Ruari's thoughts

We will be making Widgets full applications. That is the long term goal. Don't get thrown by the fact that we have subsequently released Opera versions where they are integrated with the browser. Remember that the Widget release, was a 'Labs release'. It is exactly the same as with the Video 'Labs release'. Both of these features are coming ... just not yet.

The 'Labs releases' are to show off ideas for major new features and to give some outline of our future vision. When a cool new feature is only appearing in a Labs release, you shouldn't worry too much about the Opera version number that is actually displayed. The 'Labs' label trumps this. Labs releases are very much about experimental features or stuff that is early in development cycle and hence they have not been assigned to a fixed version number of Opera yet.

Outside of Labs, lets look at the other stuff. As I write this post, the 10.0* line is the current stable browser. It is the only current 'proper release' of Desktop and the version that the vast majority of our users are actually using right now. Potential future versions numbered 10.02, 10.03, etc. won't have Unite, or any other major new feature. If there are further updates, it is a line that will consist of security and bug fixes for what we released as 10.00. The 10.10 Beta 1 is a Beta of the next release with a new major feature (Unite). In addition to the Beta, we have snapshots of the work that has happened subsequent to the Beta, one of which is what we offered in the "Post-seminar Unite build" blog post.

On a personal level I must admit I am baffled as to why certain people are having trouble with this? This is a pretty common and standard way to release new software and show off major new features. Other software companies do exactly the same thing. Also, even if you are one of the people who is confused, don't forget that Labs and Snapshots are just stuff provided for testing. They are not guaranteed to be consistent. Indeed they are not even guaranteed to be stable!

With complaints from certain people, It does feel like there are those that would prefer that we released less. And yet at the same time I have also heard cries from others that we should offer up even more. We do after all have more things we are working on (Carakan, newer versions of Core, etc.).

So to people who feel that it is all too confusing, I would echo the comments of my some of my colleagues and honestly advise you to stick with the stable releases. There is only one of these at any given time and hence no room for confusion. If we have to spend significant amounts of time constantly re-explaining what we are offering up for testing, it lessens the likelihood that we will do so frequently. This is not so good for the users who do 'get it' and who are keen to try everything new we offer up.