#webapps chat with Jon S. von Tetzchner - log
Thursday, 1. March 2007, 17:27:29
thomfo Hi everyone. Welcome to our Web developer chat with the man who started it all: Mr. Jon von Tetzchner. Please ask your questions to Pony. If you want to chat about the chat itself, #lounge is the place to do it.
JonSvT Hi!
thomfo New question from philry4n (id: 3): are there any other devices that opera is planning to target? meaning implementing opera in it
JonSvT We are targeting a lot of devices. It really makes sense to put a browser on devices and we are already on mobile phones, settop-boxes, media players, game consoles and the list goes on and on...
thomfo New question from adas (id: 4): Opera on linux use a lot people. But version for linux doesn't include a translations. Why? Other closed-source programs (Skype, Picasa) for linux include a translations...
JonSvT If you visit IBM in Austin you can see Opera on a fridge...
JonSvT adas, I am not sure if I get this one. Opera is available in a lot of languages.
JonSvT Our overall aim is to be available in as many languages as possible.
thomfo New question from adas: A lot of Opera users want a inline speelchecking like in Firefox (thread: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=163169). What do you think about this function in FF? Is good think to add it to Opera?
JonSvT adas, Opera already has spellcheck functionality. Our aim is to continue to improve on that and offer it in more places.
p01- adas: Check http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/spellcheck/
EspenAO New question from ReWiz (id: 8): Which efforts are planned in near future to achive higher market share with Opera Desktop?
JonSvT ReWiz, we are doing a lot. One important thing for us is to listen to your input. We do know that you are all very important to us and the first thing to do is to listen to you and provide you with what you want. This does include making a great community and also spending time with community members, when possible. Then we focus on improving the browser, both by adding features, but also by fixing any issues you may have with it. Then we work on
JonSvT the mail client and any other function we have in there to make it better. Then we do marketing. The list is long.
thomfo New question from Bernte: What is the future of M2? It is beautiful, but it has been some time since there were major feature updates .... where is it on the list of priorities?
JonSvT Bernte, M2 is very important. We have been spending a lot of time making M2 better. You have some good things to look forward to!
JonSvT I am looking forward to it as well...
thomfo New question from shoust (id: 9): On Opera 9 for devices, there was WebUI, from which I understand is a UI for opera using web standards for devices, say if this was ported to Opera as a 2nd UI say in peregrine, would this allow a more flexible customisation system (maybe an answer to firefox extensions for desktop)?
JonSvT shoust, yes, we are using WebUIs for devices. Makes a lot of sense. I am not sure if that is a good solution for desktop in the short term, though. On devices you do not need to interface with so many other applications. On the desktop you do. However, we have introduced Widgets and we are obviously looking into how we can make the web standards even more useful for you.
JonSvT I agree with you that flexibility is key. Always has been. Always will be. This is core to us at Opera.
Pony Question from ReWiz: When thomfo aka Thomas Ford announced this chat with you after last weeks webchat some people joked about they would do anything to work at Opera. May I ask which general requirements there are to get a job at Opera ie age, grades, international experience?
JonSvT ReWiz, I guess that really depends on what kind of position you are looking for. We pride our selves in having 40 different nationalities at Opera. Adding a nationality would be nice, but it is obvously not going to be the deciding factor. We do want people that know what they are doing and are passionate about their work.
thomfo Two related questions coming up here:
Pony Question from redondos: Since adas touched the firefox subject, what do you think about an extensions-like system for Opera? Is it feasible, or even planned? I believe it could greatly enhance the already-ver-featureful Opera browser.
Pony Question from fearphage: Are there currently plans to implement a more powerful API structure like that of Firefox? If so, is this something that might make into Opera 10 or even further into the future?
JonSvT In general, I can not tell you what we will be doing on these fronts. It is clear, however, that you can look forward to some very interesting stuff coming from Opera. The Widgets are a good start and IMHO they are a very good start. There is more to come.
JonSvT Sorry to not be able to be more specific, but ... well, you know.
Pony Question from Galileo: Are there any plans to enhance the irc client in Opera and will eventually the funtionality of the Opera irc reach that of stantdard irc clients?
