Chat with Opera's CEO

Jon S. von Tetzchner (CEO) answers your questions.

Venue: Opera's 10-year online anniversary party
Date: 30 August 2005

Chat Transcript

The following transcript has not been edited.

Destrado: Jon, may I have your autograph? Opera is just that awesome.

Jon: Sure, Destrado. You just need to come to Oslo. Thanks for your support!

ThePast: Mr. von Tetzchner I have two questions, most importantly, I am ready to take a screenshot, so can you write your name here for my autograph collection? :) Second and more seriously. Despite being such a fantastic browser Opera have remained a small player on the market. What do you think is the biggest obstacles that Opera ASA have to overcome to gain popularity?

Jon: We have our plans....

wow171: are you using firefox on private pc's ?

Jon: Although Firefox is a good browser, I use Opera for all my tasks. I use Opera for browser, mail, chat, everything.

I do believe Opera is a better choice. :-)

vinnie: Best wishes for all of Opera Software ASA. Q: What about that action with free reg. codes? :) is it for real? :)

Jon: The registration codes are for real. This is our thanks to the community!

Lawmune: Has the launch of Opera Mini met your expecations?

Jon: Yes, Opera Mini has been a great success! I have a lot of fun reading all the positive feedback on forums all around the world... even though the launch was only in Norway...

Joshtek: Do you often look at firefox extensions for inspiration on future Opera features?

Jon: No. We try to innovate our selves.

relix: What's your favorite, vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Or are you one of those rebellious warriors who like strawberry ice cream best?

Jon: I guess I am kind of flexible on this. I like a lot of different kinds. I would have to rate cocunut as the top one. :)

Rickie: Will opera have rich text support anytime soon?

Jon: We are continuously looking at ways to improve Opera and rich text is a natural addition.

manxstar: How would you describe in one sentence you feeling about Opera Browser after 10 years in the business?

Jon: That is a big question. I am delightet to be working with so many talented people. I am also thrilled about the support in the community. Nothin g is more fun than getting positive feedback on your work.

Several people ask: What do you think about IE7?

Jon: I think it is great that MS is finally doing some work on IE. Hopefully they will be taking standards more seriously. That will move the web forward.

krijn: What's your idea about browser statistics and Opera's percentages? Imho there are more Opera users than all those sites actually say, because Opera has such nice caching features

Jon: You are right. Opera has a more aggressive caching mechanism and that obviously leads to less page hits. We believe the user experience is more important than browser stats.

dohz: Since you mentioned standards, will we see full compliance with Acid2 in upcoming Opera releases?

Jon: Yes.

Typhix: What vision of the web's future do you have? Where will be Opera's place in that vision?

Jon: I believe the web will be becoming an even more important part of our lives. Our goal here at Opera is to be a central player in this future. We want to make sure that everybody gets Internet access on their terms. This is the reason why we make Opera run on older computers, add a lot of language support, add accessability features and innovate with new products such as Opera Mini. This is very important to us.

dohz : Opera has always been known for producing browsers for various platforms, are there plans to diversify into other software?

Jon: No we have no such plans. We focus on making a great browser... and things that go naturally with it. We have no plans to go into other kinds of software.

TERRAZI: In Japan , when you break a promise, it is common to shave your hair. Why didn't you shave, Jon?

Jon: Although I was unable to finish the swim to the US, we did make a nice effort... :) I am sure Eskil is happy that I selected to save him instead of continuing the swim. :)

yikes: What abt expanding to provide services that assist opera's features- mail, newgroups, irc

Jon: Sure. We do have, for example, the Opera accellerator. We will obviously strive to do things that make your browsing and mail experience better. We also aim to provide a very good community infrastructure.

TheMajor: How important is the Opera-setup file-size to Opera Software when adding new features? Do you sometimes decide to not include a feature cause it could increase the file-size?

Jon: File size is important. We aim to provide a small and fast solution. We will do what is necessary to achive that goal. Adding features that add to the size is not done lightly.

Indyan: Sir,may i ask.How old are you?

Jon: I am 38. yesterday. :)

ThePast: Q. Jon, do you take an active part in the coding of Opera or does your duties as CEO prevent you from doing so even if you would like to?

