Will Opera be available for Win 8.1 RT users in the near future?
-
badbob52 last edited by
I only ask as I have a MS Surface RT, and the only decent browser through the store is IE. I've been using Opera for my other systems for what it seems is like forever ... and would love to use it on my surface as well.
Any feedback from the developers is greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Bob
-
Deleted User last edited by
My personal opinion is: no way. MS is going to keep the Store closed off in order to exercise greater control over any apps that will run on ARM. I think you're pretty much stuck with IE11.
-
-
badbob52 last edited by
Thanks for the feedback leushino. So, if I'm reading behind the lines here, you think that MS is the bottleneck here, limiting what's allowed on RT systems. I'm not just talking Opera here, as I would also like to see Norton 360 MD (Multi-Device) available as well ... and it's not, even though both products are available on droid tablets & phones, and all apple systems and phones as well.
-
Deleted User last edited by
Exactly. You are limited to what is available in the store unless you jailbreak your RT.
-
badbob52 last edited by
Thanks again for the reply leushino. I'm familiar with J/B apple products, but not with RT systems. Can you provide some links I can check out?
Thanks ...
-
A Former User last edited by
I know this link explains it a bit too technical but it's easy to understand (Windows 8/ARM = RT):
http://www.freelists.org/post/luajit/FYI-No-JIT-on-Windows-8-for-ARMWhat it says is with the current Windows RT system limitations (APIs) imposed by Microsoft, Opera Software or any other vendor would have to make a browser from scratch that would run slower than Internet Explorer regardless of their efforts because of lack of JIT and other stuff, and even if they use the IE WebView available in the system (which means Trident layout engine) I think it'd result in an even more crippled browser (see item 1).
Mozilla and Google already spoken about this and a web search will give you the news stories.
Microsoft isn't directly blocking other web browsers from Windows RT but they're effectively blocking real competition to IE as you can see the challenge the other browser vendors would have to take (already knowing they'd lose the battle).
The situation is a lot similar to Apple iOS restrictions. There Google Chrome and Opera Coast (released after a long and quiet denial to make a full* browser for iOS) run the Safari WebView also lacking JIT.
*(Opera Mini actually has the engine running the pages on the servers it connects to.) -
-
lem729 last edited by
Is Safari WebView the browser engine? If so, that interesting because Coast is TOTALLY unlike Safari in appearance and the way/style it operates. For those people who say just because Opera and Chrome use the same browser engine, Opera is just Chrome, then Coast shows that you can do totally different -- creative, innovative -- things with the same engine.