JonSvT Galileo, we will continue to improve all the parts in Opera. This includes irc. However, it is not really our aim to make the irc client match full such clients. The idea is to have something that is really simple to use and quite powerful as well, but not necessarily including every function ever invented.
Pony Question from sa3er: Why opera is not that good with right-to-left languages (such as persian/farsi)? Are there any project in progress in order to increase the compatibility with such languages?
JonSvT sa3er, we do support right-to-left languages at this time. Any bugs or issues you have, please report them so we can improve. Our aim is to support as many languages as possible and obviously that also includes rtl languages.
<~nicomen> fyi: bug reports -> http://bugs.opera.com/wizard
Pony Question from redondos: Any plans on going open source at least with the desktop browser? Or does it share important portions of code with those other products that give the company its main income and you want to keep them secret?
JonSvT redondas, our pride as a company is that we manage with only one source code. It does not matter whether you run Opera on your desktop PC, laptop, mobile, TV, game console... they are all the same. Giving away our source code is not the way forward for us.
JonSvT What we like to do, however, is to work as closely with you as possible We want to be open and we want to work with you. I believe there is a lot of things we can do together, without including the source code.
JonSvT Just tell us what to do.
Pony Question from axiom: When can we expect Opera to include an autoupdate-functionality?
JonSvT axiom, I believe the current system we have is quite good, but we are obviously eager to improve.
JonSvT Sorry about the spelling of your name, redondos.
Pony Question from marekmand: When Operasoftware implemented tabbed browsing, what did the software engineers think back then - how many browser window tabs will the users have open when they use tabbed browsing? What is the recommended max count of open tabs by Opera (win32, 1GB RAM)? My browsing habits are that I have 60 - 130 tabs open.. ;D
JonSvT The most important thing is open standards. Through open standards, you have choice. This is why we push open standards so heavily. We believe you should be able to choose your browser of choice.
JonSvT marekmand, the idea has always been that you should be able to have as many open windows as the hardware allows. We know many people have many windows open. Our goal is to allow that and not be in the way in any shape or form.
JonSvT Personally I have 30-40 open.
Pony Question from dantesoft: re: talk on the Web2.0 going mobile ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6389469.stm ) and how virtual connections are affecting real social networking. Can OperaMini get bigger ? Will OperaMobile take over video uploading etc. ? How much of the Web will Opera fit inside one's palm this year ?
JonSvT dantesoft, for us there is only one web. We believe our task is to make your web available to you, your way. We do this through Mini as it allows almost every phone to access the web and we do this through Opera Mobile as well. Both will continue to gain functionality. A lot of functionality.
Pony Question from Zajec: We have a International version of Opera for Windows. It is absolutely cool. What about creating that same for Linux and Mac?
JonSvT Already with Opera Mobile, there is not much you cannot do. To be frank, the same applies to Opera Mini.
JonSvT Zajec, I will need to discuss that with the guys. Makes sense to me.
Pony Question from TheFalcon: Hi jon, and thanks for taking the time to chat with us. My question is as follows:
Pony Question from TheFalcon: A growing concern (at least in my mind) is the lack of support for Opera among many leading web sites / portals / applications; such as Yahoo!, Google etc. Opera's developers do an excellent job in patching things up with browser.js; but these are ultimately patches and hacks; not a real solution. What are you doing as a company to ensure that Opera is supported with such applications / sites right from the beginning?
JonSvT TheFalcon, thanks, my pleasure! We are doing many things. We are patching sites, as you mention, but we are also spending significant time talking to these companies, offering them help and working with them. We are progressing and I believe you will be seeing a lot of changes this year. You can help as well by making sure companies know you are using Opera and writing them, politely, and request they work with us. We are eager to help anybody
JonSvT that wants to make their site work.
thomfo fyi: Open the Web blog: http://my.opera.com/dstorey/blog/
JonSvT We are seeing a significant increase in our user base, both on desktop and with Mini, Mobile and on devices as well. This all helps as well.
JonSvT The Wii is a great example.
Pony Question from adas: What do you think about UserJS? Is good or not? If good why Opera doesn't promote this? I think good think is create service userjs.opera.com or dev.opera.com/dev like a repository of scripts (like a widgets.opera.com - users submit a userjs and commenting others...)
