I tried Opera once when I was back in college and appreciated that there was another company (other than Netscape) devoted to creating an application solely for browsing on any hardware or software platform. It had a lot of the functionality but it lacked that true integrated feel with my primary OS of choice. Aside from that Opera’s price line was also a major obstacle.
Well, it appears that Opera must have picked up a slight hint at browser improvements from Microsoft and Mozilla and decided that it was time to up the fight by offering free site licenses to educational institutions. Currently it appears that the only catch is the creation of an Opera account and the benefits of large swarms of users demanding these browsers when entering the work force is probably the expected return on investment.
For more information visit the Opera Higher Education Program.