Opera 10.10 Released, Includes New "Unite" Tech 262
Opera 10.10 has been released, and with it their new "Unite" technology, which allows users to share content directly between all of their own devices. Unite wraps both web browser and web server into a single package in an attempt to change the way users think about their browser. "'We promised Opera Unite would reinvent the Web,' said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. 'What we are really doing is reinventing how we as consumers interact with the Web. By giving our devices the ability to serve content, we become equal citizens on the Web. In an age where we have ceded control of our personal data to third-parties, Opera Unite gives us the freedom to choose how we will share the data that belongs to us.'"
ISPs won't like this (Score:1, Insightful)
A lot of TOS cite that you cannot use your connection as a server. Other ISPs simply block all P2P traffic.
The best way, as of right now, is to sign up at a Web Hosting provider where you host your own website instead of relying on something like Facebook.
Re:Wow, Opera has what I call ambition... (Score:5, Insightful)
But why won't you try Opera? Is there a good reason? Is it because it's closed-source? Is it because at the beginning they were not offering their browser for free?
FWIW, Opera is a fine browser, much better than IE, on par with Firefox and Safari. Also runs very nicely on a Nintendo DSi, given the limits of the system.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm confused, even though you made a pizza analogy (maybe there's a reason we stick with car metaphors). I from the summary and press release, I thought unite was mostly for sharing stuff between your devices, not with other people or as a social networking... thing... I was under the impression that there were plenty of, er, cloud services where you could put your files on the cloud and then share them with one person instead of everyone.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:5, Insightful)
You really think Opera created a shill /. account solely devoted to the heretofore unheard of pizza analogy?
Except in China? (Score:3, Insightful)
I love how all the computer companies have these new-age wonderful human mottos for their products, like "Unite", and then cut deals with dictators to try and make a couple of extra bucks.
Re:Wow, Opera has what I call ambition... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have. It's on my system right now along with Firefox, Konqueror and Chrome. Addons are the critical component in which these other browsers than Firefox are very much behind. I would ditch Firefox in an instant if Chrome or Opera or Konqueror managed to be as flexible as Firefox but they're not... yet.
Most of the features that are provided by add-ons to Firefox are built-in to Opera. Additionally, Opera allows User JavaScript, and even supports GreaseMonkey script. So ... is it just a matter of the principle and theory of flexibility, or are you actually missing some specific function that is provided by add-ons in FF and not provided in Opera?
For me, Opera is like Usenet (Score:3, Insightful)
Best kept secret.
Nice features with a target size small enough that malware that might go after IE or firefox won't touch.
I browse in a VM with Opera. Never lets me down.
Still a small size. Damn thing fits in less than 10 MB of disk space.
Stuff like this unite threatens this. I wish they would stop making it better so suckers will stay with IE and firefox.
The unite stuff rocks. Your parents could never setup p2p or ftp, but they can use unite. Better than some file sharing site when all your family has got FIOS pipes. Only possible downside is needing to setup a opera account to use the DNS to get the "myopera" addresses, but I believe it is just another port 80 server that you could point to directly via IP. And any filehosting site is going to require a login/email, but will probably only give you crappy throughput and make it hard to share large binaries.
Re:Except in China? (Score:2, Insightful)
I haven't seen a response to that yet.
What were Opera's alternatives?
Refuse? They would be thrown in jail, and the Chinese office would be history.
Pull out? How would that help anyone? It would just deprive the Chinese people of another way to access the web. The more ways to access the web, the more work for the government when they are trying to censor it. There needs to be as many ways to access the web as possible, because the more there are, the more difficult it is to police, and the easier it is to poke holes in the firewall. You are clearly blinded by your own ignorance.
Forget "Unite"... how's Opera doing on CSS 3? (Score:3, Insightful)
It may sound silly and pointless to a lot of devs, but supporting things like border-radius and drop-shadow (even with the temporary vendor prefixes) would be nice.
That's one area where Safari is way, WAY ahead of both Opera and Firefox.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:5, Insightful)
You must be new here - TO THE ENTIRE INTARWEB - if you honestly think that every single shred of corporate-hosted content isn't already volatile and at risk of disappearing at any moment at the whim of somebody you don't even know.
The Web has ALWAYS been volatile. That is both a strength and a weakness. Right now the Web is thoroughly capitalistic in nature; are we proposing to fully socialize it, to the point of demanding that everything "submitted" to the Web instantly becomes public domain and forcibly archived somewhere for all eternity?