JonSvT Anyway, the keyword is web standards. We must all strive to follow them. The only way things can scale is to follow web standards. Some content providers now limit to PCs and a subset of the browsers running there. What about the future, where every device will have a browser? The only way forward is to back web standards. It is the only thing that scales.
JonSvT adas, I believe userjs is great! We will be doing more.
JonSvT I promise
Pony Question from ReWiz: As the Opera Browsers and my.opera.com seem to be quite different products to me: what do you think about a clearer differentiated set up? I know there are different opinions, for example by Wildente posting the opposite wish at Opera Watch http://operawatch.com/news/2007/02/live-chat-with-operas-ceo-on-thursday.html
JonSvT ReWiz, the my.opera community is a community we make for our users. We will continue to build it as a community for our users. However, it will also continue to be open to everybody.
Pony Question from Remco: The developer console (and perhaps the error console) will hopefully go into a panel in the future according to the previous chat here. This means that there is a possibility for more interaction between the panel and the browser window. Will there be a way for users to develop their own panels that can interact with the page?
JonSvT Remco, time will tell... Overall we are eager to give people what they want... while keeping security at the highest possible level.
Pony Question from Jan: The Speed Dial is very interesting. It would be great to use this technique for all open tabs as well.
JonSvT Jan, I am not sure if I get you there. I agree, that Speed Dial is great. The guys continue to amaze me with their ideas. I am not sure what you would like to change, but do make sure to tell us, so we can work on it.
Pony Question from Orcinus: In an effort to lighten the tone, what is your favourite genre of music and your favourite band?
JonSvT Orcinus, I do like a lot of different kind of music. As a kid, I was used to a lot of classical music. I continue to enjoy that and just last week I was at the Opera in Oslo. I also like a lot of other music. I guess my favourite band is Depeche Mode, while Prince is also a firm favourite.
Pony Question from stereodee: I just switched to Opera from Firefox few weeks ago. I think you have managed to get many things right from the beginning, like tab behavior, but there are a few areas where Opera annoyed me, particularly regarding preferences placements and some other usability issues. Are you working on streamlining the UI to make switchers from IE or Firefox feel more familiar with Opera?
JonSvT stereodee, we are always considering how we can make things easier for those switching to Opera, while also keeping in mind how we can make sure we keep our current user base happy.
JonSvT Thanks for choosing Opera!
JonSvT It is important that you all continue to give feedback so that we can improve.
thomfo We're going to keep the chat going for a little while longer. Obviously, there are a lot of questions being asked.
Pony Question from Nasty: When Opera opens with many (like around 100) it takes ages for Opera to become responsive. Don't you plan to improve it - tab which is currently active should be treated with priority to access bandwitch
JonSvT Nasty, making Opera work with 100 open tabs at startup is obviously something that is important to us. I am sure we will find ways to improve on that in the future. It is clear a lot of people using Opera keep a lot of tabs open.
Pony Question from TheFalcon: Another question -- are there any plans for a more informative bug tracking system; where users (at least those who reported bugs) can get more regular feedback / status update regarding the bug?
JonSvT TheFalcon, we are continously considering the right balance and how we can work even better with the community, so we have discussed various possibilities.
Pony Question from miniMe: Are you an active developer or just the CEO of the company?
JonSvT miniMe, I wish I could answer this question in another way...
Last time I entered some code, I created a bug. However, I am a very active contributor to the bug tracking system. I truly enjoy reporting bugs and working with developers, testers and others to see them fixed.
JonSvT I also spend significant time discussing features, bugs that need to be fixed and the like. But, no coding.
Pony Question from Zajec: AFAIK there is a Opera center in Poland. Could you say as sth about it? What is it fouces on, how effective is it?
JonSvT Zajec, yes we have an office in Poland. It was opened late last year and we have some very talented people there.
JonSvT The focus at the office is development.
Pony Question from ROBOd: Is Opera interested opening new offices in other locations? Could you tell us some locations you'd like Opera having offices at?
JonSvT ROBOd, we have offices in many countries already. We have no current plans for new offices, but we will continue to evaluate that. Instead we aim in the short term to hire more people in our current offices.
JonSvT We added more than 100 people last year and multiple offices.
JonSvT We have plans to add some 90 people this year as well.
thomfo That wraps up the chat with Jon this evening. Thanks for joining us. We had an all-time record of visitors. Be sure to tune in next week.
