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Technically, the 546 to 281 is Javascript speed; the net page loading decrease is still very good (574ms against 859ms for Digg.com, for example), but not a factor of two. (source: http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/#realworl d)

"And JFTR: Opera fanboys (the few that I've encountered) are worse than Linux, Mac and Amiga fanboys combined." - by cp.tar (871488) on Friday September 07, @06:25AM (#20505367)

Ok, but how can we NOT be, when facts like this are available, that note Opera's superiority?

To wit (quoting another user here, who had misconceptions about multithreaded design of Opera, OR even other browsers, for example):

"I'd like a multi threaded browser" - by Bert64 (520050) on Friday September 07, @05:19AM (#20505053)

Opera runs 8 threads here (per taskmgr.exe &/or process explorer) in the Windows model!

Hey... check it yourself! Taskmgr.exe &/or Process Explorer (microsoft tools) can show you this all, easily...

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Some added "FYI" for those of you comparing FireFox/IE/Opera (this one is about security, super-important in today's online world, especially):

Opera security advisories @ SECUNIA (0% unpatched):

http://secunia.com/product/10615/?task=advisories

FireFox security advisories @ SECUNIA (43% unpatched):

http://secunia.com/product/12434/

IE 7 security advisories @ SECUNIA (56% unpatched):

http://secunia.com/product/12366/

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Also, as far as speed comparisons? This is one that ALSO EXTOLLS OPERA's SPEED/EFFICIENCY BENEFITS over FF &/or IE here, & ON MULTIPLE OS PLATFORMS:

BROWSER SPEED COMPARISONS ON MANY TASKS & MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEM PLATFORMS:

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

And, especially on Win32 OS', the most used PC platform/OS there is... & that one has MANY MORE evidences on many more types of browser activities, than this one that tests Opera 9.50's superiority in JavaScript parse & process (which this report on Opera here @ /. today, is about, ONLY):

http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/

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The best parts are, OPERA IS FREE (as in BEER), & Opera has ALL of the features a body can need, WITHOUT using addons (though it has that via Opera widgets), & YET, Opera is LIGHTER ON MEMORY than FireFox &/or IE typically!

(You can check memory residency yourselves by loading FF, & Opera (& IE for Windows users) & test memory size occupancy via taskmgr.exe (or similar tools like Process Explorer) yourselves & see what I mean... I did so with FF 2.0.0.6, IE 7.x, & Opera 9.23.)

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Opera also passed the "ACID2" test, for standards compliance (it is not alone here, but is over IE & FF, & it was the 6th browser to do so):

http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/03/12/1416222.shtml

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And, Opera had features (like tabbed browsing) that other browsers (major 2 others in IE/FF) copied from it... note the article below!

FIREFOX MYTHS:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/FirefoxMyt hs.html

Yes, Opera had tabbed browsing before IE &/or FF, & other features as well.

Opera comes FULLY LOADED features-wise, with a built in email client, IRC client, RSS client, & more + yet eats less RAM than others, & addons only bloat IE &/or FF even more memory-occupancy-wise. (AND YES, Opera has addons as well in "opera widgets" (like .xpi addons for FF)...

APK

P.S.=> The order in which both dev tools &/or browsers passed ACID2 compliance, is as follows: Safari #1, Prince #2, Shiira #3, Konqueror #4, OPERA #5, iCab #6 ... Thanks here goes to rh0 (member 1

Safari is fast indeed, but take Safari benchmarks with huge grain of salt, because Safari cheats by triggering onload event before load and rendering completly finishes.

http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/

EMCA / DOM tests as well

http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/

http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/

http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/

And remember, this is an *alpha* release.

If you search Google for "why Opera" you'll find pages like this one, with a nice list of reasons for why you should consider Opera.

