Waxing Operatic
Feb. 26th, 2003 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravencallscrowsThis has nothing to do with formal vocal music, and much to do with how i choose to browse the Internet.
I use Opera, and for a handful of reasons. Most importantly, it's because it's a compact, efficient browser which adheres more closely to W3C guidelines than any other available for Windows-based PCs. As such it's a great tool for checking standards compliance in web pages.
Opera's a small, Scandanavian company, which further sets it apart from Microsoft's Internet Explorer and AOL owned Netscape- both US based computing monsters. As the little guy in the market, Opera's developers tend to listen to the users more than their counterparts seem to, and they certainly show none of the blatant arrogance of the Big Two. Opera users get to contribute to the product, too- not necessarily in the open-source sense of the word, but user contributions are decidedly welcomed, and Opera is one of the most translated internet tools available- there are user interface language packs available for the major languages and a handful of the minor ones as well. So, using Opera, i can browse the web not only in Russian or German, but Gàidhlig too, and language packs are also available for such comparably rare languages as Icelandic, Catalan, Welsh and Northern Sami.
And they have a sense of humour as well. Apparently someone at MSN recently decided to deliberately target the Opera users by rendering the MSN page unusable to users of Opera browsers. Here's the text of Opera's response press release:
Opera releases "Bork" edition
The Swedish Chef Goes After Microsoft
Oslo, Norway - Feb 14, 2003
Two weeks ago it was revealed that Microsoft's MSN portal targeted Opera users, by purposely providing them with a broken page. As a reply to MSN's treatment of its users, Opera Software today released a very special Bork edition of its Opera 7 for Windows browser. The Bork edition behaves differently on one Web site: MSN. Users accessing the MSN site will see the page transformed into the language of the famous Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show: Bork, Bork, Bork!
In October 2001, Opera users were blocked from the MSN site. The event caused an uproar among Web users and MSN was forced to change their policy. However, MSN continues a policy of singling out its Opera competitor by specifically instructing Opera to hide content from users.
"Hergee berger snooger bork," says Mary Lambert, product line manager desktop, Opera Software. "This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages. The Bork edition illustrates how browsers could also distort content, as the Bork edition does. The real point here is that the success of the Web depends on software and Web site developers behaving well and rising above corporate rivalry."
MSN now allows access to users of Opera 7, but is still targeting and sending users of earlier versions a broken page. This treatment is completely unnecessary, as the page would look the same in Opera as in Microsoft's own Internet Explorer if it had been fed the same information.
"We are working hard to make sure the Opera browser works well on all Web pages, even those that do not follow the Web's standards to the letter," says Hakon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software. "But it becomes impossible when we are targeted and fed distorted pages that don't work in any browser. It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster! Microsoft should clean up their act on MSN and their other Web sites."
For more technical documentation, see the article Why doesn't MSN work with Opera?
Opera 7.01 for Windows in Bork can be downloaded from ftp.opera.com.
About Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browser technology, partnering with companies such as IBM, AMD, Nokia, Macromedia, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Ericsson, Sharp Lineo (now Embedix), and MontaVista Software. The Opera browser has received international recognition from users, industry experts and media for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers. Opera's browser technology is cross-platform and modular, targeting the desktop, smartphone, PDA, iTV and vertical markets.
Opera Software ASA is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linköping and Gothenburg, Sweden, and a representative in Austin, TX. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com
See why i love these guys?
I use Opera, and for a handful of reasons. Most importantly, it's because it's a compact, efficient browser which adheres more closely to W3C guidelines than any other available for Windows-based PCs. As such it's a great tool for checking standards compliance in web pages.
