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98 Comments
- coonzel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22its funny though, when they get modded down with mass numbers, its an incentive for people to open it up :P
- jrkagan, on 10/12/2007, -9/+27I really wish people would stop using Digg comments to push their blogs and websites. The "signatures" people create are really annoying, and they're also a pretty sure-fire way to get dugg down.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+21Opera 9 owns. I switched back to it. Noticed it's faster than my firefox (which is now uninstalled) and the bittorent implementation is great.
Can't complain, really. - Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Why? Because you edit the source code of every open-source project before you use it?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+21Thanks for the digg, I know I didn't cover everything in Opera but I tried to point out everything that really made it unique. While Opera isn't the most beautiful browser out there it does have some potential to be decent.
- SpookyET, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15There are skins. There are also native skins (they only contain icons; Opera uses the OS to render the controls). You can make it pretty.
- treycopeland, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18very very very nice writeup about opera.
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13When I browse the web, I really crush browsers. I usually have about five or ten windows opened - each with about seven or eight tabs. Safari will grind to a halt - and firefox isn't much better... but Opera is still zippity fast.
The speed - plus the mouse gestures makes me like it. I still don't use it as my default browser. I keep it open, and when Safari grinds to a halt I jump over and start using Opera.
The one thing that bugs me is that the Mac OS X version doesn't have an easy way for you to have it open the folder that you download files into... Unlike Safari - you can't just click on a spotlight next to the file name to have it open in the finder... This is probably the main reason it's not my main browser yet. - Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Tools -> Appearance -> Windows Native
I don't know why they stikc to that ***** theme of theirs when the windows native one is so much better (and uses less ram). - mendicant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Not to mention, I haven't found a single mouse gesture extension for firefox that is as slick and smooth as the mouse gestures in opera.
Please, if anyone can fill me in on one, let me know. As for right now though, every mouse gesture package that I've used for FF is slow, clumsy and feels like I've got a 5lb weight tied to my wrist. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I really noticed that the memory management abilities within Opera are so much better than with Firefox. I also beat on browsers very heavily and I require crisp service with no memory hits and Opera offers this. If Opera looked just a little bit better than I'd probably use it over Flock. I just love the blogging feature within Flock, add that to Opera and you are set.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Firefox can have all those features, With Extensions that can(and frequently do) leak memory and make your Firefox client more unstable. These Features are built into Opera rather than Plug-ins and added layers of code. To which his own, If you want to use Firefox with an Extension Cocktail, then go right ahead.
- Yogurth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You are not correct kbeeveer46, If You actually tried to block anything You would have seen that everything that has same characteristics gets blocked on chosen page. This rule will be automatically applied on other pages You visit that have content conforming with that particular rule. As for autoupdatable block list, there is still no such thing but If You browse through Opera forums You will find complete urlfilter.ini sets that will block everything that FF blocks with G filterset. Only difference is that You need to do copy/paste it manually. I wish there was autoupdate feature but in the end it makes no difference since content is blocked anyway.
It took me 2 days of normal browsing and using Content Blocker, to block absolutely every commercial flash or no flash there is. I also added few wildcard rules manually and my surfing is completely ad free. No Adsense, No those annoying inline ads very popular now called intellitxt, no flash commercials, no banners.....etc
here a sample of my urlfilter.ini:
http://*.ads.*
http://*.burstnet.com/*
http://*.click.adbrite.com/*
http://*.doubleclick.net/*
http://*.eshop.msn.com/*
http://*.fastclick.net/*
http://*.googlesyndication.com/pagead/*
http://*.hitbox.net/*
http://*.intellitxt.com/*
http://*.ivwbox.de/*
http://*.kontera.com/*
http://*.tradedoubler.*
http://*.us.intellitxt.com/*
http://*/ads/*
http://*ad.doubleclick.net/*
http://*layer-ads.de/*
http://*linkexchange* - Celeron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+14I noticed that it ran faster and took up much less RAM than Firefox too, but I still prefer Firefox due to the massive collection of extensions and themes, among some other things.
- wolkengrau, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Some words to the Firefox fighters in here:
I've used Firefox for a long, long time and I really came to like Firefox. There were some things about it, that annoyed me, though. As using too much RAM or just being too slow (http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html). I kept Firefox, because I liked the extensions and thought there was no replacement for them in Opera.
I was wrong. During the beta phase I switched to Opera. For every crucial extension I used, there was an adequate counterpart in Opera. They were all already built-in. Just try it once, it's free. ;-) - Yogurth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Nice review man, but You could add a feature or two more ^^.
