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Opera 6.03 - The Wild Child of Browsers?
IEEE1394 writes: "Ever wondered what other Internet browsers are available outside of Internet Explorer? Opera 6.03 from Opera Software boasts itself on being 'the fastest browser on earth.' Does it really live up to its claim of being unique and being fast? Is it
the wild child of the browser family and can it ever surpass Internet Explorer as the browser of choice? Let's find out." Funny, IE isn't my browser of choice ...
Many banking and other websites do not render properly with Mozilla, and I'm never going to pay for a browser like Opera.
So unfortunately, sometimes you must choose IE.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I was expecting to see "This article sponsored by Opera Software" at the end of that posting. Has Slashdot started taking cash for posting articles that are little more than advertisments for a particular product? Or in this case, a link to a review which is as far from "news for nerds" and "stuff that matters" as can be?
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In either case, I read the review, and it beautifully disproves Opera Software's claim of making "the world's fastest web browser", with load times varying between 50% and 300% of IE's on the pages that were tested. Opera also displays ads unless you register it (for $39!) -- why bother when it doesn't offer any major advantages over another non-MS browser like Mozilla?
It should also be noted that Opera has had some Microsoft-esque security holes in the past
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
I don't know too much about Opera, but are there any other "features" that it offers that IE doesn't, or at least doesn't do as well as Opera? I like competition in any market, but if it doesn't have anything substantially additional with it that IE doesn't, then I can see it gaining much market share, especially since one has to pay for the ad-free version? Maybe someone here can shed some light in this.
Yes, I use Opera because of the features. I like the MDI. I cannot live without the ability to go back/forward using only the mousebuttons ("gestures"). I can press ctrl+g to quickly apply my own stylesheet to the page, as can I disable image-loading with a click. I can use the zoom-control to get up close when I need to (which happens), I can press F12 and quickly enable and disable javascript/plugins/popups. I can press CTRL+J to get a window with all the links on a page. I can enable automatic periodical refresh, I maximize frames with the click of a button. When exploring large link-collections I can use the special 'create linked window' to browse efficiently without having to open/close lot's of windows.
I'm sure mozilla can do much of this, but IE? IE is - as far as I'm concerend - a joke as far as features go.
Opera is all about the small things which makes my browsing fun and efficient. That said, I have a long list of things I wished it could do, some of them from IE (I want a page 'properties' function)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Hmm... I guess car magazines shouldnt run reviews of new models, because anybody interested in those new cars already test drove them... and Money magazine shouldnt give any stock advice, because people who buy stocks already know what to buy... /. already tested it ", believe it or not there actually are people who have _never used it_.. ...
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now do you see how flawed your argument is? So what if "everyone slightly interested in opera that reads
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
Yeah, it's such a terrible burden to have to write HTML-compliant code, instead of having IE render just about anything you throw at it.
Write correct, clean code and you won't have any trouble with Mozilla-based browsers.
That somebody who took it upon themself to review the product did not wish to take the time to familiarize themself with one of its biggest features speaks to a certain lack of proffessinalism... That aside though, I don't see how the gestures can be considered a "con". Even with them turned on, I find it difficult to perform one accidentally (I myself only use the back and forth navigation and never run into a problem of triggering another gesture accidentally). Finally, since there's an option to turn them off, I really fail to see how, iven if they are "annoying", their inclusion can be held against the browser.
I think that it's by providing these features that Opera can succeed in the marketplace alongside of IE. One great feature would be trying to predict the next link you will click and pre-loading that page. (Like for multi-page articles).
Ñ'
I I am a front end graphic designer/coder, which menas I design what people see and use, I get dirty with some javascript and asp when necessary but my company has backend/plumbing people to take care of the database and heavy coding needed. As a frontend designer I use Dreamweaver to rapidly create a page the way I want it too look and quickly switch to code view to tweak/ change things and go back to layout the rest of the page. I can code by hand but when its done so much quicker visually I dont need to do it by hand. Thus Dreamweaver/FrontPage/Interdev etc. need to be the ones creating the inital code to be crossbrowswer. I should'nt have to remember what one browser does versus another and on which version it does and doesnt do it. Thats just ridiculous. The standards are a base from which to jump off from and it seems that IE has made quicker strides in developing what people want to see unlike Netscape or others.
Slashdot is a biased community of very talented,smart techno savvy individuals. Most internet users are not. Most users are Windows/IE platform based not Linux/Mozilla or otherwise.
With the staggering amount of sites out there and the number of designer/developers and platform combinations and developemtn tools. Expect diversity. Expect it too be different and you won't be dissappointed.
Flame On!
peoples, you're making a slight error in your statements.
Browser of choice = your top choice of what you want to work in.
Browser of necessity = what you're forced to work with even if you don't want to.
slight difference, but it is an important one.
mike
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
and if you read Operas own docs properly you would see "without a uniqueID it would not be possible to sell adverts" which is a GUID therefore identifying specifically your machine, compromising your privacy
also while cexx do mention its cleaned up its act, further reading mentions it still hides critical function calls from the user and cexx continues to call it "Cydoor spyware"
so quit trying to convince people otherwise without the full facts instead of just the ones you choose to believe
no smoke without fire
There is an option within the preferences section in Opera that allows you to specify what type of advertising you want it to serve up. However you can also choose to refuse those ad popups as well from the File menu in Opera.