Opera Open Sources Dragonfly

netux writes to mention that Opera has released Dragonfly, their answer to Firebug, as an open source project under the BSD license. The release features a complete architectural overhaul using a modern version of the Scope Protocol (STP-1), a Mercurial repository on BitBucket, and a Wiki to get the ball rolling. "This is Opera’s first full open source project, so there will be a learning curve. We ask you to bear with us while we get everything up and running and policies in place. Coming from a closed source background there are some hurdles to overcome, such as the current bug tracking system being on a closed server. We hope to migrate to an open bug tracking system as the project gets on its feet."

Let the Name Confusion BEGIN!

[eldavojohn]

Dragonfly? Well, guess the FreeBSD fork by Matt Dillon (not the actor) that was named Dragonfly will now have to be referred to as Dragonfly BSD [wikipedia.org] to avoid confusion. That was one of the first live Linux distributions I played around with and what comes to mind when I hear the name "Dragonfly" in software.

It boggles my mind why people pick project names that are not more original. You're basically shooting yourself in the foot as far as domain registration, marketability and search rankings are concerned.

Opera was originally a Norwegian company, right? They should have went with the Norwegian word for Dragonfly: "Øyenstikker." Which literally means "Eye Poker." Well, okay, maybe not ...

Yeah silly them

[SmallFurryCreature]

It is not like they make any money by selling it to Nintendo and others, they should opensource their code just because.

Opera is the perfect example of how closed source and opensource can exist next to each other AND show you the advantages and disadvantages of both models.

Firefox vs Opera has some interesting differences. Firefox is more adjustable especially with its extensions, Opera feels more solid like someone actually was in charge of all its different features and insisted they work together. Take mouse-gestures and tabbed browsing. Firefox gives more choice but it feels very clear that these things are bolted on, while in Opera they come as they are but are how the browser has been designed to work from the start.

No, keep Opera closed source, competition from different suppliers is a good thing.

Re:Let the Name Confusion BEGIN!

[Zaiff Urgulbunger]

Chrome was a bit of a crap name too. Any time I'm searching for something chrome related, I wind up with Firefox pages since they cover the same topics along with the word "chrome". It's bleedin' annoying, that's what it is!!! :D