Slashdot Mirror
Opera Turns 10, Gives Away Free Registrations
osvejda writes "Opera Software ASA is celebrating 10-year anniversary of its browser. As a surprise party favor they're giving away free registration codes (for as long as the party lasts). Also see photos from the party, listen to music by employees, play games and more."
IE works fine for me. No viruses, no pop-ups, and it works great for everything I need it to do.
"For one day only, you can get an ad-free version of Opera. Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT)."
Great idea Opera - I wonder if other companies would consider doing this - i.e. get free Windows Vista registration on Bill Gates 50th birthday? BTW, here's a direct link to the Free Registration Page and I see chat, photos, and some podcasting/MP3's are available ... but no live webcam feed of
their party - I'm sure that
would be more exciting that the
concrete cam ... ;-)
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Get your free registration code here.
Windows, GNU/Linux Intel, GNU/Linux PowerPC, GNU/Linux Sparc, FreeBSD, Solaris and Macintosh.
Pretty good give away. Opera is a good third browser, after Firefox and Safari.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Zooming with the scroll wheel also zooms the images. I only want it to zoom text (like Firefox). Anyone know how to change this behavior?
The very thing that's put me off Opera is the fact that you have to *pay* to get rid of adverts, especially considering that it's a web browser. I mean, why pay when you gan get a free alternative elsewhere? *cough* Firefox *cough* Still, happy birthday to them.
Some think the Internet is a bad thing. I just think that AOL is a bad thing.
I think its more a matter of not really caring because they're about to releace version 9. Opera are doing just fine in the embedded markets so they're not desperate for cash.
I do think its a great idea to get people hooked before the new release though.
Except, you know, about the part where Opera contains absolutely no spyware you uniformed troll
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
"Do those codes upgrade my copy of Firefox?"
Yes. Yes, they do!
I'll feed the troll...
Most of the features in question existed in Opera long before somebody made an extension for FF. In fact, there's quite a few FF extensions whose name or description refers to Opera.
My FF has 93 extensions, at least half of which are features that are standard in Opera. I won't bother to discuss startup and page load speeds.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
The pictures and video of the company are really great. Norway doesn't look like Silicon Valley at all! For more pictures of the Opera offices and employees, here's a blog post about a visit to the company earlier this summer. http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lainspotting/2005/08/my- visit-to-opera.html
My web domain.
I would be pissed as hell if I had paid for Opera yesterday or even within the last few months.
Regards,
Steve
I think I'm going to join their IRC party with Chatzilla. :-)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
If you use Opera, FireFox or Mozilla you can do no wrong.
Use IE, and you are a troll.
Go figure.
is the day that, simultaneously, chickens will grow teeth, pigs learn to fly for extended periods of time and grannies compete in extreme skateboarding competitions while mainlining heroin.
It's not happenin'
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Rather, free registration codes as long as their server lasts. :)
B
"We must still have chaos within in order to be able to give birth to a dancing star." --Friedrich Nietzsche
Really, the ads are very small and don't bother me. I did use the free registration to see what it looks like without the ads. I still don't think the ads are a big deal.
This browser has come a long way since I first tried version 2.0 on Win95. That was clunky and I uninstalled it after a couple of days and went back to Netscape. I tried it again around 5.X and liked it a lot better. I stuck with it and now use it as my main browser on multiple platforms, but I also use Firefox, Konoqueror and Mozilla as well depending on what I'm doing.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
I'm running out of ideas for fake names to sign up with.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Since the site's already slashdotted, here's the registration code: ...
:-)
Oh wait. Dammit...
Opera is fast
.. :/
Try zooming pages, it's many times faster than Firefox(/Gecko). And just showing the menus seem much more smooth(thanks to Qt I guess).
And it's more focused on tab browsing, every window is opened as a tab. I like that more than Firefox's behavoir.
But then again, Opera doesn't have extensions
So surfed to the registration button. Looked at it for a while and then I realized... I don't even want to try it, even if it's free, I really like Mozilla.
My FF has 93 extensions, at least half of which are features that are standard in Opera.
Exactly why I don't use Opera... too bloated, but to each their own.
Taking the existing extensions and add-ons of both browsers into account (probably a similar list), why are there diehard fans of the opera browser? Unlike IE users, those running either Firefox or Opera, Opera users especially, are aware of the existance of Firefox, so what is keeping the relatively small portion of Opera users from switching to Firefox, and what's still drawing in new users into the Opera club? You'd think Opera's not being freeware (this article notwithstanding) would keep it out of my server logs entirely, but that's not the case.
To rephrase, why ought I migrate to Opera?
The Opera community page also has a slide show about its history. There are some interesting snap shots featured.
Also, Opera version History for the interested.
95% of all sigs are made up.
Cutting straight to the chase, Opera DOES work with corporate websites that require Microsoft's JVM, and Firefox does not. That's the good news.
Bad news: I think the speed claims may be overblown. I also find the interface a bit klunky. More substantively, the browser would be improved by having it automatically import IE bookmarks. Unfortunately, I had to manually import the bookmarks.
Otherwise, looks pretty good.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Yes, it will go nicely with the free registration code I got from CT Magazine's web site back in April.
Does this count?
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
Sadly, its the lack of Roboform integration that has kept me from making the jump to Opera. For those of you not in the know, Roboform is perhaps the greatest password manager/form filler ever created. Great, GREAT software. I love Firefox but it just isnt stable for me the way I use it. I'm constantly dealing with crashes when opening multiple tabs. Maxthon, on the other hand, is rock solid when using tabs but it's IE based so...... The common thing between the two is I can use Roboform.. Damn you, Opera!
We've crashed your server! Happy Birthday!
Oh this is like Geek Heaven. Free stuff! Will I ever use it? Who knows. Do I ever use all that free swag I get at trade shows? Not really. I do have my Snap.com slinky proudly displayed on the mantle however. I will admit I was too lazy to try to win a t-shirt. It's not "free" if I have to work for it.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Opera bloated? Powerful, sure, but bloated? I have both Opera and FF (with Flashblock being the only extension) open, with the same sites loaded and Opera uses about 20MB of ram, while FF uses over 100MB. The download was a heck of a lot smaller too.
I'll probably stick to FF, since I don't really like Opera's interface, but if bloat was an issue, I'd switch to Opera in a heartbeat.
How is the flat-out, undisputedly fastest browser in the world too bloated for you?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I won't bother to discuss startup and page load speeds.
