I have been an avid Opera user for almost 8- months now. I also feel that the widgets that they have are slightly better than the Firefox add ons (but that is debatable and subjective). In fact amongst Firefox, Chrome and Opera I probably like Opera the most, purely because of them being an prime innovation ground. Tabs, mouse gestures, even the wand tool is better than the other password managers – and all these are Opera innovations that you now see on most browsers.
So when Opera launched the alpha release of Opera Unite, especially with the buzz that they created with the “on 16th The Web Will be Reinvented” campaign, they got me really excited. And true to their word they have taken the dimensions of a web browser to a whole new level in terms of the features on hand.
However, there are a few reasons I don’t think these features make them any better than a regular browser. These are:
No Support for PHP
Browser as a Web Server – W00t!
No PHP support though, so essentially we will be just serving static websites. Though there are a few comments on the Opera Unite features page which suggest there can be a workaround for this but it seemed a little complicated. In an age when most websites are inherently dynamic, I don’t see many people beginning to use this.
The Web hasn’t been Decentralized
One of the big set of words that came with the announcement was that we no longer need to be tenants on the web, no more dependence on third party behemoths. However, if you go through the terms of the content that you can put on Opera Unite, there doesn’t seem much freedom – you still need to stick to Opera’s guidelines. Opera for instance can at any point of time block any website hosted thus. For all it’s good intentions Unite hasn’t quite decentralized the web, it just created a new center.
I don’t have my own Identity
How is it any different from having a blogspot blog, if my website is essentially a sub domain of Opera Unite? It is not quite self hosting if my site is accessed as http://some.thing.operaunite.com. Though it is not a very important aspect for many, however when you talk about re-inventing the web and changing the dynamics of content is shared on the web these things do matter, you need to break the status quo and not go back to an old one.
My Friends Need to Install Opera
For most of the features that are new and unique all these are accessible only if users on both ends use Opera. Opera is trying to create an eco system within itself and not really expanding the web universe as one would have expected. Firefox, Google do that, they expand the possiblities of the web experience as a user and that is what browsers need to do. By limiting its features to Opera itself, it has not followed a similar thread to the others.
I am not against Opera Unite
What Opera Unite has introduced is awesome, the technology and expertise they have shown as a browser company is killer stuff, at least in the sense of breaking ceremonial moulds of version releases.
However, with Unite it has brought in things that perhaps wasn’t required of a web browser. The basic tenet of optimizing the user expereince of some one accessing content doesn’t seem to have been priority here and that’s where they get it wrong. With this release they have turned the tables on to “me” than “them” which to my mind is not the mindset a browser should carry.
Again, what they have brought to the table might appeal to those who care about the web and where it is heading. However, for a regular user the kind that is still stuck with IE 6 and don’t even care to bother, these are stuff that they probably might not bother with. For the love of Opera though I hope such a thought is proved wrong.
However, all said and done I will still download and use Unite once it comes out of Alpha. The technology that they have brought out is certainly commendable and should be appreciated. And just like their previous innovations I am sure other browsers will soon adapt the good features among these and offer it to their users as well. Will Opera benefit from that enough is the question.
Opera didn’t innovate / invent tabbed browsing. Adam Stiles did with his NetCaptor browser.
According to Opera devs if uPNP work on your network you can redirect your own domain to opera unite PC IP,bypassing opera proxies. But then again Opera Unite is very limited for serious dev, also lack of SQL storage, no secure way to authenticate(passwords are not encrypted in any way), etc. Opera Unite cant be called secured service.
Non-tech people act like they are “inventing the hot water” with Opera Unite.
@Anonymous
I read that they did in some interview the CEO or lead dev of Opera had given a long while back. Don’t quite have the URL now and I based my point on that.. thank you for correcting if this is valid
@Lucho
Yes..
@maneesh
the power of Unite doesnt lie in just the 6 services they are giving right now, but its API
its fully open for developers and who knows what magic is in store for us
I am a die hard Chrome. But this might just make me switch. And as you said, most of the initial starters on the net, who are stuck to IE; if you give them an option of hosting their own websites, albeit static
how EXCITING will things become for them?
