Opera Unite: a cloud-based promise to 'reinvent the web,' again
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 16th 2009 3:57AM
posted Jun 16th 2009 3:57AM
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- File sharing -- securely share files direct from your computer
- Web server -- turns your home computer into a web server via Opera Unite URL
- Media player -- direct link to your music collection from any web browser
- Photo sharing -- shares your image library over the web without requiring a photo service
- Lounge -- self-contained chat service running on your computer
- Fridge -- a place where friends and family can post notes
Read -- Download
Read -- Opera Unite press release
Finally the call is out! Opera users, unite! Overthrow the ranks of the FF users!
Wait, that's not what this is? More social networking?
I have no hope to Opera after they claimed IE removed from Windows is not enough...
Plus, I am suprised that Opera news would make to Engadget.
Boycott Opera!!!
Microsoft pre-emptively decided to remove IE from Windows, probably exactly to make it seem ridiculous. Neither Opera nor EU required them to do that (and there are other, non-idiotic solutions to this problem - discussed elsewhere).
this idea isn't new, but i have to admit, the concept is brilliant.
1000000009.3 points to opera and norway alike!!!!
@Kit : Why would you say something like that ? it's not even remotely close to the truth !
Opera said is was NOT enough, plus the EU never asked microsoft to do so, and they still have to give their ruling on the matter.
That said it's brilliant.
The internet is being wasted with all this crap social networking.
Is this where the MS fanboys come to blame Opera for Microsoft's atrocious behavior in the 90s and earlier this decade? Somehow I get the feel from their posts that they weren't even alive back in those days.
I hope EU chop up these apps in separate unit made available only by snail mail.
This is a great idea. I would definitely use the file sharing and media features. It is nice to see browsers differentiating themselves from each other with really compelling features, though sometimes I wish they were all open sourced and combined into one standard browser. It would make programming web pages much less time-consuming.
That's what web standards are supposed to be for. I can think of only one browser that doesn't even try to keep up with them...
@ andir:
Yeah but even Opera and Gecko, Webkit, KHTML have rendering differences. They are generally small issues but can be annoying.
Won't you be using Opera's servers?
Opera's servers serve the URLs, but all the page content is generated by the local instance of Opera Unite (i think). If you look closely, you will see that the protocol used is unite://, not http://.
Wow, seems pretty cool, thanks!
Yes.
I bet you $5 that Mozilla, Apple and Google will do the same idea and win all the love, and when Microsoft brings it out (just like all the others), Opera will suck EU's nuts and the money-whores at EU will sue, you know, to provide the best solutions for the consumer...
Call me crazy, but we live in a crazy world nowadays.
EU #1 rule:
Do not allow Microsoft to advance and/or provide built-in free features to its customers, never. (And the sheep follow)
Wow, way to take things out of context. That's not nearly what has happened. Research Fail, Second-Hand information Win.
Derry, way to read my comment the wrong way.
I wasn't talking about what happened 10 years ago! I'm talking about what will happen next, based on what happened in the past 3 years.
Except that Opera Software is a Norwegian company (Norway is not a part of the EU).
Dunno, but I think membership is key to getting EU backing..
Ah yes, failcomment on my part, sorry dude! I agree on the nut-sucking part in any case :D
The foul smelling toads need to be carted off back to the swamp! you know who I mean :P.
Coming soon to a courtroom near you....
EU punishes Microsoft for bundling Windows Media Streaming with Windows 7.
Opera Unite does look like a nice product that I would be interested in, but I have a bit of a fould taste in my mouth right now from them adn I will wait for some of the exploits to appear and be patched.
"EU finds Microsoft guilty of abusing their power to create a monopoly by bundling GUI, GUI-Free Windows 8 will ship to EU countries next fall"
Opera and the EU’s position is very simple – to stop Microsoft using its operating system monopoly to gain market share in other markets they want a ballot selection screen so upon first use the user selects which browsers they want installed. As long as there’s no default option this would be a perfect solution since no browser would have an unfair advantage. The only things I’d say are that:
1) In the interests of fair competition this should apply to every operating system, not just Windows.
2) This ballot system shouldn’t just be done for the web browser but to every other application (media player, email client, chat client etc) that is not an operating system component.
So what do you find objectionable about the EU’s ballot system suggestion? Do you really hate fair competition that much?
I pretty much agree Richard, it should apply to every OS and device sold in the EU for fairness.
Also when you install a browser such as Opera, you should get a similar choice of search engines to choose from, this would scupper Opera's deal with Google, but be fairer.
