Opera Browser..a word of thanks.

[droobeesha 10]

I've never used Opera on a PC, but I have it for DS and it does the trick!

[Kingmaker2 10]

For me - the ******* filterset and the web developer toolbar.

 

Plus a genuinely extensible plug-in architecture. Get the features you want, not the ones you don't.

 

 

Phanerothyme, forgive me on this as I am no expert in those items you have listed but I know Opera does have a good content blocker feature.

 

As far as plugins, Opera uses the API plugin and has a fair amount of pluginsthat are compatable.

 

Although Opera is not open source like Firefox, Opera 9.20 comes inbuilt with many functions that Firefox has in it's add on library. Opera uses less resourses than a newly installed Firefox that has no add ons.

I was never a great fan of the Firefox add ons, granted there are some useful ones out there for Firefox, but ultimatley it can make Firefox a little bloated and some add ons don't work as well as others, leading to more browser crashes and slower load up times. Another problem with the Firefox add on system is that, as has happened to me twice in the past, when you have to clean reinstall your Firefox browser due to reformatting your drive, then you have to find all the add ons that you installed, in the end I didn't bother even trying to look for the add ons that I had lost, as they really weren't necessary for a secondary browser.

[troyhark 10]

i likefire fox but its unstable iwould like Opera to have some of firfox features

Seeing as FF nicks it's features from Opera, it probably means you haven't discovered them yet.

 

Someone mentionrd bookmarks - F4 hides and reveals the bookmarks panel [also has history, notes,links,info,windows + other useful features.

Other handy shortcuts

z - back

x-forward

1 - previous tab

2 -next tab

cntrl+tab - cycle through tabs

0- zoom in

9- zoom out

6- standard size

cntrl+v - paste + go [so annoying when you use a prog. that doesn't have this simply + very useful idea]

alt+p - preferences worth spending time tweaking Opera - very customisable

Shft+F12 Customise interface.

 

I also recomended someone on here to give Opera another go fairly recently and another handy thing is that you can not only run Opera alongside FF + IE but you can have several versions of Opera on a computer [diff versions]. So my girlfiend and I have a copy each on all the computers we share, with our own profiles, bookmarks etc and as Opera allows you to restart with all your tabs intact and with previous history too, we simply leave all the sites we each prefer permanently open in our respective web browsers.

One of the 3 best designed programmes I use on a computer. Photoshop and Directory Opus being the other two. Opus is to Windows Explorer as Opera is to Internet Explorer.

 

http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/ to learn about Opera.

[troyhark 10]

And I forgot to mention Mouse gestures - a fantastic idea.

 

http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/keyboard/ - shortcuts

[troyhark 10]

i likefire fox but its unstable iwould like Opera to have some of firfox features

Seeing as FF nicks it's features from Opera, it probably means you haven't discovered them yet.

 

Someone mentionrd bookmarks - F4 hides and reveals the bookmarks panel [also has history, notes,links,info,windows + other useful features.

Other handy shortcuts

z - back

x-forward

1 - previous tab

2 -next tab

cntrl+tab - cycle through tabs

0- zoom in

9- zoom out

6- standard size

cntrl+v - paste + go [so annoying when you use a prog. that doesn't have this simply + very useful idea]

Cntrl+Shft+C- copy to note

alt+p - preferences worth spending time tweaking Opera - very customisable

Shft+F12 Customise interface.

Cntrl+z - undo, so if you close a page by mistake, you can undo that closure and all history for those pages is retained too.

 

Mouse gestures - fantastic.

 

http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/keyboard/ - shortcut list.

I also recomended someone on here to give Opera another go fairly recently and another handy thing is that you can not only run Opera alongside FF + IE but you can have several versions of Opera on a computer [diff versions]. So my girlfiend and I have a copy each on all the computers we share, with our own profiles, bookmarks etc and as Opera allows you to restart with all your tabs intact and with previous history too, we simply leave all the sites we each prefer permanently open in our respective web browsers.

One of the 3 best designed programmes I use on a computer. Photoshop and Directory Opus being the other two. Opus is to Windows Explorer as Opera is to Internet Explorer.

 

http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/ videos to learn about Opera.

[troyhark 10]

Although Opera is not open source like Firefox, Opera 9.20 comes inbuilt with many functions that Firefox has in it's add on library. Opera uses less resourses than a newly installed Firefox that has no add ons.

I was never a great fan of the Firefox add ons, granted there are some useful ones out there for Firefox, but ultimatley it can make Firefox a little bloated and some add ons don't work as well as others, leading to more browser crashes and slower load up times. Another problem with the Firefox add on system is that, as has happened to me twice in the past, when you have to clean reinstall your Firefox browser due to reformatting your drive, then you have to find all the add ons that you installed, in the end I didn't bother even trying to look for the add ons that I had lost, as they really weren't necessary for a secondary browser.

