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Comments on: Opera tries to Unite users across browsers

You wouldn't know it by eyeballing most of the latest browser news, but there is more to browsers than JavaScript speed. Opera's new Unite turns your browser into a Web server. Cloud, meet your client competition.

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by optimistbelle June 16, 2009 7:33 PM PDT: Interesting! I would give it a try...but is there any advantage to using opera unite over Tonido.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Hunnter2k3 June 17, 2009 4:33 AM PDT: Me and a friend were testing it out the other night there, such a fantastic tool and i hope it gets bigger.

Also that was a little strange that you mention the media player not working with Chrome, it works for me.
I love how the media continues to play as you browse back a page to the albums.
But, they need to move the media player out to the side so i know what is actually playing, i never paid attention to what album i was in and it took me a few seconds to go back through them to find the one i had playing.

There are a few bugs around the edges, and UPnP seems to be popping up often in the forums as a problem.
Should hopefully be fixed in the near future.

One thing about the Web Server though, it is for static based pages.
There was a discussion on if support could be added in for server-side processing languages, but apparently since Unite is essentially an advanced widget with more permissions, it would still take a lot of effort to add such things in. (from one of the devs)
Some were suggesting redirecting a URL to another web server you have running.; Like this Reply to this comment


by LoudHeart June 17, 2009 4:50 AM PDT: Seth Rosenblatt,

There is a typo in "When you customize a password, it can contain pnly alphanumeric characters--no exclamation points allowed." at the word "pnly" under the Lounge section.; Like this Reply to this comment


by srosenblatt June 17, 2009 10:58 AM PDT: @LoudHeart: Thanks for catching that typo!

@Hunnter2k3: I agree that there's lots of potential here, but I'm not sure that this is where browser usage is going. Still, all it would take would be one killer app. If Opera or an outside developer came up with a media streamer that could compete with services like SimplifyMedia, there would be potential for a lot more attention.

As much as I enjoy using Opera, though, I have to wonder why it's STILL not open-source. Right now, I think it'll need a big change like that to remain competitive, and I'm not sure that Unite will be enough.; Like this Reply to this comment


by riellwood June 17, 2009 3:46 PM PDT: Interesting, and it sounds like they're trying to be innovative and reach onto new ground, which I appreciate. However, I question if having services like this integrated into the browser is really such a great idea. I'm worried that this'll just lead to bloat, kind of what happened with Netscape where they threw every conceivable tool in that they could think of. I rather like the idea that when you download a browser, you're getting just a browser, and that this ought to be a separate server program that you can install if you wish.; Like this Reply to this comment

by hlampert June 20, 2009 7:47 AM PDT

If you want to host web pages, run Apache and Tomcat. Browsers should just be browsers. Or maybe we should integrate Opera into the operating system as well so that I can browse my file system with it. (Can you say Internet Explorer?)

Like this Reply to this comment


by Jkirk3279 June 20, 2009 9:07 AM PDT: Of course, Mac OS X has had a built in copy of Apache for... eight years?

But it's great that PC users get the chance to try this. Although I'd worry about privilege escalation.; Like this