I'm a long time happy opera user, on linux (and windows on my brother's pc), but there is one strange thing:
Startup takes about 3 seconds on Win XP, and it takes at least 10 seconds on my desktop Mandriva LE 2005 install. What gives?
(For those few times I used firefox on a friends pc, the page loads seemed slower with FF, but it did reload forum pages better than opera... It's a strage world we live in!)
Dependency hell? =>
... it rather *languishes* away,
;),
;P
;)
considering the - for modern users - nearly unusable interface
(ex: "hey, why does rocker nav open a popup menu?? what? i have to actually *move* the mouse to the button and click, *just to go *back*???" "where are the tabs??" "where is the adblocker??"),
the tons of bugs
(ask a real web developer. i'm pretty sure he answers you that he wants to strangle everyone still forcing him to support this load of misdocumented inconsistent unreliable crap that IE calls an API
and the chances that it ever gets really *good*...
(depending of M$ being *good* from your POV)
I guess if I were an american i'd sue you for compensation for the pain and suffering you helped to do to me.
P.S.: I got in fact fired because in some special cases of inconsistency a (nearly) unpatched IE 6 destroys the whole site by making it unusable (and ugly). It seemed that the press and marketing chimps from many important companies did not have the patch, but in our company everyone had it. So I never saw a problem, released it, and *bam*: We were "blamed" that much at out target group that my big boss fired me.
(Okay, you could also say that i should rather hate those chimps. In fact i hate IE *and* them.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Except that it's not bloated.
Under Windows, Opera 8.02 is 3,757 KB and Firefox 1.0.6 weighs in at 4,713 KB.
So not only do you get a tonne of features in Opera that Firefox doesn't have by default - but it's actually smaller by over 950 KB.
If you want to complain about bloat, by all means, but you shouldn't be accusing Opera of it.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
They just released version 8. What makes you think they will release version 9 anytime soon (serious question, I would like to know)?
Linux is not Windows
I've been using Opera for probably 4 years now, and couldn't be happier. IMO, Opera has been (and still is) well worth the price. Obviously I'm not alone as many other people also purchase Opera. :P
Though, for those of you who run websites, blogs, or whatever there is another way for you to get Opera for free. And that is simply by sending 250 referrals to Opera. So if you miss out on the birthday party, you want to look into that.
I look forward to Opera's 20th birthday and beyond!
Firefox = Clunky fixer-upper that you have to restart every time you change something
Opera = tight, ready-to-go
For many people, it's worth supporting a company (by paying) to get a nice, feature-rich browser that doesn't require a lot of dicking-around to get working the way you want.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Try Deepnet Explorer - go on give it a go. http://www.deepnetexplorer.com/ Yes. it's based on IE, but doesn't allow those nasty BHOs and the content filter is superb - you can set it up to stop anything you want. No more .exe or .cab files on drive by downloading.
Plus an excellent popup blocker and a phishing site warning tool too.
Of course, the easiest way to not get affected by drive by downloading, even with IE, is not to go on porn sites or warez sites in the first place.
Big plus: Roboform works ace on it! I used to have Roboform on Firefox on my old machine, but now I can't get the extension to work properly. BOO HISS!
"My FF has 93 extensions, at least half of which are features that are standard in Opera."
Exactly why I don't use Opera... too bloated, but to each their own
Exactly why I don't use Firefox. It tried, really. But endlessly searching for extensions (and deleting the ones that sucked, lather, rinse, repeat) to give me the functionality I was used to was just too much hassle.
For example, Opera automatically tracks your browsing session so if your computer crashes (yes I run Windows) or you close Opera, it automatically restores your session when you restart Opera. Since I typically have about 10 browser tabs open at any time, this was a must have feature for me. I tried to get similar functionality from Firefox plugins. At the time (last year) I only found a few, and they either had lousy functionality or were extremely slow.
Maybe things have improved but I really don't care. Opera works for me and I see no compelling reason to switch, especially with a free reg code (not that the ads bothered me to begin with)
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Opera never used Cydoor or anyone else's software for the ad banner, and wasn't spyware with version 5 either. We spent a lot of effort to make sure of that. The entire architecture was our own. Cydoor was just an ad provider.
Jonny Axelsson, Opera Software
Thanks a lot, Opera!
Long life and prosperity.
From today on, I'm just a more proud Opera user.
Please, don't fraintend me: I've also Firefox installed, but to be honest, it is used only for the flashy-crapped web-pages, since the plugin is disabled (by me, not by default) in Opera itself.
Opera just does all I request it for, and it does it well.
And no, IE is not an option (was it ever?) since *no Microsoft products have been used to write this message*.
OK, here's what I believe is about the second half of the party chat on IRC:
;))
ROBOd asks: how you like the "all-new, brand-new and polished" Internet Explorer 7?
Haakon: They have made some improvements in the UI, it took them 4 years or so. I was very disappointed that they didn't fix any rendering bugs. They have promised some fixes, but will not support Acid2 fully. That's a mistake.
ROBOd asks: can you express your feelings about William Henry Gates the 3rd?
Haakon: I've never met him. I had lunch with one of his men, Ballmer, though. I believe they are hardworking successful man that, unfortunately, not have accepted the responsiilities that comes with their size and power.
Jazmo__ asks: So what is typical workday for you? Do you code or is it more like sending mails and speaking on phone?
Haakon: I don't read or write Opera source code. I code in HTML, CSS and other web languages, but email takes most of my days. Sometimes meetings, although I try to cut back. Phone confereces are also common. I like lounging on a couch, bean bag or bed while working....
Haakon: Where I'm most productive though, is in the shower. It'a great place for thinking.
Haakon: I shower a lot.
PowerUser asks: You all use emacs I assume?
Haakon: Absolutely, I've been using gnu-emacs since 1987 and have found no reason to quit.
eps asks: working in a company that actively tests compatibility of our software with firefox and opera (most of our programs are webbased now, activex/java/js horrid mixtures) and is interested in linux, what efforts are you making to support (I hate the idea too, but it would be handy for bussiness) activex webbased apps under windows (and possibly linux as we are moving to FOSS in as many areas as possible)
Haakon: Active-X is a security threat and a windows-only solution. I don't think it would do us much good to support it, although I have sympathy with your position.
Jakub81 asks: Did you (or: will you) implement support for CSS3 selectors in the new (Opera 9?) core?