JonSvT Bye. This was fun!
thomfo We'll be sure to have you back real soon.
JonSvT Hi!
thomfo New question from philry4n (id: 3): are there any other devices that opera is planning to target? meaning implementing opera in it
JonSvT We are targeting a lot of devices. It really makes sense to put a browser on devices and we are already on mobile phones, settop-boxes, media players, game consoles and the list goes on and on...
thomfo New question from adas (id: 4): Opera on linux use a lot people. But version for linux doesn't include a translations. Why? Other closed-source programs (Skype, Picasa) for linux include a translations...
JonSvT If you visit IBM in Austin you can see Opera on a fridge...
JonSvT adas, I am not sure if I get this one. Opera is available in a lot of languages.
JonSvT Our overall aim is to be available in as many languages as possible.
thomfo New question from adas: A lot of Opera users want a inline speelchecking like in Firefox (thread: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=163169). What do you think about this function in FF? Is good think to add it to Opera?
JonSvT adas, Opera already has spellcheck functionality. Our aim is to continue to improve on that and offer it in more places.
p01- adas: Check http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/spellcheck/
EspenAO New question from ReWiz (id: 8): Which efforts are planned in near future to achive higher market share with Opera Desktop?
JonSvT ReWiz, we are doing a lot. One important thing for us is to listen to your input. We do know that you are all very important to us and the first thing to do is to listen to you and provide you with what you want. This does include making a great community and also spending time with community members, when possible. Then we focus on improving the browser, both by adding features, but also by fixing any issues you may have with it. Then we work on
JonSvT the mail client and any other function we have in there to make it better. Then we do marketing. The list is long.
thomfo New question from Bernte: What is the future of M2? It is beautiful, but it has been some time since there were major feature updates .... where is it on the list of priorities?
JonSvT Bernte, M2 is very important. We have been spending a lot of time making M2 better. You have some good things to look forward to!
JonSvT I am looking forward to it as well...
thomfo New question from shoust (id: 9): On Opera 9 for devices, there was WebUI, from which I understand is a UI for opera using web standards for devices, say if this was ported to Opera as a 2nd UI say in peregrine, would this allow a more flexible customisation system (maybe an answer to firefox extensions for desktop)?
JonSvT shoust, yes, we are using WebUIs for devices. Makes a lot of sense. I am not sure if that is a good solution for desktop in the short term, though. On devices you do not need to interface with so many other applications. On the desktop you do. However, we have introduced Widgets and we are obviously looking into how we can make the web standards even more useful for you.
JonSvT I agree with you that flexibility is key. Always has been. Always will be. This is core to us at Opera.
Pony Question from ReWiz: When thomfo aka Thomas Ford announced this chat with you after last weeks webchat some people joked about they would do anything to work at Opera. May I ask which general requirements there are to get a job at Opera ie age, grades, international experience?
JonSvT ReWiz, I guess that really depends on what kind of position you are looking for. We pride our selves in having 40 different nationalities at Opera. Adding a nationality would be nice, but it is obvously not going to be the deciding factor. We do want people that know what they are doing and are passionate about their work.
thomfo Two related questions coming up here:
Pony Question from redondos: Since adas touched the firefox subject, what do you think about an extensions-like system for Opera? Is it feasible, or even planned? I believe it could greatly enhance the already-ver-featureful Opera browser.
Pony Question from fearphage: Are there currently plans to implement a more powerful API structure like that of Firefox? If so, is this something that might make into Opera 10 or even further into the future?
JonSvT In general, I can not tell you what we will be doing on these fronts. It is clear, however, that you can look forward to some very interesting stuff coming from Opera. The Widgets are a good start and IMHO they are a very good start. There is more to come.
JonSvT Sorry to not be able to be more specific, but ... well, you know.
Pony Question from Galileo: Are there any plans to enhance the irc client in Opera and will eventually the funtionality of the Opera irc reach that of stantdard irc clients?
JonSvT Galileo, we will continue to improve all the parts in Opera. This includes irc. However, it is not really our aim to make the irc client match full such clients. The idea is to have something that is really simple to use and quite powerful as well, but not necessarily including every function ever invented.