The best thing you can do is to simply download it and give it a fair go. If you surf around and read about Opera you'll discover lots of nice little touches that make browsing more convenient. Maybe you'll find that you love Opera. Maybe you won't. It's a slightly different approach than what Firefox is doing, but at least you won't have to rely on extensions for functionality. That can be both good and bad, I guess. (Opera seems to be a bit more efficient on the memory usage than Firefox, mind you.)

But Opera is actually also extensible in various ways, such as User JavaScript ("Greasemonkey"), and similar. There are lots of nifty things to discover, such as custom made toolbars.

Anyway, the Search Engine Journal editor asked Opera users to convince him to use Opera. He got quite a few useful replies. Maybe they will be of interest to you, too...

If you search Google for "why Opera" you'll find pages like this one, with a nice list of reasons for why you should consider Opera.

The best thing you can do is to simply download it and give it a fair go. If you surf around and read about Opera you'll discover lots of nice little touches that make browsing more convenient. Maybe you'll find that you love Opera. Maybe you won't. It's a slightly different approach than what Firefox is doing, but at least you won't have to rely on extensions for functionality. That can be both good and bad, I guess. (Opera seems to be a bit more efficient on the memory usage than Firefox, mind you.)

But Opera is actually also extensible in various ways, such as User JavaScript ("Greasemonkey"), and similar. There are lots of nifty things to discover, such as custom made toolbars.

Anyway, the Search Engine Journal editor asked Opera users to convince him to use Opera. He got quite a few useful replies. Maybe they will be of interest to you, too...

Try this: Web Developer Toolbar & Menu for Opera, you can look forward... to Opera.

But you can't make tabs behave like in Ff/Camino/Safari. Or can you?

Opera 8/9 has *much* *much* fewer settings compared to Firefox.

Try about:config in Firefox for once. That what I call "complete customization".

Been using this now and tried to find all the hidden goodies, and here's my few tips. Note that all shortcuts mentioned are only tested on Windows:

• Right-click in a search field and select "Create search" to define a new search with a shortcut. The shortcut can now be used at the address bar just like "g define:slashdotted" can.
• You can press "F2" and type "slashdot" and you will go to http://slashdot.org/
• CTRL-B is a keyboard shortuct for Paste & go
• F12 gives you a Quick Preferences menu
• Tools-> Preferences-> Advanced-> Shortcuts-> Mouse setup-> Edit-> Application will give you the mouse gestures. I changed "GestureUp" to this: "Enter fullscreen & view address bar, 2 | leave fullscreen & Go" , changed "GestureDown, GestureUp" to "Wand" and added "GestureLeft, GestureRigth" to be "Stop"
• On any page, hit "." (dot) to get a non-intrusive search on the page
• Right-click on the page and try the "Block Content.." function, it's very nicely implemented
• You can create your own buttons
• Create your own Widgets using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and AJAX, and they _should_ work on all platforms the TP2 is available on.
• I like Tools-> Preferences-> General-> '[ ]Show close button on each tab' to make the interface less cluttered, and rather use my middle-button to close tabs.

The Incorrect Paths thing is handy, but I refer you here:

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CookieSettings

I would never have worked out Opera's cookie handling without this. Now, it works nicely.

Clear out all your old cookies. Set Opera to accept anything. Go to all the sites you trust and log in and out. Then set your cookies to Normal: Treat as specified in Server Manager; Third-Party: Accept All.

Do a quick review[1] to be sure there's nothing unwanted left in the list. Opera stops bothering you about crap cookies, because Server Manager just denies them right away, but all those junky sites (eBay, for one) that seem to need your blood group and mother's maiden name, in a cookie that goes across a hundred servers, actually work.

'Course, a Hosts file that blocks many of their affiliates is never a bad idea either.

AC

[1] Quick is a complete lie. Opera has a funny approach to displaying the cookie list. You'll find you need to close it and reopen it to populate it, and after deleting one cookie, it weirdly decides to hide some others. So you close, reopen and delete, lather, rinse, and repeat. You'll get there.

Why not use a button?

