Opera Mail is abandonware, right?
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blackbird71 last edited byIt's not abandonware, though you probably fully knew that when you posted. Opera Mail came to be as a way to provide Blink Opera users an eMail client (if they needed one), since Opera elected not to include such a client in their new browser. It's essentially the same code-base that was included originally in Presto Opera versions... and, in reality, there's actually no problem for those migrating from Presto Opera to instead simply keep on using the client built into that Opera version, since the Presto version is not removed by installing the Blink version. As far as "spending all that effort creating something", I seriously doubt it was all that complicated for Opera to prune Presto Opera browser code so as to leave only the eMail portion functional.
As Opera has said many times over the past couple of years as this all unfolded, Presto development of Opera's browser has ceased, and that almost certainly includes further development of features in the Opera Mail program as well. But since Opera is still maintaining their legal ownership of Presto code, treating Opera Mail as true abandonware might be an excellent way to become much better-acquainted with Opera ASA's legal team.
Markets being what they are, there just might be some reasons why not much development effort is being expended on eMail client programs by Opera (or Mozilla or Google or anybody else, for that matter). Namely, there's not much financial incentive or leverage in it any more... especially with so many users employing webmail today. Personally, I prefer and use an eMail client program rather than webmail - but I fully realize my preferences aren't what the majority now do.
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stng last edited by
Opera Mail (as an separate application) is a dead born abandoned product. No updates since 2013.
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loxiw last edited by
It's really sad they dropped Mail support, it was definitely one of the key features of the old Opera.
People defending the feature drop says "today users prefer to use web-based mails", of course they do, they DON'T HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE. A desktop mail client is just a pain and definitely a different concept, you got to install it, run it every time you want to check it, and also they use to be not usables and ugly. So you won't use it unless you are constantly receiving mails from multiple accounts (work or whatever).
Opera Mail was a real alternative to web-based mails, you got your mail client always there, hidden but active, you'll be noticed if any mail arrives, if you wanna access its way more easier to do it than going to gmail and it was CLEAN, it gave you exactly what you wanted with 4-5 customizing options, plus you got it linked to the "mailto:" so you didn't have to worry about that either.
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blackbird71 last edited by
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People defending the feature drop says "today users prefer to use web-based mails", of course they do,
they DON'T HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE.They DID have alternatives... and they failed to use them. The software landscape is littered with a wide variety of different eMail client programs and design concepts that have nearly all gone extinct. And I write that as a strong advocate of eMail client programs. I come from the era of Outlook Express, Pegasus, Thunderbird, PocoMail, Opera Browser, and a host of others... of which only Thunderbird (and perhaps a very few others) is still in active development today. In every case, development ceased simply because broad demand dropped away. The reason demand fell away was the hordes of users caught up in their infatuation with all things "cloud"... and very few programmers will labor away in the trenches developing products that most folks no longer use. If eMail clients were as popular as browsers, there would be as many choices today.
Just because you, I, or a handful of others might see the advantages or greater security in using a particular kind of program, or perhaps who see the benefits of including one in a browser, does not a viable market make. Eventually unchosen options quietly disappear from the market place, and only a handful of survivors remain.
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loxiw last edited by
As I said Outlook, Thunderbird, Pegasus... were never an alternative to web-mails, they are different and aim for different objectives. I strongly believe that if IE/Chrome/Firefox (the mainstream browsers worldwide) had integrated an Opera Mail this would be completely different
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geordiesam last edited by
After many happy years with opera 12 with integrated mail I took the new opera 26 and separate mail client as a bit of a strange move by Opera.
So far the main problem for me is that all my imported emails are in plain text with hyper links scattered all over the them. New incoming mail is the same.
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lando242 last edited by
a bit of a strange move by Opera.
The old rendering engine was too much of a burden to maintain by such a small development team in addition to improving the UI and features of the browser. They simply don't have the resources of Google or Microsoft. So they had to drop the old browser and start from scratch. Nothing was compatible so nothing was transfered over. Most of the features that were "removed" were simply not recreated for the new browser because so few people used them compared with the amount of work that would have taken to reprogram them. Mail clients are a dieing breed. Mouse gestures were also very niche. Same deal with the sidebar. The only reason bookmarks returned was because of the huge outcry that sprang up over them vs 'the stash.' Of course as soon as the stash was replaced there was an outcry over that too. Heck, theres even a ton of people crying about Bing, which is a mediocre website, not being a default search engine anymore. You can't please everyone.
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blackbird71 last edited by
As I said Outlook, Thunderbird, Pegasus... were never an alternative to web-mails, they are different and aim for different objectives. I strongly believe that if IE/Chrome/Firefox (the mainstream browsers worldwide) had integrated an Opera Mail this would be completely different
And my point is that all the mail clients predated webmail. Back in that era, such clients were the way you sent/received your eMail. In that bygone era, Opera decided to integrate a web browser and eMail client so that users didn't need two separate programs and could send/receive mail without leaving their browser - that offered some advantages, as you've noted. When webmail became more broadly accepted as actually being dependable and useful, it became a full alternative to handling eMail compared with downloading messages to an eMail client, built-in or stand-alone. Then, as web-mail increasingly caught on and became a trend among large numbers of users, the challenge for client software designers evolved into how to keep client software relevant, since so many users were migrating to, and becoming increasingly dependent on, direct webmail access on multiple devices, fixed and portable.
