Opera Browser for Netbooks

By | January 5, 2011 | 21 Comments

Opera Browser for Netbooks

It looks like Opera not only will be introducing a specific browser version for tablets, but for netbooks as well.

According to TechCrunch:

TechCrunch has now learned that the company will also show off some Windows 7 tablets and netbooks running its latest browser at CES – we’ll see if the CrunchGear team can shoot some videos of those at the annual show.

We are waiting patiently.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Paulius

    Good idea. A lot of people (me too) like minimalistic style.
    Same way that chrome goes.

  • Andylee

    WTH? Opera without mail client? Opera without panels, without super-duper tab-management? without unite?

    I am struggling to find a decent amount of reasons for using it.

    • max1c

      Agreed. I don’t see the point in this. I can make Opera look just as minimalistic as it is on that screen shot.

    • nobody

      unite, irc, mail etc.. eat so much ram (and given opera own tracing tools – they DO eat resources even when not used) that typical crapbook cannot handle it. and 200mb for two tabs is.. a bit greedy

      btw unite? even opera stopped shoveling it into every discussion, it flopped.. you use it? for what?

      it woudl be fun if this version actualy made people use it on desktop.. suite concept a bit dated with advent of web-based everything..

      • Andylee

        I use math session. photo share sometimes, but not really excessive as I don’t like taking photos and stuff… but math session is really genius!

      • nvm

        Nobbie is wrong, of course. Mail, Unite, and all those other features don’t use any resources when they aren’t activated. Opera’s own tracing tools show exactly that, contrary to the lie by nobbie.

        And why is nobbie crying about Unite? If one was to follow nobbie’s logic, Opera should have never started working on mobile browsers more than ten years ago. Mobile browser were a flop, according to nobbie. Except the market finally got it, and now everyone is rushing to do mobile browsers. Opera was way ahead of the market, just as they were with widgets, and now with Unite. I’m guessing that nobbie also cried about widgets. Now widgets are turning out to be one of Opera’s most important revenue drivers.

        And funny that nobbie claims that “suite concept a bit dated” because of the web. By that logic, browser extensions are dated as well!

        Nobbie fails again.

        • nobody

          quotations needed (A LOT OF THEM) for:

          “Now widgets are turning out to be one of Opera’s most important revenue drivers.”

          funny stuff – here at CES i couldnt find A SINGLE opera driven 3rd party device yet. havent had a chance to see everything yet (its enormous venue, IFA was a petty show), but one would expect it to be all over the place if that what you say is true.. or maybe it isnt?

          “Opera’s own tracing tools show exactly that, contrary to the lie by nobbie.”

          opera tracing tools show clearly that mail etc is activated, loaded and eats resources even when no accounts are set. it affects the time opera starts and closes.

          and unite… is a textbook example of FAIL. niche use patterns, almost no users, no new services for months, unite links no longer shoveled by opera each time they brag about the browser. FAIL

          strange thing, you emerged from your hole the same day one well known opera employee also returned to the scene

          • cousin333

            funny stuff – here at CES i couldn’t find A SINGLE opera driven 3rd party device yet. haven’t had a chance to see everything yet (its enormous venue, IFA was a petty show), but one would expect it to be all over the place if that what you say is true.. or maybe it isnt?

            What 3rd party are you looking for? There is Opera and there is the device manufacturer. How do you know, that you didn’t see any? You waited for an Opera splash screen during boot-up, or what? Those stuffs are usually business stuffs, so these products are heavily branded by the device manufacturer. You will see more about these contracts from press releases and company presentations.

            If you are there, you should visit Sony then for example.

            http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/BRAVIA-2011-Do-More-With-Your-TV-Than-You-Ever-Imagined-1376378.htm

            This clearly states, that the new Sony TVs using Opera as web browser: “You can even visit your favourite websites and search the Internet using an Opera web browser on the TV screen.”

