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SVG Edit Standalone Opera Widget

Opera's Developer Relations Team - SVG Edit standalone widget

This is especially nice since I have yet to install Inkscape on the new PC.

Opera 10.10 Beta: It's All About the Widgets

At least it is, for me. I still have Opera 10.00 installed, and I'm still using it for things like writing this blog post. But when Opera Software tweeted, today, that it was now possible to run Opera widgets without running the browser, itself, I was quick to download the 10.10 beta.

The reason for my enthusiasm was simple: I keep JavaScript turned off in Opera, and in Opera 10, the widgets wouldn't work without JavaScript being turned on. In Opera 10.10, this is a non-issue. As I write this, I'm running Opera 10.00, with JavaScript disabled, and I'm running a 10.10 Twitter widget simultaneously.

I've also run that widget all day while surfing with Firefox, and it's now my favorite way to access Twitter. Other than going directly to Twitter's site, this widget is the lightest way I've found to tweet, retweet, reply, search, and send direct messages.

Liberating the widgets from the browser -- sort of; regardless of running independently from the browser, the independent widgets won't run without the browser installed -- was one of the best things Opera could've done. I've uninstalled Twitterfox/Echofon and Forecastfox, added touchtheSky to my widgets, and found that this move by Opera even helps me to improve Firefox's performance! 

There was a problem, though. These Opera widgets are installed through the 10.10 browser beta, as you might expect. They are not, however, managed through the browser. They can be launched directly from a desktop icon, which is good. But how the Hell do you uninstall them?

I spent a few panicky -- and a little bit pissed off -- hours asking myself that question, until I finally found the widgets in XP's Add or Remove Programs control panel. Not that that's such an unusual place to uninstall things, but Opera widgets? Really?

In the end, I got over the pissiness of not being able to delete widgets where I'm used to deleting them, and once that was out of the way, I went back to just enjoying my new, lightweight, kind-of-independent Twitter widget.

Will I keep 10.10 installed, though? Well, that depends on if I have any panicky moments involving Opera Unite.