M2 client comes in mind, aswell as CTRL+Tab, which gives You thumbnail preview/cycle of opened tabs(quite nice actually). You shouldn't have excluded Content Blocker either, which is not only very powerful but also very elegant in the way it works. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7What happens when your browser is using 180 MB though? Routinely when I am writing articles I can have as many as 30 to 40 tabs open in multiple windows. Yes I have 1 gig of ram, but I also run a distributed computing client that can use as much free ram as possible. Just because you have the memory there is no excuse for a browser to use it all. Do you mind that Windows is also bloated and loves to eat memory? Some people notice the memory hits, I happen to be one of them.
- Yogurth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You do know that Opera comes with adBlocker Built in? It works just as well as FF blockers? but it's called Content Blocker and by default it's available on right click menu as item "Block Content". Once You click it Opera will go into "dim mode" showing You what content can be blocked directly from there. You just need to click the content You want blocked and its off for good, till You decide to bring it back(unblock it) with same action used for blocking.
You can also add wildcards for domains or sites or keywords inside Content Blocker Preferences. - radu79, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Opera has so many other cool sruff.
Ctrl+b for example to go to the URL in the clipboard. (no more paste it into the addrss bar, hit enter).
You can clone a tab, so if you want to go back in the history without leaving the current page, just hit "clone" and then in the new tab you can go back in the history.
There are so many other features, and it's such a fast and clean browser, that I can't understand why not everyone is using it. I would even pay for it, and I do that for very few programs (like TextPad, Trillian Pro,..) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Gene, if you had any previous Opera versions installed you might want to un-install every Opera browser that had been installed on your comp. Clean the thing up, then restart Windows and try again with a fresh install of Opera 9.
- atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Opera is standards compliant, it passes ACID2 test thing that you can't say about IE or even Firefox for now although I think 2.0 is supposed to pass the test.
- Yogurth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Don't digg down a man that has a problem. This site should be about helping eachoter not just bitching(though that helps too sometimes :) )
- Squinky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5If you're working in photoshop (or other similar memory hungry application) a low browser overhead is absolutely essential.
- unsympathetic, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I'm switching just for the IRC ;)
- ocram, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6If you use Firefox on Windows then that's the least of your problems.
- rizzo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6while I have beefy 2gig machines, right now I'm running on an old pentium 2 with 128MB or ram, the only browsers that ever get a go on this machine are opera and K-Meleon for the sake of performance
- OficerMantimber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Good to see my favorite browser get a good review. Opera is the fastest browser I have ever used and it includes a multitude of features in it. Essentially, as I have heard before, Opera is the "OSX of browsers". And yes, Opera has a great ad blocker. Installing extensions and new skins is incredibly easy.I still prefer utorrent to the built in bittorrent tracker, but even in beta it crushes the competition.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Odd. I installed it on an old P3 450 running Win 98 and 256mb of ram and it instaled fine.
- dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7The keywords are "My Opera." It's probably your comp. I haven't had many problems, I've actually seen many of my pet peeves with Opera disappear. Did anyone else get that weird link jumping effect on Digg when you moused over the link to see which of your friends dugg it? (This happened before 9). Thank god that's gone.
- LucasVB, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Well, do it then. Go to preferences and disable native bittorrent support.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How does open source affect an end user?
- Devz0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4because firefox is absolutely orgasmic looking
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Unless you're multitasking or playing a game at the same time.
- Yogurth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If Your computer connects through SOCKS 4 or 5, You won't be able to connect at all without some 3rd party proxy manager. Unfortunately Opera still does not support SOCKS.
- nonhuman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ancestor
That's because the user base is smaller so there aren't as many people developing extensions for it.... Arguing that people shouldn't use it because the extensions aren't as good is a self fulfilling prophesy. - mendicant, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Other mentionables for opera:
They finally added authentication that works with windows integrated authentication. Try logging into a sharepoint site with opera 8. You can't do it. But you can now.
Also, If you close a tab and you didn't want to.... just click on the little garbage can next to the tabs and bam... back where you were. This is probably part of the reason why the reviewer didn't see a total drop in ram when closing all the tabs. They were still semi-there in the recycle bin (for lack of a better term).
Normally I'd go on all day, but I don't have the time. I love it. Keep up the good work guys. - Ilyanep, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I've been using Opera 9 weeklies since it has been in TP1, and I just love it.
The only thing I don't like is the BitTorrent support. I'd much rather just use Azureus. - atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Opera HAS extensions http://userjs.org/ and widgets.
