Opera Unite, will I really use it?

Opera has released its new web server in a browser called Opera Unite. This is not a new idea, and the idea of running your own server, is I guess only appealing to geeks. Having said that, it does give the lay user an ability to run some basic services like picture sharing, chat etc from his own PC.

I can't see a killer application from among the ones they have available now. So we have to wait and see what applications developers will come up with.

Also we have to consider why people don't usually run web servers from their PC's. One reason is of cource bandwidth. If you are connected via ADSL or something like that this is a bad idea. You can do some limited stuff with a small group of friends. But nothing for public consumption.

The second problem is discovery. User's may just have temporary IP addresses. Opera solves this by being your proxy server that allows users to connect to your PC. That means you have to sign up for the Opera Unite service. The part I dont like is accepting their terms of service "By uploading Content to Opera’s site, you grant Opera an unrestricted, blah blah blah ....".

So I don't think this is going to replace my blogger, facebook, twitter etc etc accounts. But I can see where I could use it. For one, to delegate my OpenID. So my OpenID could be something like

http://home.mynickname.operaunite.com/openid.

Now before you run and download Opera I would say hang on. I haven't figured how to do the above my self yet. Its 45 mins since I have downloaded Opera. So its not like just editing your "index.html". Looks to me somebody has to do a "OpenID" Opera Unite Service. So my Opera unite OpenID is actually pointing to a Opera Unite Service by adding a "/openid". And he has to upload the service and Opera has to approve it! Or has anybody figured how to edit index.html yet?

But you see, there is potential here. If you have an application that stores your personal profile data and provides it to applications as and when required, we have the beginnings of data portability. But now the problem is to port your data from browser to browser instead of from web site to web site!

Update.

To set up your openid on your browser do the following. You cannot set it on your default home page. After downloading Opera Unite, Install the web server application by clicking on web server tab. Select a folder to be your web server root. eg C:\openid. Click on automatically create index.html file. Set Access control to public and save. Edit the index and add the following in the HEAD part. Change the href's accordingly to point to your provider.

<link rel="openid2.provider" href="http://www.myopenid.com/server"/>

<link rel="openid2.local_id" href="http://myname.myopenid.com"/>

Your OpenID is

http://home.mynickname.operaunite.com/webserver