Opera's a small, Scandanavian company, which further sets it apart from Microsoft's Internet Explorer and AOL owned Netscape- both US based computing monsters. As the little guy in the market, Opera's developers tend to listen to the users more than their counterparts seem to, and they certainly show none of the blatant arrogance of the Big Two. Opera users get to contribute to the product, too- not necessarily in the open-source sense of the word, but user contributions are decidedly welcomed, and Opera is one of the most translated internet tools available- there are user interface language packs available for the major languages and a handful of the minor ones as well. So, using Opera, i can browse the web not only in Russian or German, but Gàidhlig too, and language packs are also available for such comparably rare languages as Icelandic, Catalan, Welsh and Northern Sami.
And they have a sense of humour as well. Apparently someone at MSN recently decided to deliberately target the Opera users by rendering the MSN page unusable to users of Opera browsers. Here's the text of Opera's response press release:
Opera releases "Bork" edition
The Swedish Chef Goes After Microsoft
Oslo, Norway - Feb 14, 2003
Two weeks ago it was revealed that Microsoft's MSN portal targeted Opera users, by purposely providing them with a broken page. As a reply to MSN's treatment of its users, Opera Software today released a very special Bork edition of its Opera 7 for Windows browser. The Bork edition behaves differently on one Web site: MSN. Users accessing the MSN site will see the page transformed into the language of the famous Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show: Bork, Bork, Bork!
In October 2001, Opera users were blocked from the MSN site. The event caused an uproar among Web users and MSN was forced to change their policy. However, MSN continues a policy of singling out its Opera competitor by specifically instructing Opera to hide content from users.
"Hergee berger snooger bork," says Mary Lambert, product line manager desktop, Opera Software. "This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages. The Bork edition illustrates how browsers could also distort content, as the Bork edition does. The real point here is that the success of the Web depends on software and Web site developers behaving well and rising above corporate rivalry."
MSN now allows access to users of Opera 7, but is still targeting and sending users of earlier versions a broken page. This treatment is completely unnecessary, as the page would look the same in Opera as in Microsoft's own Internet Explorer if it had been fed the same information.
"We are working hard to make sure the Opera browser works well on all Web pages, even those that do not follow the Web's standards to the letter," says Hakon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software. "But it becomes impossible when we are targeted and fed distorted pages that don't work in any browser. It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster! Microsoft should clean up their act on MSN and their other Web sites."
For more technical documentation, see the article Why doesn't MSN work with Opera?
Opera 7.01 for Windows in Bork can be downloaded from ftp.opera.com.
About Opera Software
Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browser technology, partnering with companies such as IBM, AMD, Nokia, Macromedia, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Ericsson, Sharp Lineo (now Embedix), and MontaVista Software. The Opera browser has received international recognition from users, industry experts and media for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers. Opera's browser technology is cross-platform and modular, targeting the desktop, smartphone, PDA, iTV and vertical markets.
Opera Software ASA is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linköping and Gothenburg, Sweden, and a representative in Austin, TX. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com
See why i love these guys?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-02-26 11:44 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-02-26 11:51 pm (UTC)Is Opera for Linux as decent as the Wintel version? I've heard less than positive things about the Mac version.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 12:30 am (UTC)Off subject, have you heard of a Russian magazine called хакер? They provide some REALLY valuable info in there. Look it up, they should have a site on Russian Internet somewhere.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 06:30 am (UTC)People who know what they're talking about.
no subject
Go away, minor annoyance.
Re:
Date: 2003-02-27 08:16 am (UTC)Personally, i see some benefit to Macs. They can be really nice places to work on BSD, and still have advantages with graphics software, although the margin isn't nearly what it once was.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 03:29 pm (UTC)b) look for my reply to one of these "macanatics" for more reasons why I think macs are inferior in most things.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 10:03 am (UTC)no subject
Well, my dear partisans, here goes.
I do have to agree that macs are still superior to Wintel systems in most multimedia and design work. However, since Photoshop version 5, the difference margine is narrower and narrower. Do take a look at SGI though. Macs can only dream of performing well when it comes to high end graphics. Another good thing for macs that I have to include is this. The hardware is often quite superior. As a die-hard PC user, I do look at the facts. The hardware is often more reliable, it also got more attractive in appearance and I hear became quite reliable as well. Good for Mac.
