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Well, you could always put this at the top/bottom of your pages:
"This is best enjoyed with the Opera web browser."

Don't force them. Educate them.

Well, you could always put this at the top/bottom of your pages:
"This is best enjoyed with the Opera web browser."

Don't force them. Educate them.

The Opera 8 Betas (1,2, and 3) support XmlHttpRequest. I've been using them for the past few months, and they're as stable as a release browser. Can even use Gmail with them, although there are still a few layout rendering bugs there.

Opera is an increasingly marginalized player in the browser market.

I think you might be surprised. Opera has a decent popular following in the desktop market. Sure, it's not growing, but it's not shrinking either. More importantly though, Opera has a very strong position in the mobile/embedded market where their "small and efficient" approach pays dividends.

Don't forget, either, that Opera has been a continuing source of innovation in the browser market: tabbed browsing and mouse gestures showed up first in Opera. They've recently also added native SVG support out of the box. No, these aren't startling innovations, but they do help to keep the browser market active and moving forward.

And just for reference, no I'm not an Opera fanboi. I use Galeon myself, but I used to use Opera when I was on Windows (back before Firefox existed), and have at least kept track of what they're doing.

Jedidiah.

Opera is an increasingly marginalized player in the browser market.

I think you might be surprised. Opera has a decent popular following in the desktop market. Sure, it's not growing, but it's not shrinking either. More importantly though, Opera has a very strong position in the mobile/embedded market where their "small and efficient" approach pays dividends.

Don't forget, either, that Opera has been a continuing source of innovation in the browser market: tabbed browsing and mouse gestures showed up first in Opera. They've recently also added native SVG support out of the box. No, these aren't startling innovations, but they do help to keep the browser market active and moving forward.

And just for reference, no I'm not an Opera fanboi. I use Galeon myself, but I used to use Opera when I was on Windows (back before Firefox existed), and have at least kept track of what they're doing.

Jedidiah.

Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed today or what? For your first response to badmammajamma, I don't see what point you're trying to make. It's not open source, it's not free, so what? You're nitpicking, and completely ignoring the fact that Opera has been around for quite a while, with the first Windows version being released in '96. A quick Google search reveals this Q42004 presentation that apparently shows them not doing so hot, and I think that maybe the advancement of Mozilla/Firefox has bitten into at least a small portion of their market.

And maybe you should try using Opera sometime, it's a good, lightweight and fast web browser, and the Google ads in the free version take a grand total of 30 PIXELS in my titlebar for Opera. Truth be told, I have just as much screen space for the actual website and not the application in Opera than in Firefox! Internet Explorer still gives me the most though w/o the Google toolbar yet installed and showing.

I've been a fan of Opera since 4.x for it's speed and small size, I have never paid for it, I hardly ever had it installed until I got into web development and decided to make sure my pages look fine in it as well. Hell, I like the beta for Opera 8 enough to consider purchasing it, but when those text ads only take up that tiny amount of space... I dunno, I must have selective sight. comparison of toolbars in FF/Op -- Turns out my Opera and my FF are on par for space taken, and these are the DEFAULT layouts.

Probably a troll anyways who has never used the program him/herself and would rather rag on it all the time as if he/she knew anything about it.

There balance sheet is looking just fine. Yeah, Firefox will take a bite out of them, but the majority of their money is coming from the wireless market not the desktop.

In the first link, you can find a long list of the phones and PDAs they support and they are the default browser on many of them. I don't know about the more than any though.

No, Opera is not open source, but not everything needs to be. If everything was open source, who would employ all those pasty skinned, unshaven developers? Just because something is open source doesn't mean it's great and just because something is a comercial product doesn't mean it sucks.

There balance sheet is looking just fine. Yeah, Firefox will take a bite out of them, but the majority of their money is coming from the wireless market not the desktop.

In the first link, you can find a long list of the phones and PDAs they support and they are the default browser on many of them. I don't know about the more than any though.

No, Opera is not open source, but not everything needs to be. If everything was open source, who would employ all those pasty skinned, unshaven developers? Just because something is open source doesn't mean it's great and just because something is a comercial product doesn't mean it sucks.