Richard - By your logic BMW should have a ballot to decide who consumers buy their headlights, steering wheel, hub caps, etc from when purchasing a car. Makes no sense.
sfotoord, your reasoning is flawed for two reasons:
1) No car manufacturer has a monopoly so therefore no single manufacturer can force a particular product or technology on the market. There is therefore no need for government intervention to ensure fair competition since the market is working fine.
2) Headlights, steering wheel, hub caps are components of a car while a browser, media player and IM software and email clients are not components of an operating system - they are applications. If we imagine BMW had a monopoly on the car market then bundling IE with Windows is analogous to BMW bundling one of their motorbikes with each of their cars. BMW would be abusing their car monopoly to take over the motorcycle market. This is exactly the sort of thing Microsoft has done with various applications and is why a ballot system is necessary to ensure fair competition.
Pedro, you can change the default search to anything you want in Opera. In fact when you open the thumbnail speed dial page the search on there is ask.com I believe. Opera doesn't have a monopoly so they don't have to follow the same rules as Microsoft.
@Richard:
Following your logic, no company is allowed to become big or powerful in what they do best! It's like Microsoft is not allowed to offer ease of use and simple access for their customers to basic services!!
If Microsoft was bundling something that has nothing to do with software, say, a free "Microsoft Energy Drink" then in that case there should be something really wrong about such act, but when MS bundles a software such as a movie maker "software" to make their consumers' life easier then I see no harm in this whatsoever, just like how Apple screwed the shit out of developers when they decided to bundle a screen casting features in Quicktime X.
The biggest proof to my logic would be FireFox; although not bundled, it is gaining market share like crazy, without running around and crying like a little bitch about competition fairness or some decade old Monopoly cases! If you are good enough in offering something better than what MS is offering then you will win, but using this stupid Monopoly term on any single code that MS attaches to "THEIR OWN FREAKING OS" is baby-cry business, and is only hurting the consumer, along with the company whose employees will lose jobs and interest in general.
Why wont anyone sue Google for using their "Web Search" Monopoly to shift people to their Gmail service? Or a better one, using their Monopoly over YouTube to shift people to use Chrome?! I really don't see a difference, and don't say it's free, because we all know how much billions is that making for Google, and if you incest that it has to do with it being free, then MS is also offering IE for free in their OS hence no change price for the European version of Windows.
Unfair competition is what weak people use to explain their bad strategies and products.
K, I know that you can change the default search engine in Opera, just as you can download a different browser in Windows. It is basically the same thing.
They should however offer you a bunch of choices when you first install Opera. However this would end their lucrative deal with Google.
pedro, couldn't agree more with you.
These little babies at Opera would never offer such option, damn hypocrites. The money from Google is not covering all expanses, so they go to the money-sucking machines at EU to sue MS.
Sure thing Saad.... when I can install DirectX 10 on my Linux machine so I can play Games on any OS I like instead of being forced to play on an MS system... then I'll stop talking about Monopoly abuse. Your comparisons are straw-man arguments. Applications are not an integral part of the OS. Richard had it right when he compared it to giving away motorcycles to boost their market in bikes by abusing their monopoly on cars. You can say DX is integral to the OS, like headlights are integral to a car, but if I wanted to, I could take BMW headlights and put them on a Toyota without BMW suing me to bankruptcy.
The REAL reason Firefox is taking off is because it was able to provide a better user experience. Something that Microsoft failed at, BECAUSE they had a monopoly. There was no reason for them to change IE because everyone programmed around it... because MS was the big dog that practically everyone had. Now users have to go through an extra step to install Firefox and it gives MS the advantage of upgrading IE before it gets out of hand. FYI, even with FF taking of, the last numbers I saw leave it below 50% still. Clearly people don't download it as much as you like to think. So now MS just has to make IE8 work "well enough" for most users and they will likely not download FF on their new PC. MS still wins in this scenario even though the consumer loses choice.
You CANNOT compete with Windows on the PC market. Period. End of story. This is BAD for consumers. You are so blinded by Microsoft fanaticism that you can't see this, or you are being paid to ignore it.
Wow, talk about blown references. First, the automotive equivalent would be more like oil or tires being forced on you as your only option. When it's time to change the oil, and you are told that you can ONLY use a certain brand (among other specs), then you could be in violation. Well, you would be if you threatened that warranty claims would be denied (or that the warranty is void) because of the Magnusson-Moss Act in the US specifically precludes this type of behavior. In addition, you would need one auto maker to hold more than 50% of the market in question anyway.
