Opera Browser (Desktop version) for Pandora

[PowerGod]

Let's make some noise to ask for an ARM port of the Opera Browser Desktop version !!


I NEVER found a faster browser with all it's functions, and the hardware requirements are very low !!


On their forum there are already some open threads on the argument, so it's better to use them:


Pandora port of Opera


Opera for OpenPandora?


Opera under Ubuntu for ARM processors


In the last linked thread the developers gave an answer:

Our core rendering engine is already widely tested on numerous devices running ARM processors so it should work just fine. Additionally we have had Opera Desktop running on PowerPC and SPARC chips in the past so the desktop code has a lot of cross architecture considerations, which should save us from a lot of the problems other browser manufacturers might encounter when porting their product.


The main thing that stops us is setting up the infrastructure (we have pools of build machines and growing amounts of automated testing). Hence it requires a fair amount of time and effort for us to do this properly and the people that would work on setting all this up are currently devoted to other things, like bugs and features. For now this is sensible given the limited amount of ARM devices that come with (or could even support) a "desktop" Linux distro (and yes, I know there are some because I have one myself, a Sharp NetWalker PC-Z1). Or to put it another way, it is a lot of work for a very small potential user base right now.


Consider that a few years back lots of the manufacturers of netbooks claimed they were just about to bring out new netbooks running some kind of Linux desktop on ARM. However, after the iPad came out they seem to have changed their minds. They ditched those plans or replaced them with Android based devices, which as you probably realise bear little relation to a traditional notebook or desktop, meaning that the 'desktop' version browser is unsuited. And this in turn is is why we offer an Android based Opera Mobile version instead.


Now again there is noise on the internet of Canonical trying to get new devices running Ubuntu on ARM. If they start appear they will no doubt have a very mobile-like Unity based interface. However, underneath it all it is still going to be a lot closer (than Android) to something that makes sense to run Opera Desktop on.


If these devices start to appear and gain some traction in the market then I fairly sure you will see us start to provide Opera Desktop for ARM. Until then we are holding off on this.

So just show them how may devices are appearing !!

 

[fusion_power]

+1


Opera is my Main PC Browser and I know that Opera Mobile is also very good fast. It's already working under Android afaik, but a dedicated Port would be better of course.

 

[monty]

I probably wouldn't use the desktop version of Opera on the Pandora (unless it was particularly faster than Firefox), but Opera Mobile would be very welcome for casual browsing. It seems a bit odd that the Pandora doesn't have any actual mobile browsers (other than an old version of Fennec).

 

[A2000]

It doesn't matter which flavour of Opera (mobile or desktop) as long as it is Opera! But thinking of it the mobile version may be a bit to touch oriented?


A2000

 

[NLS]

The Mobile and Mini versions are great. Although similar-looking, Mini is more light-weight, as all pages are pre-processed and compressed by Opera's own servers before being delivered to your device. Mobile though is functionally more closer to the desktop variant, although better suited for mobile devices of course. Even though I use the desktop version every day on my main PC, I think it's probably best to go for the Mobile version if we ever get one.


Also, ED already showed off Opera Mobile running under android with full keyboard support


So yeah, my current thoughts on this are: We shouldn't really be begging for the desktop version. It has way too many features, and as they already stated, if they're gonna have to build a specific version for Panora every time they upgrade the desktop version, it's gonna be a mess. The Mobile versions however would be more plausible, and if Ubuntu on ARM really takes off, then maybe we might see something more coming.


They've also released versions of Mobile for Maemo and MeeGo, if that can be of any help to us?

 

[PowerGod]

...but ...but ...why use the Mobile while you can have the Desktop version ?!


I think that the only good thing of the Mobile version is the "turbo" mode, if you have limited bandwidth... but even the Desktop version has that function...


If the only browser ported will be the Mobile i think I'll stick with firefox <_<

 

[NLS]

...but ...but ...why use the Mobile while you can have the Desktop version ?!


I think that the only good thing of the Mobile version is the "turbo" mode, if you have limited bandwidth... but even the Desktop version has that function...


If the only browser ported will be the Mobile i think I'll stick with firefox <_<

Because at the moment, Mobile is more probable than Desktop, and Desktop eats up RAM for breakfast and has tons of features that we'd probably never use on the Pandora. They've slowly started removing some of the more obscure features that are just slowing things down, but it's a long way to go to get this thing running nicely on a small device. Mobile though, is made just with small devices in mind.

 

[PowerGod]

...but ...but ...why use the Mobile while you can have the Desktop version ?!


I think that the only good thing of the Mobile version is the "turbo" mode, if you have limited bandwidth... but even the Desktop version has that function...


If the only browser ported will be the Mobile i think I'll stick with firefox <_<

Because at the moment, Mobile is more probable than Desktop, and Desktop eats up RAM for breakfast and has tons of features that we'd probably never use on the Pandora. They've slowly started removing some of the more obscure features that are just slowing things down, but it's a long way to go to get this thing running nicely on a small device. Mobile though, is made just with small devices in mind.

Opera 10.50 took less than 16 Mb RAM when I run it on my Pentium 100 Mhz with Windows 98 SE... its EXACTLY for the EXTREMELY LOW resources needed that I want so bad that browser on this thing...