Haakon: I should know the answer to that one, I'm afraid the deatails are slipping me at the moment. CSS3 Selectors is one of the most mature CSS3 modules and I think we should support it.
ROBOd asks: Will Opera ever have something like iCab browser which shows a crying smiley face when a page contains invalid code? That would let users know about which sites are better and would also give the devs an impulse to follow the standards.
Haakon: Actually, I implemented that feature in the Arena browser (now historical) in 1994. I think it's great and have been suggesting it internally. However, there are thousands of good ideas, but only that many developers....
Danimal82 asks: I am wondering, what do you think the world would be like without microsoft?
Haakon: a better place, I believe. Although windows, word, powerpoint and other applications have made computers easier to use for many, I consider the PC -- as MS developed it in the 80/90s to be a dead end. Only the internet saved it, and we didn't need MS for that.
Moderator: (To answer some questions about women at Opera: yes, we have women at Opera. Yes, some are coding
RedPing asks: freedom of choice in the mainline. Is that round now in the level of smart devices (smartphones, tablet pcs, handhelds, and so on)? Is this the new battlefield?
Haakon: Yes, I think so
Haakon: MS won the desktop, but the mobile market is much more open. I hope we can build it on standards -- so that we don't battle unnecessarily.
Joshtek asks: What do you feel is special about software development?
Haakon: It's so easy to get started -- all you need is a computer. In other areas -- math, physics, music -- you often need years of training to make a difference.
Haakon: This is also why I'm against software patents -- it's so easy to have good ideas in this field.
keny asks: What do you think of firefo
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I went through and got the free registration code and then realized I didn't even want it. :(
I've used all three mainline windows browsers. IE, Firefox, Opera. IE is, for me, unusable. No tabs, slow, dull. It's a relic. And this from the 'leading' software company in the world.
:)
I've been using firefox for a good while now and I love it. It's everything you want and need plus inifinite customability.
Having said that. I've used opera before but didn't like the ads and wasn't about to pay for features I could get for free. I downloaded it today and the speed of it puts firefox to SHAME.
I'll probably continue using firefox but I can definitely see why people love this browser. Anyways. I'm just ranting. I'm sure no one gives a shit
I used to like opera before I found firefox and dropped it because I couldnt use it for my online banking whereas firefox works fine and doesnt crash all the time. Just took up their free offer, installed it and ..... it still doesnt work.
Perhaps in a later release guys. Nice gesture though.
PS, if anybody can use opera with HSBC UK online banking then let me know how.
I wonder if there will be anyone swimming at the party. I heard the CEO is an avid swimmer
Reason #32767 not to use VB6: Integers are 2 bytes... Think about it!
> At the time (last year) I only found a few, and they either had lousy functionality or were extremely slow.
I use the "session saver" plugin for a logn time now and it's neiter slow nor bad in funtionality. W(great)FM
But the funny thing is: If Opera is so "bloated", then why is it still (subjectively[?)) faster? (and has a more usable interface [i know there are poeple disagreeing with this, but i'm not].)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Bloated would be "cluttered user interface" or "slow startup times" or "high memory usage". As Opera has none of those but lots of useful Features you should really give it a try.
Linux is not Windows
Semi-seriously, I was going the slow affiliate ways of getting the registration key (please click here), and now that I got it via the birthday party and finally registered ...
Heck, you guys aren't going to believe it, but I miss the ad banner! ... I had grown so accustomed to it, as if it were part of the UI ...
"I'm never quite so stupid as when I'm being smart" (Linus van Pelt)
You get a browser! You get a browser! You get a browser!
I'd much rather read a topic like this. :P
Sort of, but then I realised that A) my payment helps Opera develop new updates and a better browser (do any FF users donate? Are they pissed off they did?)
and
B) *I* get premium support, my issues end up *front and center* to the devs, rather than buried in the forum threads and such for the non payers. Guess which likely gets fixed first?
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
You should teach them a lesson by boycoting their free registration.
Wow, I don't know whats with your Firefox installation, but I currently have 10 Firefox windows open with an average of 7 tabs in each and Im using 77MB. Oh and I have 27 extensions (including flashblock, noScript and AdBlock) and one of the more graphically intense themes installed.
Compared to Links? Or Dillo?
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
I am a civilian aircraft engineer who has been granted authority by the FAA to represent then in areas pertaining to my expertise. In the course of performing this function, I often need to refer to current and historical requlatory information as found on the FAA "airweb" site. Problem is, the javascript appears to be non W3C compliant and neither Firefox (or gecko based browsers in general as far as I can tell) nor Konqueror handle it correctly. However, Opera does. Therefore, I need Opera on my home computer for this specific website.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Well, i'm a Firefox use myself but I must say that Opera is much faster than a fully extensions-loaded Firefox (and even faster than a raw firefox), which means that on an old/crappy box Opera will be much more useable than FF and will hog much less memory. Which is nice, because Firefox on a
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I preach Opera like a Jehovah's Witness preaches... well... Jehovah.
:-)
It is like firefox, with most of the extensions installed, without hoarding your memory, and completelly integrated. Oh, It also reads your mail. It is a 4MB download.
Opera spoiled me because now I cannot use any browser that doesn't use Sessions. Its usability is superb, nothing comes close. Every single detail has been polished.
I have always used the ads to support Opera. Specially since the ad sense ads that occupy the same screen real estate as a toolbar. Getting a free version makes me feel rather guilty actually.If only Microsoft made me feel that way
Adolfo
You must not know what you are talking about or you use a ridiculous amount of extensions.
I am currently using 24mb on a ~500mhz or so laptop
Yeah, now I need to do something with those links...
With the referrals, is it OK to fully get rid of the code from the referral so that someone else can have it, if you already got a code elsewhere (like the party)?
Exactly why I don't use Fx. Try Lynx 2.8.3.
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
Linux is not Windows
That did sound like a rather big difference, so I closed FF and re-opened all my tabs. FF is now at 39MB. Still almost double what Opera uses, but significantly less than before.
The previous FF instance had been running for several days, except for the occasional hiberation period. Looks like there's a memory leak somewhere.
I am currently running FF with a single window open, which has 12 tabs (including this one), which has been running for about 6 hours now, mostly in the background. Task Manager reports its memory usage to be 97MB. I regularly see FF's memory usage go over 100MB.
I'm running 1.0.6 with the Noia theme and 2 extensions (ad block and web developer).