As for the Direct X comment, do you expect MS to produce something and give it away for another OS? Really? What if they told you you that can by DX10, right now, for the low cost of $180 at NewEgg? Let's call it, oh, I don't know, how about Vista Ultimate? In addition to DX10, you get all kinds of other stuff thrown in until another monopoly ruling comes into play. Whatever.
I like how IE8 now prompts for which search engine to use, along with other options during setup. However, the only people that use this (and understand it) are the ones that read blogs like this. Well, guess what; we're the minority of PC users. Shocking! At least you can escape out of it and just start using the web, but if this "ballot" thing continues for other systems, then I suspect the 1st position of the options will be used most, and then companies will start complaining that it needs to be randomized or rotated amongst all the options. Wait, that's insane, that would never happen. Right?
Andir3.0 has the right idea. Poor arguments, but right idea.
If I went through it Microsoft's way, I'd install Windows and have IE without necessarily choosing it. Many people do not install alternative browsers, so IE would have a dominant share of the market in browsers because its made by the same people that make Windows (which has a dominant share of the desktop market), not because users choose to use it. Opera's argument is not that users should get a choice on boot, but that removing IE and installing an alternative browser should be easier. Even though you can remove IE, it is a difficult process for non-experts that involves a panel about removing "Windows Components", which is something of a deterrent to most users. Microsoft needs to take sensible action to make these options clear and not scary, so that even non-expert users feel comfortable with it.
This is about creating a level playing field. Keep that in mind, and things make much more sense; that feeling's called understanding.
@Andir 3.0: "You CANNOT compete with Windows on the PC market. Period. End of story."
So you cannot buy a PC installed with some Linux variant? Or you can't buy a Mac if you wanted to? I don't know what country you are from, but in my country, we have plenty of computer choices if we do not want Windows on our system. So Apple is not competing with Microsoft at all? They're just selling their OS and computer for the fun of it? Your argument does not make sense.
You know, 5 years ago M$ included a "free" backup utility within XP that allowed complete backup of the system. Shortly before Vista dropped, that feature disappeared out of the XP updates and distributions - now you can only get "free bundled complete system backup" with Vista, which requires an NTFS volume to back up onto (just an added pain...)
You can still find the old utility from "the usual sources", but it is now out of date - requiring a floppy drive to boot your system recovery volume... rather than perform a tweak update to the XP feature, they just made the feature disappear. Way to win my love, bloodsuckers.
I'm more excited about the Youtube video's new classy toolbar.
Speaking of classy... the buttons Opera uses are absolutely fabulous. The design is pretty nice but tell me something... how come they can design a nice looking interface and buttons but keep that stupid fucking Opera retro icon by default??? It isn't even centered in my Windows 7 superbar.. it's the little things that count. And what about add-ons? Where are my add-ons? Widgets you say? Fuck Widgets!! I want my Firefox equivalent add-ons not some stupid OS X knock-off widgets... Unite, you say? Unite your fucking brains and step up your game in the market share! And maybe then I'll switch...
Speaking of classy idiots (looking at) I suggest them to eat homemade paper..
@liv:
So you're one of those 'sheep' I keep hearing about?
Only willing to use software that everybody else uses just because you have no real opinion and probably no free mind.
I couldn't care less if Opera has a low marketshare.. the peeps that used Firefox when it first came out (before the hype) are the same ones who have now ditched it and use Opera for the features and speed.
It just takes a while before Opera is the new Firefox, and by then, 'we' will have found a better browser/solution, leaving you, and the other 'sheep' behind again.
Good night Liv'
Sheep, you say?
I've been using Opera for far longer than you've actually heard of it, sea monkey!
When Firefox came out and later grew in popularity, I ditched it because I wanted something different: a web browser that is fast and extremely expandable. And I got what I needed. Now I dunno about you, but us peps in the civilized world use fiberlink connections to browse the Internet. That means that even though Opera could be faster than Fifrefox on any benchmark you might choose, the difference in browsing speed is not noticeably bothering. So I can sacrifice a little boost in speed for expandability. For ADD-ONS. More exactly: twitter bar, Digg This!, AdBlock +, Down them all, Glasser, Greasemonkey, Delicious and all the other amazing add-ons that make my life so damn simple in the Cloud. That and the fact that Firefox 3.5 will be much faster than the actual stable version so the gap in browser speed is closing down.
