting frustration waiting for Microsoft to do something interesting with Internet Explorer.
After leveraging a desktop monopoly into a corresponding browser monopoly, Microsoft promptly turned its energy and attention elsewhere. That left an opening for Opera, which cultivated an audience by attending to needs that simply were not being met by the industry's reigning hegemon. Even more remarkable, the company carved a niche in the absence of a multimillion-dollar advertising budget.
Opera has kept its code small and flexible. That's helped the company port applications to the mobile and set-top box markets. If you believe--as I do--that the biggest future growth is going to come from non-PC devices, that's the smart play.
Marketing mavens around the world should take note: Boring sometimes can be better, especially when the market leader treats its users with benign neglect.
"Things are going very well," said von Tetzchner, who swung by News.com's office a few weeks back. A sober, low-key Norwegian, von Tetzchner said that Opera now logs about 100,000 downloads each day. Steve Ballmer's not losing sleep over Opera. Still, it's a respectable number.
"It's not only about spending money," he said, dismissing suggestions that Opera was doomed to come up with the short end of the stick against Microsoft--a company whose R&D budget dwarfs the gross domestic product of many nations.
"It's a question of what is your focus, how you do it, and what you are trying to solve," he said. "We've always focused on one thing, and that is the end user."
Self-serving, though entirely sensible.
In part, Netscape self-destructed because it failed to establish the internal controls and practices that might have helped it step clear of the landmines Microsoft planted in its way. But if Microsoft made a point of specifically targeting Opera, would its fate turn out any differently?
That's good fodder for a bar debate. For his part, though, von Tetzchner isn't particularly worked up by the prospect of a direct collision with Microsoft.
"Microsoft hasn?t really improved on their browser for five years," he said. "That's a long time to not update a product and especially when it's the most-used product in the world. I mean, if you try to actually look at it, it is really the most-used product in the world and there are security issues with it."
I usually don't lend credence to those sorts of statements. But Microsoft is far from overcoming its security struggles. Internet Explorer 7, planned as the company's next big browser update, remains in beta testing. All the while, security breaches involving Microsoft's browser continue.
What's more, Opera can count on a number of people who are always going to look for the alternative to the mainstream offering. And some folks just plainly hate Microsoft no matter what.
When IE 7 finally does reach the market, might that be a game changer? Clearly, Opera will face all sorts of new pressures. But the experience of 10 years has taught von Tetzchner that his company must keep innovating or its curtains. Opera just does not enjoy a large enough margin of error to fall behind Microsoft.
Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.
See more CNET content tagged:
Opera Software, set-top box, set-top, Netscape Communications Corp., Microsoft Corp.
I think that competition in the browser market is crucial to keeping everyone on their toes and developing improved versions, but Opera is the only one who charges for their browser. Personally, I think it's amazing that they've lasted this long.
Yes there are rendering problems (not serious IMO) - Firefox ALSO has problems.
In the end, I'm not going to tell others what to use. But I will continue with Opera & have IE for those times I MUST use it.
Happy anniversary - if Firefox is still around in 10 years, maybe it'll be king then.
In my benchmark test - starting the browser on my homepage (customised My Yahoo page), Opera was fastest, followed by Firefox & IE was slowest. After the page was up, Opera relased most of it's 18Mb, Firefox released a little bit & IE, well.....what do you expect from IE.
A healthy portion of innovation in the browser market can be directly traced to Opera. Some people are willing to pay a bit extra for quality.
I really despise it when people complain about Opera's rendering issues. It's not Opera that has the issue.
As far as paying for it? It's worth every penny and then some.
I have been using Opera for 2 years now and frankly, I cannot surf without those mouse gestures anymore! After using Opera one realizes how easy it is to manifest 'convenience' using digital technology (and I havent even started talking about speed!). Everything else seems a little primitive after the Opera experience!
Apple has to innovate all the time just to maintain the status of "cool" company.
Both companies products have healthy markets consisting mostly of professionals of various kinds. And both companies successfully managed to create strong user communities.
I usally have NetBeans, Acrobat, Word, Visio and Orcad also open at the same time. So for me having a small memory footprint, good speed and a clean multitabbed interface are important requirements.
Thus for my needs Opera is the best browser.
"And some folks just plainly hate Microsoft no matter what," he adds. Well, yes, some folks do, Mr. Cooper, because Microsoft keeps publishing costly, ugly, non-innovative, poorly designed, intellectually ripped-off, virus-prone crud no matter what.
The Security-problems in "IE" are just too many to ignore. And, though I also use "Firefox", "Opera 8" is always my first choice these days, especially on my Linux-box.
Its fast. It just works. Its simple. It has all the features I want. And, I havent noticed any issues or problems since I installed "version-8".
So, its just a good choice for Browsing. And, in my opinion, these should be the criteria for any "recommended" software.
I use Firefox, adblock makes pages advertisement free
Is there an extension or whatever for Opera ? If so, it seems to be a secret as I haven't seen mention of it.
Exanple, I click my bookmark for http://news.com.com/ In Firefox I see NO advertisements.
I open the same link In the latest Opera I installed a couple days ago, there are 3 advertisements wasting my screen space :(
Now, I imported my "Netscape bookmarks", There are 15 sites in my "bookmarks toolbar folder". BUT, Opera shows only 10 sites, the other 5 are gone to never-never-land ?
I try another site, NO advertisements in Firefox. Opera, 4 adverts, animated annoying .gif's :(
I click my "web cams" folder, has links to 7 cams. in Opera I click "open all folder items". Activity and I see ONE cam, the others are nowhere to be seen. I see no "tabs". This is a new clean install with no preferences changed from defaults.
Speed... I try http://www.download.com I count to "one-thousand-and-five" till Opera had the page (full of ads) loaded. I try the same page in Firefox, the page is loaded at "one-thousand-and-two" with NO ads. (am on 5 meg adsl)
actually I have never before paid attention to speed between browsers and a bit suprised by that result. Speed on most sites seems equal tho.
I goto http://www.confederationbridge.com/bridge/bridgecam100_7.asx
Firefox starts xine and I watch traffic on the bridge
I click the same link in Opera. After some prompts, I choose open rather than download, but it appears I have downloaded the bridgecam file and am now on a "download screen". No back to Opera browser, I doubleclick the file I had told it to open and am again asked to open the file I did NOT want saved to disk (it is streaming video, not a 572b file) kfmclient.exe and a player opens, I click play in that player and get error, unable to create io-slave. Looks like Opera does not handle "Media Player" files by default. Nothing to do but close the download screen and Opera seems to be gone as well.
duh
I like it that it has a mobile version with unique mobile rendering capabilities. I like it that it has mouse gestures. I like it that it renders fast. I like it that it is more secured.
Sigh... So why am I still using MS IE?
Bad habits are hard to break?
Congratulations to Opera's 10th year!!!
- Respecting the customers' privacy.....
- by djugan September 5, 2005 4:48 PM PDT
- that's always been a hallmark of the folks from Opera.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(19 Comments)Perhaps, the culture of our Norwegian friends refreshingly encourages them to practice a variation of capitalism that is much less obtrusive (savage?) than we've come to expect in the States.
Opera is a great product and you can trust them to refrain from picking your pockets or mugging you for a short-term gain.