- atdigg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Beacause that's not relevant. It might be an invented problem since it's not something that you see often (or at all) on Opera forum and it's not something that happens to everyone who tries Opera. Most likely there's a problem with the computer not with Opera.
- sterling1989, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Its no wonder Nintendo went with Opera for the DS and the Wii. Opera like Nintendo is the real innovator in their market. They once again introduce features that all the rest will copy. Not to knock the other guys as I love firefox. But its obvious that Opera is moving the "web browser" forward.
- exclipy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Go Opera! Firefox is where the hype is but Opera is where the real innovation is.
I've been using Opera for five years, since 5.0. At the time, Opera already had a search bar, multiple document interface and a very good download manager. Since then, I've seen them add mouse gestures, a full featured mail client, IRC client, newsfeed reader, SVG support, BitTorrent support, Widgets, among a slew of other things. Many of these features have since been copied by rivals, but many remain unique. If you want to see the future direction for web browsers, use Opera.
On top of that, because the entire featureset is implemented by the one company (ie. no extensions), everything works consistently, quickly, and reliably. Also, the toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures can be customised easily to do quite powerful things. If you still think you can't live without extensions, there's UserJS and the Widgets.
Firefox people say they're glad they don't have features integrated in because they don't want the bloat, but they just haven't tried Opera - the download is smaller, and any feature you don't use is cleverly hidden and doesn't consume any extra resources. Firefox is just like IE but without the security vulnerabilities. Opera is like Firefox, but with a million more features. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Google Suggest : http://userjs.org/scripts/site/enhancements/google-suggest
Cookie Pie : What does it do? Opera has an excellent cookie manager. You can create/delete/search cookies using it. You can block cookies from a specific site. You can make it session only etc.
Adblock : Content blocker is built into opera.
ColourfullTabs : Skins
Cacheout : ?? Havent heard of it before.
More : http://www.pallab.net/2006/04/12/extending-opera-the-ultimate-guide-to-customizing-opera/ - Devz0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i think it's more for the less advanced users to just download it when they see it without confusion
- CoolWind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Opera is fast and slick with lots of features, but it's still easier to use Firefox....
One thing I love about Opera is that when you go back to a previous page it doesn't download anything, it just goes back immediately.
One thing I hate about Firefox is if you want to save a page as ... Firefox will re-download the entire page. How utterly stupid. Everything is right there on the screen, but they don't know where to find everything without going back to the internet. Even if you right-click an image and choose save as, Firefox will re-download the image. Very dumb.
Other than that, I don't think Opera is any way significantly better than Firefox. It's just more hamstrung by lack of extensions and lack of choices. - NoMoreNicksLeft, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6No bittorrent extension last I checked. It was in perpetual alpha testing, no availability.
Also, the author missed out on Opera 9's superior SVG support. - Ancestor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No, it's not the smaller user base, at least not only. Userjs and widgets are fundamentally less capable as technologies. Firefox is built using XUL, JavaScript, XPCOM components etc. which is the same that you use when writing an extension. What it means is that there's virtually no limit as to as far you can go, how much can you modify the app. Widgets and Userjs just don't have the technology to allow it.
- Fab1anFab1an, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Try dragging a link from a website into a folder on the toolbar. you can't. and even when it's already on the toolbar you still can't drag it into a folder, and also not to the bookmarks menu. You always have to open "Manage bookmarks..." first. In firefox/IE you can just drag wherever you want.
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Very good review. Opera 9 improves on more than just added features, they have improved performance (which suffered in version 8 - version 7 was quicker and more efficient).
Then there are the little things...like "paste and go" (right click context menu). When I use FireFox or IE I really notice it's absence. - kennyvader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reasonably trivial to do this in IE too with a reg hack - just add reg entries like
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER|Software|Microsoft|Internet Explorer|SearchUrl|gmap]
@="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=%s"
(change the | for backslashes - Digg doesn't allow backslash in comments)
where gmap is your search keyword and %s is where the search terms need to go in the resulting URL. Then you can just type "gmap staten island" and get the map right up.
What I have is a reg file of about 30 of these short codes and I just import it into my user profile on any machine I use. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2oh and don't forget the customized searches on the address bar. you can type "g term here" and it will search term here in google. not only that, you can make your own search letters by using "%s" as the variable. for example, i have letter y as yahoo search and http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=FP-pull-web-t&ei=UTF-8&p=%s as the search url. if i type in "y asdf" in the address bar, it will search for asdf in yahoo. if you're good, you can code it for wikipedia, like i have, and other forums or websites as well. this is the thing that will keep me hooked to opera forever.
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