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CustomButtons#page

The "Close current page & switch to previous one" and the "Close current page & switch to next one" emulate firefox's behaviour.

I've seen that happen, but I just block the ads with the built-in filter. I suggest that you do the same:

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements

Stand-alone stop or reload buttons here :)

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CustomButtons#alternate

"On the core side we have fixed many crashes and we have also added support for opacity.
These are just some of the things happening in our cubicles right now."

Download an adblock extension if you want it. http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

I have seen a PCWorld article http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123615,p g,4,00.asp claiming Opera 9 will support widgets, however I am unclear on what the magazine means by this. Will they be on the desktop or will they be somewhat like Firefox's extensions? Also, to all of those claiming Opera does not have Adblocking features, try going to this page: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements I suggest using OperaAdFilter (http://www.operaadfilter.com/) for the most integration with the browser and for its ease of use.

While opera is a faster, more stable browser (probably because it isn't open source) and is loaded with many great features, those features are it.

No those features aren't it. Between, buttons, pannels, UserJs, menu setups, and Opera mini programs Anyone can do a lot to add functionality to their Opera. The key addable feature, of course, is an ad blocker program.

It's also fairly easy to make changes to operas .ini files yourself. You don't need to download an extension just to add an "Open in IE" to your right click menu.

With Firefox you can download extensions to make tabbed browsing even better than just having multiple tabs. You can download extensions to label and organize tabs and give the ability to drag them, and to have pages that should open in a new window, open in a new tab instead.

Wow you can drag tabs? How amazing! Wouldn't it be great if you could do those things out of the box? Wouldn't it be great if the tab focus order was based off order of viewing just like the Windows task bar? That would be sweet.

Where Opera really beats Firefox is in the download manager. There is just no comparison. I'm still shocked that Firefox lacks a spell checker(except google toolbar), when both Opera and Safari have one.

The javascript console doesn't do it? Also, have you seen this: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/WebDevToolbar?show_comme nts=1 ?

Hmm, Opera does allow you to customize the list of built-in search engines using search.ini. I haven't tried it myself, but you might be able to add a site-specific search using this as a reference: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/SearchInOpera

The first result for Googling 'adblock opera' brings up this page with a list of possibilities for adblock-like functionality within Opera. I've used the C++ Adblock for a long time with Opera and it does great.

As far as I know, Opera has extension-like functionality, you aren't stuck with the base browser if you don't want just the base browser. Don't see what much else you'd need other than Adblock, but lots of people swear by those Greasemonkey extensions, dunno if that's in Operaland yet.

Moral of the story (and many others): Google it, damnit.

A search for Opera Adblock on google leads to this as the first result. Now was that so hard?

Here use this site, VelocityBoy: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/Opera

It's THE site for people just starting to use Opera. It shows you how to block ads, add search sites like wikipeda to your custom searches, set Opera to identify as IE on specific sites only, Heck you could even learn to edit your Opera6.ini and add an "Open Firefox" to your File Menu.

And don't forget to install spell check: http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/opera/spell check/

To override CSS rules in Opera, go to Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> View -> View options (translating from a localized version, sorry if it's not exactly what it says in the english version). Over there, just fill in a User CSS override file in the text box and set "author mode" to use your style sheet in addition to the author's (author = webmaster in this case).

You can alternatively configure the options so the site use its own settings + your overrides for the "user mode". If you do this, you can later easily flip back & forth via the author/user options under the View -> Style Sheets menu.

More information can be found here, for example:
http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaUserCSS

Have a look at these: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

Have a look at these: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

Considering that ... a HUGE amount of extensions to Firefox/Mozilla are already built into faster/more standards compliant/less resource hungry/more secure Opera...

Really? That's great! Please do tell me how to access the Adblock and Greasemonkey functionality in Opera then, because I'd love to know. Or scratch that, I'd settle for Adblock (with full capabilities, please: none of this nonsense about CSS blocking with these tools, or using proxies, or creating new .ini files to blacklist domains one-by-one).

