Opera: Now Free with No Ads

By Geoff Duncan Published September 21, 2005

Norway’s Opera Software abruptly changed course yesterday, announcing they’ve not only removed the built-in banner advertising from their 10 year-old alternative Web browser, but the software is now available for free download, no strings attached. A premium support program is still available for $29/year—Opera’s former purchase price—promising 24-hour email responses to support, migration, configuration, customization, and installation issues. The Opera browser is available for a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, and Linux.

Opera is one of the longest-standing alternatives to browser juggernauts represented by Internet Explorer and the Netscape/Mozilla amalgamate, and while some of its behaviors can be quirky, Opera offers a surprising breadth of features (including tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, integrated search, and built-in IRC and RSS clients) and commands loyalty from many users for its speed and some features’ clever and perceptive implementations.

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Opera has been focusing on the embedded browser market, with versions of Opera being crafted (and licensed) to smart phones and PDAs, home media applications, and vertical market solutions; these partnerships presumably put Opera on sound enough financial footing that the company is willing to forego revenue from licensing a browser to desktop computer users in exchange for the possibility of increasing the browser’s visibility and market share.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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