Now I don't give a rat's ass if you think that I'm using browsers because of their market share. If it were the case.... I'd be using Internet Explorer right now...
And FYI... I'm actually posting from Opera as we speak. Unite is a great feature... I'm hosting my own mini-server as we speak. I did not mean to bash anyone or suggest that people should use browsers in the order of their market share importance... just a little advice (rant) that if Opera wants to gain significance and wider spread use, they should focus on expandability and not media sharing. Opera is innovative as it is... but just not enough...Stop being a troll and STFU. I'm not attacking your favorite browser or anything...
interesting
if it ain't broken, don't reinvent it
Your avatar is the worst photoshop ive ever seen.
paint not photoshop.
Yep, it's a paint.
And it's also the worst paint i have ever seen, i'm too lazy to put any serious effort into an avatar :P
I'll try it because I am curious but a the moment I use Weezo for all my family sharing needs.
Wow, I went to the Weezo homepage and was immediately turned off by this, "Remotely access to you computer
and to it's content". I don't trust websites with bad grammar. Especially when it's written real big on the homepage.
-heath
I just went to check out the horrendous grammar and couldn't find it anywhere. I guess they saw your comment and corrected it presto :)
It remains a good little product though even if their English is a little bit random. If I'm not mistaken they are French.
Glorified web server running on your PC. Not impressed.
A web server is nothing new. A simple web server that ordinary non engadget-type users would be comfortable using, THAT is something new
@Romesh
And who would they be? The trolls or the f***tards or both, neither present knowledge, skill or the ability to read that would let them run a server.
There is the odd person here and there on engadget who is competent.
The rest just trawl for news they don't want to read and then write FUD about it or abuse people who do want to because they make choices.
And not permitted by ISPs far and wide on ordinary user accounts - need a "business" account to have your own server accessible.
@Freakin
It's against the terms of use, not blocked.
Furthermore, more and more ISPs are starting to or have always inluded specific language that only considers it against the ToU if you are hosting something on behalf of an organization, and personal non-profit use is fine.(Provided you abide by any other bandwidth restrictions on your line) Devices like Windows home server and other advanced NAS devices are making personal content hosting more and more mainstream.
Some ISPs actually block it...
But if you want a dead simple web server, there are tons of options, BabyWeb comes to mind.
looks pretty cool. i haven't used Opera much before, but i might now. there's probably a Firefox extension that does something similar, but i wonder if it would be as good.
You think "there WILL be firefox extension that does something similar" like all the other stuff that Opera had first...
Im liking it so far. I think the idea has potential for sure.
I know a good service they need in there.. ScreenSharing with friends or just with yourself. then so long as your browser is open you can access your computer. Please extend on the idea.....
And this is why Opera is still important. They provide you with features that others browsers will have years later...and they still manage to use less resources than most other browsers.
When I can get 4GB of ram for $10/GB I don't think resources is as huge an argument as it once was. Sure firefox has leaks that makes it use ~250mb of memory after leaving it on all day, but my system is nowhere near being taxed.
I'm an Opera user and I don't see much difference in resources consumed
It's only been out for an hour and a half, and I've already downloaded porn with it. I call it an instant success.
It took you an hour and a half to download porn on the internet? I don't care if you're using your cell phone's browser, anything over 30 seconds is pathetic.
@utahnkid
Yeah, because he obviously meant just the one piece.
*facepalm*
I am impressed so far. I share stuff all the time, this lets people download my files by themselves, with easy options...
Just be warned that if it can't open a UPNP port on your router it routes all requests through the Opera servers with no encryption. So file names/contents are exposed to their system. Expect a demand for a content filter to occur sometime after launch.
about the security, I read this on the unite site:
"Securely share a file from your personal computer without waiting to upload it. First select the folder from which you would like to share files. Opera Unite then generates a direct URL to that folder. By giving that link to your friends, you can share files without routing through a third-party Web service."
Can this considered secure? I kinda have some doubts about it...
It does let you set a password for sharing, but that is transmitted in plain text over the relay link, so while it should keep third parties out people shouldn't expect it to keep Opera out if they need to get in.
This is a hacker's dream. It requires users to leave their computers open to all sorts of attacks, opening up all those different access points, for file sharing, chatting, and so on. I think this will take off but not via Opera. Wait until Mozilla or (dare I say it) Microsoft rip off the idea and then bring it to the masses.
Microsoft MSN Live Shareit Browser(tm) coming soon (with less features and more security holes).
