My first impressions of Opera

By liquilife
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liquilife

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Recently my girlfriend (as a joke) uninstalled Firefox from my computer. She knew I was a FF fanatic and spent considerable time convincing others to switch from IE. Well, I'm an open minded person and didnt want to give her the satisfaction of pulling a good joke over me so I started using an already installed version of Opera. I'll spoil the story - a week later I have still yet to re-download Firefox AND I've purchased Opera to remove that pesky banner.

Using opera I discovered that the pages did indeed load and render quicker then IE and Firefox. Not only that but Opera used considerably less ram on my computer. I don't have a "super computer" so this is an issue I'm always dealing with.

I am a pixel hog. I like my browser to have one tool bar for everything and another for the tabs. If I only have one tab open I don't wanna look at that tab. Initially with Opera this was an issue. I had the mandatory menu bar then below that the icon bar with back, forward, url, search and so on. Then below that it showed the tabs (one tab, 11 tabs ... it was always there). With a little help however I was able to download and install a menu setup that stuck the menu on my icon bar and hide the dedicated menu bar. Furthermore I was able to hide my tab bar if I had only 1 tab open. Even better when I purchased Opera it had no ad to show anymore. At this point I was happy with my toolbars, or the lack thereof.

Next issue was Gmail. Like many of you I'm sure, I have become dependent upon gmail. Opera doesn't play well with gmail and I did not want to use the incomplete version 8 beta to access gmail. So I decided to use the built in pop3 email feature. Once I got gmail all configured correctly to run through my pop3 mail setup I was once again happily accessing my email. Not only that but I was able to get rid of another program (gmail notifier) from my list of always running progs. Opera simply let's me know.

I am not much of an IRC person nowdays but thought I would play around with the built in chat feature. I couldnt get it to work with dalnet so I simply gave up due to lack of interest.

When all was said and done I was saving about 15mb of ram on my laptop with truly a better performing browser. I was able to overcome my issues to keep my surfing habits as comfortable as I like it to be.

My final conclusion is that Opera works for me but I still would not recomend it for the masses. I am still recommending Firefox for alternatives to IE in the workplace and to those who are less computer savvy. When Opera ships without the advertisement I will fully support it's distribution to everyone. Until then I do not expect anyone to pay for a browser or view an advertisement. I was willing to do so only because I probably use a browser much more then the average bear.

Anyone agree with me on all this?

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Rix

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Well, Opera 8 Beta isn't exactley Incomplete, it's just not final. It's a hell of a lot more stable and faster then the 7.5x builds, for me.

I'm glad you actually took the time to try opera rarther then just seeing the ad and running back to firefox :yes:

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celestialspring

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probably you will find someone for the entirety of the text. me differs from you about Opera not being for the masses and being meant for the geeks. Firetruck is surely for the n00bs.

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liquilife

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probably you will find someone for the entirety of the text. me differs from you about Opera not being for the masses and being meant for the geeks. Firetruck is surely for the n00bs.

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Not everyone spends half their life on a computer. There are those who don't work at a computer then come home and perform in other activites outside of a computer. To call them a n00b is admitting that a real life does not exist outside of your monitor. Let's keep it real here. Not everyone is intended to be a computer geek. Thank god for that.

Anyways, I never said Opera was for geeks. I was saying unless you spend considerable time using a browser it's probably not worth it to pay money or look at an advertisement.

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liquilife

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Well, Opera 8 Beta isn't exactley Incomplete, it's just not final. It's a hell of a lot more stable and faster then the 7.5x builds, for me.

I'm glad you actually took the time to try opera rarther then just seeing the ad and running back to firefox  :yes:

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Hehe, actually I saw that I could not change colors on the skin in the beta 8. I'm dead set on the Crimson color with the default Opera skin. Maybe incomplete was a bad choice of words :)

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Xtreme $niper

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I agree. But Opera 8 is a very stable client, I'd say try upgrading to it and see for yourself.

I still use Firefox and Opera because certain sites dont load at all on Opera but overall I've been using Opera for everything else for the past few days.

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lav-chan

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Jeeze, calm down about the 'n00bs' thing. That's a retarded way to say it, but it's TRUE. You Firefox users should know that -- Firetruck was designed specifically to appeal to less-savvy computer users out of the box. That's why the default configuration looks so much like Internet Explorer. Duh?

I like Opera a lot more than Firefox, but i've tried not to take sides on it. It annoys me how rabid Firetruck fans are and how ignorant they are of the features they stole from Opera (i don't care that they borrowed them, i care that they act like they invented them), but other than that, if you like Firefox, awesome! Use it 'til you die, you won't hear me complaining.

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celestialspring

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Wow.? Shouldn't you be under a bridge somewhere, troll?

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May be the wordn00b> was too explicit and it hurt you. sorry for that. But really firefox is seen more as a replacement to stupid IE rather than a power user's browser.:yes::

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Zkal

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Hehe, actually I saw that I could not change colors on the skin in the beta 8. I'm dead set on the Crimson color with the  default Opera skin. Maybe incomplete was a bad choice of words :)

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With new Opera 8 Beta 2 check Tools -> Appearance -> Skin. There is the option to change the skin color

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Vice

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When I first tried it I thought

What the hell is this thing on the left.. what the hell is this thing at the top what's this blank space what the hell is that.