FF is great, but in my experience its a real memory hog.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
eg, "better", "worse", "x browser does it better", etc etc...
Thanks Opera, and Happy Birthday!
Rather good of them to give their product away.
Kudos!
What extensions do you use?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
(generated from a quick script).
r is","baxter","bernard","brett","cade","dennis","da vid","donald","drew","earl","eauldman","frank","fr ed","garth","gavin","greg","gustav","herman","jack ","john","jason","jeffrey","jorge","kevin","keegan ","kyle","lon","lew","lervis","mark","nick","noah" ,"nolan","ned","nevin","otto","phillip","patrick", "quentin","ronald","roland","robert","rick","rudol ph","steve","stuart","shawn","sherb","tom","tim"," ubert","victor","walter","wendel","wallace","xavie r","yates","zeta","nico","nicholas","michael","mat thew","colin","kent","justin","erasmus","don","don ovan","dean","dane","dain","dwain","dwight","earp" ,"edward","ed","edgar","flynn","murphy","quayle"," stove","blitter"), "","water","","","house","","")
nick alistair, john garth, tom mark
blitter quaylesen, rudolph ottosen
drew phillip, jeffrey stove, kent mark
rick garth, quayle blittersen, shawn kent
colin nolanhouse, dwight yates, justin bernard
nico alistair, fred fredsen, steve jeffrey
quayle jason, matthew mcarnold, otto murphy
tom dane, ned earpbridge,alistair john
dain markbridge, dwight edward, ed blitter
andrew lew, mark donovan, nolan jeffrey
ned phillip, zeta xavier, tim shawnson
yates mcnico, matthew mcalistair, ben stoveson
murphy nick, nevin wallace, drew wallace
flynn nick, dwight nicoson, walter lervis
herman flynnwater, quayle donovansen
rudolph frankbridge, rick lon, murphy stove
roland quaylemc, john nevin, stuart baxter
michael shawnmc, nicholas dennis, erasmus nicholas
flynn xavier, kent gustav, rudolph mcgavin
xavier dwain, frank roland, victor dwight
xavier brett, mark patrick, david donovansen
murphy matthew, ned earl, lon dwight
quayle dean, lon nevin, patrick justin
keegan nicholasbridge, dennis kevin
greg wallace, patrick nicholas, drew lew
jeffrey frank, murphy gustav, kyle dane
aaron quentin, garth eauldman, stove stove
dwain flynn, dennis lervisson, murphy rolandwater
stuart nolan, steve nickhouse, bernard cade
ronald mcandrew, noah nolan, dain walter
keegan andrew, donald gavinsen, noah dennisbridge
shawn erasmus, ned earphouse, nico sherb,
rick stove, edgar ottosen, xavier don,
ubert yatesson, arnold mark, dean alistair
In case anyone is interested, here is the code:
import random
a=("andrew","alistair","aaron","arnold","ben","bo
b=("son","","","sen","","","mc","","","bridge",""
zz=1
while zz != 100:
c=random.choice(a)
d=random.choice(a)
e=random.choice(b)
zz=zz+1
print c+" "+d+e
Liberal Ontarians and French Quebecers are draining Western Canada's wealth. Stop them now! Support Western separatism.
Actually, they're about to release version 8.10, which finally adds the BitTorrent capability to a final version.
Right now, I'm running a duct-taped 8.02TP1 (the original BitTorrent version, it's alpha-grade code) and 8.02 Final install, although the duct-tape makes it less stable than the alpha code...
95% of your setup in Opera 7.54 will automatically carry over to 8 if you install over the old one. I think you have to tick up your search.ini version # - or use Opsed..
And you have to decide what to do with the new stuff like the "start" bar.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
Some people don't see the $39.00 USD price for Opera as an issue. I'm one of those people. ;)
I can't even count how many times I've spent $40-$50 on a game, only to not play it or only play it for a few weeks. With Opera, I've gotten something that I use daily at home as well as at work.
Even if Opera was 100% free 100% all of the time, I'd still send in donations. I just think it is that good.
Hmm... Opera uses QT on Linux, whereas it uses MFC on Windows. That could explain the speed differences...
As for the forum page things, I think Opera's got a weakness when it comes to table rendering speed... I've seen it a LOT when rendering forums...
I use Opera because it works for me. I tried it, I liked it, now I use it. The only person that can tell you why you should use it is you. :P
For those of you who dislike Opera's interface, you are aware that it is far from set in stone, right?
When the servers come back, go to my.opera.com/customize and look at the custom toolbar and skin setups.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
Unfortunately for me and others, Opera still lacks one critical thing: NTLM authentication to MS Proxy/ISA servers. Firefox works. IE works. Yet Opera still manages to write of NTLM compatbility just because 'it's an ensecure protocol from MS'.
I merrily downloaded and registered my free version only to find out it's absolutely worthless at work not only for web access, but the access developmental pages/servers that do ntlm/windows integrated security.
I'll stick with Firefox thanks.
It's nice to have another browser to use when a website you want to visit doesn't work in your browser of choice. Many sites that don't work in Mozilla do work in Opera, and vice versa.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
I used to LOVE Opera. Was back when I was using Windows 95 I think; after installing IE4 (thus active desktop), the whole operating system became awefully unstable, but especially when using IE itself.
I'd tried Netscape Navigator; but I never liked that... was slow, displayed things poorly and so just sat on my computer. It was a computer magazine actually that showed me Opera; with its claim of its install being able to fit on a single floppy! Wow, how did they manage that!
So installed it, and loved it. On my paltry 32 megs of RAM, on an unstable Windows 95; Opera was fast, stable, and displayed websites how I liked them. Perfect! But then I got more memory, Windows 98 came out and was more stable; Opera started becoming bloated for my likeing (so many features I would never ever use yet sit there taking up UI space) and so I went back to IE. Netscape at this stage? A joke.
And now of course I'm on Firefox; fast, customisable and easy to use, even managed to get my ex to use it. Its not without its faults, but its the best there is for now. One thing though; this free registration offer will have done what its set out to do; I will definitely give Opera another try
Does anyone know if they will be coming out with a Solaris X86 version? The only Solaris version I can see if for SPARC.
Oh wait, the download link is down, maybe i'll try again in 2010, or then again maybe not.
Note to Opera staff, if you can't keep your own website up properly, i'm not going to trust your browser to show the other 9billion.
I'm glad to see that you are still around...and iCab, they're still around too. Here's to those who are still around.
