Checking out Opera

I'm checking out the latest release of Opera (9.2)...  looks pretty neat so far.

Particularly impressive is the new Speed Dial feature... it provides you with a list of favorites whenever you open a new tab.  And unlike a certain browser which shall not be named, tabs open and gain focus instantly, even with Speed Dial turned on.



Coincidentally, this happens to match up quite nicely with the way I browse the internet, since there are only a few sites that I visit regularly.  Opera might have a convert soon...  I've never really given it a serious try, but I'm actually going to use it for a while now.  And Opera is fast (or tuned to be percieved as fast....  it seems to have a habit of rendering pages before their CSS is loaded at times even).

I'm not much of a browser loyalist...  even switched to IE7 from Firefox after it launched.

So what's the schedule on Opera support for Channel 9?  C9V4?  [6]

(And how about fixing the @#$% posting errors while you're at it?  This site's becoming hardly worth the effort.)

I've been using Opera for quite a while (on Windows and Linux) .. woudn't trade it for anything - it's simply the best browser available! There are so many features I simply adore, I don't know where I'd start, if I'd had to list them all (without a doubt, one of them is moving between tabs using keys 1 and 2). Happy browsing, mate

Yeah, they introduced an awesome new feature. Without slowing the browser down. I still love Opera the same, since the day we met... Speaking of Opera: I've read that Opera users are the most satisfied browser users. Woohoo! And for the developers, they introduced a 'Developer Console', which you can use to debug websites.

TommyCarlier wrote:

Yeah, they introduced an awesome new feature. Without slowing the browser down. I still love Opera the same, since the day we met... Speaking of Opera: I've read that Opera users are the most satisfied browser users. Woohoo! And for the developers, they introduced a 'Developer Console', which you can use to debug websites.

I'd love to know how that survey was carried out.

It's a lot more likely that 100% of Opera users are going to be happy that 100% of Firefox users, simply because there's less  of them to mad about something.

I'm going to download it and try it out though; seems like I may be missing out on something.

TommyCarlier wrote:

And for the developers, they introduced a 'Developer Console', which you can use to debug websites.

That's something I've been waiting for, I'll have to check it out and compare it with Firebug...

Finally... downloaded it and checking.... I'm lovin it....
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<after exactly 44 seconds>
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Where's my Speed Dial....? [C]
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(feelings....)

littleguru wrote:

they had also issues with CSS.

That would be bizarre as Haakon Lie was the inventor of CSS and he is the CTO of Opera, although I guess the issues could have been before he joined.  You have a long memory LG.

Opera has great CSS freature support, but I have noticed numerous quirks/bugs over time (nothing to the extent of IE's bugs though). But that's unlikely to affect market share.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with Opera that would affect its user base, perhaps Opera just cares more about other devices than the desktop. Maybe it's just too good for the average surfer.

I tried the built in developer tool earlier and while it's better than the IE developer toolbar, it doesn't seem to match up to Firebug's ease of use and rich feature set.

FWIW, It's easier to use Firebug with Firefox to diagnose an IE bug than it is to use the IE Developer toolbar with IE. The IE Developer toolbar crashes so much it's not even worth installing, when's the next beta due?

Rowan wrote:

I don't think there's anything really wrong with Opera that would affect its user base, perhaps Opera just cares more about other devices than the desktop. Maybe it's just too good for the average surfer.

The big thing with Opera as far as adoption goes is that it seems like they don't publicize it as much as MS or Mozilla push IE and Firefox.  IE comes built into Windows, and Firefox has a huge grassroots campaign behind it--  Opera really doesn't.  Might have something to do with its "non-free" heritage, also:  how many people out there really realize that you don't have to pay for Opera anymore?

As far as compatibility goes, this site's the only one I've yet visited that has major issues with Opera--  and that's only because it's not coded to take Opera into account.

I'm really liking it so far--  only had to go back to IE for Outlook Web Access and Channel 9.

Raghavendra_Mudugal wrote:

Where's my Speed Dial....?