If you are and advanced user you can use your own url for your service. I don’t have a link, but I’ve seen guides for this.
Also user on both ends don’t need opera. Only the host, the other user can use any normal web browser.
I haven’t figured it all out, but these complaints seem frivolous. For one thing, it is quite clear that you don’t need to go through Opera’s domain-name mechanism; you’re just wrong. If they didn’t set it up that way for starters, though, then it wouldn’t have the all-important feature of being Incredibly Easy to Use, which in fact it does possess. You make it seem like a site isn’t self-hosting if most of us end up there through bit.ly.
From the American point of view the interest of this is quite immense in my view — if it takes off, which seems unlikely: it will make it possible to get around the universal constraint on web-serving, and the block on ports, that comes with DSL subscriptions. If everyone starts using Opera Unite, they’ll just have to give that nonsense up; and well they should, it is a latent violation of freedom of speech. Verizon doesn’t tell me I can only make phone calls, but can’t place them; why should I be able to browse,but not be browsed. My old mac mini has apache, and I have a homelinux domain name, but you have to be a be a real hacker to get around the port restrictions. Opera does it for you, and its all very easy.
Frankly, a lot of people don’t like it that they give over so much of their lives to Google Microsoft Facebook and other such monster monopolies that have assumed the romantic seeming title of the ‘cloud’. The fact is that all of them will respond instantly to any police request, and they have everything on you — Amazon at first announced some highminded principles opposing this, but then shamefully gave them up….retroactively, so the authorities have total access to your purchases and browsing history. I’m not inclined to paranoia on this, but it seems to me it does start to add up. And though Microsoft-hatred is widespread, it seems to me that Google is far more frightening; they just fucking know EVERYTHING about me, and step by step, I ended up giving it to them, each seemed reasonable.
It’ll be nice when they add an easy to use home email server to Opera Unite.
The security aspect is over my head, and does seem likely to be the downfall of it, but like the lameness of the existing related apps, time will tell what comes of it. This is the sort of thing that is supposed to develop once it takes off.
@aditya
I personally don’t think that users who are still stuck with IE give two hoots for their own website .. especially when they have to download something and install something , we dont’ usually igve enough credit to people who only know how to double click stuff and fill up their names on the web.. and they’re the ones google and FF has been trying to target for so long – and we all know the result .. that’s why I think unite is not trying to target that crowd but instead going for high end users like u n me..but for us these features might not be enough
@martin – I read somewhere (the guardian) if I’m not wrong that you need to have an opera to access most other features..if not the personal website
@Michael
Pretty valid points there .. but if you see about Google, FB, MS ..these points will be valid for Opera as well..their terms say the same thing on removing or handing over content ..which doesn’t quite add up to total freedom
They haven’t got it wrong at all. I see the emergence of P2P web hosting, not just a client server architecture. Not much will happen in short term , but may be in 5-10 years of time we all will be browsing web in a distributed fashion.
BTW , firefox already has an add on for this.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3002
Maneesh, that Guardian article was seriously misinformed.
1. This is still a Labs Alpha release. Not all of the goodness may have been released yet.
2. Your friends don’t need to use Opera to use your services. Any modern day web browser will do (including IE).
No Support for PHP – If you want to use PHP use some other (dedicated) webserwer. IIS doesn’t support for PHP either – it doesn’t make it bad.
The Web hasn’t been Decentralized – sad true. And that’s the only reason why I don’t like Opera Unite.
I don’t have my own Identity – You are writing about default usage of Opera Unite. You can use your own domain if you prefer. Do you need instruction? Go to http://unite.opera.com.
My Friends Need to Install Opera – What??? This is just webserwer, pal. You can use any HTTP client. You can still have some problems with that, because Services are still in beta versions, and change every day. Sometimes it doesn’t work with Opera.
To summarize:
Only one of your 4 points is right, but it doesn’t make Opera Unite any good at all. Idea is good, but … I want REAL freedom.