Or the malicious ones who miscode their site to intentionally over-support a browser.

I support Hakon, but I think he's aiming at the wrong spot.

Caveat: I have used (and liked) Opera since version 3 or so. I am have used (and hated) IE since version 2 or so. I am hardly unbiased.

Actually the IDN problem is solved.

Check latest Opera - first of all it allows only IDN on domains where registrars don't allow mixed scripts. Then it allows only character combinations regarded as "safe".
Obviously these checks aren't 100% bulletproof, so additionally on secure sites name of the certificate owner is displayed next to site address and all that makes life much much harder for phishers.

Actually the IDN problem is solved.

Check latest Opera - first of all it allows only IDN on domains where registrars don't allow mixed scripts. Then it allows only character combinations regarded as "safe".
Obviously these checks aren't 100% bulletproof, so additionally on secure sites name of the certificate owner is displayed next to site address and all that makes life much much harder for phishers.

I included in mine a link (off the VitalSecurity page, but still ...) to a discussion thread that indicates Opera was not vulnerable. I wasn't able to get the warning (nor the attempt to install) using either the release nor beta versions of Opera for Windows.

As well, I was able to prevent infection attempts in FireFox by blocking connections to *.ysbweb.com. [your search bar]. (The Proxomitron is your friend.)

The company that signed the applet is "Integrated Search Technologies", which is apparently targetted by several anti-spyware programs.

Opera has had this for months now, with no adds and with an excellent little search attatched.http://portal.opera.com/

In all truth, that was the first thing I went to do as soon as I saw how crippled Pocket IE was on my Dell Axim, but upon reviewing Opera's download page I realized that they do not have a solution for my platform. You can see in the right where it clearly states that the Windows Mobile version of Opera does not run on Pocket PC devices. Total bummer.
Now, with Minimo, I have another choice in browsers. Hopefully this will support the features that I want, not the least of which is the ability to have more than one window open.

So you'd rather use Mozilla on Windows mobile than Opera on Symbian? There already is a "real" browser for the P910 after all.

And although in their feedback page they say "If you're trying to view Calgary using Opera, it probably won't work", it now does in the latest Opera beta -- Opera 8 Beta 2! This time credits doesn't go to Google though, but to the Opera team for adding support for some features it was lacking in Opera 8 beta 1 and before.

It's been 'unofficially' announced in the Opera Forums

In a perfect world, we'd run perfect software. We're not in a perfect world, and most of it uses MS software, so lets patch the holes with the tools we're given. If everyone on the road drives a ford, and fords have X mechanical problem, do you tell people how to fix the problem, or do you tell them to buy a toyota? I mean, be reasonable. maybe NEXT time they'll buy a toyota, but for now, they've GOT a ford.

Options like Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Thunderbird, Eudora, and OpenOffice.org, to name a few for starters, should at least get a mention. They work here and now, even on MS-Windows. Aren't we talking about technology where we can choose the best tool for the job or is it a religion where we all face Redmond and bleat "yaaaay Bill!" ?

By neglecting to mention better options, even those options usable by MS systems, the site does two disservices. First, it turns an otherwise good idea into a state sponsored marketing campaign for a single vendor. Second, it keeps people in the dark, preventing them from improving their existing systems or to making more informed choices in the future.

Along the same lines, further proactive effort is needed to prevent defective systems from becoming a problem in your cars, television sets, taxes, public records or health care. All ofthis makes a good illustration of why commodity services and protocols are good for the market by preventing lock in.

Course it doesnt! Cos they're the plucky little software company taking on the big boys so they're the Good Guys.

So if we're all happy to have Operas banners when we use that browser, why the fuss about this outfit? You get to connect without paying cash, they get to show you adverts. Simple transaction.

The HOSTS file from that site is 210K, and they suggest shutting down your "DNS Client" service on win2k to avoid slowdowns because of the size of the file. They say "the above "Service" is not needed".

Once upon a time, I maintained a huge hosts file...until I discovered that when Windows paused for 30-60 seconds every hour or two, it was a result of the enormous hosts file. Just like you, I found people suggesting that I disable the DNS Client service; but just like you that was not an option for me due to programs that relied on that service.

