Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded)

[Eggcorn]

I tired it out just now, and I tried it out a few years ago. Both times, YouTube didn't work. I don't think this is a viable browser.

Edit: And it's not just YouTube. I tried out a video file. Not a video on a webpage (like YouTube), just the plain video. Otter only played the audio.

[Catweazle]

@eggcorn , there are fewer and fewer viable browsers, abandoned among the large ones that encompass the market.
A few years ago there were dozens of different browsers, but nowadays there are only a few left, apart from Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge and Brave, none of them give me too much confidence.
I use, apart from Vivaldi, Firefox and UR, although only for test reasons, in case Vivaldi has any problems on a page.
With this I can check in FF with another engine (Gecko) or with UR (Blink like Vivaldi), if the problem is due to Vivaldi or the page.

[Eggcorn]

@catweazle Yeah, it's sad. I can tell this browser has a lot of good points. Like the Vivaldi browser (whish I think, didn't exist when this thread was created), it's trying to be the old Opera. In some ways, it's even better then Vivaldi at that. But that doesn't count for much, when I can't even watch a video on it.

[Ayespy]

@eggcorn Yeah, the Otter Browser developer, an old-time hard-core Opera fan, started working on Otter maybe a year to six months before Vivaldi development was underway, and by the time the first Technical Preview of Vivaldi was released 28 Jan 2015, he'd already been at it for two years or better.

He's got a pretty deep understanding of browsers and some good coding skills, but he's just one guy with a couple of volunteer hangers-on, and just can't make progress fast enough to attract a following.

After (or at least around the time) the Vivaldi TP was released, Emdek was invited to contribute his skills to Vivaldi, maybe even offered a job, but he declined. then some of his fans began trashing Vivaldi and some of its forum members (including yours truly) and there just was no chemistry between the two camps after that. I had actually been experimenting with Otter Browser (and some others) before Vivaldi appeared, but the day Vivaldi came out, I adopted it, and never looked back.

[Eggcorn]

@ayespy said in Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded):

After (or at least around the time) the Vivaldi TP was released, Emdek was invited to contribute his skills to Vivaldi, maybe even offered a job, but he declined.

I'm a little sad he didn't take it. Vivaldi might have been better if he did. But then, it's easy to know the right decision in retrospect. If at the time, there was a good chance of Otter becoming viable, then he may well have made the right choice.

Then some of his fans began trashing Vivaldi and some of its forum members (including yours truly) and there just was no chemistry between the two camps after that.

What two camps? Sounds like you're talking about adult-children throwing a hissy fit.

[Ayespy]

@eggcorn There are Otter fans and Vivaldi fans. There don't seem to be many (if any) who are fans of both. For some reason the Otter fans found it necessary to find fault with Vivaldi. I think they were afraid it would draw away usership. I would still use Otter myself if I found it usable but, like Qupzilla, Sleipnir, and others I tried. I didn't, and so here I am.

[Priest72]

Choice should be embraced because one day there will be no choice but to choose a chromium based browser.

otter browser is only a tiny project so it would be ridiculous to expect the same level of work from them than a bigger team.

Palemoon is a one man squad but still perseveres.

[Catweazle]

The browser market is in permanent competition where the strength of the community that each one has counts, like any soft, if they are not very special and original.
If there is strong competition, they will disappear, like a small fruit store next to a hypermarket.
Just look at the list of browsers that have existed for some years and where in the vast majority with a 'Discontinued' behind.
Chrome dominates this market by far and I think that in a few years also FF and Safari will be forced to switch to Chromium / Blink, if they want to survive.
Many others will disappear, if they are only 'One Man Projects' without a strong community and do not offer something really different from the others.
Simply forking Chromium or FF, adding another logo is a project that cannot survive, because it is meaningless.
For this I think, Vivaldi make it well, offering something really different from others with a strong community and for this Otter was a death born child like others before.

[Eggcorn]

@priest72 said in Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded):

Choice should be embraced because one day there will be no choice but to choose a chromium based browser.

Okay, who's saying that choice shouldn't be embraced?

Otter browser is only a tiny project so it would be ridiculous to expect the same level of work from them than a bigger team.

Yes. But that doesn't change that it can't seem to even play videos. Not to mention other problems, such as not having a reader view. As I said, this doesn't seem to be a viable browser.