That's when I Quit it and deleted it from my system.

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liquilife

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Hmm. Opera has been outperforming Firefox on my computer. I would not go so far as to say that Opera is for geeks. Anyone could figure out Opera as easily as Firefox. For that matter you could not even say that Firefox borrowed Opera ideas unless you wanted to readily confess that Opera borrowed ideas from previous browsers. Not sure what features I am referring too? Try the following features: Back, forward, reload, homepage, view source, save link as, bookmarks, history. The list could go on and on. Simple features taken for granted but yet Opera did not invent them.

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liquilife

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With new Opera 8 Beta 2 check Tools -> Appearance -> Skin. There is the option to change the skin color

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Nice to know. Opera 7 has the color independently listed from the skin. When I did not see color listed right under skin I just assumed it was a feature they had not yet re-built into the latest beta version. I'll probably give the 8b another ride.

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MeshKent

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I agree that Opera is an awesome browser and most likely the best out there. I was always an IE guy and never bothered to switch to Firefox because I never had spyware problems and Firefox didn't particularly excite me.

Opera, on the other hand, is just awesome. I'm using Opera 8 beta 2 right now and it's hands-down the fastest browser I've ever used. Also, features like turning off images with one click and adjusting the zoom of a page rapidly and just generally the amazingly well-thought-out interface mean I can't go back to any other browser.

Did I mention it's FAST FAST FAST?

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lav-chan

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When I first tried it I thought

What the hell is this thing on the left.. what the hell is this thing at the top what's this blank space what the hell is that.

That's when I Quit it and deleted it from my system.

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When i first installed Windows XP i thought

What the hell is this blue stuff... what the hell are these gigantic red buttons... what the hell is this ugly wall paper.... What the hell is that?

That's when i took my computer and threw it off my roof.

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chacho

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When i first installed Windows XP i thought

What the hell is this blue stuff... what the hell are these gigantic red buttons... what the hell is this ugly wall paper.... What the hell is that?

That's when i took my computer and threw it off my roof.

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:rofl: :rofl:

I've just gotten too used to certain features in FF that I'd go crazy without. For example, live bookmarks (yes, i know Opera has an RSS reader, but it doesn't work the same way.), the Web Developer extension, Nuke Anything, ADBLOCK, etc.

The speed difference, while remarkable, simply is not enough for me to be able to use Opera as my main browser.

Plus, I wouldn't use it's built-in mail, chat, notes, etc. Although you can hide the menu items/remove them from that little toolbar on the left, they are still there. Should be able to choose features at install.

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Jessehk

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For that matter you could not even say that Firefox borrowed Opera ideas unless you wanted to readily confess that Opera borrowed ideas from previous browsers. Not sure what features I am referring too? Try the following features: Back, forward, reload, homepage, view source, save link as, bookmarks, history. The list could go on and on. Simple features taken for granted but yet Opera did not invent them.

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I do know however, that Opera invented Mouse Gestures, MDI browsing ( in other words, tabs. This was introduced in Opera 6 if I am not mistaken ) , fast-forward, and rewind buttons, " paste and go", and probably a few more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_browser

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vcv

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glad you liked it

I dont because of the poor ads and flash blocking capability

will stay with firefox just for that

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Look at my CSS hacks thread. There is a way to block flash ads the same exact way as FF.

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liquilife

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I do know however, that Opera invented Mouse Gestures, MDI browsing ( in other words, tabs. This was introduced in Opera 6 if I am not mistaken ) , fast-forward, and rewind buttons, " paste and go",  and probably a few more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_browser

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Oh yeah, don't get me wrong. Opera has been innovative. No disagreement there. I was speaking in responce to an earlier post of someone complaining about Firefox copying Opera. The truth is that browsers will leap forward by borrowing ideas.

The more I think about it most features in opera/firefox are borrowed from earlier computer applications and just applied to the browser. Mouse gestures and tabbed information for example have been around for a long, long time - just not in browsers. :)

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Rix

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When I first tried it I thought

What the hell is this thing on the left.. what the hell is this thing at the top what's this blank space what the hell is that.

That's when I Quit it and deleted it from my system.

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Way to give Opera a chance (Y)

It takes 5 Clicks (literally) To get it as minimal, if not more, then firefox at defualt, click clock on a tab, click customize, untick the toolbars you don't want (main bar and personal bar).. Click ok.

Now, how long did that take? :whistle:

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ZZOOzzoo

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Way to give Opera a chance (Y)

It takes 5 Clicks (literally) To get it as minimal, if not more, then firefox at defualt, click clock on a tab, click customize, untick the toolbars you don't want (main bar and personal bar).. Click ok.

Now, how long did that take?  :whistle:

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Don't bother trying to convince them.

Firefox users apparently find customizing Opera's toolbar very difficult and complicated, not to mention time-consuming, yet they manage to install 5 or more Firefox extensions from a website that doesn't even have proper search function, everytime they re-install Firefox.

Oh my... :rolleyes:

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