Finally, Opera's actually free!

[Zilog Jones]

The one main thing that was letting Opera down for the last few years was that the free version had ad banners at the top, but now they're totally gone with version 8.5 it really is the besterest browser on earth! :smt023

Get it get it get it get it get it get it! (http://www.opera.com/)

I feel like a Jehovah's Witness or something trying to convert people to Opera...

[Fabrizo]

Is it better then Firefox?

[Taemos]

Is it better then Firefox?

That's what I want to know, too. What does Opera have that Firefox doesn't (and vice versa)?

[the_steadster]

That's what I want to know, too. What does Opera have that Firefox doesn't (and vice versa)?

Featurewise, Opera is a full suite (i.e. email and RSS feed reader too)
It's also faster and I believe less resource hungry

In the end it comes down to personal preference though

[WolverineDK]

http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2004/11/opera-vs-mozilla-firefox.html

[Taemos]

It sounds like I'll stick with Firefox, then, since it does everything I need it to.

[koolkid13]

I use opera and firefox, but I personally prefere firefox for its ability to be customized. Also, you can't middle click to open bookmark's in tabs in Opera :(

[Mark30001]

Firefox keeps randomly giving me errors, even after I crashed my PC... :(

[Borman]

Dammit, I wasted by time grabbing a bunch of free keys when they were giving them out :P

[kammedo]

In the end it comes down to personal preference though
As ever -_-;

[Zilog Jones]

Dammit, I wasted by time grabbing a bunch of free keys when they were giving them out :P
Yeah, me too. And before their 10th anniversary I was actually considering paying money for it!


http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2004/11/opera-vs-mozilla-firefox.html
Don't listen to any of that crap - that was written last year, many versions ago - even before 8.0. Version 7 used to put too much crap on the toolbars and stuff - it's a lot better now!

[AnalogWinter]

I need to try this version out. I currently run FF and Maxthon but I am always looking for other browser options.

**dl'd and installed**

The default skin looks good, but I opted for a minimalist version. I like how you don't need to restart the browser to swap skins. The interface is a tad bit cumbersome, but it is new to me so I need to give it some time.

One major plus for me with FF is the ability to customize it with extensions.


^_^_^

[Zilog Jones]

Yeah, but a lot of what's offered in FF's extensions are already built-in with Opera. I especially find the mouse gestures great (the mouse gesture extension I tried with Firefox was ass in comparison), and that coupled with the ability to control Opera in nearly every way through the keyboard (which is also fully customisable) makes it very easy to control once you get the hang of it.

And people may think with all this junk built-in that Opera's bloated and slow, but I've used it in Windows NT4 on a Pentium 90 with 64MB RAM and it was actually useable - not as fast as IE6, but on a modern PC it's the other way round. Now I have Opera on a PPro 200MHz with 96MB RAM (another 9 year old PC, but much less crappy ;-) )and I can browse the net quite comfortably.

[GaijinPunch]

I used Opera years ago on version 3 or 4 or something. It was far, FAR less compatible than Firefox was in .8 or so beta. The thing about Firefox is that it adheres to W3 standards VERY strictly. If you're testing HTML/PHP/CSS or whatever, if you want to see if it's really right, test it in Firefox.

[WolverineDK]

Yeah, but a lot of what's offered in FF's extensions are already built-in with Opera. I especially find the mouse gestures great (the mouse gesture extension I tried with Firefox was ass in comparison), and that coupled with the ability to control Opera in nearly every way through the keyboard (which is also fully customisable) makes it very easy to control once you get the hang of it.

And people may think with all this junk built-in that Opera's bloated and slow, but I've used it in Windows NT4 on a Pentium 90 with 64MB RAM and it was actually useable - not as fast as IE6, but on a modern PC it's the other way round. Now I have Opera on a PPro 200MHz with 96MB RAM (another 9 year old PC, but much less crappy ;-) )and I can browse the net quite comfortably.

Well Zilog: I am more fond of the open source philosophy than the opposite.

But again it is a matter of taste. I prefer Firefox and that is a thing i like :)

But if Opera runs great on a slow pc , then it is great.

And everything is better than IE in my opinion.

[Zilog Jones]

I used Opera years ago on version 3 or 4 or something. It was far, FAR less compatible than Firefox was in .8 or so beta. The thing about Firefox is that it adheres to W3 standards VERY strictly. If you're testing HTML/PHP/CSS or whatever, if you want to see if it's really right, test it in Firefox.
3 or 4? Jeez, that was years ago! Version 6 was when it started getting really good, and that was when I started using Opera regularly. I've actually heard in some comparisons recently that Opera is even more W3C standards compliant than Firefox now, because Firefox implements some sort of non-standard IE-like stuff, probably to get stupid MSN or FrontPage-made websites to display right - I can't remember exactly what it was. After Microsoft and Gmail stopped being asses, I haven't had a single problem trying to access any websites in Opera 7 or 8.

And also let's not forget about the recent security flaw found in Firefox recently. Opera claims to be like the most secure browser there is, but that's probably more because it is a minority that uses it compared to IE and Firefox - in the same way that makes Linux and other Unix-based OSes more "secure" than Windows.

I really recommend at least trying Opera 8.5, and not basing opinions on old versions and/or reviews. But then again I suppose a lot of the features wouldn't appeal to everyone - personally, I find the built-in e-mail client invaluable because I find doing e-mail through websites (like stinky Hotmail) pain on a stick, and I have 3 e-mail accounts that I can access through POP3 or IMAP (there is a POP3 server for Gmail!), and I also use newsgroups occasionally and RSS feeds for LiveJournal. Not to mention the mouse gestures (I can't mention them enough!), being able to zoom in/out on pages (great for looking at 2+ megapixel pictures at 1024x768, or when people type ludicrously small text in forums). There's also voice-controlled browsing, but I've never bothered my ass trying to use it...


But if Opera runs great on a slow pc , then it is great.
I forgot to mention Firefox requires MMX to run, which meant I couldn't use it at all on a P1 or Pentium Pro.