No Opera 9.5 or Opera Mini 4 Beta 2 or Final Today
August 24, 2007
I was just thinking to write about that and noticed that Junyor from Opera already said: “No weekly of Kestrel today.”.
There is one reason for that (which now I understand). Opera Mini 4 Beta wasn’t released on Friday as it’s bad day for such releases. So we will get new build on Tuesday or Wednesday (no idea which week) as Opera wants to get as many attention as possible and Friday is not good for that. Don’t expect Opera 9.5 or Opera Mini 4 Beta 2 or Final today.
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I don´t understand why there´s not finally a first 9.5 Build. On June, the 22th there the desktop team announced a 9.5 build “within a few weeks”.
Now, about 2 months later there is still no 9.5 weekly.
I´m pissed off because for a few weeks means for or five weeks and not about 2 months. For, this is abad example how OPERA marketing (doesn´t) work. That´s too long waiting for nothing happens.
Greetings
Frank
The deal with releasing builds during the middle of the week for better publicity really only applies to publicly released builds. ;) Opera 9.5 will be released to the beta testers at the desktopteam blog first, not straight to the public. This isn’t to say however that 9.5 will only be released on a Friday since it is a beta. As you can see in the past they have released builds at various times on different days of the week. Fridays are just most common for weeklies as they finish adding what they want for the week to take a break over the weekend. Sometimes they will get at a good stopping point and release early rather than beginning a new addition of code or changes (which would leave us wait a while longer until they complete it). Opera 9.5 is a pretty big step and thus may be released with similar intentions of a public release, however, most beta builds do not follow this strategy as they are not necessarily aimed at the public, but more toward loyal testers.
Frankly I’m very disappointed in the inaccuracies that they have given us date-wise for the release, however, being some what of a developer myself I understand the reasoning behind the delays. It is important to remember that the devs are not just sitting back playing mario kart or something like that all day (maybe some days, hehe), but that they are actually working hard to bring this great new improved Opera to us in a very stable form and not rush it out. Problems arise when you push a product out too fast and they would soon become flooded with bug reports that they could have otherwise eliminated with a few more work days. So I guess its like they always say..Patients is a Virtue. ;)
Kyle,
I still think that 9.5 Beta won’t be released on Friday because Opera Mini (Beta) wasn’t released that day either. Even it’s for beta testers only, it will get some/huge attention for sure. This would also say something about their marketing strategy (maybe). Just my 2 cents :)
Will see what happens.
Maybe someone from Opera team could tell us? :-)
The first preview is not released today as it is not of good quality enough yet. The first weekly will be a pre beta and abit buggy, but we will try to avoid some of the most visible/annoying bugs. And yes, you will not only see new features but also alot of bug fixes and performance improvements. (and tons of new bugs)
Now ya’ll also see why we do reply WIR when people ask when first Kestrel weekly will be released.. If we try to guestimate we get punished for ages and all we will hear is “give us kestrel” “give us kestrel” and “why haven’t you released yet”..
Trust me we are working hard on getting the quality there, but we don’t want to do a “apple” here and release too early do we? ;-)
My guestimate for when we release: WIR
Thank you Olli for providing more details. I thought you were just polishing new Opera now, but if it will be a “pre beta” then it says everything :-)
By the way, you wrote “My top 5 wishes” in your blog. How many of them (no need to tell which ones) will be in Opera 9.5? ;) Expect GUI of course :) Somehow I think that we will have “Automatic crash reporting” in 9.5 as well.
Okay, i also don´t want a “Safari build”, but a “few weeks” does not mean 3 months to me.
And now, go back to work and finish the first stable build of 9.5 …. next monday ;-)
Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday
Vygantas: Some of my wishes will eventually be in, though might not for Kestrel.
Frank Beil : Yes that was a mistake, we tried to have a weekly before summer, but then didn’t make it.. And when most of people go on vacation releasing makes it much harder and that made the delay longer then what we wanted..
And it won’t be monday.. my reply is still: WIR ;-)
and why, opera employees, i read this info HERE, not on the desktop team blog? is it that hard to create new blog post and write few sentences?
there is/was disscussion bout why opera marketing sux. this is one prime example that it really does sux. this info should be on desktopteam blog the first day youve relalised, that you are not gonna make it!
sid,
They are posting here also because they care Opera users, many Opera users reading this blog as well. I think that’s great as they find time to answer some of our questions. Olli didn’t provided any “ground breaking” news, once they will have something like that to say, they will post in their blog, as far now, they are just answering our questions (which is greaT).
fair and square, but they are not posting here ‘also’. they are posting here only.
info about lack of build and reasons behind it ISNT on the desktopteam blog post. place, where should info be posted first!
most of desktop team blog readers DONT read this blog. so they DONT KNOW facts Olli posted here, or about other facts that opera employees posted all around the net.
on the other hand, one can observe and participate in ff3 development. guess, whats better?
opera struggles to improve their marketing, that tbh, is not existant from normal users point of view, and they dont even use the cheapest and easiest tool possible?
their own blog, that theyve created for the sole purpose, to create centralised space where they can inform their users about hows opera going. and voila, i read infos like these in this post on some completly 3rd party not-mainstream site.
As I said, once they will have some news, they will post for sure (in their blog). Now Olli just answered questions :)
Vygantas is right. They will post once they have news or anything interesting to share with us.
so why they didnt answer them on their blog, instead, they deleted/moderated them?
you relly cant see anything wrong in this situation? marketing-wise last two months were a disaster for opera. theyve managed to kill entire hype, that created around 9.5. if they want to start it over again with some CEO interviews or backstage events - good luck.. it wont happen
you whiners, read Olli’s post again!!!
Do you really want a weekly that will crash your system so badly, that you will *never* trust opera again??????
- Or even one that is so bad and buggy, that it will make the *bad & buggy* Vista you have look like it is perfect???(I say that for the *lucky ones* whose Vista in working right..)
Have you never tried building something, and the *deadline* is fast getting near, and all your efforts are still unrewarded??
i never said that they have to relase a new build at all costs.
i said, that it would be marketing-wise good to tell us, that there is no new build, and why, ON THEIR OWN BLOG! not here! (no, comments to other blog posts dont count).
not doing so is a very big mistake, esp. when opera struggles with marketing efforts, that simply fail. and they fail, due to such bad moves like keeping loyal users in the dark for two months without any statement, why it takes so long.
i can understand why there is no build, i cant understand, why they are so f.. secretive about it. even MS is more open…
Stop trolling, sid.
Kestrel: The Road Ahead
http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2007/08/25/the-road-ahead
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