Opera News

Let's have a chat with a new Opera Employee J.D. Lien, the winner of the Online Writer Internship. Find out what he thinks about moving to Norway and his first impressions of Opera!

Choose Opera: Hi J.D.. Tell us a bit about yourself and winning the internship!

Opera Internship winner, J.D. Lien

J.D.: I come from the Great White North (Canada, that is), and I'm a geek with a love for technology. I have been a fan of Opera for many years; I've used it as my primary browser since 1998 and it has been exciting for me to watch the development of Opera's products over the years. I was at a point in my career where I was ready for some new challenges, so when the opportunity to work for Opera presented itself on Opera's website I was very excited about the prospect that I could be a part of the fantastic work that Opera does.

Choose Opera: How has your experience been moving to Norway?

J.D.: Although it is not easy to leave everything in my old life behind, the Internet makes it pretty easy to stay in touch with my friends and family, which helps. Norway is a country that has fascinated me for some time, and I have been interested in experiencing what life is like here, and this was an excellent time in my life for me to make such a move.

Unfortunately I was introduced to the country during the worst weather we get in Oslo--which is familiar to me, coming from Edmonton, Canada, but I look forward to experiencing the beautiful Norwegian landscape in the summer.

Choose Opera: What things about working for Opera stand out for you so far?

J.D.: This is a great work environment and there are a lot of things I could say about this! The people working for Opera Software are top notch, great at what they do, and they are also very helpful and easy to get along with. I love that the atmosphere here is quite relaxed which is a great fit for me - one is allowed to work in the style that works for them. Also, the canteen here has great food and helps to save money and time because I don't have to worry about buying or making lunches.

Choose Opera: What excites you most about the future of Opera?

J.D.: Innovation in technology and new and better ways to do things has always been interesting for me. Opera has long been a leader in this area, and I can see no sign of this ending anytime soon. It's very cool to me how Opera is committed to fulfilling their vision of "delivering the best Internet experience on any device", and I look forward to the upcoming support that we will be providing for other mobile platforms that are out there. I think that Opera 10.50 will blow a lot of people's minds with some great improvements and features.

Choose Opera: Are there any features in particular that you like about Opera 10.5?

J.D.: The user interface has been tweaked nicely so that it works efficiently and looks really slick, especially under Windows 7 because of the support for Aero transparency effects and Windows 7 features like Jump Lists. Bookmarks and search history are presented to you as you type text in the address bar in a way that is much more easy to use than before.

Of course, Opera 10.50 leaves no doubt about the speed advantages Opera has. It's incredible how much faster it is than even 10.10 in the preview, so I can't wait to see what the final version is like.

Choose Opera: It sounds like you have used Opera for quite a while, so what have been your favorite Opera features that have been introduced over the years?

J.D.: I love how I could have "sessions" where, if I had to reboot my computer, I could just start Opera and be back to where I left off right away. When Opera introduced search integration into the address field, I thought it was super-slick, and I use custom searches so that I can search my favorite websites simply by prepending the appropriate letter to the query - like "t ces 2010" to search videos on youtube, for example.

The download manager that can be monitored in the sidebar and allows for downloads to be paused and resumed is also great. There are times when that feature has really saved me a ton of time where I might normally have had to restart downloading a very large file. Also, Opera Unite has some neat applications and easily lets me to share pictures of Oslo and Norway with my friends and family back in Canada. I could go on and on about this, I really love so many features of Opera!