Opera 8.02 Build 7668 BitTorrent Technical Preview

By shamodeyu
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

HoochieMamma

Posted
Posted
What is "BitTorrent Technology"?

586171404[/snapback]

Thats what I want to know aswell. Integrated Torrent client? :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+unabatedshagie Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

Whats the point in adding this, there are a few other things I can think of that would be better to add in that a BT client. Like a better download manager, a personal assistant calendar type add-on integrated in the mail client, html mail support,

*I can hear the FX fanboys now, too much bloat*

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

megamanXplosion

Posted
Posted
Whats the point in adding this, there are a few other things I can think of that would be better to add in that a BT client. Like a better download manager, a personal assistant calendar type add-on integrated in the mail client, html mail support,

*I can hear the FX fanboys now, too much bloat*

586172294[/snapback]

The "bittorrent client" is fairly transparent to the end user, it's a part of the download manager. It behaves similarly to a regular download. When you click on a torrent file, it warns you that you could be sharing this file with others. Once you've chosen to continue, it switches to the Transfers tab and the progress bar for the torrent shows "Checking files: 48.9%" etc. until it reaches 100%. Once the files have been checked, it starts the download like any other download. It is not a full-fledge bittorrent client, it just supports the bittorrent protocol.

Hence, it is an improvement to the download manager. Though, I do wonder, what is it that you don't like about the download manager? My only complaint is that it doesn't come with a "Clean Up" button by default, but that can be easily added. Have you made your suggestions known to Opera by posting on their forums?

As for the calendar idea, I would also like to have this. With all of the recent additions made to Opera (rendering engine almost passes acid2, start bar, instant skin switching, auto-updater, browser.js to fix broken sites, ua.ini to bypass sites that intentionally block Opera, security bar to prevent phishing attacks, etc.) - I'll be more than happy to wait a little while for them to develop a calendar. I don't think they've confirmed that they will add a calendar but it seems like a natural progression for the email client.

They are working on rich-text emails. Here is a chat session between Neeraj (community profile) and Jon S. von Tetzchner (CEO of Opera Software)...

Neeraj, USA:

Congratulations on a wonderful product that is Opera 8; and also for your successful swimming adventure. I suppose this will be a common question, but can we expect to see support for rich-text e-mail composing (notice I did not say HTML) any time soon? Thank you.

Jon S. von Tetzchner:

Thanks Neeraj. We are working on it. Regards, Jon

As for bittorrent support, I think it's a good idea. The current functionality is enough to make casual torrent users happy. And probably the more torrent-obsessed users as well because many like torrents but dislike the complexity of full-fledged bittorrent clients - torrents and simplicity never really combined until now.

I think that Opera has more planned for the bittorrent support though, it seems like a lot of work for such little benefit. I think (read: this is pure speculation) they might expand the bittorrent support to also help them distribute Opera updates. Remember when 8.0 Final was released? Woo! Their site was bogged down so bad that they disabled the forums for almost an entire day to help ease the load on their servers. It makes sense to use the bittorrent support for updating purposes. It is possible that they might expand even further than just updates (such as users helping eachother download skins, the voice libraries, etc.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+unabatedshagie Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted
The "bittorrent client" is fairly transparent to the end user, it's a part of the download manager. It behaves similarly to a regular download. When you click on a torrent file, it warns you that you could be sharing this file with others. Once you've chosen to continue, it switches to the Transfers tab and the progress bar for the torrent shows "Checking files: 48.9%" etc. until it reaches 100%. Once the files have been checked, it starts the download like any other download. It is not a full-fledge bittorrent client, it just supports the bittorrent protocol.

Hence, it is an improvement to the download manager. Though, I do wonder, what is it that you don't like about the download manager? My only complaint is that it doesn't come with a "Clean Up" button by default, but that can be easily added. Have you made your suggestions known to Opera by posting on their forums?

As for the calendar idea, I would also like to have this. With all of the recent additions made to Opera (rendering engine almost passes acid2, start bar, instant skin switching, auto-updater, browser.js to fix broken sites, ua.ini to bypass sites that intentionally block Opera, security bar to prevent phishing attacks, etc.) - I'll be more than happy to wait a little while for them to develop a calendar. I don't think they've confirmed that they will add a calendar but it seems like a natural progression for the email client.

They are working on rich-text emails. Here is a chat session between Neeraj (community profile) and Jon S. von Tetzchner (CEO of Opera Software)...

As for bittorrent support, I think it's a good idea. The current functionality is enough to make casual torrent users happy. And probably the more torrent-obsessed users as well because many like torrents but dislike the complexity of full-fledged bittorrent clients - torrents and simplicity never really combined until now.

I think that Opera has more planned for the bittorrent support though, it seems like a lot of work for such little benefit. I think (read: this is pure speculation) they might expand the bittorrent support to also help them distribute Opera updates. Remember when 8.0 Final was released? Woo! Their site was bogged down so bad that they disabled the forums for almost an entire day to help ease the load on their servers. It makes sense to use the bittorrent support for updating purposes. It is possible that they might expand even further than just updates (such as users helping eachother download skins, the voice libraries, etc.)

586172583[/snapback]

I'm on the opera forum almost every day (alex_p) and have responded to lots of threads in the wish list forum.

Really the only thing I would like to see added into the download manager is the ability to que downloads.

