Check out the Opera Guestbook from 1997

June 7, 2011 · by Espen André Øverdahl

Remember the good old days with Geocities and online guestbooks? We recently came across a link which shows the old Opera guestbook dating back to December 11, 1997. Heavy. There are many memorable comments, but our favorite has to be:

"I've been spoiled using Opera 2.12. I don't know how you are going to improve it. When the next version comes out I may try it. I can't say anything else except that I won't use any other system."

We can only hope that Max Stansberry from Ottawa, IL., USA, is still with us. Max, are you still using Opera? What do you think of our software now?

Kudos @Chasapple who shared the link with us.

Readers' comments 29

Left under the original article, as archived.

OPERATORTuesday, June 7, 2011 11:12:52 AM
Samed AyanTuesday, June 7, 2011 11:14:42 AM
TarminTuesday, June 7, 2011 11:22:03 AM
NorthgroveTuesday, June 7, 2011 11:29:08 AM
"I've now had a chance to try Opera for a couple of days and ... I'm very impressed. Just for the hell of it I tried it with my old 486sx25 with 14.4 modem. I swear it's almost as fast as IE3 on my P166 32MB 33.6bps kit!!! WOW! I LOVE THE MULTIPLE WINDOWS. As an ISP we will offer Opera as an option to our customers with our recommendation. Who wants to spend hours watching "paint dry" when you can browse the net at this speed. Magic!"

Haha, this one made me laugh. Holy 33.6 kbps, Batman!!
Kilay Yaska RepiTuesday, June 7, 2011 11:48:36 AM
i like it ...
NimeshTuesday, June 7, 2011 12:01:37 PM
Excellent browser. I guess one of the best kept secrets on the internet is the fact that the simpler the software, the better it seems to run. Netscape and MSEI are now gone from my hard drive just a few hours after downloading Opera. This browser comes highly recommended.
slackwrdaveTuesday, June 7, 2011 1:23:44 PM
Kudos for bringing that old guestbook to light. I like net history like that. Geocities was the butt of many jokes, but I miss the homemade feel and "hello world" atmosphere. There are several incomplete archives of it now.

Opera had a program back then for putting Opera buttons on your webpage. You could win prizes for doing it, and if fact I won a good one.

This was back in the day when Opera bragged that the browser would fit on a single 3½-inch floppy disk. It was recommended to carry a copy around in a shirt pocket for infecting computers with speedy net surfing, and that's what I did.
MadsTuesday, June 7, 2011 1:30:54 PM
Lovely
Charles SchlossTuesday, June 7, 2011 1:47:40 PM
Yep there quite a few funny ones there
Nahuel SanchezTuesday, June 7, 2011 1:53:29 PM
I'm there!!! I'm There!!!
I hardly recognize when I was more young lol buy is me!

(with my other email buy is me!)
JulianTuesday, June 7, 2011 2:07:55 PM
Old times
Nikola StanisavljevicTuesday, June 7, 2011 2:22:07 PM
Kimmo JaskariTuesday, June 7, 2011 3:48:39 PM
OS/2 comments! Yea those were the days! Even cooler than Opera (heresy, I know)... OS/2 warp 4, best OS easily at that time. Too bad IBM mishandled it and Microsoft stabbed it in the back. Me, I came to Opera a bit later, I think I paid for it around version 5 or something.
d4rkn1ghtTuesday, June 7, 2011 4:42:18 PM
Ayesh IceTuesday, June 7, 2011 5:42:12 PM
IM used 2.12 too
MuttsfanTuesday, June 7, 2011 6:06:33 PM
I would like to see an Amiga OS-Version of the Opera Browser. There are a lot of amiga surfers out there and With the purchase by Gateway 2000 and the chinese home-amiga-WebTV ("WonderTV") the market should be big enough. Also the amiga family is used to pay around 40 Dollars for the current three available commercial browsers (as there is no native amiga netscape). Greetings, Christian Just

LOL! Wonder TV. I've almost forgotten how awesome it was!

Amiga FTW!
griffithorTuesday, June 7, 2011 6:25:03 PM
Sorcery that is Opera XD
Mayur KshirsagarTuesday, June 7, 2011 6:33:23 PM
memories..!
Make u more stong...
Richard KeelingTuesday, June 7, 2011 6:49:42 PM
Miles DavisWednesday, June 8, 2011 6:46:52 PM
Geocities still active in Japan ? Wish I could read the language to see whats going on ...
Ronald CravensWednesday, June 8, 2011 7:35:00 PM
Looking to connect with a childhood friend Albert Goslin living in California. Hello Al are you there?
Auron HoxhaWednesday, June 8, 2011 9:05:49 PM
Wow!
Craig-Lee Thomas ReesThursday, June 9, 2011 3:49:19 AM
This is one of the many reasons i love Opera, the whole community!!! There isn't that clinical, elitist feel you get from Chrome and Firefox, and you're not treated like an idiot as with I.E. In my opinion Opera is the best browser available, for all sorts of reasons, it's faster, friendlier and i recommend it to all my online friends whenever i can. Keep up the good work guys, i know that it's appreciated by everyone that uses it!!! d:-)#
dapxinThursday, June 9, 2011 7:59:41 PM
33bps! holy f s.
ZodiusThursday, June 9, 2011 8:47:38 PM
What a gem! Sure brings back memories.
QuHnoThursday, June 9, 2011 9:13:33 PM
Geocities ...
... reminds me of one of my first pages - it was about:

Opera

(German - and it looked better in the original, the wayback machine didn't mirror the CSS )
Charles SchlossSaturday, June 11, 2011 6:11:54 AM
It is all ways fun to look back in time and see what and how we were talking about technology

33.6 kbps used to be fast a few years back
TamilSunday, June 12, 2011 2:16:30 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Good.gif -
Joseph AdedijiMonday, June 13, 2011 10:25:58 PM
Funny:-)