Well, this has the potential to really piss off ISPs everywhere, who have long fought against people turning their home systems into webservers, p2p machines, etc.
That being said, I LIKE IT! Too bad it wasn't FF or Google putting this out, or the revolution could begin sooner rather than later. People aren't going to flock to Opera just for these new tools.
So sharing your whole music collection on the web and browser accessible huh? Sounds great for a mobile browser. Wonder which ones will work.
This is awesome.
Opera does it again!
Only as a backup if your router doesn't allow direct connections and doesn't support UPnP (AFAIK that's the same thing Skype does with file transfers).
Seems like Opera still doesn't get it. These kinds of services are great, innovative and promising, but only if they are truly cross-platform, not in the way that Opera itself is cross-platform, but in the way that Engadget is cross-platform. These things shouldn't be browser-bound and should be built on open standards if they are to succeed on the long run...
Just as well it IS cross-browser then. You can access it from any browser, on any platform, even mobile browsers in the future. And host from any opera platform browser as well.
I do not see the problem. The Opera Unite service should run on the server, but any browser seems to be able to visit your unite page.
Basically the service isn't particularly innovative. A program like orb is doing the same for ages by now.
It's great, but then I use opera anyway.
If we can share warez, it will be successfull.
Great, now my users can flick a switch and share out the internal corporate network by accident. I can only hope that no other browser manufacturer will incorporate a feature as stupid as this.
Well, not quite. They have to navigate to the directory that holds your information. Then make it public, as it defaults to the URL share. That takes some intent. Nothing's stopping them from doing that much right now, if they have access to the internet at all.
What's stopping them currently is blocking the use of P2P applications.
P2P isn't the only way to leak information onto the Internet.
Then block Opera, or block Unite specific IPs from going out. There has to be some kind of way to block access to Unite servers, or force users to use an older version of Opera or just Firefox.
In order to accidentally use this feature you have to first go register an account by mistake, then you have to accidentally sign into it, then you have to mistakenly turn unite on, then you have to accidentally configure it and then start the sharing services by accident...
You get my point.
Haven't used Opera since.. well YEARS ago.. but I gotta say I love this concept. I think the implementation needs some work, and considering it's still in beta I can't take off too many points for that, but overall this is a fantastic idea. I've had broadband for years and always thought it was far too complicated to use the connection how I really wanted. I mean I have the bandwidth, why can't I use it? Why do I have to set up a complex server just to host a website or some files? Why do I have to wait and go through the trouble of uploading my files if my own connection (I'm already paying good money for) has a decent upload rate?
I've gone from not caring at all, to being a huge fan of Opera. Good job guys, keep it up. If you can make this big (by simply focusing on the product itself, not wasting money on advertising like Micro$oft) I really do believe it will change the way we use the internet.
ah...europeans....
That AlexOslo guy must be Stephen Fry son.
Is it... the Wave of Opera?
That's what I was thinking
From an end-user perspective, I don't like it because if gives people direct access to your PC and (presumably) the only copy of the content.
I much prefer uploading content that I want to share with other people to cloud services like Google Docs, SkyDrive, Live Mesh or Flickr and target my sharing from there.
From a corporate perspective, I'm going to research is there are any blocking that we can put in place to avoid Opera Unite from working properly (Looks like blocking port 8840 will do it, I'll have to figure out the opera intermediary system used to get around around port blocking). This is something that could potentially lead to confidential information getting out. At least Opera doesn't pull a Google Chrome and install itself in the Documents and Settings(WinXP)/Users(Vista/7) area of Windows where no other permissions than User is necessary.
You give unite permission to a particular folder and then put all the content you want to share in that folder. I do however agree that from a corporate perspective that the service could cause problems. Also their terms state that they aquire copyright of everything that passes through their service which is not good for corporate use either. I was hoping to use it as an easy way to share my photos with other members of the company or clients but their is no way they can have copyright to them. Surely it would be a good idea to charge a subscription to use this without the copyright terms?
@ coolblue: Wow, is that really true that Opera could copyright all your own stuff (photos, reports, etc.)? That seems like a major deal breaker to me.
From the TOS:
"by submitting User Generated Content to us, you grant us and our affiliates the right and limited license to use, copy, display, perform, distribute and adapt this User Generated Content for the purpose of carrying out the Services."
I'm not sure why performing, displaying and adapting the content is considered necessary to carry out the service.
Cloud != web
mesh re-implemented?
Not this crap again.
I guess "cloud" is the new, completely misused, IT word this year. Good thing only about 20 people actually use opera.