As for the cleanup button IMO there isn't really a need for it as opera is supposed o remov items from the list if they have been deleted/moved from where they were downloaded to.

Now that I have had time to think about it (and read your reply about the use of it to publish updates) the BT client could be a good idea. I would only use it for small things.

I know that they are working on rich text formatting, I just hope they hurry up and get it finished. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

kylejn

Posted
Posted

You know what'd be sorta cool? Having Bittorrent COMPLETELY integrated into the browser. For example, let's say that 1000 people were browsing CNN.com at the same time that you put in the URL and hit "enter." Rather than downloading all the data from CNN's servers, you could download a list from them of what the most recent updated files are and then download from the caches of all the other people browsing the page. It'd be faster, cheaper for CNN, and pretty damn cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

icecaveman

Posted
Posted
You know what'd be sorta cool? Having Bittorrent COMPLETELY integrated into the browser. For example, let's say that 1000 people were browsing CNN.com at the same time that you put in the URL and hit "enter." Rather than downloading all the data from CNN's servers, you could download a list from them of what the most recent updated files are and then download from the caches of all the other people browsing the page. It'd be faster, cheaper for CNN, and pretty damn cool.

586173205[/snapback]

yes and then for your online banking and credit card transactions :rofl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Litespeed

Posted
Posted
Whats the point in adding this, there are a few other things I can think of that would be better to add in that a BT client. Like a better download manager, a personal assistant calendar type add-on integrated in the mail client, html mail support,

*I can hear the FX fanboys now, too much bloat*

586172294[/snapback]

NTLM support would be top of my list. I don't know why they refuse to do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Litespeed

Posted
Posted
yes and then for your online banking and credit card transactions  :rofl:

586173230[/snapback]

Well, you would obviously disable it when hitting an HTTPS site.

And if your bank doesn't use SSL...... well, HAHHAHAHAHAHA! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mentor

Nathanael

Posted
Posted
Well, you would obviously disable it when hitting an HTTPS site.

And if your bank doesn't use SSL...... well, HAHHAHAHAHAHA!  :D

586173256[/snapback]

I'd love to browse neowin with your username ;) .

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Pink Floyd Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
Whats the point in adding this, there are a few other things I can think of that would be better to add in that a BT client. Like a better download manager, a personal assistant calendar type add-on integrated in the mail client, html mail support,

*I can hear the FX fanboys now, too much bloat*

586172294[/snapback]

if I can disable it without loading the client, then I have nothing to say

with firefox, Ioad only the extention I need, nothing else

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

megamanXplosion

Posted
Posted
if I can disable it without loading the client, then I have nothing to say

with firefox, Ioad only the extention I need, nothing else

586173599[/snapback]

They didn't integrate a bittorrent client, they simply added the protocol (like HTTP, FTP, etc.) There is no reason to disable it, the resource usage is virtually the same as previous versions and you would never know it handled bittorrent unless you clicked on a torrent file.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

TheTerminator

Posted
Posted
just wondering... why did you use maxthon instead of opera? (let's not start a religious war here ;))

586172245[/snapback]

Im not a big fanboy of any browser, I just want something easy to use with tabs and mous gestures. I did use Opera for a while, I loved it, but there was always the compatability issues on some sites. Id have to switch back to opening a IE window just to view one page, so annoying! So I heard of Maxthon, had the features of Opera I loved (tabs, mouse gestures), plus uses the IE engine so teh compatability was there. Im not super afraid of getting hacked/security crazy so Maxthon is the best browser for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grand Master

Pink Floyd Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
They didn't integrate a bittorrent client, they simply added the protocol (like HTTP, FTP, etc.) There is no reason to disable it, the resource usage is virtually the same as previous versions and you would never know it handled bittorrent unless you clicked on a torrent file.

586173990[/snapback]

so the file linked to the .torrent will be download in the download manager as if it was any other file?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Experienced

Help

Posted
Posted
just wondering... why did you use maxthon instead of opera? (let's not start a religious war here ;))

586172245[/snapback]

:no: Just because you can't live through tomorrow without Opera doesn't mean that others feel the same way about it... put a cork in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Veteran

megamanXplosion

Posted
Posted
so the file linked to the .torrent will be download in the download manager as if it was any other file?

586174318[/snapback]

Basically, yes. There are a few minor differences from normal downloading but they are so seamless that it wouldn't ever bother you. This is what happens when you click a torrent...

1. Once the torrent has been downloaded after you click on it (or File->Open it), Opera will warn you that you may be uploading the data to other users while you download - you can tell Opera to never warn you again so you'll likely only see this step one time.

2. Opera switches to the "Transfers" tab (or puts the transfers tab in the background, depending on how you have Opera configured) and shows a single progress bar for all of the files included in the torrent (I haven't tested any torrents with multiple files, that is simply what I've heard).

3. It shows inside of the progress bar "Checking File: [0-100]%" and when that reaches 100% it begins downloading the file like it were any other file.

It is very light-weight, simple, and unobtrusive. In fact, it's possible that after you disable the warning dialog that you won't even know you're downloading from torrent files anymore! :yes:

And before anyone runs around screaming about bloat: it only added 24kb to the total Opera installation, added virtually no increase in memory or CPU usage, and you will never see it if you never click-on or open a torrent file. There is no bloat at all, it was integrated very nicely ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.