There are a lot of Opera fans that think I don't like Opera (or worse, that I want to see them fail.) That's just not the case.
I hope that Opera continues to improve and to become more acceptable to regular people. I hope they can move beyond the niche space they occupy today and take some serious market share away from Internet Explorer. Toward that goal, I've offered what I consider to be constructive criticism and have been pleasantly surprised that nearly all of my concerns have been resolved and my suggestions adopted. From the radical simplification of the user interface to the change from adware to freeware, Opera is making the best moves possible, as I see it, in winning over a broader audience. I think this is good.
Today I read, that the CEO of Opera wants Opera to become #2. "Our goal is to become the number two browser," he said, as part of the press roll-out around this new "free" message they're pushing.
I've always been partial to the #1 spot and have always believed that's where we're headed with Firefox. I wish Opera all the success in the world at achieving their goal and will be happy to see them achieve that #2 browser spot -- right behind Firefox :-)