Adblock is the killer extension that keeps me attached to Firefox like there's no other browser. Yes, Opera is faster, Opera is lighter, Opera is better in practically every other respect, but Adblock is a sine qua non. If it's not there, I'm simply not going to use the browser. Opera's innate, almost infinitely customisable, treatment of cookies is almost as valuable ... but I reckon Adblock beats it by a length.

Yes, I do often feel like I'm galumphing about in an iron suit when I'm using Firefox, but its literally infinite extensibility is pretty tough to beat.

Bugmenot can be added through a custom menu or button. The button is avalable here: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CustomButtons and many others are as well. As for the rest, I don't know. You (and other FF users looking to switch) should check out http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2005/01/opera-and-f irefox-extensions and http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2005/09/opera-and-f irefox-extensions-ii for some other alternatives, although I can't find anything for Hit-a-hint (whatever that is), Noscript, or Downthemall.

Firefox has hardly anything. Its extensions have things, but firefox itself has nothing compared to Opera. The only one of those things you listed that I don't think is possible in Opera is the highlighting. The search buttons are possible, check out http://nontroppo.org/wiki/Opera for some useful stuff.

Here's 3 different ways to implement an adblock within Opera .. they aren't quite as nice as Mozilla Adblock, but (a) there's not a lot of polish on that piece of software, (b) any parts that aren't possible in opera may become possible in the future, as more developers are working with the opera developers to get the features they need to do certain things.

It is true right now that firefox has more extension capability, although a LOT of what isn't already built into Opera can be done via it's buttons, bookmarklets, user javascript, and other functions.

The list of items you've provided is pretty big; however a lot of these are built-in to Opera. In addition, you get some very interesting capabilities like the ones I outline below, including a tight js debugger, and voiceXML support in websites.

First off, I worked for the group that partnered with Opera to create this, but the Voice plugin for Opera is also free!

Check http://www.opera.com/voice for information about the XHTML + Voice standard that is implemented here. X+V is an open standard - go read the spec for information, and Opera's voice development page for code introductions.
For those that downloaded the new 8.x build, go to the Advanced tab in your Preferences and tick the enable box for the "Voice" option. This will download a 10 megabyte add-on that allows voice interactions with Opera. In addition, you can control websites that support X+V! See some basic examples.

More information from a technical perspective can be found at IBM's Multimodal Software Group.

Also, see the WebDevToolbar for an INCREDIBLY handy toolbar for web developers debugging complicated interactive web apps. You get trace features for your javascript, the ability to inspect the DOM for a given page and many other introspection features. The handiest feature is a javascript shell for tight debugging of applications inside the browser.

~ Mike

Opera has a filter.ini file which can be used to block addresses containing adverts.

Quickies: http://userjs.org/ - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

Quickies: http://userjs.org/ - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements - http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

Many of the features found in the Web Developer Extension for Firefox can be found in this add-on for Opera...

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/WebDevToolbar

--
Australia's 100% free dating site

"Listen to what you are telling people. Take an application with extensions and instead look spend time trying to find workarounds."

"The day Opera has built in ad blocking similar to Firefox's extension, I'll consider using regularly."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

"Listen to what you are telling people. Take an application with extensions and instead look spend time trying to find workarounds."

"The day Opera has built in ad blocking similar to Firefox's extension, I'll consider using regularly."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

OperaAdBlock

OperaAdBlock

There are more options than that. Notice also that none of these are required to filter anything, the function is already built into Opera. These things just make it more convenient, but you can set up your filters manually in your filter.ini-file.

It's not as convenient as the FFx-extensions though, but I see no ads in Opera now. In both browsers, once it's set up, it's set up anyway.