            Besides some of them have “BRAVIA Internet Widgets” (see: http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/bravia-lcd-televisions/2/2/article/id/1237477951536 ). They did not mentioned (should they?), but I’m pretty sure, that those are Opera widgets. (why would they use any other if Opera – which already supplied the browser – can supply them?)

            Today’s news: http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2011/01/07/

            opera tracing tools show clearly that mail etc is activated, loaded and eats resources even when no accounts are set. it affects the time opera starts and closes.

            By how much? 100ms? 200? :) Still, Opera will have by far the smallest installer (when FF4 arrives; until then – I must admit – it’s just a bit smaller than any other of them…) , a nice adaptive memory consumption and great speed including rendering and UI.

            and unite… is a textbook example of FAIL. niche use patterns, almost no users, no new services for months, unite links no longer shoveled by opera each time they brag about the browser. FAIL

            Opera is a small business company, it cannot create hype. But widgets were introduced in 2006, more than 4 years ago. It took a while to take advantage of them, but now they seems to be on track even if you deny it. Opera Unite is a bit more than a year old, it’s far from being finished.

    • nvm

      @Andylee

      This is Opera for tablets. Mobile devices with smaller screens. You won’t be able to run the regular desktop Opera on most of these devices since they are using ARM and other architectures.

  • web

    maybe is the “opera lite” some folks always wanted. Opera made ultra simplistic and easier.

    • nvm

      Opera on the desktop is already “lite” and simplistic when you install it. You’ll have to enable things manually to notice any additional features. The installer is much smaller than other browsers as well.

      • nobody

        ‘magic’ decrease in size of opera 11 installer is due to opera removing default unite apps from installer.

        • cousin333

          True, but only partially.

          http://m.blog.hu/ma/magyaropera/image/11/opera11_telepitok.png

          And that was with Unite apps. Still it could have been the smallest installer except Firefox 3.6x versions. Firefox 4 will be much bigger though…

          • Dante

            Why Opera 11 alpha?
            Opera 11.00 final English – 7,2 MB
            Opera 11.00 final International – 8,9 MB
            Firefox 3.6.13 English – 8,1 MB
            Firefox 4.0b8 English – 11,0 MB

          • cousin333

            Why Opera 11 alpha?

            Because final doesn’t have Unite applications, so it is better to compare to 11 alpha. Btw. Unite apps take up around 2.5MB, so:

            Opera 10.63 en (10.3 MB) – Unite apps (2.5 MB) = 7.8 MB

            That’s 0.6 MB smaller than the real Opera 11 final, which clearly has more function.

          • cousin333

            That’s 0.6 MB smaller than the real Opera 11 final, which clearly has more function.

            By that I meant: “That’s 0.6 MB greater than the real Opera 11 final, which clearly has more function.”

          • Dante

            Ok, but don`t forget after Opera 11.00 alpha with new installer have Opera 11.00 build 1045 only 6,9 MB until Opera 11.00 RC.

  • Pingback: Opera für Netbooks « Browser Fuchs

  • Ahmad

    Actually, I really like this.
    I always wanted a lite version of Opera – just the browser.
    I never use widgets, mail, unite (make them available as extensions)… and I wish they remove the bookmarks, speed dials they include by default. Let us add and customize the browser the way we like.

    Thats why I actually use Chrome and Opera together.

    • cousin333

      “(make them available as extensions)”

      They can’t. They shouldn’t. Opera extensions are basically widgets with some UI and core interaction. Those services couldn’t be implemented as extensions considering performance and safety issues.

      “and I wish they remove the bookmarks, speed dials they include by default”

      Bad idea. They mean free commercial for them (My Opera Links), and also some money in case of entries from third party. You can customize it anyway. Feel free to delete them..

    • nvm

      I always wanted a lite version of Opera – just the browser.

      That’s basically what Opera is by default, so you already have what you want. Opera is just a browser until you manually switch stuff on.

«
»