I don't know how they achieve it, but this Quartz website works perfectly in Lynx, yet all I get in Chrome is a blank screen and a loading spinner.<p>Sorry for being off topic, but it infuriates me when people screw up the web this much.
I really wish Opera was more popular. It's a really good browser and helps to drive the open web, which is ironic since it's closed source.<p>I use it nearly every day, and it's really annoying how some major websites (<i>cough</i> Google Apps) don't support it. It is very competitive on html5test.com (beats out Firefox) and works really well for everyday browsing.<p>You don't have to be socialist to use Opera...
summary: People in Belarus saved money when they used Opera's features to "strip out images and other bandwidth-gobbling web extras" due to the way the state telco billed them.
Disclaimer: Long time Opera user and probably an Opera browser fan.<p>I have been using Opera since its "ad-supported" days. It was bundled with one of those PC magazines that gave out free software/shareware for the bandwidth challenged in those days and fell in love instantly. Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there up to this day, and I still find things to configure and customise to this day (now on Opera 12.10). Opera also provides the user with an option to install itself as a portable version which I found very cool. It is also very light on PC resources (YMMV -- anecdata)<p>I also find it very annoying that a looot of websites do not support this browser.... at all despite its being on par (if not better) in most if not all browser tests (I heard they lagged behind on the most recent ones).<p>Opera Mini is blazingly fast on not-so-smartphones (used it on the Nokia ASHA series) and Android smartphones as well (anecdata -- my experience). It beats out Nokia's own browser which incidentally has adopted the "Turbo" architecture for its own browsers.<p>IMO the article does great disservice to Opera's technical/technological advanced capabilities by ingnoring all of those and solely focussing the article around socialism and dictatorship and internet speeds ( [almost] creating a straw-man in the process). Booo!
I remember using opera mini on my blackberry and 2G tmobile connection in NYC a few years ago. It was definitely the best thing on BB, and I remember it worked amazingly well.<p>And for those wondering about Opera's business model, see here [1].<p>[1] - <a href="http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2011/01/03/how-does-opera-make-money-aka-our-most-asked-question-ever" rel="nofollow">http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/2011/01/03/how-does-ope...</a>
I wrote comments on this topic several times and I think the reason why Opera is popular in Centra/Eastern Europe is quite simple. I'll rewrite it once again:<p>It was the best browser out there for a long time without a doubt. While in west people used IE since it was free, people in east didn't care whether software is paid or not, they just used cracked versions[sidenote 1]. If copy of Office was about as expensive as your monthly income, it's understandable. So it was normal there, and not really frowned upon. Even when FF came out, the Opera was much better[sidenote 2]. But Firefox erupted in the west and as it evolved it found its way to the east. Opera stayed popular in many countries because a) it was still great b) people were used to it c) it still spread by a word of mouth. But as the "Internet" hit new generations, Firefox slowly took over. Fast forward to Chrome and its never ending multi-billion campaign. Ads in TV, radio. Billboards and posters all over the place. Banners (or even feature blocking) on most visited sites out there (<i>.google.com/</i>, youtube.com, ...). All that with comeback of ie5+ only sites (now for chrome of course) meant that Opera's user base slowly evaporates.<p>It's quite sad really, especially when I see it here on HN since Chrome is dumb-dumb browser meant for people who use the Internet for the first time while Opera is probably the most configurable, hackable and feature-full browser out there. Not better (when you consider the extensibility of FF/Chrome) but one would think it would appeal to "hackers".<p>PS: Of course the "turbo" aspect played its role but I think it was just a side thin on desktop.<p>PPS: Firefox had unreasonable amount of money in advertising as well, but I think it mostly hurt IE, not Opera.<p>sidenote 1: Cracked software meant an easy way to spread viruses. One of the biggest/best antivirus vendors that still exists are from that place and era (Avast, AVG, ESET, Kaspersky).<p>sidenote 2: If Opera had become free before Firefox was released, I think it would have dominated the west market as well (at that time at least).
My problem with Opera was (when I tried it once more, 2-3 years ago) is that it get really slow with many open tabs ( > 20) I frequently have 50 or more open tabs and the only browser that handles is well is Firefox.