I agree, I don't care how it's being done, this is "extension" functionality of some sort, and it's a lot easier to use than Opera's. A consistent refrain of the knowledgeable Opera user is "yeah it can do that, you just need to tweak this thing and that thing", which is great, but it's not going to increase their userbase.
Opera definitely works against themselves seemingly more often than not, and I agree it's a shame because they have a really nice product. When I first discovered Opera (shortly after it became free) I fell in love and stuck with it for over a year as a devoted fan. But as FF matured and gained extensions that slowly brought it on par with Opera's functionality and nice little touches (Past and Go anyone?), and with Opera going through a rougher patch around this time (the early 9.x versions were not great IMO), I made the switch back.
Nowadays I use a pretty even mix of different browsers, and it even varies by my environment, e.g. at work I use FF the majority of the time, with Chrome a reasonable second (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the time spent in FF), and IE a distant 3rd, with Opera bringing up the rear in a very seldom-used capacity. That doesn't sound very even, but contrast it to my home use where recently Opera has been at least 30% of my browsing, with Chrome and IE each taking a reasonably even 30% as well, and the remainder made up with occasional FF use. Why the disparity? I actually use browsers a bit oddly sometimes, as a sort of task info management system specific to web content. So I'll leave 10 or 20 tabs up in a browser for a project I want to get back to. I use alternative browsers to make up for that in the meantime. So it can mean my browsing habits shift from time to time, as a project is dealt with and its tabs retired for example.
So with that in mind, I will say that my recent heavier Opera use is mainly because it's just another browser option, not because I specifically appreciate it above say FF or Chome. In fact Opera used to be my choice for light, clean, and fast browsing, but generally Chrome fills that role now, with FF as the heavy workhorse for when I need to do more, need extensions, etc. Opera just doesn't have a lot to distinguish itself now, and Unite is not going to do it I don't think. There are a lot of things they *could* do to recover their position I think, but they seem too stubborn to do so. Still, I'll probably keep using it as an alternative as long as it's available...
- Oshyan
There has been some contention that Opera avoids extensions for performance reasons in the past, but I'd wager Chrome will disprove that idea in short order...