FF is for geeks, to have to trawl through pages of crappy tweaks to find ones that do what Opera has built in means I simply don't bother - a waste of time.

[Kingmaker2 10]

Seeing as FF nicks it's features from Opera, it probably means you haven't discovered them yet.

 

http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/ videos to learn about Opera.

 

I agree Firefox has taken some key features off Opera, and Firefox have taken the credit for it. Take tabbed browsing for example Opera was the first main stream browser to incorporate it in 2000. Firefox added tabbed browsing in Oct 2001! Unfortunately many Firefox users seem to think that it was a Firefox innovation and even now some Internet Explorer users also seem to think that I.E 7 has now caught up with Firefox because it has introduced the Firefox innovation tabbed browsing!

No doubt, voice activation, speed dial and integrated email will also follow suit and Firefox will claim the credit.

 

P.S

Troy, the links to the video tutorials lead to a proxy error.

[jezzyjj 10]

Works fine for me here.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Phanerothyme, forgive me on this as I am no expert in those items you have listed but I know Opera does have a good content blocker feature.

 

As far as plugins, Opera uses the API plugin and has a fair amount of pluginsthat are compatable.

 

Although Opera is not open source like Firefox, Opera 9.20 comes inbuilt with many functions that Firefox has in it's add on library. Opera uses less resourses than a newly installed Firefox that has no add ons.

 

Computing resources (RAM etc) are cheap. This is not a worry for me.

I was never a great fan of the Firefox add ons, granted there are some useful ones out there for Firefox, but ultimatley it can make Firefox a little bloated and some add ons don't work as well as others, leading to more browser crashes and slower load up times.

Certainly, although crashes are a function of poorly written add-ons. The startup time on my copy of FF is about 4 seconds, but then again, I rarely start it more than once or twice a day.

 

And you remember Opera- when it had a built in email browser? Pschh - that was the definition of bloat.

Another problem with the Firefox add on system is that, as has happened to me twice in the past, when you have to clean reinstall your Firefox browser due to reformatting your drive, then you have to find all the add ons that you installed, in the end I didn't bother even trying to look for the add ons that I had lost, as they really weren't necessary for a secondary browser.

 

Never had to do a clean reinstall yet, but I can name all the add-ons I use off the top of my head - delicious, webdev toolbar, fasterfox, IEtab, zoomimage, ******* plus, flashgot and video downloader (for grabbing youtube & google video etc).

 

Opera is a fine browser; Six years ago I supported the Opera project with hard cash, because it was that much better than IE/Netscape.

 

But half the time I spend in a browser is spent working on websites, and Firefox is the best multipurpose tool for the job. It's not without its faults - particularly how it handles file types and helpers, but it's still the most versatile browser out there.

[Kingmaker2 10]

 

Opera is a fine browser; Six years ago I supported the Opera project with hard cash, because it was that much better than IE/Netscape.

 

But half the time I spend in a browser is spent working on websites, and Firefox is the best multipurpose tool for the job. It's not without its faults - particularly how it handles file types and helpers, but it's still the most versatile browser out there.

 

Well certainly Firefox has its fans although I have feeling that many Firefox fans haven't given Opera a try yet. Most current Opera fans have probably given Firefox a good spin though.

As far as speed goes I think both have good speed, some pages open faster in Opera and some faster in Firefox so I don't actually think anyone can claim that one is faster than the other.

As far as inbuilt, "out of the box" features, Opera wins hands down.

The ability to customise each browser is pretty good with both browsers.

Where Opera stands out, certainly for me anyway, is security.

Opera still remains the most secure out of the 3 browsers (I.E., Firefox and Opera),as measured by Secunia. Also I can speak from personal experience that Firefox has twice allowed dangerous malare ( A trojan and a virus) on to my computer in the space of about 6 months last year, and that was on the occassional 4% of time I use Firefox. In contrast I have used Opera for about 95% of the time over the past 2/3 years and I haven't gotten any dangerous malware or viruses when browsing with Opera. Whether this due to the fact that Fifefox is a much more "hacker targetted "browser,as it has a bigger market share, or whether Opera designers are better on the security aspect than Firefox's is not certain. I myself think it may be a combination of the 2 factors.

Each to his own, but this is my assessment on how I see the browsers:

 

I.E.: Improving but still a poor browser, only to be used when badly written web pages don't function properly in either Opera or Firefox (That's a pretty rare occurance these days and getting much rarer)

 

Firefox: Better, faster, more secure and a good back up browser, but not as secure as it should be.

 

Opera: The best, the most secure, has the best features and a better quality feel and look than the other 2.

[pattricia 575]

Im still thinking about Opera.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Im still thinking about Opera.

 

It *is* a great browser. If you're still using IE, then I'd recommend Opera over it, any day of the week.