My solution? Empty out your hosts file and grab Peer Guardian Lite and use whatever blocklist you want. The PeerGuardian guys maintain a nice set of blocklists here. PGLite blocks the connections just as effectively as using the hosts file, and it does so with next-to-zero cpu time.

BTW, I use Opera and it rocks. No popups mentioned in this article, or any test sites pointed to from posters have yet to pop-up on me. Just set Opera to "Block unwanted popups" and browse away. :-)

As usual, the problem does not affect Opera.

If you want the fastest, best browser... (in my opinion) Opera is the hands-down winner.

I agree completely. I just convinced someone to switch from Firefox to Opera and they are amazed at the speed increase, their machine is a 3000+ athlon. By the way have you tried Opera 8 beta 1, it's the fastest best Opera yet.

Actually opera already runs on Qt/embedded qtopia. Take a look here . It currently runs on the sharp zaurus which is very similar in specs to this device. I'm sure it would take little to no porting at all to get this running.

-kaplanfx

I've been using OPERA long enough that I cannot do without mouse gestures in other software (such as IE and Firefox should the requirement arise). This will add that functionality to these programs and most of anything else you use. Worth a look!!

Well MSN definitely has poor interOPERAbility. Remember the Swedish Chef browser?

Comparsion

Gmail support is in 7.60 beta and later version. Beta versions I just don't know why the beta phase is taking so long, maybe since 8.0 is coming soon.

Verdana is a better font, but not for the web. The problem is that it has a higher aspect value than most other fonts. This means that at a smaller size it still remains legible where other fonts may not. It also means that at a normal size, it appears to be quite a bit larger than other fonts.

The problem is that web designers can't specify any particular font and assume that the web browser will honour that request. There are lots of different reasons why a different font may be substituted for the originally requested one.

This means that if a web designer specifies Verdana for small text, another font could be used in its place, resulting in unreadable text. If a web designer specifies Verdana for normal text, people will think that it's ugly because it's too big. There really aren't that many situations where Verdana is an appropriate choice for web designers.

None of this is to say that it isn't a nice font; I personally use it throughout most of KDE. But it's not a good choice for the Web Core Fonts collection.

Opera has had first-hand experience with Microsoft breaking interoperability. At one point, Microsoft were deliberately serving broken CSS to Opera that would cause it to mess up the layout for that one particular browser.

And more info here, where the Opera crew explains how M$ deliberately cripples www.msn.com pages.

What's funny is that this is the same company that released a 'Bork' version of their browser.

Just look at the Opera results for a moment. Notice how the later versions are actually slower.

What? Well, some aspects, yes, but some are dramatically faster. Just look at the impressive trend of its script execution speeds. Some heavy optimizations seem to have taken place there. The cold startup time of Opera 8 is also optimized to the point it's back to the Opera 6.03 speed, which is also impressive for its vastly expanded feature set since then (rewritten rendering engine in Opera 7 among others ;-)).

Also, a browser can render much more quickly if it doesn't care how badly it renders what you see. How does this balance with the loading times in the article?

If you're still talking about Opera, it's known to be more sensitive to bad formed HTML than IE (well duh) and even Firefox. In other words, its "quirks mode" for bad formed HTML may be a bit less tolerant. However, like the other modern web browsers out there except IE, it supports what you can expect from one. The only notable difference I can see regarding modern standards is that IE 6 and Gecko supports XSLT 1.0 but Opera doesn't. That IE 6 supports XML 1.0 and XSLT is among the more strange parts about it IMO, by the way. No no, no transparent PNG's, but advanced stuff like XSLT? Hell yes. :-S

• Presto -- Opera 7/8, Adobe GoLive, Dreamweaver.
  
• Gecko -- Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape 6+, K-Meleon...
  
• KHTML/WebCore -- Konqueror, Safari.
  
• Tasman - IE5/MacOS.
  
• Trident -- IE/Win32.

All this fuss over another feature that was copied from Opera to Firefox and now to Yahoo???

I assume everyone remembers the MSN/Opera fiasco?

Strewth, if succesful transitioning to Firefox requires me to fork out $20 for a book, I might as well spend my money on a more straightforward browser.

