The Layman: A Non-Expert Extols the Benefits of FOSS

EDIT: Do you ever look back at old posts and think, "I need to learn to get to the point?" I do. Does hating old posts indicate growth? This one has been shortened for the sake of readers, but I left the old Linux Flash bugs in there- even though they've been exchanged for other, somewhat less-troubling bugs.

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(A Long-Winded, Round-a-Bout Way of Placing Feature Requests.)

The greatest detractor I have encountered for 64-bit computing in Linux is the current state of Flash. I am not savvy to the technical reasons for this, and frankly, I don't care. This blog isn't entitled, “One More Über-Geek Pimps Linux to Fellow Über-Geeks and Existing Linux Users".

Anyway, here's the situation; approximately 80% of the time I hit a page with flash, especially a video, I get a gray square with audio. Considering how much time I kill via Digg and Stumbleupon this has become more than an annoyance.

Usually, restarting Firefox is not enough. I have to re-run a very helpful script which removes, then reinstalls, the NSPlugin Wrapper. (Not yet effective for FF3.) My meager understanding is that this wrapper allows 64-bit Firefox to run 32-bit architecture NetScape (?) plugins. (Please comment if I am wrong.) (EDIT: This issue has been resolved, unless I have 3 or more instances of Flash running.)

This solution only works about 50% of the time, and I am sick of it. So, the other day, out of sheer frustration, and after stumbling through a host of other browsers, seeking one with a 64-bit version, that could handle some of the pages which had given me so much grief, I came across a Digg submission stating that Opera 9.5 had been released. In the Digg comments, a 64-bit version was mentioned.

Now, this was intriguing to me. Amongst the insane fanfare surrounding Mozilla's latest baby, was a modest post about a browser I hadn't really heard much about over the last few years. One I hadn't tried since 2000 or 2001. At the time, I wasn't happy with it, but I was still marching Microsoft lock-step at that time. What's one more browser, I thought, and decided to give it a shot.

At first glance, I was impressed. This was not the multi-paned obscurity I remember from nearly a decade ago. This thing was sexy, and I could tell immediately that the philosophy had evolved.

So after install, my first task, as with any software that will facilitate many hours of work and play, was to get down to the business of customization. When it comes to computing, looks and feel are all-important to me. I want a comfortable, relaxed environment that is verifiably cool. Buttons I like should go where I want them. Buttons I don't should just go away. Opera does not disappoint in this respect. (Movable toolbars will be addressed later.) Themes are plentiful, and many-a-slick, dark skins are readily available. Opera blends in with my customized Ubuntu environment beautifully.

I started messing with plugins, and StumbleUpon is available. Nice. I check out some videos, running Opera on one workspace, and Firefox on the other. Where Firefox fails, Opera sings. (Ok, ok.. I'll stop with the weak, and what are likely common, puns).

Inadvertently, while figuring out the interface, and setting up my speed dial page (what a cool idea that is for new tabs), I find that Opera users are part of a community – with access to a host of nifty tools that make connecting with others and expressing one's self quite simple and intuitive. Sweet. Everyone else has a blog, why not me?

I sign up and start reading the blogs of others, finding that my e-isolation, resulting from absolute contempt for MySpace-ers, and the like, is probably the greatest (while certainly not the only) contributing factor in my membership of the team of old farts on the "wrong" side of the generation gap.

A blog is born, and I decide I should setup a new email account to go along with my new Internet experience. While fiddling with the browser, I discover that email is integrated into the browsing experience, and my inbox shows up as a browser tab. COOL! I should have an Opera email to express my support of my new friend.

I start exploring the Opera site, and all I can find is a premium mail service. This can't be what I'm looking for, I thought, and decided Google would be my best option for this quest. However, after 30 minutes or so of reading, I reluctantly concluded that Opera's email services are for paying members only.

This is, to me, senseless. Opera should be seeking additional features like this to attract new users. In an era of gigabytes of free email storage, for a relative underdog such as Opera to be party to such shenanigans is counterproductive and, to be honest, mind boggling. Such an approach seems prohibitive to growth, but, like I have said before, I am a somewhat casual user, and most certainly a layman. I do not understand the business models of OSS browsers, and I really am in no position to have any weight given to my criticism. I'd like to throw in that I would pay to have the Opera banner removed from my blog, but this is not an option. Topsy-turvy.

I know the placement of Google search in the Opera toolbar, as in Firefox, provides some revenue, but perhaps at the market share Opera commands, it is not enough. I'll get to that whole market share issue in a moment. First, I'd like to look at the next stutter; the one sour note that keeps getting stuck in my craw. As trivial as it may be to most of you, I consider it a shortcoming, and it was the same problem in IE7 that made me transition entirely to Firefox after spending a good amount of time bouncing back to IE when coming across a page that was MS-compliant, rather then WC3 compliant.

It's amazing how a team of visionary coders can provide revolutionary features so intuitive, useful and natural that they make you wonder how you ever lived without them. And how you begin to fault others who do not follow their lead.

Here is a comparison of FF and Opera regarding a pet peeve of mine, followed by a list of the other things I would change.

(click the pics to view full-size.)
___________________________________________________________________________________FIREFOXVery little space is wasted in my Firefox toolbars.
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OPERA
i see a lot of blank space in the Opera toolbars.
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Firefox Bar
Close-up.
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WASTED SPACE
In this cap, I have filled the areas I consider wasted space with red. I arbitrarily chose the end of the URl to begin designating "wasted space', but how many of use really neeed to see 200 characters in the location bar? This is user-definable in Firefox, via drag-n-drop toolbars.
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CONSOLIDATED
Here is an admittedly sloppy mock-up, in which I consolidated the address bar and navigation buttons into the space to the right of the drop-down menus. I am not suggesting this be the default arrangement, but it certainly would be a nice option. In this configuration, the control elements of the browser have a smaller foorprint than my Firefox 2 layout (due to shorter tabs, which can be achieved in Firefox via user scripts). Being an Opera novice, I am not aware of what the commonly-repeated feature requests are, but I have seen the ability to move toolbars mentioned in a few places.

A few other qualms:

OUTDATED ICON: There are better ones out there - I'm just sayin'.

No inline spell-check?

Right-click and drop-down menus – should be theme-aware, like ff.

New windows, like the save dialog, pop up behind main browser window – probably due to my Compiz settings, but it only happens in opera.

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