14 Responses

1. joe

   13|Apr|2007 1

   It’s very fast. Often faster than FF and IE. I personally prefer IE, but that’s more because of the freedom issue. It also has bluetooth and various other things builtin, something that alot of people will enjoy. I used it before firefox was called firefox and was not really any good. Even back then it was awesome. They are close to superior for making everything and the kitchen sink builtin, yet retaining it bullet-fast. I still prefer a GPL’ed browser, though.

2. joe

   13|Apr|2007 2

   I meant to say that i prefer FF, of course. I’ve never heard of anybody actually preferring IE. AFAIK all IE market share is based on laziness (it’s on the OS and they don’t know/care about alternatives).

3. Jorgen Stepputat

   13|Apr|2007 3

   Opera is in many ways the best browser, and now that it’s totally free, there’s no excuse for not using it.

   It’s easily the most user friendly browser. With Firefox you get a biggish download and very few features. Even for simple things like mouse gestures you have to start downloading “extensions”. Then you have to make sure you get the right one for your version of Firefox. Then when you upgrade Firefox several of the extensions do not work, at least for a while.

   With Opera you get all basic features with a smaller download.
   Opera is incredibly flexible. Actually, I am not too keen on Opera’s email client; but on my Linux system it’s a doddle setting it up for another email client.

   I think the Opera developers are easily the most innovative lot in the business. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was Opera who “invented” mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, and “identify as another browser”. The latest new feature in 9.2 is “speed dial”, which is worth looking at.

4. Russell

   24|Apr|2007 4

   Opera has stood the test of time, from dial-up days to today’s high speed internet, it is still the fastest browser on earth, the progress bar is a real “true” indication of what is going on. Many people call Firefox “Mozilla” not knowing that the Mozilla group make several cool browsers. They too should be praised for their work. I use Linux exclusively for the internet now, and with opara for Linux you only notice things go even faster, great browser, 11/10.

5. The Hamster

   18|May|2007 5

   I use Opera on Ubuntu Edgy and also on Windows. I started using Opera on Windows after Firefox v1.5’s terrible memory leak was introduced (as a feature no less!). I decided to use Opera on Ubuntu because Firefox is very clunky and slow on Ubuntu.

   The new “speed dial” feature in 9.2 is very handy. Whenever you open a new tab you are presented with 10 thumbnails of sites you specify to quickly access them, elminating the need for a personal bar (at least for me).

   Most Javascript bookmarklets that work with Firefox work with Opera. The only thing I miss from Firefox is the StumbleUpon toolbar, however I’ve been able to work around that using bookmarklets.

   Opera is very fast. As a program it loads very quickly–on my computer, in both OSes it loads faster than FF or IE or Galeon. Browing the web is faster as well, something to do with how Opera handles the cache; I’m not sure how it works exactly, but it’s very effective.

   It is also more natively more customizable than any other browser–yes, even moreso than Firefox. FF requires extensions to be installed to customize itself, but with Opera many of the addons you would install for FF are already available in the standard Opera install.

   For example, to block ads in FF you need to install the Adblock extension; in Opera, just right-click “Block Content” select what you don’t want and click OK. Poof, ads gone. Opera also allows for using a filter list (much like Adblocks EasyList or Filterset-G) in the form of filter.ini (just Google that for several lists).

   To use your own CSS in FF you need to install the Web Developer extension or Greasemonkey + scripts. In Opera, you can use your own custom stylesheet loaded as a .css file from your harddrive.

   Another great feature is the built-in email client native to Opera. You can read and send mail right from within the browser with no slowdown to the application.

   Lastly, no memory leaks! Opera can use just as much memory as Firefox, but the thing is when you close Opera (or minimize it, even) Opera releases the RAM. Firefox has improved its memory management tremendously with the 2.x releases, but it’s still a hog on my system.

6. John

   20|May|2007 6

   Thanks for the comments. They’ve opened my eyes to the possibilities of Opera.

7. Arvind Wadhera

   05|Jun|2007 7

   OERA ! is really great , changed my opinion after using FF for a while. OPERA no doubt is faster by all means and stands out in the crowd. Is it possible to give an equally good os as OPERA is ?
   Thanks a lot.

8. Ward L.

   08|Jun|2007 8

   Did I miss something? I’ve browsed through Opera 9.2 and couldn’t find any support for RSS feeds or live bookmarks. Neither of these terms were to be found in the Opera help file or FAQ. Absence of those features would be a killer for me.

9. The Hamster

   09|Jun|2007 9

   @ Ward L: Right at the top of the browser window is a menu called “Feeds.” It supports live bookmarks.

10. Ward L.

    10|Jun|2007 10

    Re: live bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc. To Hamster. Sorry, there is no menu item called “Feeds” at any level on my copy of Opera 9.2. By chance I discovered it by clicking on the live bookmark symbol on this page. Then miraculously, the “Feeds” menu item appeared. Very poor documentation, I’d say.

    WL

11. Amy Brodzik

    07|Jul|2007 11

    I’m a Linux user, where IE is not really an option. Opera 9.2 on Linux is more stable than Firefox, has more features built-in (like adblocking, as mentioned), can use a download manager without an extension (it’s kinda tricky to figure it out, but it’s possible), …

12. Sugarfree

    16|Jul|2007 12

    Try using Fanboy’s adblock list, works well with Opera, just no whitelisting

13. Gambon

    25|Jul|2007 13

    Firefox seems to have invented something that Opera hasn’t: live bookmarks. I’m surprised there is no support for this on Opera.

    Now that Opera has some ad-blocking lists available, the email-type interface to RSS feeds is the only barrier to me adopting it.

14. Shyamal Majumdar

    06|Apr|2008 14

    I am a Windows user. But I love opera especially for its speed. But I face problem when go to view some indian websites e.g. www.anandabazar.com, a bengali newspaper which runs on bitstream webfont player. can anybody give any solution for viewing this web page in opera?