 

[A2000]

I have used and continuously do use Opera on all devices I own and on which it was/is available IIRC for way more than a decade. But I haven't really used more of the features it offers in the mobile version. In fact back in those days the reason to buy Opera (yes, buy!) was that it was the most complete lightweight browser around.


A2000

 

[NLS]

I did a quick check earlier today. Opera with 3 tabs open (pandora boards, facebook, random google search), ate up about 150MB on Opera 12.01. On the latest 12.50 64bit 1546 build, this was around 250MB. There's a lot of features hanging around, like the IRC client, Bit-Torrent client, E-mail client, newsreader, stacked tabs, mouse gestures, text to speech, custom search engine integration, Opera link, speed dial apps, Opera turbo, notes, Opera Dragonfly, and the now deprecated widgets and Opera unity (or whatever the web-server feature was called). And they admit a lot of their users ever touch half of these features or even know they exist. I like quite a few of them and use them regurarily (like mouse gestures and the custom search engine integration), but a big portion of them I no longer use, simply because there are better suited apps specifically for those tasks. And right now, what makes the biggest difference between Opera Desktop and Opera Mobile, is the vast amount of bloated features that you can live without.


10.63 was the last version to support Windows pre-2000 and the PowerPC platform. A lot of other platforms have been dropped before that. Right now their main focus is on Desktop for Windows/OSX/Linux and Mobile/Mini for Android/Symbian/iOS/Java. And with such a constantly changing market, it's hard to keep focus on all platforms at once. Just look at the mess that is Nokia, playing ball between Symbian 3rd/5th ed/Symbian^3, Maemo(discontinued, merged with Moblin into Meego(discontinued in favor of Tizen, but also has a community development in form of Mer)), and now Windows Phone 7/8. All this in just a few years. And as the developer stated, manufacturers promised lots of new consumer hardware running Linux for ARM, but that never really happened after all in favor of Android and iOS.


I'd love to see Opera Desktop run on the Pandora, but it requires a push from the industry that is bigger than us, and acknowledgement from Opera, plus the time dedicated to build and maintain for every update that goes out. Currently, Opera does not have the time, and the industry simply doesn't have big enough demand for it.


All we can do is hope that Canonical and partners can push ARM towards "desktop" development in favour of the traditional mobile development we've seen up until now.

 

[PowerGod]

It's indeed full of features that not everyone will use, but the few that I use, aren't there in the other browser by default, and you need plugins for them... so here comes the bloat of the other browser as well... the difference here is that in Opera are already optimized !!


For example, Firefox, I use it with Ad-block and Ad-block for popups, cause these are essential, and nothing more on the Pandora cause other app can kill everything... But on a PC, to make Firefox SIMILAR to the functions that Opera already has, I need to install also DownThemAll to get all the links in a page, Greasemonkey to use userjavascript, FireBug to debug and edit the pages, and I can continue, but we are already at an awesome lever of hardware resources taken away, where Opera just have them all without external plugins needed !!


Opera has the advantage to be made entirely of macro, so EVERY menu intem or button can be customized, added, modified, can contain EVEN a javascript in it and you just have to edit the configuration files by a simple text editor... The ENTIRE interface can be changed and edited without the need to recompile a single thing !! Firefox has the need for plugins even for this !!


Anyway I don't want to just wait for Canonical, we are already here with this device, and the userbase is growing, so we just need to show them this and the rest will follow, it's a start.

 

[EvilDragon]

I once tried to get the Maemo version of Opera to run on the Pandora and nearly succeeded - it only had a fonts issue and didn't show anything.


So yes, a recompile would probably all that's needed.


I'll try contacting them.

 

[Galaxis]

One of my useless experiments was to run the generic Java MIDP version of Opera Mini on top of (an older version of) the Oracle ARM JRE and some MIDP middleware I don't remember the name of. Was all quite fudgy, but worked reasonably well. Not very lightweight in the end though

 

[NLS]

I once tried to get the Maemo version of Opera to run on the Pandora and nearly succeeded - it only had a fonts issue and didn't show anything.


So yes, a recompile would probably all that's needed.


I'll try contacting them.

Got any technical on the fonts issue? I downloaded the MeeGo version and did a bit of snooping around. There's included some font files for Droid in all flavours (serif, sans, bold, mono, etc.) plus arabic, hebrew and japanese.
Obviously I've been unable to check out if anything works until my 1Ghz arrives someday...

 

[EvilDragon]

It was over a year ago, so I don't remember.... it opened the license dialogue but without any text and I couldn't click on the agree button (no text as well)


No error message though, so I don't know what was wrong.

 

[Zero3K]

Maybe it'll work now that the Pandora's OS has gotten some work done on it.

 

[NLS]

Maybe it'll work now that the Pandora's OS has gotten some work done on it.

I'll do my best to get it working once my unit finally arrives Until then, Android can still run it nicely.

 

[Zero3K]

I don't want to use Android.

 

[crow_riot]

I don't want to use Android.

someone could try to pack it like the native Angry Birds.pnd that was floating around. but then it's still a legal gray area, right?

 

[ekianjo]

Maybe it'll work now that the Pandora's OS has gotten some work done on it.

I'll do my best to get it working once my unit finally arrives Until then, Android can still run it nicely.

The Android version does not work well with the pandora controls. It sucks really, while I love Opera Mobile on a phone touch screen.