rogerd - 4:20 pm on Oct 8, 2001 (gmt 0)

>>When do you reckon joe bloggs website designer will start writing sites geared towards Opera<<

Maybe never? One of the problems afflicting web design is the need to design to accommodate multiple technologies - different screen resolutions, various browsers, different versions of the same browser, different script and cookie options settings, etc.

In looking at my logs, I've been pleased to see that the influence of Netscape is waning - not because I want to see Microsoft dominate the world, but because if browser makers can't agree on what a page looks like, I'd just as soon there be only one flavor. If Opera wants to take off, they should do what Compaq did years ago - make sure that stuff runs the same as on the industry leader, and THEN start improving things and adding features.

No doubt some of you remember when software for PCs actually came in different versions for different equipment brands. It wasn't until an absolutely clear industry standard was established (so-called IBM-compatibility) that the market took off. Several compatible-makers ended up eclipsing IBM itself. If Opera wants to carve out a major niche, they should start by displaying pages just like IE, which is now the default browser that most webmasters design for.