Jon: I used to code myself. Then I got thrown out, because I introduced too many bugs... :) I still engage in discussions, though, and I am a very active beta tester.

alibaba: why is your development centre not located in silicon valley like other software players ?

Jon: We are located in Oslo. Luckily, a lot of the most talented programmers in the world are either based here or are willing to move here to work on Opera. I

relix: Do you program yourself? If yes, what languages do you love to work with most? What language would you not touch with a 5km long stick?

Jon: I like to program, although I have not done so much of it lately. I like C++, Simula, Perl, ... I am not found of the MFC libraries. I do like to code more direct.

Indyan: Sir,do you visit the myOpera community?

Jon: I am there every day. I want to hear what the community has to say about us. It is important for me to get the feedback.

rene31: Jon, you said "We focus on making a great browser" which is a clear, focussed vision. But what is the vision behind the email and chat client or Opera's capabilities on mobile phones which are more than just a browser?

Jon: The browser is the core of what we do. On the mobile and in other places, the browser is being used for other things than going to the Internet. This is a natural trend as the browser is very powerful and you can make very powerful solutions using browser technology. When it comes to mail and chat, these are natural additions when it comes to providing a browser. These are part of providing a full Internet experience.

Magi: what feture do you like the most in Opera8?

Jon: I am a big fan of ERA. ERA (or fit to window) allows you to take just about any page and have it fit to your window or paper. I have a small laptop, so this is a very useful feature for me.

TheMajor: Jon, are you using Opera to connect to IRC, at the moment? :)

Jon: Obviously. To be frank, I use Opera for all my work, really.

Jeba: where do you see opera the comany 5 years from here?

Jon: Our aim is to continue on our path. We aim to be a significant player in shaping the Internet.

Lizard: Opera has built in three clients: web browser, e-mail and irc. are you gonna divide this project into three small projects like Mozilla?

Jon: There are no plans for that. Opera is much smaller than the competition, even with all these features built in. We have made Opera 8 very scaleable in this way, so if you do not use all the features, they are hidden.

ROBOd: You said that mail and chat are "part of providing a full Internet experience". Yet, many futurists envision that we will use operating systems that boot from the Internet. Does this mean Opera is interested into *anything* which can "provide a full Internet experience" ?

Jon: Our focus is on the browser itself as an enabling technology and a few major applications on the side. We have no plans to provide operating systems, office applications or the like. However, you may well use browsing technology to achieve some of those. Already you can get your mail through webmail applications, for example, and that applies to a lot of other applications as well.

aroedl: What is your favourite operating system? Which OS are you using at the moment?

Jon: I like a lot of OS. I like Linux. I like MacOS and I am a big fan of some of the old OSs, such as QDOS (on the Sinclair QL), AmigaDOS and BeOS. I am currently running a dual-boot PC with Linux and Windows.

graste: What is the current status of the cross-browser plugin API alliance that you founded with mozilla, apple, sun and macromedia? Are there any results to be seen in the near future?

Jon: Yes. I believe all the parties are implementing support.

Joshtek: Are there any secret features or easter eggs in Opera that you don't think anybody knows of?

Jon: I am sure there are a lot of features people do not know about. Opera has a lot of features and I would like to urge you all to spend some time learning them as I believe it can be a real time saver. I do not believe we have much easter eggs in there. We need to keep the program size down...

fundawang: Q: How would you comment on the cooperation between Trolltech and Opera?

Jon: The cooperation is great! Troll Tech is is the same building and we build Opera on Linux for Qt and QTopia.

Indyan: - SirOpera has been expanding at a rapid pace.How many employees are working for opera currently?

Jon: We are about 250 at this time.

manxstar: Jon, you said you use Opera 8 for almost anything (browser, mail, ...). Do you get angry when stumble on a bug in Opera?

Regarding how many employees, also check out the party page: http://my.opera.com/community/party/

Jon: I hate bugs. I do take pride in finding them, though. I did mention that I love beta testing. That means I am always using beta versions and it is important to find the bugs before the final product leaves the building.

YtseJam: Will Opera continue its commitment to its BiDi users by providing the means to correctly display as best as possible BiDi content throughout the browser (mail, UI, rendering)?

Jon: BIDI is important. It is part of our philosophy to provide Opera on the user's terms. We will continue to strive for better support for BIDI and more and more languages.