The lesson you should learn is that if something you see on the Web is important to you, don't count on it being there a year from now: save a copy for your own damned self. Nobody else can read your mind and know that it's important to you and thus feel obligated to keep it anchored in the exact same spot because you'd prefer it. Regarding whether we should change the ownership of information once it's been made thus public, that's a (ongoing) debate for another place and time.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:5, Insightful)
Or does Unite provide a way to find the content that other people have put up? I don't understand what market Opera is trying to target here. Anyone with the where-with-all to setup their own web server and the associated DNS host records and the like has probably already done so. The OP bashes on Facebook, but Facebook (and Myspace and whatever the other sites are) offers the person an ability to tell someone else, "Look me up on Facebook. My name is..." Does Unite offer the equivalent capability?
I think the idea is more to host your own stuff, such as your pictures or some other small app like the Fridge notes [opera.com] without having to muck around with DNS and servers and pasting the link to your friends over IM. That way you can tell your friends to leave you at note at an URL like http://macbook-win7.jfim.operaunite.com/fridge/ [operaunite.com] instead of having to sign up for yet another service for only one simple app.
It seems to me that the large majority of what people want to share online isn't their own content, but content that they come across. Facebook is the perfect example. It seems to be filled with links to YouTube, links to other webpages, and blogs and whatever else any particular person finds interesting and wants to share with their friends. Very rarely do the large majority of people want to share content that is uniquely theirs. The one big exception that I can think of is music. Myspace seems to have the lion's share of that market. And on the subject of music, who wants to eat the bandwidth costs of serving up music from their own computer when a site like Myspace, or YouTube or listentomymusicyo.com will do it for you, for free?
I don't think the purpose is to replace any serious hosting proposal, it's more of a share with a handful of friends thing.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:3, Insightful)
That was me, but Thunderbird isn't behaving quite the same way with /. RSS feeds these days and it doesn't recognize logins, so comments made inside the RSS feed wind up being anonymous. It used to be that hitting Reply would spawn the browser, but not so any more; I don't know whether it's Thunderbird or Slashdot to blame for the change. It's not as practical as before, but maybe that's a good thing if it causes me to keep my trap shut more often?
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:5, Insightful)
It'd be interesting to see how they're handling security, though. Damn, now I'm going to have to download it.
Re:Wow, Opera has what I call ambition... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they chose to comply in order to avoid trouble like arrests of their Chinese employees and such.
But you didn't answer the part of my comment that dealt with how staying in the market helps the Chinese people, and how pulling out would be detrimental to their freedom. Again: More services = more work for the government = less oversight = more chances that there are holes in the firewall.
As it happens, there are several ways to access the uncensored web through Opera Mini even after this. If Opera pulled out, these holes would be gone forever, and there would be no opportunities to open new ones. Your brain. Use it.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:5, Insightful)
If you check out some of the Unite apps, it isn't even necessarily about sharing.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:4, Insightful)
And you require all of your family to join Facebook, click past their terms of service, and befriend each other?
Re:Except in China? (Score:3, Insightful)
They don't "graciously cooperate", they are forced to. And no, it does not make the censors' job easier. The more services, the more work to keep track of everything.
No, they are forced to, and at the same time they are offering choice.
I have just demonstrated using simple logi and fact how this claim is wrong. More things = more to keep track of = requires more time and resources = more difficult to control.
Exactly what you said. They don't want to cut themselves off completely.
This is false. Because of actions like these, the Chinese become increasingly aware of what's going on, as do foreigners.
Re:Breaks broadband service contract? (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess it depends what the EULA means by "server". ALL computers serve at least some data, even when browsing the web. So what does the IPS consider too much data? 10 gig of uploading per month is okay, but 20 isn't? They never really defined it.
For that matter, is running a bittorrent client that's constantly uploading considered a server? If so then most of us reading this forum are violating the EULA.
Re:ISPs won't like this (Score:3, Insightful)
Can I give you my Mom's phone number so you can explain her how to do that ?
With Unite, she was up and running in 20 minutes.
Re:just friends, no facebook, no cloud (Score:3, Insightful)
My PC is powered and running 24x7.
If you lose all your data everytime you reinstall Windows... I've got one trick to teach you.. it's a brand new concept, called partitions... And another one, called backups... bleeding edge stuff !