I recognize you're pointing at the distinctions between a built-in client like was in old Opera versus the stand-alone clients like Pegasus, etc. But from a more compelling perspective that takes into account the realities of the marketplace, a built-in mail client is (to many, many users) as unneeded as a stand-alone mail client, and the differences between stand-alone and built-in clients evaporate in the migration away from either. All that such users really seek is a smooth portal to their cloud webmail site. That is the reason IE/Chrome/Firefox didn't copy Opera's lead and integrate a mail browser (like they did with so many other Opera features), and that is the reason Opera themselves ultimately decided an integrated browser was no longer worth the effort to code into their new browser. Add to that the widespread onset of new message techniques (texting, Tweets, FaceBook, etc) and the demand for eMail client software has shrunk even more.
I truly wish the world was otherwise, and that eMail clients (stand-alone or built-in) existed with the rich choices of 10-15 years ago... there are many solid reasons for choosing an eMail client path. But that's not how things are currently, and it's the present world through which we must navigate and make our choices.
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linuxmint7 last edited by
I strongly believe that if IE/Chrome/Firefox (the mainstream browsers worldwide) had integrated an Opera Mail this would be completely different
I personally think it wouldn't have made any difference. The thing is, a lot of Opera users, and non-users didn't even know Opera had an integrated email client. Of those that did know, a lot of them were either comfortable with their existing email client or thought M2 was too bare-bones for their usage. Then the likes of 'Snapchat', 'Whatsapp' (mobile instant messaging) et all and 'Gmail' came along, which has pretty much put the final (hypothetical) nail in the coffin of the email client.
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lando242 last edited by
The thing is, a lot of Opera users, and non-users didn't even know Opera had an integrated email client.
Hit the nail on the head. The IRC client was the same way. Heck, ask all the people complaining about the email client if they ever used the IRC client and I bet half of them wouldn't even know what IRC is. Yet I haven't seen one complaint about its disappearance in the last few months I've been here.
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A Former User last edited by
How would majority of opera users not know it had a mail client. They never looked at the "O" menu? When I first downloaded opera way back when It took me about one second to notice the mail and chat accounts item in the list
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burbulir last edited by
I am still using operamail. For me it is the simplest, fastest and easiest way to check my mails. I have 3 mails synchronized. Currently i use two instances of Opera: - opera 12.17 mainly for the mail client and opera 28 for browsing. I wish i'd had the mail client integrated in the latest version of opera but in my searches i see that it is an abandonware. Very sad thing, i guess everything is evolving, and finally i will move tho something else. I used opera for a very long time and i think i use it now from stubbornness. Don't get me wrong, i like the new opera, but it lacks some very important things for me - like digital signature implementation, mail client. I tried Chrome (which is faster, more stable, can easy replace any browser), but i did not feel like home. I guess i will use 3 or more browsers at a time -one for browsing (opera), one for work with digital certificates and occasional browsing for pages opera 28 crashes(chrome) and one for mail (opera 12.17). Pfew, kind of complicated, no? But you know the saying: The shortest way is the way that you know best!
Enjoy your freedom of choice!
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A Former User last edited by
Mail is coming back in the new Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi is the successor of Opera but now developed by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by former co-founder and CEO of Opera, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner.
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pafflick last edited by
I am still using operamail. For me it is the simplest, fastest and easiest way to check my mails. I have 3 mails synchronized. Currently i use two instances of Opera: - opera 12.17 mainly for the mail client and opera 28 for browsing. I wish i'd had the mail client integrated in the latest version of opera but in my searches i see that it is an abandonware. Very sad thing, i guess everything is evolving, and finally i will move tho something else. I used opera for a very long time and i think i use it now from stubbornness. Don't get me wrong, i like the new opera, but it lacks some very important things for me - like digital signature implementation, mail client. I tried Chrome (which is faster, more stable, can easy replace any browser), but i did not feel like home. I guess i will use 3 or more browsers at a time -one for browsing (opera), one for work with digital certificates and occasional browsing for pages opera 28 crashes(chrome) and one for mail (opera 12.17). Pfew, kind of complicated, no? But you know the saying: The shortest way is the way that you know best!
Enjoy your freedom of choice!Same here - I still have the old Opera 12 and use it for the email client, while the new Opera (downgraded recently from 28 to 27) is there for browsing.
There's only one thing that I don't agree with you (or perhaps we have different experiences) - Chrome isn't faster than the new Opera. I have 8 browsers installed on my computer and Chrome is one of the slowest (IE seems to be the fastest). Only a few sites works better in Chrome. I use it frequently, but I don't like it. Maxthon is very customizable, and pretty fast too, but the way it looks and behaves sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable. <_<
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burbulir last edited by
Mail is coming back in the new Vivaldi browser. Vivaldi is the successor of Opera but now developed by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by former co-founder and CEO of Opera, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner.
Thanks for the info, it looks really good and even it is a tech preview, it works with digital certificates!
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Deleted User last edited by
Interesting discussion. I share many of the expressed opinions having been an Opera addict since Version 3 (you even had to pay for a licence at the time, a few decades ago..) I guess it's partly a generation question. These days people don't really question webservices any more and the ancient Pop3 standard seems to have become more or less extinct. For the time being I'll stick with my dual Opera setup until a real reason comes up to move over to web-based IMAP for mail, such as independency from the hardware you have installed your mail client on.
