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Opera Embraces Extensions For v.11

Posted by timothy on from the fat-lady-not-even-in-her-suit-yet dept.

dkd903 writes "Opera is one of the most solid browsers around. It is very fast, extremely customizable, and has a lot of functionality that others do not have. Opera is also a very strong supporter of Web standards; it was one of the first browsers to pass the ACID 3 test. However, Opera has always been confined to a relatively small user-base because of one critical thing — lack of extensions. Well, that is about to change — at least the extensions part. Today, it has been announced that Opera 11 will support extensions."

14 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. Quick! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone write a "FirefoxTab" extension. Who else would like their Opera to leak memory?

  2. Extensions are critical? by Carik · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've never understood that. "Why not use this browser that does everything you say you want?" "Because it doesn't have EXTENSIONS!"

    I don't get it. I suppose this is nice if it gets people to use Opera, but honestly... if that's your excuse, there's probably a better reason you're using something else.

    1. Re:Extensions are critical? by Ksevio · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For example it has NOTHING similar to Adblock Plus and Noscript.

      Except of course for the content blocker (right click on the page and select "Block Content" or just download a precreated list from the web). Or the ability to set javascript/plugins on/off for individual sites. I'm sure NoScript does some extra nifty stuff, but it's clear you didn't try Opera for very long. Also, you seem to miss the point on page loading speed. It's not only loading pages fresh for the first time, but also jumping around in history and cached pages load much faster.

    2. Re:Extensions are critical? by Mantrid42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      ...It does have ad block. Built in. Right click, block content. That take too long? http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/opera/ That'll block damn near every ad on the internet. And use css to remove the whitespace. I'm amazed at how many ads clutter every web page whenever I use somebody else's computer.

  3. Opera user here! by Nichotin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have been using Opera for quite some time, and the speed and feature set is very good. What I do wish for, more than extensions, is to have each tab have it's own thread in a similar fashion as Chrome. I have experienced some crashes on my Mac because of plugins, and it would be good to only have one tab crash, not the whole browser.

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    Dvorak on Doomtech
  4. Re:That's What's Holding It Down! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What is strange about the interface? I've been using Opera since the 90s, and when forced to use another browser I've never noticed anything extremely different. I've never noticed the preferences being in unusual places either, so I'd be curious if you could expand.

    Personally, the reliance on extensions is the problem with other browsers. Mouse gestures specifically is something I can't comfortably browse without, and I always feel its lack when I have to use another browser. This is one place where Opera just works and all other browsers are broken as far as I am concerned.

    I've never understood Slashdot's hatred for little Opera either. It's the only browser with a built-in shortcut to Slashdot (just type /. in the address bar). I guess just because it's not FOSS?

  5. Re:Flashblock by Nichotin · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can try out privoxy. It is an ad filtering proxy server, which will work with any browser. I don't surf the web without it. Just install it, set your browser to use proxy 127.0.0.1 on port 8118, and voilá, obnoxious ads be-gone.

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    Dvorak on Doomtech
  6. Re:That's What's Holding It Down! by Missing.Matter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Like this? http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2010/08/05/tab-grouping

  7. Re:Flashblock by alvarogmj · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can enable a setting that allows plugin content to be downloaded only after clicking on it. Very useful:
    http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/on-demand-plugin-opera-turbo

    Opera is what it is. Either you like it (like me) or you don't. Its lack of popularity is not due to the lack of extensions (after all, chrome and safari had bigger market share before having extensions themselves).

    I prefer it, over any of the others. But it seems there are a lot of bad misconceptions around and that's the biggest problem Opera Software needs to find a way to solve.

  8. Why? by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I use Opera on both my desktop and laptop and I honestly don't understand what the heck people have against using Opera as their browser. It's super fast and lightweight, the built-in RSS feeder is the best I've seen anywhere, and it works on 99.9% of the websites (the only issues I've had is when Adobe releases a particularly buggy version of Flash). And although I will get strung up for this, I LIKE Opera's Unite feature. It makes file sharing super easy when I need to set up something quick and easy for sharing photos with family or friends.

    Frankly, the stock Opera gives me everything I need in a browser. Why do I need extensions again?

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    I call it 'The Aristocrats'
  9. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I tried Opera once, but found it to be too bloated. I'll stick with Links.

  10. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Opera has a find bar. on any page just type a "." and continue typing the word you want to find.

    I suppose getting extensions is kinda cool, but really, most of the extensions I hear FF ppl bragging about is something that Opera has had built in for a looong time.

  11. Re:That's What's Holding It Down! by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't think Opera's problem is the lack of extensions. I think it's problem is websites that don't support it and, in some cases, specifically check for Opera so they can say the site is not compatible even if Opera could render the pages properly.

  12. Re:That's What's Holding It Down! by hkmwbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, since Opera removed the ads, their desktop user base has doubled every two years. Opera now has more than 140 million users in total.

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    Clever signature text goes here.