Opera to support extensions in V11

[Josh]

Opera Software, known for its popular mobile browser announced today that its desktop web browser will receive extension support in the up and coming version, Opera 11.

At the Up North Web press conference today, situated in Opera’s hometown of Oslo, Norway, Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera announced new ideas which he believes will be the “future of the web”.

In a blog post on MyOpera information about the extension support was posted. The extensions will be based on the W3C widget specifications, considered to be an Open Standard effort, and developers will be able to create them using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript with support for APIs. Opera admitted the extensions coming, will be similar to extensions in browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox. If you’re a developer and are interested in developing extensions for Opera, it was also announced that once the Opera 11 Alpha is released, the needed information to develop and publish extensions will be posted on Opera’s Developer page.

Source

Are they too little too late? I guess they finally realized you cannot escape the fact that people WANT extensions.

[f0dder]

Oh wauw.

In other news:

[Josh]

My favorite quote comes to mind...

"You don't need anything more, opera has everything built in"

[f0dder]

"You don't need anything more, opera has everything built in"

-Josh (October 14, 2010, 03:18 PM)

Which is one of the reasons I stopped using it - wasn't all that fast anymore, crashed too often, and I really didn't want ftp, mail, torrents and whatnot built into my browser: I had more suitable apps for that.

[Lashiec]

My favorite quote comes to mind...

"You don't need anything more, opera has everything built in"

-Josh (October 14, 2010, 03:18 PM)

Which now is more true than ever

[hpearce]

I like Opera and it's suite function from browing to email to IRC

Opera has a very dedicated and very geeky bunch of users ... it is not clear to me whether they are too late given what low percentage they had always occupied anyway.

[Darwin]

If it indeed supports Roboform I'll be giving it a go. I've tried 'em all and am stuck with IE8 because they all have their flaws (Chrome takes over everything and messes it up), Safari - no extensions, Firefox, insane resource utilitzation on my setup. IE8 is pretty bad for resource consumption but it's built in and hardest to get rid of! If Opera 11 is as svelte and quick as it was the last time I had it installed, I'll run it, I just won't install any of the Opera apps (like the torrent widgets).

[Lashiec]

First alpha is up, together with some extensions for users to play with.

[Darwin]

Thanks, Lashiec - I've been checking everyday, this is good to know 

[mahesh2k]

I don't use opera much but looks like it is good news for those who want to use extension like in firefox.

[f0dder]

I don't use opera much but looks like it is good news for those who want to use extension like in firefox.

-mahesh2k (October 21, 2010, 09:53 AM)

Yeah, except that Opera is probably too late to hop onto the bandwagon - FireFox probably has the majority of the devs, and unless Opera have been pretty clever about their implementation, there's probably too much effort involved in supporting both browsers for a plugin writer (disclaimer: I haven't looked at either browser's plugin/extension implementation, all I know is firefox uses javascript/XUL).

[Darwin]

All it will take for me to seriously consider Opera is support for Roboform. Well, that and a light footprint. Firefox and IE both work well but the RAM/CPU usage drives me nuts! I know, I could just forego the pleasure of tabbed browsing but c'mon! It's ALMOST 2011!

[Tuxman]

Hm, now Opera has another idea that was in every other browser, including IE, for years... yawn...
(Not to mention: the huge amount of security issues and website incompatibilities.)

Crapware.

[Lashiec]

Yeah, except that Opera is probably too late to hop onto the bandwagon - FireFox probably has the majority of the devs, and unless Opera have been pretty clever about their implementation, there's probably too much effort involved in supporting both browsers for a plugin writer (disclaimer: I haven't looked at either browser's plugin/extension implementation, all I know is firefox uses javascript/XUL).

-f0dder (October 22, 2010, 01:07 PM)

Opera's approach to extensions is similar to the one used by Chrome, so it's unlikely a Firefox extension developer will support both approaches, although that may vary based on such extension reliance on XUL.

[Darwin]

Every day or two I check to see if Siber Systems have jumped on this. No joy, so far... However, they have released a version of Roboform to work with Chrome, so I remain optimistic!

As I stated above, the one area in which Opera can shine and thus woo users away from Firefox, IE, and Chrome is in its footprint. If they can continue to release versions that are lightweight and fast and which will run extensions such as Roboform (for me, the only "must have" browser extension), they have a fighting chance.

[Lashiec]

And the final version is up already. I don't know about Roboform support, but the LastPass team published an extension for their service a couple of weeks ago, so that will have to do for the moment

Looks like a strong release so far, not many new major features, but plenty of small touches like Google search suggestions and the ability to disable plugins (at last!). Plus the Desktop Team is getting better and better at polishing new major versions, which is a relief.

[cyberdiva]

Every day or two I check to see if Siber Systems have jumped on this. No joy, so far... However, they have released a version of Roboform to work with Chrome, so I remain optimistic!

-Darwin (October 24, 2010, 05:52 PM)

Well, there's another thread running here about Siber Systems coming out with RoboForm 7, and charging more than some people think is reasonable, not to mention that apparently Siber is no longer honoring lifetime licenses.  At least, that's what people are saying in the thread.  Anyway, I suspect that if RoboForm does come out with an extension for Opera, it may be only for version 7.  

Like you, Darwin, I used to think that RoboForm was a must-have extension.  I think that may have influenced my moving to Firefox as my default browser.  But in the past year, I've started using Last Pass, in part because it works with Opera (which I still use from time to time, since it's so much faster than Firefox).  I have both RoboForm and LastPass running on my desktop computer, which makes for some fist fights at times.  I didn't put RoboForm on my netbook, even though I have two licenses, and when I finally ditch my 4-year-old desktop, I may not put RoboForm on the new one, either.  I'm quite pleased with Last Pass.

[Darwin]

Every day or two I check to see if Siber Systems have jumped on this. No joy, so far... However, they have released a version of Roboform to work with Chrome, so I remain optimistic!

-Darwin (October 24, 2010, 05:52 PM)

Well, there's another thread running here about Siber Systems coming out with RoboForm 7, and charging more than some people think is reasonable, not to mention that apparently Siber is no longer honoring lifetime licenses.  At least, that's what people are saying in the thread.  Anyway, I suspect that if RoboForm does come out with an extension for Opera, it may be only for version 7. 

Like you, Darwin, I used to think that RoboForm was a must-have extension.  I think that may have influenced my moving to Firefox as my default browser.  But in the past year, I've started using Last Pass, in part because it works with Opera (which I still use from time to time, since it's so much faster than Firefox).  I have both RoboForm and LastPass running on my desktop computer, which makes for some fist fights at times.  I didn't put RoboForm on my netbook, even though I have two licenses, and when I finally ditch my 4-year-old desktop, I may not put RoboForm on the new one, either.  I'm quite pleased with Last Pass.

-cyberdiva (December 16, 2010, 03:54 PM)

I think what happened is that Siber Systems are charging for a subscription to online synchronization and backup of your passcards. If you don't select "sync online" or whatever the option is during installation, your old license should work fine. I'm guessing, though, because I just paid the $9.95 before thinking "hand on, do I need this?"!  The answer, of course, is "no". While I use the backup feature (which I started using during beta testing), I've never actually used Roboform On-line to access any of my passcards. I'll just have to be more cagey next year...

Anyway, thanks for the pointer to LastPass - I'll remember it and if next year I am asked to pay to keep using Roboform without the online synching, I'll take a look!

[Darwin]

As noted in this post in a different thread, I stand corrected on Roboform updates... There is an upgrade fee for ANY Roboform license purchased before September 1, 2010.