"Microsoft makes the only competing product for Firefox"

It is a good idea to use official builds or compile the software myself to be safe from various security threats. Unofficial builds may be faster, indeed, but I would prefer to read instructions on how I can compile Mozilla to load pages faster**, instead of installing a prebuilt program that I don't know what is changed in it and how secure it is.

** Note: I use Konqueror and it is orders of magnitude faster than Mozilla/Firefox/IE in loading Web pages. I definitely believe that Konqie is the perfect browser. The only other browser that I have found to be faster than Mozilla/Firefox (but not faster than Konqie) is Opera. Too bad that Opera isn't open source, if it was then IE would be history by years now.

I'm a dirty linux hippie who wants everything for free/FREE, and here's what I do:

1. Download the latest stable version (7.54) of Opera from Opera.com
2. Download a serial, keygen, or crack for Opera from astakiller

w-AbErm-D6T7s-SdTxy-xNwJv-Bz8Yy
w-67RwF-CyAAN-XpksC-PiYsA-k75Qf
w-Uyc6E-ErFbN-imyrB-MkTfz-DQETR
w-YYf7k-5cK6t-XKrhA-d68xd-zmAcS

One subversive act per day keeps the fascists away.

I think this is my problem with Opera.

Price.

Not that I mind paying for software. Hell, I've even bought boxed Linux distros. But, and it is a big but, most people pay for perceived value. For these people, which includes me, Opera does not provide $39 more value than Firefox.

Maybe I'm just cheap...

if by "crush" you mean it would have run anti-spy-ad-thing-a-jig daily as opposed to the mini. then yes. it would "crush" the mini.

Strange, I just ran a spyware checker on my sole XP machine for the first time in 3 months and didn't find anything but a few cookies.

Perhaps it is because I use decent browsers ?

there is a beta version that does work with gmail.

Not sure if your intrested in running a beta, but... there is a beta version that does work with gmail.

Just remember to choose "sign in anyways".

Opera can run off a CD with no write access anywhere on the HD. It doesn't run particularly well without any cache space, but if you have at least 512 megs of ram it'll still outperform IE. http://www.opera.com/support/search/supsearch.dml? index=114

its you, go here first. ;)

While Opera used Cydoor as an advertising delivery partner, Opera never contained any spyware, or any Cydoor technology at all: Opera simply fetched the Ads from the cydoor servers.

Not only that, Opera provided a full description of the protocol for ad delivery in Opera versions that had Cydoor as ad partner: Additional Content Protocol 1.0.

I remember, because I whined about Cydoor and ads in the Opera newsgroups the day it became known that Opera was to have ads.

"But, at some point I realized that as cool as Opera is, and as much as I think the company is a fine company, it's still not software that is terribly concerned with freedom."

I mean, how can the Mozilla spokesperson claim that Opera is not as portable as Mozilla? It's pure FUD.

"I find it amazing somebody points out that he makes the same choice on slashdot (of all places) and not only gets flack about it but gets modded down for it."

"But, at some point I realized that as cool as Opera is, and as much as I think the company is a fine company, it's still not software that is terribly concerned with freedom."

I mean, how can the Mozilla spokesperson claim that Opera is not as portable as Mozilla? It's pure FUD.

"I find it amazing somebody points out that he makes the same choice on slashdot (of all places) and not only gets flack about it but gets modded down for it."

"as a desktop browser. It had a clear lead on Mozilla and IE for a while"

"Now they have made some inroads in the embedded market, but it looks like the Mozilla team has their sites set on this as well."

"I agree with the other posts that said it is basically an act of desperation. Firefox surely is big threat to Opera."

Now, the good Firefox fan would of course be quick to mention Minimo on mobiles, but the problem is that Minimo requires a lot more memory than Opera, and Opera is well ahead of it already.

"I agree with the other posts that said it is basically an act of desperation. Firefox surely is big threat to Opera."

Now, the good Firefox fan would of course be quick to mention Minimo on mobiles, but the problem is that Minimo requires a lot more memory than Opera, and Opera is well ahead of it already.

You might want to have a look at http://my.opera.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumi d=28. I only recently discovered it myself after having used Opera for years. You can change a lot more in Opera than you might think.