Sounds like another Rockmelt disaster is in the coming ..
Facebook needs Opera - to rescue it from dependence on Apple
Facebook is reported to be interested in buying Scandinavian browser company Opera Software. The facts are few, the sourcing criminally light, but the story arrives as Opera is also reported to have instituted a hiring freeze that some claim is a harbinger to putting itself up for sale. Both firms refused to comment on the …
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Tuesday 29th May 2012 01:32 GMT Anomalous Cowturd
NOoooooooooooooooo..............
Just say no.
Or should I have bought shares, along with a license, years ago?
Fuck the "Grab it and run" ideology.
Just keep producing the BEST browser, and "Keep calm and carry on" please, fine Norwegian ladies and gentlemen.
Declaration of interest: Long time Opera user, and godfather to a Norwegian. :-)
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Tuesday 29th May 2012 16:43 GMT asdf
Re: The second Farcebook takes over Opera...
Wow if you do that it might be noticeable due to their minuscule user base. If FB does go through with this deal they certainly aren't doing it to buy desktop browser market share. Still it is a decent browser that I often use exactly because of the tiny market share. No malware writer will specifically target a brower with such a tiny user base.
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Monday 28th May 2012 17:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
Opera - top dog.
Their shares have been on the way up for years, whilst everyone else's have been sliding... Anyone that thinks Opera is a bad investment, because it's not the browser they use, is frankly a fool that can't see further than the go button in his browser.
http://tinyurl.com/OperaSharePrice
Added to that, anyone that's a "Web Pro" uses Opera, because it's got features that other browsers simply dream about having...
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Tuesday 29th May 2012 09:43 GMT h4rm0ny
Re: Opera - top dog. AC@17:17
"5 downvotes? I can't understand the mentality of some people here, what on earth did he say that merits a single downvote, let alone 5?"
Not because they said that Opera was a good browser - it's excellent and although IE9 has caught up, it has at various times been the best browser available. (It has always been better than Firefox, imo, even if you don't have all the plug-ins). But they finished their post by saying anyone who is a web-professional uses Opera. Simply not true nor should it be.
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Tuesday 29th May 2012 12:30 GMT MikeyWilko
Re: Fastmail
Oddly, that was my first thought too. I've used FastMail for years and was quite happy when Opera bought it. When I heard this news, I too was concerned. As it has been correctly stated already though, it is still in the rumour jungle so no need to do anything just yet.
Having said that, they might just buy the browser and not necessarily the whole company.
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Monday 28th May 2012 17:46 GMT npo4
Re: Opera...
I agree, I'm one of the tiny percent of Opera users, and I personally like some of the features like the built in email and IRC clients.
But if Facebook buy it, I can see it becoming either more bloated, or too much social integration...
and to pick up more use they may change it's styling to be more like Chrome or whatever and lose what makes it unique...
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Monday 28th May 2012 17:38 GMT Wile E. Veteran
Why should I care?
I don't use Facebook, have tried every major Opera revision and gone back to Firefox every time, I don't use Windows or Linux or Mac OSX.
I am already limited more by network latency and webserver response than I am by local rendering speed and I'm not expecting that to change any time soon.
This is on an old P4M at 1.7 GHz with a chipset that caps out memory at 1GB for crying out loud.
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Monday 28th May 2012 17:51 GMT Nigel Steward
Don't forget Only 35% of those polled trust Facebook !!!
I am slightly repeating what I have said in another comment....
A YouGov poll reported in the Sunday Times yesterday revealed that only 35% of those polled trust Facebook.
Opera own FastMail, one of the best email providers, but if Opera was owned by FB, I and many other FM users would migrate away from FM, as we would not want our data to be in the control of FB.
Mark Zuckerberg's often reported comments on January 9, 2010 that the age of privacy is over are hardly those of someone who is fit to run an email service.
It is also reported that Mark Zuckerberg has views on hacking not shared by the majority.