The interface is clunky in this one, but it's very logical and you can block anything (of course): OperaAdFilter (freeware). You can simply filter all *.swf files if you so desire, or all servers starting with "http://ad.*". Another option for open-source advocates is C++AdBlock . If you want to know how the filtering works, there is a good explanation of it. Lastly, notice that you can block IP-ranges as well.

All of these happen to be the first things in a simple Google search .

I don't know if this was a troll, but so many people say this as "the only reason they don't switch", that it's just idiotic. From now on, anyone who mentions this again, will have their geek license removed , effective immediately!

For me, it boils down to speed and features. Opera is much faster for me than anything else (including Firefox with no extensions). On my high-end machine the speed difference is pretty negligible, but on a lower-end workstation Opera just blows right past Firefox. It takes Firefox literally 1-2 minutes to load up and allow me to interact on slower machines. And that's with no extensions. Opera opens quickly on the same machine, and has all of the last pages I visited already open for me to resume.

Secondly, is features. Such as:

- obviously, tabs (since Opera 4, 2000)
- Email client (use it exclusively, great search and filtering)
- IRC client
- RSS client
- Bittorrent client
- mouse gestures
- fully customizable menus
- user-creatable buttons (such as the Indispensable Kill button: http://nontroppo.org/wiki/PowerButtons?show_commen ts=1)
- very graceful crash recovery - if it happens, all your pages and states (email text, etc) are saved and reopened
- can reopen closed tabs
- F12 quick menu (control popups; toggle gif animation, sound, java, javascript, plugins, cookies, referrer logging, proxy; identify as opera, IE, moz)
- good skins/themes

and more..

It boils down to Opera being a much better user experience for me than any other browser I've ever tried.

When you finished /.ing opera.com or still need reasons why to use Opera you might want to have a look at the following sites:

Opera Wiki
Opera Userjavascripts at userjs.org
30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover

"That would be your opinion and you're entitled to it but millions obviously disagree for a variety of reasons"

"don't see that it has any more functionality than Firefox or Mozilla"

"I can't see where I can add any functionality through the use of extensions or plug-ins"

"or remove 'features' that I don't use"

Actually pretty much all firefox extensions that don't copy some opera feature (including the ones without GUI, see this site) are useless.

"He also missed the Opera's "Crash every half-hour so you can be reminded of the nifty crash-recovery feature" feature, something I've seen in every version of Opera that I've tried (up to version 7)."

Crashes are obviously not typical behavior for most people.

"Opera STARTS to render a page as soon as it has any data at all"

"Opera also uses a widely different set of keyboard shortcuts, while most of IE's and Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox's overlap."

"Opera fans can then point out their goofy "mouse gestures" but after trying them, I didn't see the big deal and went back to my keyboard."

"Opera doesn't have Adblock, Linky or Magpie."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements

Linky? You mean, like Ctrl+J in Opera?

"A lot of the "features" Opera does have are things I don't consider particularly interesting or useful"

"in my opinion he left out some significant negatives as well"

"He also missed the Opera's "Crash every half-hour so you can be reminded of the nifty crash-recovery feature" feature, something I've seen in every version of Opera that I've tried (up to version 7)."

Crashes are obviously not typical behavior for most people.

"Opera STARTS to render a page as soon as it has any data at all"

"Opera also uses a widely different set of keyboard shortcuts, while most of IE's and Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox's overlap."

"Opera fans can then point out their goofy "mouse gestures" but after trying them, I didn't see the big deal and went back to my keyboard."

"Opera doesn't have Adblock, Linky or Magpie."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements

Linky? You mean, like Ctrl+J in Opera?

"A lot of the "features" Opera does have are things I don't consider particularly interesting or useful"

"in my opinion he left out some significant negatives as well"

"Especially considering that, not only does Opera not have AdBlock, but it throws in a few banners of its own."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock

"Especially considering that, not only does Opera not have AdBlock, but it throws in a few banners of its own."

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/BlockAdvertisements

http://nontroppo.org/wiki/OperaAdblock