Pony Question from sa3er: Why opera is not that good with right-to-left languages (such as persian/farsi)? Are there any project in progress in order to increase the compatibility with such languages?
JonSvT sa3er, we do support right-to-left languages at this time. Any bugs or issues you have, please report them so we can improve. Our aim is to support as many languages as possible and obviously that also includes rtl languages.
<~nicomen> fyi: bug reports -> http://bugs.opera.com/wizard
Pony Question from redondos: Any plans on going open source at least with the desktop browser? Or does it share important portions of code with those other products that give the company its main income and you want to keep them secret?
JonSvT redondas, our pride as a company is that we manage with only one source code. It does not matter whether you run Opera on your desktop PC, laptop, mobile, TV, game console... they are all the same. Giving away our source code is not the way forward for us.
JonSvT What we like to do, however, is to work as closely with you as possible We want to be open and we want to work with you. I believe there is a lot of things we can do together, without including the source code.
JonSvT Just tell us what to do.
Pony Question from axiom: When can we expect Opera to include an autoupdate-functionality?
JonSvT axiom, I believe the current system we have is quite good, but we are obviously eager to improve.
JonSvT Sorry about the spelling of your name, redondos.
Pony Question from marekmand: When Operasoftware implemented tabbed browsing, what did the software engineers think back then - how many browser window tabs will the users have open when they use tabbed browsing? What is the recommended max count of open tabs by Opera (win32, 1GB RAM)? My browsing habits are that I have 60 - 130 tabs open.. ;D
JonSvT The most important thing is open standards. Through open standards, you have choice. This is why we push open standards so heavily. We believe you should be able to choose your browser of choice.
JonSvT marekmand, the idea has always been that you should be able to have as many open windows as the hardware allows. We know many people have many windows open. Our goal is to allow that and not be in the way in any shape or form.
JonSvT Personally I have 30-40 open.
Pony Question from dantesoft: re: talk on the Web2.0 going mobile ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/6389469.stm ) and how virtual connections are affecting real social networking. Can OperaMini get bigger ? Will OperaMobile take over video uploading etc. ? How much of the Web will Opera fit inside one's palm this year ?
JonSvT dantesoft, for us there is only one web. We believe our task is to make your web available to you, your way. We do this through Mini as it allows almost every phone to access the web and we do this through Opera Mobile as well. Both will continue to gain functionality. A lot of functionality.
Pony Question from Zajec: We have a International version of Opera for Windows. It is absolutely cool. What about creating that same for Linux and Mac?
JonSvT Already with Opera Mobile, there is not much you cannot do. To be frank, the same applies to Opera Mini.
JonSvT Zajec, I will need to discuss that with the guys. Makes sense to me.
Pony Question from TheFalcon: Hi jon, and thanks for taking the time to chat with us. My question is as follows:
Pony Question from TheFalcon: A growing concern (at least in my mind) is the lack of support for Opera among many leading web sites / portals / applications; such as Yahoo!, Google etc. Opera's developers do an excellent job in patching things up with browser.js; but these are ultimately patches and hacks; not a real solution. What are you doing as a company to ensure that Opera is supported with such applications / sites right from the beginning?
JonSvT TheFalcon, thanks, my pleasure! We are doing many things. We are patching sites, as you mention, but we are also spending significant time talking to these companies, offering them help and working with them. We are progressing and I believe you will be seeing a lot of changes this year. You can help as well by making sure companies know you are using Opera and writing them, politely, and request they work with us. We are eager to help anybody
JonSvT that wants to make their site work.
thomfo fyi: Open the Web blog: http://my.opera.com/dstorey/blog/
JonSvT We are seeing a significant increase in our user base, both on desktop and with Mini, Mobile and on devices as well. This all helps as well.
JonSvT The Wii is a great example.
Pony Question from adas: What do you think about UserJS? Is good or not? If good why Opera doesn't promote this? I think good think is create service userjs.opera.com or dev.opera.com/dev like a repository of scripts (like a widgets.opera.com - users submit a userjs and commenting others...)
JonSvT Anyway, the keyword is web standards. We must all strive to follow them. The only way things can scale is to follow web standards. Some content providers now limit to PCs and a subset of the browsers running there. What about the future, where every device will have a browser? The only way forward is to back web standards. It is the only thing that scales.