In my view FB purchasing Opera would be a disaster for Opera users, and more particularly users of FastMail & OperaMail.
NJSS
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Monday 28th May 2012 18:19 GMT Richard Bijster
Goodbye Opera from my OS in that case
I've been using Opera for about 10 years, If Facebook take over Opera I will immediately be removing the Opera/ Facebook spyware from my operating system. The reason for me using Opera is that it is not affiliated with companies that think they have the right to suck up all the personal information about web browsing habits. F-off Zuckerburg you 'aint getting your hands on my data.
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Monday 28th May 2012 18:50 GMT moiety
Re: Goodbye Opera from my OS in that case
Amen to that. I think it would be a huge mistake on the part of Opera at least; and I don't think that FaceBook would be getting what they think they would be getting.
The people who use Opera are the demographic -I imagine- that would be least tolerant of Facebook-style info-sucking dickery. I know that I will be abandoning ship the second the purchase goes through, if it does.
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Tuesday 29th May 2012 07:38 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Goodbye Opera from my OS in that case
"The reason for me using Opera is that it is not affiliated with companies that think they have the right to suck up all the personal information about web browsing habits."
Seriously, you ought to try running a fresh install of a post 11.5 version of Opera with default settings with Wireshark. It calls home /all/ the time. Practically every single keypress generates packets. And not only to opera.com either, also Google since the URL box became more Chrome interactive like. And this is without Turbo or Unite enabled.
I've also used it since v6, but recent versions have been a real eye opener. There's no place for complacency when you're using freeware.
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Monday 28th May 2012 18:28 GMT 2-Part Return
As an Opera user
I would find that sad news. I rarely use Opera turbo/mini these days, so the privacy issues aren't much of a worry for me although they would certainly exist. And for Opera, greater exposure would be nice, web developers might actually begin to acknowledge its existence.
I do worry that the browser would become a social Facebook interface covered in branding and unremovable methods of 'liking' things. While gradually losing anything that might, one day, possibly cause a typical Facebook user confusion. e.g. Dragonfly, mail, feeds, right click, windows, user scripts, ad blocking capabilities
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Monday 28th May 2012 18:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Does not make sense
The beauty about facebook and the reason why so many people use it is because no matter what device you are on you can access a version of it and keep in touch with people.
If they create their own browser and phone then that suggests they are trying to go down a walled garden route, but that market is already sown up by Apple and Google. Anything that takes facebook down a BBM / iMessage / Skype kind of route limited to certain phones / OS / Browsers then they'll end up losing users hand over fist.
It sounds like they are spending money with a scattergun approach. I figured it would take another 3 years before they went down the toilet, but with these acquisitions Zuck will have them fast tracked to the poor house
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Monday 28th May 2012 18:47 GMT Da Weezil
Oh no!
Ive been using Opera for a long time... the tabbed browsing it had before Firefox was ever released was the first attraction, and I've stayed since, it does what I want, I have it across Windows and Suse boxes here.
If it gets facebooked it will be dropped really quickly. I've never seen the attraction of the data hoovering social networking scam, I do as much as I can to remain in control of my stuff. I avoid facebook and its kin like I avoid Google as much as I can.
I hope that the deal doesnt happen.
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Monday 28th May 2012 20:30 GMT Tony Martin
Other iOS browsers
I hav Opera on my iPad but I never use it, because I don't like the way it works. I do have these other alternative browsers: Terra, PerfectBrowser, and Mercury.
So if there are numerous web browsers on iOS, and there are not rendering the way Opera is, then why no Firefox of Chrome yet?
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Monday 28th May 2012 21:56 GMT CrikeyMoses
What a load of shorsehit..
...this news pains me greatly. The company which makes my browser of choice is about to be assimilated into the slimy evil Farcebook borg, WONDERFUL.
I will be killing my Opera accounts in short order as a precautionary measure.. If the sale goes through, v11.64 may well be the last version of Opera I ever install.
You gotta love how the dirty data-mining surveillance money turns everything that it touches to crap.
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