Sietse: Are you aiming at making Opera fully W3C compliant to the standards set by the W3C consortium?

Jon: The W3C standards are very important to us and we will strive to be 100% compatible.

dohz: How do you respond to criticisms about Opera?

Jon: I try to find the core of the problem and fix it. Sometimes it is a question of people having different requirements. We then try to make it so that the user can tailor Opera to their needs.

Nixer: is Opera going to open local offices or something like that in countries where it's the most popular (Poland or Japan for example)?

Jon: Opera already has an office in Japan. We also have offices in the US, China, Sweden and Norway. Expect the list to get longer in the future.

Joshtek: Have you ever updated the Opera entry at Wikipedia?

Jon: No I have not worked on that entry.

Jeba: Q. strange question but how much Opera is optimized for people with physical disablity like partially blind, etc.

Jon: This is core to our values. Opera has, for example, support for full page zooming. When you add ERA, voice compatibility, single-key short cuts and the like, I am sure you see that we are doing a lot. We aim to do more, though.

magetoo: Do you see any danger in adding more features? It seems that what attracts many is the small size and the speed. Myself, I never bothered to upgrade from version 6, for example.

Jon: You really should upgrade to 8. The goal with 8 is to have a simple interface, where extra features are hidden. Opera 8 is a lot faster than 6. So, no I am not afraid of adding features. We aim to innovate. However, we aim to do that in a small package and you as a user should be able to choose which features you want to use in an easy way.

ScouseBR: Opera tried selling boxed copies in Japan. Should that be expected in other countries as well?

Jon: You can buy Opera in a lot of stores in the US as well...

yikes: How do you feel about big companies like google, not supporting opera one bit - gzip compression, gmail etc? Thanks

Jon: We are talking to Google and others and I am sure we will be seeing more Opera support from Google and other major companies in the future.

KimmoA: What does the Swedish office do, and where in Sweden is it located? I wanted to apply for work at Opera Software, but moving to Norway felt too unreal...

Jon: I think you will actually find Norway is a nice place... However, we also have offices in Linkøping and Gothenburg in Sweden. We do development in these offices.

Several people have asked about plug-in or extension support in Opera.

Jon: I think we have some lovely ways to add new functionality to Opera. User JS is one such way. I would like to encourange people to try it. Also, a lot of the extensions I have seen out there, seem to be copies of Opera functionality. I believe having things built in is a better way.

Joshtek: Why was it called Opera?

Jon: We spent a lot of time discussing the name. We wanted an international name that is easy to remember. We believe the Opera name works as independent of whether people like Opera music or not, everybody understands the amount of work that goes into making a good Opera. Later on we found out that Opera in fact means work, which makes it even more appropriate. Also, Opera is multimedia and so is the Web.

Words: Opera Mini is going down a storm with Palm and Palm-Phone users. Will there be an official Palm OS release?

Jon: Yes we noticed. :) We hadn't really tested much with PalmOS devices, but I guess we have to now. :)

raiXer: will there ever be a real useragent customization for every page instead the very limiting ua.ini? One that absolutely doesn't include Opera in the string.

Jon: ua.ini does allow you to hide the fact that you are using Opera. I would recommend, though, that you do the opposite! :)

dohz: It seems that we aren't hearing too many concrete details about future Opera version, couldn't you release just a little since it's such a special day?

There have been many questions regarding the the free registration today. To clarify: the registration key will not expire. It will not make you eligible for Premium support either, you have to pay for that.

Jon: You know, you do not want to peek into the packages before Christmas..

manxstar: Will there be a 64 bit version of Opera available any time soon?

Jon: We have it in the labs. This is really demand driven.

blurpy: What kind of project managment is used when developing Opera? (like RUP, MSF, XP)

Jon: I am afraid I cannot tell you too much there. :)

Stephan1: due to the "revival" of BeOS thru Zeta, will there be further development for this platform?

Jon: We will continue to evaluate what to do, but there are no current plans. There is a lot of requests for Opera on a lot of platforms and although the team is a lot bigger, we still have to make some tough choices.

Jon: Thanks a lot for all your questions! It has been great chatting with you! I am very happy so many have come here today and it is my promise that we will continue to work hard on providing you with an even better browser experience. Now, time for Håkon.... Bye! :)