PowerGod
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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:
So just show them how may devices are appearing !!
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:
ruario said: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 !!
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