AC
I don't know if you included the [sic] for "posing" or for "thank", but posing a question is quite correct (unlike "beg", when you mean raise).
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
The site is down... "Proxy error" Why download?? May be they want we make our Opera browser. Anyone??
Holy shit FF is almost a whole megabyte bigger! Right now Firefox is using 69MB of RAM on my pc and you know what? I could care less since I have 955MB more and an assload of swap space to spare.
Hmm... i know i am a cheap bastard, but was kinda hoping for a free mobile edition reg-key for my old ipaq pocketpc :(
But how many people really know how to use their computer? Many either use their's for gaming or browsing and even then don't know how to setup their computer, OS, or browser for security.
Since September 30th., 1997 I've been using IE. Never any viruses, no spyware
I was using Netscape before then, and before Netscape I used, was it Lynx or another text browser. As for virii, I've never had a problem with a virus though ocassionally Norton Antivirus says it found a virus. Spyware? I don't download and install much software, I just downloaded Opera, other software I downloaded and installed are the Firebird database, Adobe Acrobat Reader as well as other borswer plugins, Java JRE, JBuilder, Macromedia Extensions, ZoneAlarm, and Textpad.
As far as IE 7, don't you have to Windows XP to install it? Or is that the next IE upgrade? As it is now I'm still using Windows ME but plan on getting Windows 2000 which is the last MS OS I plan to get unless MS gets rid of Activation. For my next computer I'm getting a Mac Powerbook, and when I do I'll get Virtual PC with Windows 2000 then.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Welcome to the wide world of Cause and Effect.
Cause: Repeatedly obtaining free registration codes.
Effect: ???
Cause: Repeatedly throwing candy bar wrappers and empty beer cans into the median.
Effect: ???
Cause: Flushing used oil, and antifreeze down the street drain.
Effect: ???
Cause: Wide and repeated illegal copyright violations.
Effect: ???
The Eurocrats recently forced them to release a version with no media player on it, which everybody viewed as silly and ignored. But earlier, when they gave away IE for free, Netscape got the Feds to investigate them, because MS was greedily interfering with Netscape's business model of giving away browsers for free...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Search for hidden "stuff" before you go al the way with someone in the chat room!
In Google We Trust
I have used opera for a small time, I liked a lot how it organized its features but I didn't really like their approach regarding RSS. Sure it saves each and every feed, but I'd like to receive them in a firefoxish way (get the top 10 or so of each and discard the oldest).
In firefox I feel like i'm being given the very lastest news, in opera i feel i'm getting spammed. I know its the same content but it just makes me feel bad if I dont read each and every interesting topic I get, so I was wondering if any opera users know of a plugin or something to make it work like friefox?
Ok, went to the party, snarfed the horse doover, launched the browser, registered it (no ads)... Unh. Heavy lifting. It's just different enough from MS IE, Safari, Firefox, Camino... even iCab ... that it seems like going to another country. Fun for a slow day, I guess. I haven't deleted it yet.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
I've seen a lot of things on slashdot, but is this the first time a link to free serials has been posted on the front page?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Download finished, I'm going to go try it out!
I've been using Firefox for quite some time now, but I decided to give oepra a go since my biggest complaint was the cost. I can't see paying for a browser without built in advertisements when I can download a very good one for free.
This is a good marketing move on the part of Opera. I can now evaluate it without being turned off by the ads. Also now that I have a regged copy, I'll do more to make sure that my sites will render correctly in Opera.
I don't know if this will add to Opera's bottom line, but it does open the market share up, even if a small bit.
I paid for Opera 7 a few years ago. That gave me a free upgrade to Opera 8, but only on Windows. My Linux copy had to keep its ad-banner... until now. Yay.:)
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You moderators are retarded, petty, dickless wonders of fanboyism.
I seriously hope you get the assreaming you deserve in metamoderation.
I use Lynx, you insensitive clod! Oh wait, why do I hear sirens? Oh $#!+~~~~~
NO CARRIER
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was testing out a web interface I made for an inventory I've been working on after uploading it my companies IIS server. Doesn't work in IE (nested named links pointing to a frame), works fine in FF, fine in Netscape... Opera doesn't have any support whatsoever for IIS, let alone ActiveX. Thanks for the free reg code Opera... I use your browser for porn and absolutely nothing else because so little else works.
OMG SOEMOEN SI H4X0RING MAI B0X3N!1!
> all those pages could hide in the space it takes for just one tab until I need them.
Opera already supports this.
For every workspace open a "new window" instead of a "new tab". Inside of the new window, open all tabs related to a topic. In another window, open those that are related to another topic.
Every window has a taskbar icon, and can be minimized/maximized - with all its contained tabs.
I use this quite often when I do quick researches on something. I'm used to open multiple google results at once for quicker browsing. Once I'm satisfied, I have a lot of unread tabs left. Closing the workspace window closes all of them at once. How nice!
Konqueror and Firefox are free all the time..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
For old systems, http://kmeleon.sf.net/ is your best bet. Granted, it's Windows-only, but it has a Gecko base and is insanely fast.
I don't think so. Not only do the editors posts dupes all the fricking time, but they also reject valid stories. They all should be fired.
2005-08-30 11:32:25 Opera Keys for free (Index,Software) (rejected)
there are times when you want to tile two pages so you can look at both at once. You can do this in Opera, but not in Firefox.
I can do this in my window manager, which is the proper place for such functionality.
Opera inc are actually a nice bunch of folks:
1. Unobstrusive ads (google text ads), commercial != bad, google makes money from ads and your pizza ain't free.
2. These people are pioneers of key browser features. Tabbed browsing, standards support, integrated mail/news/RSS/IRC/BT client, mail labels (what Gmail did later), etc etc
3. Opera folks are in staunch opposition to software patents. Inspite of fact that they did all those features waaay before anybody else, they haven't patented anything. Their CEO said in an statement that Opera is opposed to the concept of software patents.
Folks, the product is worth the money. They are good people(TM) and that is reason enough these days to support them.
- mritunjai
Just go to wwww.keygen.us or www.cracks.am and DOWNLOAD a perfectly fine key generator!