Open a new tab, or close all your tabs and it should pop up (provided you've downloaded 9.20).

Its been awhile since I've tried Opera.

What does it offer?

Heh, one thing is for sure I found it very easy to call Opera... Oprah. :O

I dont know how but I did until someone corrected me.

Xaero_Vincent wrote:

Its been awhile since I've tried Opera.

What does it offer?

Heh, one thing is for sure I found it very easy to call Opera... Oprah.

I dont know how but I did until someone corrected me.

The big thing is that it's very fast--  the Opera devs have apparently hit the exact balance to make the browser feel a lot faster than IE or Firefox.  This seems to be a combination of things--  more agressive image/script/CSS caching (I don't have to wait for the MS Communities bar to reload on a regular basis, for example), beginning rendering earlier in the process of loading a page, and a highly optimized rendering engine.  It also doesn't wait until the ads on a page are loaded before rendering the rest of the page.

It's also got a lot of nice touches here and there--  such as a integrated, full featured download manager, including pause/resume across browser sessions (something Firefox can't do) and Bittorrent support.  It's got all the obligatory tab features--  but it also retains old-fashioned MDI features if you want them, letting you (for example) tile pages within the browser window if you want to (note that it doesn't expose this unless you want it to).  The Speed Dial feature I noted above is a nice touch as well.

It's also the only browser on Windows (unless you're into Mozilla alpha builds) that passes the Acid2 test.

Biggest catch I've seen so far is that you can't post here with Opera--  Channel 9 apparently isn't coded with Opera in mind.  That'll probably be the deciding factor of whether or not I stick with Opera for a while--  can I stand not being able to post here without switching browsers?

And, of course, I'll probably end up switching to something else whenever the next great browser release comes along...  just like with Firefox and IE7 .

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Open a new tab, or close all your tabs and it should pop up (provided you've downloaded 9.20).

Yes, I have downloaded... 9.2 only... but when I open a new tab, It comes just plain that "opera:blank".. Even I tried uninstalling and installing it again, but the same output...

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

The big thing is that it's very fast--  the Opera devs have apparently hit the exact balance to make the browser feel a lot faster than IE or Firefox.  This seems to be a combination of things--  more agressive image/script/CSS caching (I don't have to wait for the MS Communities bar to reload on a regular basis, for example), beginning rendering earlier in the process of loading a page, and a highly optimized rendering engine.  It also doesn't wait until the ads on a page are loaded before rendering the rest of the page.

It's also got a lot of nice touches here and there--  such as a integrated, full featured download manager, including pause/resume across browser sessions (something Firefox can't do) and Bittorrent support.  It's got all the obligatory tab features--  but it also retains old-fashioned MDI features if you want them, letting you (for example) tile pages within the browser window if you want to (note that it doesn't expose this unless you want it to).  The Speed Dial feature I noted above is a nice touch as well.

It's also the only browser on Windows (unless you're into Mozilla alpha builds) that passes the Acid2 test.

Biggest catch I've seen so far is that you can't post here with Opera--  Channel 9 apparently isn't coded with Opera in mind.  That'll probably be the deciding factor of whether or not I stick with Opera for a while--  can I stand not being able to post here without switching browsers?

And, of course, I'll probably end up switching to something else whenever the next great browser release comes along...  just like with Firefox and IE7 .

That sounds pretty interesting, especially that speed dial feature.

What about plugins?  Firefox has a great facility for downloading and installing 3rd party plugins. Does Opera have a simular feature?

I think I'll try it and see.

Testing post Edit: Posting to C9 from Opera seems to be working.

Xaero_Vincent wrote:

Testing post Edit: Posting to C9 from Opera seems to be working.

No line breaks or formatting or quotes.  It acts the same way as KHTML does.

Ahh I see. I'm guessing Opera doesnt use Trident or Gecko?

One thing I notice right off the bat is fonts. They are more crisp and anti-aliased than in Firefox. This might be because Im currently trying this in Linux but I dont really see how. Maybe the default font used is different? Either way its much nicer on the eyes.