JonSvT adas, I believe userjs is great! We will be doing more.
JonSvT I promise
Pony Question from ReWiz: As the Opera Browsers and my.opera.com seem to be quite different products to me: what do you think about a clearer differentiated set up? I know there are different opinions, for example by Wildente posting the opposite wish at Opera Watch http://operawatch.com/news/2007/02/live-chat-with-operas-ceo-on-thursday.html
JonSvT ReWiz, the my.opera community is a community we make for our users. We will continue to build it as a community for our users. However, it will also continue to be open to everybody.
Pony Question from Remco: The developer console (and perhaps the error console) will hopefully go into a panel in the future according to the previous chat here. This means that there is a possibility for more interaction between the panel and the browser window. Will there be a way for users to develop their own panels that can interact with the page?
JonSvT Remco, time will tell... Overall we are eager to give people what they want... while keeping security at the highest possible level.
Pony Question from Jan: The Speed Dial is very interesting. It would be great to use this technique for all open tabs as well.
JonSvT Jan, I am not sure if I get you there. I agree, that Speed Dial is great. The guys continue to amaze me with their ideas. I am not sure what you would like to change, but do make sure to tell us, so we can work on it.
Pony Question from Orcinus: In an effort to lighten the tone, what is your favourite genre of music and your favourite band?
JonSvT Orcinus, I do like a lot of different kind of music. As a kid, I was used to a lot of classical music. I continue to enjoy that and just last week I was at the Opera in Oslo. I also like a lot of other music. I guess my favourite band is Depeche Mode, while Prince is also a firm favourite.
Pony Question from stereodee: I just switched to Opera from Firefox few weeks ago. I think you have managed to get many things right from the beginning, like tab behavior, but there are a few areas where Opera annoyed me, particularly regarding preferences placements and some other usability issues. Are you working on streamlining the UI to make switchers from IE or Firefox feel more familiar with Opera?
JonSvT stereodee, we are always considering how we can make things easier for those switching to Opera, while also keeping in mind how we can make sure we keep our current user base happy.
JonSvT Thanks for choosing Opera!
JonSvT It is important that you all continue to give feedback so that we can improve.
thomfo We're going to keep the chat going for a little while longer. Obviously, there are a lot of questions being asked.
Pony Question from Nasty: When Opera opens with many (like around 100) it takes ages for Opera to become responsive. Don't you plan to improve it - tab which is currently active should be treated with priority to access bandwitch
JonSvT Nasty, making Opera work with 100 open tabs at startup is obviously something that is important to us. I am sure we will find ways to improve on that in the future. It is clear a lot of people using Opera keep a lot of tabs open.
Pony Question from TheFalcon: Another question -- are there any plans for a more informative bug tracking system; where users (at least those who reported bugs) can get more regular feedback / status update regarding the bug?
JonSvT TheFalcon, we are continously considering the right balance and how we can work even better with the community, so we have discussed various possibilities.
Pony Question from miniMe: Are you an active developer or just the CEO of the company?
JonSvT miniMe, I wish I could answer this question in another way...
Last time I entered some code, I created a bug. However, I am a very active contributor to the bug tracking system. I truly enjoy reporting bugs and working with developers, testers and others to see them fixed.JonSvT I also spend significant time discussing features, bugs that need to be fixed and the like. But, no coding.
Pony Question from Zajec: AFAIK there is a Opera center in Poland. Could you say as sth about it? What is it fouces on, how effective is it?
JonSvT Zajec, yes we have an office in Poland. It was opened late last year and we have some very talented people there.
JonSvT The focus at the office is development.
Pony Question from ROBOd: Is Opera interested opening new offices in other locations? Could you tell us some locations you'd like Opera having offices at?
JonSvT ROBOd, we have offices in many countries already. We have no current plans for new offices, but we will continue to evaluate that. Instead we aim in the short term to hire more people in our current offices.
JonSvT We added more than 100 people last year and multiple offices.
JonSvT We have plans to add some 90 people this year as well.
thomfo That wraps up the chat with Jon this evening. Thanks for joining us. We had an all-time record of visitors. Be sure to tune in next week.
JonSvT Bye. This was fun!
thomfo We'll be sure to have you back real soon.
WIDGETIZE