For a long time you could load Opera on a 1.44MB floppy and use it sort of like a 'live CD' for whenever you had to work on a machine that didn't have it. So yeah, the current release is bloated. It's still less bloated than the other graphical browser alternatives, though.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
My 2 custom buttons carried over exactly the same. Backup your profile dir just in case, and give it a shot. I've managed to keep Opera looking the same since v5, so not impossible. Or even difficult moving to 8. I recall 2 changes that were necessary for me:
:(
1) In preferences, general tab - uncheck show close button on each tab
2) (Optional, depends on skin) Edit skin.ini to have no minimum tab width so tabs are dynamic still/again.
#2 is a PITA, but all maintained skins already had that done by the maintainers. I'm unlucky enough to use the Opera 6 classic (otherwise known as Opera 5 default) skin, which the maintainer dropped around 7.11
So I have to maintain it myself by begging help in the customize Opera forum.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
A wise man once say: Matt 20:1-16
If I'd paid for Opera yesterday, I would have paid a price I was comfortable with, for a product I liked, and would have been happy. The terms of somebody else's deal with Opera are no concern of mine; if they have managed to get a better deal, good luck to them, but I paid Opera a price I was happy to pay and have no cause to complain.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
And what if you try to maximize one window to get more space for each? Yeah, thought so, moron.
Pfft tabs... with IE I can view two webpages using my Windows Taskbar. This is the proper place for such functionality.
Every browser has flaws, it's just people have had longer to find IE's. Stop whining about how great FireFox is, i think you'll find that FireFox is continually having security flaws being discovered. A browser is only as good and secure as its user. You visiting dodgy hacking and virus sites you get a virus, you stick to websites where the visitor count is above 100 and you don't get virii (I believe the plural of virus to be viriii, correct me if I'm wrong). I, of all people, a deep M$ hater should stereotypically hate IE, but it works, loads quick and does the drop. Why change to a program which takes a few seconds to load.
if only it had compatibility for the /pizza command from Everquest 2. Until they add the ability to bring up a pizza ordering screen with only 7 keystrokes, I'll stick with browsing the internet using my copy of Everquest 2, which is f'ing cool according to other slashdot users. Why would anyone ever want to use anything other than EQ2? Happy birthday Opera and thanks, but no thanks.
-Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither. -Ben Franklin
You've entirely missed my point. Opera, with the features all programmed in the main package, is not bloated. FF, with 93 third-party extensions stuck to it, gets to be rather bloated.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Why should Opera act like FireFox? Really. That's like buying a Mercedes and whining that it doesn't look like a Trabant.
I would be pissed as hell if I had paid for Opera yesterday or even within the last few months.
Yeah, I guess when you flip burgers for a living, $40 is a big fucking deal.
Wow good response. +5 insightful. Heh I'm not big on religion, but you applied that well.
Regards,
Steve
Very true, but Real Men have at least 20 webpages open at any time, be they Brainfuck documentation or pr0n.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
I know K-Meleon, I know how fast it is, and I know how featureless it is (and user friendly too, nothing like tinkering in the config files with my good ol' notepad)
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
I hate that implementation! I'm always activating it accidentally.
I'm using Opera on OS X. I also use Opera on a Debian box. I cannot function without ctrl-a, ctrl-e, ctrl-k in the text fields of the program I'm working in. Safari allows this. Opera on Debian allows this. But Opera on OS X just ignores these commands.
Please, oh God, if any of you know a fix, I'd give my first-born to hear it.
I love opera, but if these commands don't work, I'm going to have to go back to Safari on the Mac...
Not that I post on slashdot or anything.
The alpha releases (currently code-named "Deer Park") provide an option to force "new window" links to open in the current tab or in a new tab.
Well, I thought I'd add in something here just to (hopefully) revive the discussion. I'm a current Firefox user, and I plan to stay that way even after running the latest version of Opera available on their website -- using the registration code that was given out as part of the free offer.
Why am I sticking with Firefox? Opera seems to be a great browser...a few pages didn't view properly in it that work in Firefox (e.g. the MSN Canada page, which although I'm not partial to, my parents like quite a bit). Other than that everything worked smoothly...it's fast, attractive, lightweight, and has a whole lot of options available...with shortcuts to make a lot of those things easy.
Well, I'm sticking with Firefox for ideological reasons, as one might guess. Opera, no matter how good of a product it might be, is still a closed-source product. One must rely on the company providing the product on a number of issues; trust, support, and so on. With an open-source product like Firefox, I even have the option of continuing to support a product myself if I wish -- but in the meantime, an enthusiastic community of users is already out there, working to improve it every day. It's free in the sense of money, but also in the real ways that count to me.
Anyone else feel this way?
Firefox has extensions, but I find it impossible to evaluate Firefox + extenions to another browser. We are talking core functionality here. Otherwise, would I be able to say Firefox is extremely unstable because I found an extension that made it unstable? I'd hope not.
... but that's another discussion. Opera has everything I need built-in.
I like sitting down with Opera, anywhere, and be reasonably assured of what features are available to me. I use firefox on 4 different machines, different OSes. That's 4 mouse gesture extensions to install. 4 adblocks. 4 of everything to maintain a constant user experience. And when the next point release comes out? I might get to do it all over again. And then I sit down at a friend's machine and do I have mouse gestures? I don't know. Can I rearrange tabs? I don't know. It is all hit and miss. Then there's the notion of the social contract violation of something like AdBlock
I was hoping that they were giving away registration codes for the Windows Smartphone version. Clearly Opera is better than IE. But 20 bucks is a bit pricey for a phone browser.
thanks for the gift! next time we want the source code.
The one thing that has always put me off of using Opera is that I use OS X and Linux at home. Depending on what I'm doing, I'll be using one or the other.
Because I would have had to pay for both OSs, I never bothered with Opera. This will actually make me give it a try.
I use Opera for Mac regularly, but until today I never installed it on my Linux desktop where Firefox sit confortably. While playing with Opera settings, after my free registration (thank you Opera), I realised that I could select Helvetica for the text of the GUI, however I do not have Helvetica on my system!? I then decided to try Hevetica on a web page, since Opera seems to have a font on his own, and surprinsigly, it worked, the font looks funny at big size, but it is Helvetica indeed, not a substitution like in Firefox. So I guess somehow Opera licenced a copy of Helvetica for its browser, with some others, and they can be used independantly of the system fonts (I still have to understand the funny look of it, it might come from static Qt) To my knowledge, without paying for a licence, or "stealing" from my mac, there was no way to get Helvetica based web design on Linux, without nasty substitution, but now (well before, but now for mw) there is Opera.