Macs easy to use. True enough, I've used a Mac many times before and it's quite easy to *use*... unless you want to tweak things. Mac is a pleasure... for an amateur, a beginner.
Now let's look at the market. Go to any computer store and look in the software section. Compare the number of PC titles to the number of Mac titles. I think PC got this one. Macs don't even have 10% of the market share! Why is that? People like to bitch about Micro$oft, this giant cunt that is almost a damn monopoly. Hm. Then why does Mac only has it a policy that no other company is allowed to write drivers for their hardware? Sure, hardware is more reliable, but the variety is rather lacking. Sorry for the understatement. Apple has filed for bankrupcy three times. Microsoft almost did that once. Besides, if it wasn't for Microsoft, Apple would be in the gutter.
There was a period where other companies were making hardware for Macintosh. Apple gained some popularity, but prices went down. So the CEO decided it's bad for business. You do the math. Mac will never have the market, unless they do some major revamping in their business techniques.
Speaking of OS. It was shit since Windows 95 came out. The OS X came out *finally* with a lot of the features Windows had for years. I still don't like it, imho, it's full of little annoying things (http://thetechnozone.com/comdex/2002/OS_Shootout-2002.htm) that should not be an issue. My personal experience with Windows XP is wonderful. I run two machines, both with XP, (although sometimes I switch out one of the hard drives for one I have with Linux partition on it) and XP is simply the best OS I have ever used. It's crashed *three times* over about a year and a half that I've been using it. Windows XP is simply faster (http://www.pcbuyersguide.com/software/system/WinXP_benchmarks.html). However, this is just my own opinion. Even if XP is faster, the two systems are so similar, that I would give them close an equal grade in an unbiased review.
Price. I can buy a better pc for the same price. It's common knowledge.
Choice. Stuff. The staggering amount of stuff. PC wins. No one cares for Mac. Boo hoo.
Power users. Okay, now your "people that know what they are doing" comment is out of place. Show me one "l33t h4x0r" that likes Macs and I'll show you about 20, if not more. You just can't do as much coding, tweaking, modding, cracking, networking, etc. on a Mac. Linux has the game here, although Wintel systems are still superior to Mac.
And another thing. The memory management is shit. Macs have yet to develop a decent dynamic memory allocation system. You can't even split a program in the memory. Multitasking? Hello? That's the frigging basis of computer programming? Real computers run more than one program at the same time.
But what it comes down to is whatever system you like best, is best for you. However, I firmly stand by the fact that no one significant gives a shit. There are by far more PC users than Mac users. Really. What little amount of "macanatics" there is though, they seem to be quite defensive over the "pc vs. mac" thing. You know, when a rat is most defensive? When it's backed into a corner. And with Wintel machines controlling over 90% of the market, I can see why you're such a defensive little rat,
oh ye of no future.
Re:
Date: 2003-02-27 06:22 pm (UTC)He's a native Muscovite.
Ethnic origin alone should explain volumes about his vehement stand. Something about mandatory classes at the N. S. Khrushchev School of Diplomacy. ;-)
Those of us with ties to St. Petersburg tend to be a little more selective about choosing our fights and just tilt at the vulnerable-seeming windmills.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 06:38 pm (UTC)I pick my fights whenever I have a righteous cause to do so.
Служу Советскому Союзу!
Re:
Date: 2003-02-27 09:10 pm (UTC)I'm laughing almost hysterically at this point.
no subject
Re:
Date: 2003-02-27 08:11 am (UTC)I'll have to look up the magazine. Thanks
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 04:56 pm (UTC)Do look up the magazine though. They have stuff on Delphi, they have "top 10 exploits", how to convert Athlon XP into Athlon MP (!), ASM section, etc. It's at least as good as 2600.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 06:11 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-02-27 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 08:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-27 03:42 pm (UTC)I am so computer ignorant. I think I like it that way, though.
*Prances off happily to play "The Magic DustBuster" with the wee one*