Opera now Browser of 2 of the 3 next gen consoles

[az]

I have apparently been sleeping, but Opera will also be the PS3's browser of choice (and of course the Wii's). I don't think there's much chance of it becoming the Xbox's default browser

[TnT]

Congrats to them.

I think the strengths of the Gecko engine would make Firefox a poor choice for consoles.

[az]

Funny reasoning Don't you mean its weaknesses (despite the strengths it arguably has)?

[Jessterw]

I think it has more to do with Opera having a viable and reasonably stable embedded solution, whereas Mozilla (Firefox/Gecko) is lacking one (in terms of viability).

Has nothing to do with the rendering engines, which are pretty well on par with each other.

[MultimediaMan]

All is not well...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/19/opera_security_bug/

[az]

Bugs in old versions hardly count. This bug had been fixed in a new version before it became public.

[Jessterw]

Too bad no one views bugs in older versions of IE that way

Seriously though, there seems to be this attempt to equate number of bugs/flaws found with how secure software is, when, as any of us who code know, that simply isn't always the case. What's more important to look at is the speed in which those bugs are fixed and those fixes distributed to the end-users.

There's a problem that every developer knows about, and that's the impossibility of one to spot or find every flaw in one's own code. This applies even when there are multiple developers on a project, and it stems from the fact that when you stare at the same code day-in-and-day-out, you're bound to miss something. This is why security researchers and the like are so vital, as is responsible disclosure. Of course, this also highly depends on the willingness of the developer to fix the problem.

Microsoft has a horrible track record, and it only became worse when the people finding the bugs realized that MS was dragging its collective feet damn near every time. Opera has a good track record in that regard, and I don't imagine that will change.

But in the end there will always be bugs. Just the way it is.

[az]

Of course there will be, which is why one should always keep their connected software (OS, Browser, Mail Client, Winamp also just had a critical update released...) up to date, which is why bugs that are publicised after they've been fixed are much less dangerous. It's just different with IE because of its huge market share and thus its huge number of computer-illiterate users.

[Jessterw]

Yes. I was just trying to give some credit to Opera for being able to stay on-top-of their bugs, unlike a certain software powerhouse.

Not even Mozilla has as good a track record as Opera does, but they've still managed to keep even remotely dangerous flaws from lingering.

[TnT]

Bugs in old versions hardly count. This bug had been fixed in a new version before it became public.

What I was referring to is the Gecko engine being designed to be a platform. It's extensibility, not just the browser extensions, I think, makes it harder to be an efficient embedded browser. Firefox, Thunderbird, and other Mozilla apps are built from the same core engine. There are also many other apps that can be compiled to use parts of it, Eclipse for example.

[az]

Opera has no open API, but its mail client, chat client, torrent client, widget engine and newsreader all use the same core and rendering engine, and the same engine is used from Opera mini through Opera on devices like the DS, cellphones, to the desktop browser. I think Adobe use the rendering engine in some of their products. I'd call that a platform. Gecko is just not as efficient (though it is a little ahead of Opera's engine in terms of supported features).