...is the only thing that prevents me from using Opera over Maxthon. For the uninitiated, Super Drag and Drop is an ingenious little method of opening a linked page in a new tab. All you have to do is drag the link in any direction and it will open in a new tab. It's great for easily queueing up slashdot stories to read.
just in case you don't get there in time for a free registration, here are a few :
http://my.opera.com/community/party/reg.dml?email= no%40mail.com
opera 10-year online anniversary party free registration
To register the Opera browser and remove the ad bar, follow these steps :
1. Copy the appropriate registration code given below
2. Go to Help > Register Opera
3. Enter your name and organization
4. Paste the registration code and press OK
Operating System Registration Code
Windows w-dQsXn-3vTae-tKVKp-MKNuC-8XExk
Linux Intel u-8jCan-RQ4Wc-nHuUp-mvSjD-YB6mj
Linux PowerPC p-xDkDn-edNNd-nEnsp-RPpNC-8mHck
Linux Sparc k-idQWm-XKjad-iEX6p-7hSuD-dn6wj
FreeBSD f-Njckr-maJvf-bJ5rn-5LFND-r3yRm
Solaris s-zEjkp-KpAve-njMKn-pKmPE-vPyRk
Mac m-b5Fvp-s3cke-LTpAn-VhWDE-LkbHk
Windows w-PUQcA-6VQyS-PwjhA-MR4hu-nUsvN
Linux Intel u-w8hRA-rLsSR-pBJUA-PbKVu-NPYNM
Linux PowerPC p-EWKFz-NSK4R-ytdLz-KviMu-fP7jN
Linux Sparc k-TrfnA-SS8nR-MSFsA-XULtv-kPvDM
FreeBSD f-MTEnB-LEp4Q-P74sB-VsAMv-xvWXP
Solaris s-E4wHB-Qup4P-X3nLB-hrfNw-BiWXN
Mac m-CHtHB-z843P-53PLB-aXTMw-dQCXN
Windows w-CMUti-znsUx-3LJ4h-sDV4v-fEirP
Linux Intel u-3sfMh-twAAy-hKzph-Vphpv-b3vpM
Linux PowerPC p-cv7Uf-z4N6y-sMsyf-PQ3Ru-DRneN
Linux Sparc k-7uJBh-kBksy-mM4dh-5ixyv-JRKyM
FreeBSD f-psrVh-n7w6x-yJmei-3MkSv-UxeTP
Solaris s-pVcWi-Lmp6w-Kj5yi-mLXSw-YkeTN
Mac m-VCS7f-QXkhz-5AFHf-s43Hu-W3n5M
Windows w-TtXye-d5Nzn-haEke-5UCpH-k5kAc
Linux Intel u-wNEef-BH8Sm-KpmYe-7ek5H-LWTTb
Linux PowerPC p-Vms4c-xu3rr-hEDvd-R7KyF-4wT5a
Linux Sparc k-Rm4Hd-i3xKp-cEhbe-7yfeH-8wira
FreeBSD f-e3hJe-fNbKn-jSYve-544yH-kcLKc
Solaris s-aPw5e-JLArn-Aciwf-p3HzJ-rXKKb
Mac m-K88dd-nCcUp-7ziXc-TBM4E-SHvfb
Windows w-z7vpt-K7V5a-kS77s-RRhHX-JeDtt
Linux Intel u-byVys-RS3Tb-n5NBs-uPpRV-WVjis
Linux PowerPC p-JKeps-h3m6b-FmrMs-5St3V-YWnts
Linux Sparc k-NKBHr-wuQKc-LmM7r-jmVFW-6WKLr
FreeBSD f-Yr64t-Xmwra-JzLMt-hQK3W-iDe8t
Solaris s-6d64s-VdTrb-bSMtt-ANr4X-nte8s
Mac m-FvJSs-CWfAb-rb4hs-MVBxV-xJ6Bs
Windows w-eu7kE-J8k6M-AusJD-M3Msw-FUdnP
Linux Intel u-TrnwE-nPkfN-RxdTD-R5hhw-k3FcP
Linux PowerPC p-5n3DC-LPu6N-cVWpD-CVHKu-BzFmN
Linux Sparc k-jPwkD-YhWKP-hVmJC-Rpdsv-Fz5EM
FreeBSD f-hkkED-vbCrM-ebmrE-PSYKv-Sey3P
Solaris s-AiXEE-t3YrN-Eun5D-aRELw-W3x3N
Mac m-XnvbD-i7JAP-TCRyC-w6pUu-8VNQM
Windows w-wSsnW-LKE8H-MDUrV-RhrDu-4j67M
Linux Intel u-uHJRW-DvhiF-5R7AX-AtAPw-b7aWN
Linux PowerPC p-hF7cW-Fw8iJ-HrpAV-M3QNu-W5xiN
Linux Sparc k-mFvxV-LwwCH-VQRfW-3umvv-45TBM
FreeBSD f-ymWRX-vzPiH-PmjhX-XWaPv-fKpWP
Solaris s-TUsRW-v43hF-5ArBX-jVNPw-kypWN
Mac m-y5WFV-i7YtH-7zD6V-mU4jv-6vCtM
Windows w-Musji-WF54w-TXhyi-yDEnS-k6LMy
Linux Intel u-TSECh-kbN5y-X5rxf-7kdnQ-Bhs8x
Linux PowerPC p-CEijh-kBHrz-5m5Qf-pzAFQ-fJfMx
Linux Sparc k-peNCf-6aeKy-XmFxh-CY5mR-kJC7w
FreeBSD f-Ab7Ch-n7S5y-7Qfxf-s5LmQ-nVX7x
Solaris s-sDyWh-kxVpx-THSRi-TuyHS-Bc7ty
Mac m-u5vDi-SJC5x-erddi-R4A3R-tch8y
Windows w-rjftT-AaheM-NxSnT-en7bb-8kD7E
Linux Intel u-QbBBT-PP34L-fbrdT-CYDmb-63ciF
Linux PowerPC p-fmaVS-heppL-D47RT-5pYEa-8NDVF
Linux Sparc k-vMCBT-wER4L-J4vdT-jQvmb-dP3hF
FreeBSD f-dQVhT-jJz4K-FyjyT-7Scma-f4piH
Solaris s-xdpVU-K3AHK-DrHyU-AjWFc-viwCH
Mac m-ULtiV-3fcpK-UpLdU-3d3mc-JS7VH
Windows w-wmBXH-kmuYX-DnFmF-saXMd-YVCdK
Linux Intel u-RUVaH-FdDPV-YH3xJ-3FQie
In other words, the Opera folks are encouraging their users to spam people in order to get copies of their browser?
