I really, really miss having to buy a browser!  :-S

Uhm, when was this...?!

Opera used to charge for their browser. They stubbornly continued to do so for a long long time, despite there being arguably better free browsers available.

Also back before IE existed pretty much all browsers (what few there were) were pay for. We really have MS to thank for free browsers :Y

(When IE came out for free, Netscape shat themselves because if it gained dominance (and it would, being free) it would allow MS to pervert the web protocols/standards and corner the server market (which is where NS made their real money). So they released the source to the Netscape suite and launched the Mozilla project. And... the rest is history :Y )

You see that Opera switched rendering engines to Blink (i.e. Google's webkit)? 

Such a strange move. 

Although, hmmm, the main thing that stopped me using Opera was that it fucked up rendering too often. Might give it a pop :Y

:'(

Most people understand it less now than they did then.

1994.  You used to have to go to the computer store and buy Netscape Navigator™ on CD-ROM. I also remember something about a dialer that was always a pain in the ass to get working. I think maybe the pain of it all has made my memories foggy!

Don't waste your time, (yet).

The latest version of Opera is just a shitty branded version of Chromium, without any of proper Opera's features.

How the hell did I reply to myself?  Anyway the above was supposed to be to you!

Did they switch to Blink or Webkit? I thought it was the later.

Either way, meh. Never liked it as a browser, dislike it even more now. Their installer hides the "Make Opera my default browser" (ticked by default) under advanced options and performing upgrades doesn't remember this settings. And it also makes itself the default torrent app on your computer without asking you.

If Microsoft or Mozilla tried making their browsers the default without it being plain obvious, there would be a shit storm.

And also, who in their right fucking minds wants a torrent client built into their browser?

They announced the switch before Google had publicly announced Blink, so they had to say Webkit initially, even though they knew (and probably form part of) Google's plan.

And also, who in their right fucking minds wants a file download client built into their browser?

Not just a torrent client. It also has a built in webserver (nod). Along with the email client, contact manager, IRC client...

And yeah just tried it out and it's as Pete says. In UI terms it's a straight hybrid of Chrome and FF.

And yeah, Blink is just what Google are calling their Webkit now, innit? Wikipedia says it's a joint project between Google and Opera which I suggest is a little bit generous to Opera.

Time to pacman -Rs opera :Y

Why generous? Opera were the driving force behind a lot of the current HTML improvements, so it makes sense that they'd be a useful partner in giving Webkit an overhaul.

Slight difference between being able to download files and having a torrent client built into a browser that associates itself by default with .torrent files (even if you already had a torrent client) without telling you.

I wouldn't mind so much if they said "Hey, did you know Opera can also download torrents? Would you like us to be the default torrent client on your PC?" and gave me the option to say no. But they don't.

To make matters worse, they become the default client for all user accounts and when you remove Opera it doesn't restore the associations you had previously, meaning you have to dick about in the Windows Registry to get it all removed.

It's obvious what they're doing is banking on the less technically adept installing it and then becoming stuck with Opera because they don't know how to undo the changes it makes to the system.

Maybe. But it's going to be a long time before many of those improvements are incorporated into Webcore, I would imagine.

I think it did ask that for me, but it's been so long since I installed it that I can't remember for sure.

I do hate how ... sneaky they can be though - on Opera Mobile every so often I'll find a bunch of shit added to my speed dial. :@

Which also reminds me of Adblock Plus recently - it keeps updating, flashing up a stupid tab, and re-enabling the "Google are forcing us to allow their ads" option, with no way to stop it. :@

Probably. I think the first step is ripping out Apple shit and re-architecturing it to run better?