My first impressions of Opera

By liquilife
in Web Browser Discussion & Support

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Grand Master

lav-chan

Posted
Posted
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.

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Some more than others.

The point is when Firefox users brag about all these features that they have as if they invented them, as if everybody else is just playing catch-up to Firefox. I don't care whether they invented them or not, what i care about is that they act like Firefox (or Mozilla) innovatively came up with all these fantastic features, and they didn't.

Contributor

liquilife

Posted
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Some more than others.

The point is when Firefox users brag about all these features that they have as if they invented them, as if everybody else is just playing catch-up to Firefox. I don't care whether they invented them or not, what i care about is that they act like Firefox (or Mozilla) innovatively came up with all these fantastic features, and they didn't.

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Hehe. What is there to say? While it's true some FF people do act like that, Opera users carry the same attitude as well. Opera users despise Firefox users. Firefox users despise Opera users. Let's call this what it is. I see everyone bashing each other from both sides. It's like a constant browser royal rumble around here.

To make something positive out of this at least browsers will continue to get better in responce to good competition.

Grand Master

Vice

Posted
Posted
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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I navigated to www.neowin.net before I removed it of course and it was quite the slow-mo in my test in comparison with Firefox and Safari which I use.

I didn't like its tab thing either and the fact its not free kills it before its got a chance.

I wont pay for a slower bloated browser. Safari / Firefox are on the same page in the way there GUI is laid out nice and clean no bloat-ware and they are free.

I will try Opera again at its next major release and see how it compares to IE7 Firefox and Safari for my Browser needs. I really don't give a monkeys about who makes the browser what its name is I'm not a fan boy I just want a browser that suits my needs.

Grand Master

imtoomuch

Posted
Posted

Look at all the "cool" Opera and IE fanboys calling Firefox Firetruck. That's so funny and so clever! Did you guys come up with that all by yourself? :rolleyes:

Anyway, I tried Opera Beta 1 and Opera gets better and more to my liking with each build. My favorite thing about Opera is how little RAM it uses. But I don't think I'll be permanently switching to Opera any time soon. I still prefer Firefox.

Mentor

arrrgh

Posted
Posted

Oh c'mon, why do the opera trolls always come up with the silly 'firefox is for n00bs' stuff. Just take a look a w3 stats, it shows that Firefox is most popular among the tech savvy people.

Opera is a good browser. Firefox is a good browser. There's no need for the holier than thou fanboy crap.

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liquilife

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dolimite35, I had been using firefox since it was in it's alpha stages. I've had a newest release of Opera on my computer for just as long because I'm a web designer, heck I even have Netscape 4 hanging around. Anyways, this was the first time I actually gave Opera a serious chance as a primary browser. The results were astounding. I could not personally imagine going back to Firefox for my own personal browsing needs. This is coming from someone who as of more then a week ago was a huge Firefox user.

Grand Master

lav-chan

Posted
Posted
Look at all the "cool" Opera and IE fanboys calling Firefox Firetruck.  That's so funny and so clever!  Did you guys come up with that all by yourself?  :rolleyes:

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Will you guys shut up about it maybe? It doesn't require a comment every single time someone says it. It's a cute nickname. I don't know where you get 'fanboys' out of it, it's not like it's offensive. OH FIRETRUCK HOW INSULTING

Maybe if we were calling it like 'Firegay' you would have something to complain about. Until then you guys can stop calling everybody who says Firetruck a 'fanboy'. Some of the people who say that USE Firefox, for Heaven's sake.

(insert obligatory rolleyes emoticon)

Oh c'mon, why do the opera trolls always come up with the silly 'firefox is for n00bs' stuff. Just take a look a w3 stats, it shows that Firefox is most popular among the tech savvy people.

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ALSO, you guys could stop throwing the word 'troll' around all the time. Someone not liking something doesn't make them a troll, OK.

Firefox IS for 'n00bs'. It is designed to work out of the box in a similar fashion to Internet Explorer, which is what the less-computer-savvy people of the world typically are used to. It LOOKS like Internet Explorer, and it's designed to be AS SIMPLE as Internet Explorer.

That isn't a bad thing -- i personally think Opera should go the same route, because it would encourage people to switch over. But that doesn't change the fact that it is designed with 'n00bs' in mind. As terribly offended as you might get to be grouped in with them.

Grand Master

insurektion

Posted
Posted
May be the word n00b 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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Mabye then oh wise expert you have heard of these so called 'plug-in's' to lessen the apparent n00bishness of firefox

Contributor

liquilife

Posted
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Extensions do 'lessen the apparent n00bishness' of Firefox. But it's designed to work out of the box, and out of the box it is very obviously targeted at (former) IE users. Like the kind of browser Grandma could use without so much trouble. <_<

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lav, you are giving yourself way to much credit. Opera is very simple in design. Anyone could pick up Opera and run with it. The basic features of a browser are very evident in Opera. You actually have to look around to see how deep and flexible the browser is. The same people who would struggle with opera are the same ones who would struggle with Firefox and/or IE.

Mentor

vcv

Posted
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No because nothing is ever opera's fault. /me starts hyperventalation. MUST NOT ADMIT FAULTS!!

:rolleyes:

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RoboForm is a third party external application. There is no way for Opera to put in support for it. RoboForm has to support Opera, not the other way around. So shove your rolling eyes.

Rising Star

d_ralphie

Posted
Posted

having switched from firefox to opera myself, yeah, opera's nice.

apart from being fast and light, it also has all these time saving features built in. having experienced extension hell, i was thrilled to find everything i need built in, and working together as a greater whole, as opposed to dozens of crude hacks bolted onto the browser, and pulling in opposite directions.

using flip forward or forward mouse gesture to activate fast forward to log in using the wand, heck yeah! you can't do that with firefox. there are lots of similar time-savers that firefox just can't beat.

Grand Master

Elliott

Posted
Posted
lav, you are giving yourself way to much credit. Opera is very simple in design. Anyone could pick up Opera and run with it. The basic features of a browser are very evident in Opera. You actually have to look around to see how deep and flexible the browser is. The same people who would struggle with opera are the same ones who would struggle with Firefox and/or IE.

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Most completely computer illiterate people would take one look in that Preferences dialog and give up. It's not the most user friendly thing I've seen.

Grand Master

Chode

Posted
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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).

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You may be interested in this option, when you right click on the tab bar and click customize (may look slightly different to you, this is a screenshot from Opera 8 Beta 2). This will make the tab bar hide if only one tab is open.

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