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I think my review could answer some of your questions ... offering a more compare/contrast with the Kindle 2. http://monroeworld.com/reviews/review.php?id=15 In short, if PDF is your biggest draw - I would wait for some firmware updates before making the jump.

Okay, done: (1) OperaAdFilter (http://www.monroeworld.com/operafilter/documentat ion.php) does a pretty good job of providing a way to modify the built-in ad filter (yeah, Opera actually had one all along contrary to popular belief), otherwise known as UserCss. (2) And if that isn't enough for you then you can also use Opera's (also) built-in content blocker (http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/). It's pretty neat: once you choose it from the menu it "whites out" everything on the page except for the ad banners and graphics; fro there you simply click on which object you want blocked and then click "save" near the top of the browser window. Quick, easy, intuitive, and it does it on a per-webpage basis. I don't blame folks for stating how Opera lacks this, that or the other thing; the browser's so chock-full of built-in features which a lot of people don't think the browser even has, and the fact that they even exist isn't made very obvious. Of course, the other side of that coin is that if Opera decided to turn on all those features simultaneously then the browser would be accused of having a cluttered interface. The result is that quite a few settings are turned off by default and must be enabled by using the "Preferences" menu.

Here it is. It's not AS automated as the Firefox one. But it allows you to do more advanced stuff in my opinion.

You can block ads/urls by filtering them in 'filter.ini'. I'll skip the explanation and point you at Opera Adfilter. About the same, not as smooth, but just as effective.

TFA refers to this thing, which automatically modifies the filter.ini file. You can download a list of initial servers to block (still a bit small it seems), then you can leave the program in the background. It then listens to the clipboard for url-looking strings. You can then copy an image url and it pops up, asking if you want to add the server to the exclude list, Yes=add, No=modify, Cancel=cancel. Close program when list becomes comprehensive, to prevent unnecessary popups.

It's not as smooth for sure, but it works. Of course, there is also an include list in the filter. And: is there somewhere where I can get a larger initial list that uses wildcards? (like http://*.doubleclick.net/*)

There is an ad blocker available for Opera:
http://www.monroeworld.com/operafilter/
And it works very well.

I've been using Opera for about 5 years now. I have actually paid for it. It is well worth the money. It has several features that I like about it better than FF.

A big one (though it may seem insignificant) is that when you hit the back button it goes back immediately. With FF and IE, there is an annoying delay when you hit the back button and when the page appears, but with Opera, there is no noticable delay.

I also like the mouse gestures in Opera.

I've been using Opera 8 Beta for several months now, no problems. I have 60 tabs open and it's using about 58MB of memory. It's really great.

For Ad-blocking I use Opera Ad Filter which is donationware and works great! However, you have to separately configure the ad sites to block; FireFox's right-click ad-blocking is much easier to use and wins here.

I've never had any CPU issues with Opera 8, and maybe 2-3 crashes in several months of use, but these kinds of interactions can be very dependant on what your system is running, and that's clearly different from mine.

When it crashes, as the parent said, it maintains the tab list and open sites and gives you the choice to resume from the previous saved session, start a new one or recall any old one. I have several saved sessions with pre-configured tabs that I like to recall when I am doing specific work online. This feature is awesome to me.

Opera 8 has always rendered Slashdot perfectly, unlike FireFox. It even feels faster than firefox, but I admit it's all subjective when feelings come into play. I've never scientifically benchmarked these two browsers.

Opera 8 also has a pretty decent mail and news reader built-in, that auto-learns your mailing lists, contacts and subject threads.

I just wanted to point this out because Opera 8 does not have "a long way to go" as the parent says.

It doesn't matter if it's a heated debate or not. THIS works!

http://www.monroeworld.com/operafilter/download. ph p

My filter file looks like this for example:

; Updated: 9/6/2004
; filter.ini
; This file is part of the Opera browser.
[prefs]
prioritize excludelist=1
[include]
*
[exclude]
http://*be tareaders.com/*
http://servedby.advertising.com/*
http://ads.osdn.com/*
http://*doubleclick.net/*
http://img-cdn.mediaplex.com/*
http://i.i.com.c om/*
http://*/ads/*
http://www.msfn.org/advert/*
http://*falkag.net/*
http://*tribalfusion.com*
http://ads.*
http://ad.*
http://*atdmt.com*

I think it has been in opera since 7 but only works reliably in 7.60/8

Augh... damn you! It's been 17 years since I last played Forbidden Forest, and I had completely forgotten the theme song. Now it's stuck in my head again.

At least I can try suckering more people into the same fate with this.

This may have actually been a good game. The problem with it was we had the good ol' C64 tape deck. So you'd hit play on the deck, go have dinner, go outside to play a bit, and then come back to the computer to play the game. Seeing as though I was likely between 5-7, I would last about 2 minutes before getting taken out by some spider or that dragon flying in the sky. I thought it's name was chimera but googing around proved me wrong. I seem to remember though when you started the game a voice would say "Chimera" with a lust for murder in it's computerized voice. I seem to remember that Forbidden Forest was the only game we had for the tape deck. You can imagine my excitement when we made the move to floppies.

http://www.monroeworld.com/pchelp/xptweaks.php

I've done most of these tweaks on a group of brand new 1.2Ghz machines, and I'd say it easily makes XP perform twice as fast.

And an added bonus, you no longer have AOLdows on your desktop :)

Used to be that Galaxians, Pacman and Worm were getting a reworking on the Amiga in the form of Deluxe Galaga, Deluxe Pacman and Megaworm... now it's the Amiga shareware's turn for the remix. Hooray!

We've even seen Populous get a rebirth with Lionhead's Black & White, and Quake with Half-Life's Deathmatch Classic. I wouldn't be surprised in five years time to see a reworking of GTA or Baldur's Gate 2. (Takers, anyone?) :D