[Eggcorn]

@catweazle said in Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded):

Simply forking Chromium or FF, adding another logo is a project that cannot survive, because it is meaningless.

If you're talking about Palemoon, here's what Wikipeida says:

Pale Moon is a fork of Firefox with substantial divergence. The main differences are the user interface, add-on support, and running in single-process mode. Pale Moon retains the highly customizable user interface of the Firefox version 4–28 era. It also continues to support some types of add-ons and plugins that are no longer supported by Firefox, including NPAPI plugins such as Flash Player.

That's what you call "meaningless"?

[Catweazle]

@eggcorn , I don't speak about Palemoon and a few others, that still exists, I speak from projects which a simpe forks without a strong community, this will disappear very fast like others.
In a strong browsermarket, projects with a good developement and significant difference from others are dead born childs like the most in the last years.
It's a harsh world for browsers which are in the last % of the marketshare, single developers and small companies without a good community can't survive, as I say, like a small fruit store next to a hypermarket.
Look on the web, which browsers appear in the comparisons, apart from Chrome, Edge, Safari, Opera, Firefox, Brave and from time to time also Vivaldi (more and more), it is this that sooner or later breaks the nape of others.

[Priest72]

@guigirl What you seem to forget is that otter is an effort by a single person,Your criticism seems rather misplaced if you are comparing otter to the "big brands.".
Maybe self serving complainers should perhaps consider chipping in and helping out.

just a thought.

[Catweazle]

With a market saturated with browsers of all kinds, the only way to be able to deal with the 'big guys' is that instead of each developer pulling their own way by developing a browser that remains unattended in a short time, to create a cooperative among all together to create a worthwhile browser.
All other don't make sense nowadays
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Discontinued_web_browsers

[jumpsq]

I believe that Emdek was offered a job by Vivaldi years ago. At the time they asked the community for opinions, and at least I advised against taking it, because I thought that a chromium-based browser would never achieve the quality of presto. While this is still true, they should've taken the position in retrospect of course.
Otter is a great attempt to clone O12, but it has been surpassed by Vivaldi in most aspects.

[Catweazle]

@jumpsq , as I said, no matter how good a developer is and no matter how good the ideas are, a browser cannot subsist as an individual project, for this it is too complex and also requires continuous maintenance, even more so if you want to offer the ability to synchronize, with the consequent expense that it entails.
For this reason these browsers are condemned from the beginning to swell the ranks of the more than 70 who have already thrown in the towel.

[jumpsq]

@catweazle I agree, but still otter remains both a great effort and a great project.

[Catweazle]

@jumpsq , I do not doubt this, but it is of little use, if it cannot be maintained over time.
One Man Projects can be very successful, if it is to develop an unheard of and new product, but not a product that already abounds in a saturated market.

[Ayespy]

@jumpsq After Opera 15 appeared (much to my dismay) I began to actively search for a replacement. During that period, I tried PaleMoon, Sleipnir, Comodo IceDragon, Qupzilla, SeaMonkey, Otter and others. Otter was not good enough for me to try to use it as a daily driver. Of all the above, PaleMoon, to its credit, was good enough for me to try to stick with for a little while.

The very first day I tried Vivaldi, 27 Jan 2015, I switched to it. I was able to make myself at home in the UI immediately, unlike any of the others.

So I don't know if I would have characterized Otter as a "great effort," as it has never been good enough for me to use it for more than a few minutes at a time without getting frustrated, but I agree what Emdek has tried to do was, for sure, worth doing - if only it could be done. Within days of adopting Vivaldi, I was thinking, "Emdek should put his efforts behind THIS!" But unfortunately, that was not to be. Oh, well.

[Stardust]

@ayespy said in Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded):

During that period, I tried PaleMoon, Sleipnir, Comodo IceDragon, Qupzilla, SeaMonkey, Otter and others.

PaleMoon, Sleipnir, Comodo IceDragon, Qupzilla, SeaMonkey, Otter and others.

@guigirl said in Otter Browser (Opera 12 reloaded):

Which alt-browser would a majority of us have "settled" on, til V?

Firefox in my case

[Stardust]

@guigirl look closely, I mentioned Otter!