Thanks, but now I think I'll just skip using it altogether.
I just did the register thing, and the ads are gone. It turns out the ads are really helpful in quite a few circumstances. I just get the feeling of having another layer of information out of them. Several of my reaserches have taken interesting turns because of opera's context-sensitive ads. Now that they are gone, I miss them. Does anyone know where's the option of turning them on even now that my browser has been regsitered?
This very thing kept me on Netscape Communicator for a long time. Netscape had the CORRECT keybinding for the Backspace key, which is intuitively opposite of the Space key. That is, it should page up, since Space pages down. We can all thank IE for screwing this up, by making Backspace take you back to a previous site in history (extremely annoying when you're typing in forms, only to lose everything.) Worse yet, other companies decided to copy this errant behavior.
In some versions of Mozilla, I was able to fix this problem by creating or modifying xml files. Later versions hard coded the Backspace key, making it impossible to fix. Man, what I'd give to fix this behavior once and for all....
very nice faq 2
free 880 megs file hosting - www.FTPZ.US - best
when seeing this was "Oprah's got to be way older than 10!"
-Tim
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Maxthon yet. It does all of the things that Opera does, but it has IE running in the background and can handle all of the rendering of non-standards compliant websites. With plugins I can get RSS, check the weather, upload files without having to login to websites, enable right-click, and on and on ...
I used firefox's "session saver" extension, but the last time I upgraded , and went drudging around trying to upgrade all my extensions, I was unable to find an upgraded session saver extension, so I was forced to go without. Maybe by now they've upgraded it to work with the latest firefox, or someone has written a new one, but I don't care anymore. I just use Opera, it's session saving works out of the box every single time.
I paid for Opera in the last few months, but I'm not taking part of the free registration PLUS I'm not pissed because I want to support them with my money.
Viral marketing to the highest extends. Mozilla has it all. And if you are still not satisfied, there is The SeaMonkey Project.
To all these Firefox trolls out there... try it completely first and then if you don't like it... Don't go on whining "oh, didn't even need the serial...". Yeah, we know firefox is free as in beer, but thats besides the point. I bought opera and it was hell worth it!
I wish people could just stop endlessly arguing over the length of their... er... 1337ness of their browsers. As a Web developer, as long as it's standards-compliant (read: is not IE), I can only say "thanks!" to the guys who made it.
To have all features in opera, you need to add tons of pugins, after which it will turn into a really heavy application, especially since some plugins are not so well made. I could never imagine mouse gestures could make cpu load %100 for a few seconds. Opera has those features in a neat package that works like a charm. Fast, reliable and totally user friendly...
"Can I configure it to automatically open new tabs when I type an address in the address bar?"
There you go. Sorry, no configuration.
By the way, try holding shift and moving with the arrows to see something nice of it.
(Now I am starting to sound like a spammer. LOL)
Why do that when you can have a legitimate copy for the same price? (Free)
Here are some proofs via tests & featuresets, etc./et all!
Opera: It's THE "good stuff"!
IMO, but also solely based on facts, for a triumvirate of VERY SOLID reasons vs. IE, &/or FireFox:
----
1.) It wins in speed, everytime, in the online tests/analysis I have seen out there for years now at numerous sites in most ALL categories run in said tests!
E.G.-> http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#win speed
(And, by the way? It uses Opera 8.0 in its result sets... that's before anyone tries the classic, narrow-Jedi-minded view of "where is the latest version's results" b.s., which I see TOO much of from non-coders/jedi/networking types. Learn to know the "dark side of the force & you achieve a power GREATER than any Jedi", i.e.? Learn to code, before you start up that often useless viewpoint here, since the latest/greatest (nearly) is covered there, except for "minor version" updates to 8.02 not being there: Close enough imo, & I do code, & have spoken with the FireFox & Opera teams before via email &/or irc chats with them AND helped them out of bugs no less (FireFox especially over @ NTCompatible.com with their homegrown, & imo, yes impressive forums board engine) no less, and the firefox folks came and spoke to us directly, emailed me also, the next day fixing the bug per my suggestion/advice, etc.).
SUMMARY:
"So overall, Opera seems to be the fastest browser for windows. Firefox is not faster than Internet Explorer, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice. However, it is still not as fast as Opera, and Opera also offers a high level of standards support, security and features.
On Linux, Konqueror is the fastest for starting and viewing basic pages on KDE, but as soon as script or images are involved, or you want to use the back or forward buttons, or if you use Gnome, Opera is a faster choice, even though on KDE it will take a few seconds longer to start. Mozilla and Firefox give an overall good performance, but their script, cache handling and image-based page speed still cannot compare with Opera.
On Mac OS X, Opera and Safari are both very fast, with Safari 2 being faster at starting and rendering CSS, but with Opera still being distinguishably faster for rendering tables, scripting and history (especially compared with the much slower Safari 1.2). Camino is fast to start, but then it joins its sisters Mozilla and Firefox further down the list. Neither Mozilla, Firefox nor IE perform very well on Mac, being generally slower than on other operating systems"
(On the Windows Platform, in THAT test alone, it took 4 of 7 total categories... nuff said on that account! Considering 90% of the world's computers run Windows based Os' (hopefully Windows NT-based ones by now)? That's saying a HELL of a LOT!)
Opera (as you may read for yourselves above) even did great on the OTHER platforms too!
Now, some folks will say "But today's CPU's are so fast this does not matter" - ahem: BEG TO DIFFER, it matters! If a browser's faster & more efficient on slower CPU's ESPECIALLY (purely relative term here), it will still be faster on faster CPU's mhz or cores/h-t/smp-wise (especially if multithreaded & designed properly with non-blocking operations in multithread design used wisely). That type of statement is like trying to say "Delphi code speed being faster than MSVC++ &/or VB doesn't matter" when clearly, it does. I cite this from as far back as 1997 where in Visual Basic Programmer's Journal Oct. Issue "Inside the VB5 Compiler Engine" issue had Delphi blow away VB in every test (except ActiveX form loads which VB even beat MSVC++ in since it is optimized best for it) & even took MSVC++ to the cleaners... in every test (except graphics form paints, losing only marginally, VERY small margin). In math & strings, which EVERY program does? Delphi absolu