Opera 9

June 20, 2006 11:11

4.5/5
've used Opera since 5.0, and it is my preferred browser by far. MSIE is used ONLY when I need to update the OS, and for my work sites. Anything else that requires whistles and bells, Firefox is the first choice, Netscape the second. Both are fine, but I very much prefer the speed of Opera, which is indeed my primary and by far most-used browser, and have little personal need for the glitter, etc., provided by other browsers. The following says it all much better than I can.
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http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/05/10-features-youll-find-only-in-opera.html

10 Features You'll Find Only In Opera

Everyone says that Opera is an innovative browser, but most fail to say why. So I created a list of ten features that are really helpful in your everyday browsing and are available in Opera. Some of them are available in Firefox, if you download extensions, or in other browsers, so you may say they're not unique to Opera, but Opera used them first and they are a part of Opera's innovation.

Here's the list:

1. Duplicate this tab
You visit a page and you want to read it later. For the moment, you want to go back to the previous one. What do you do? Copy the address of the page, create a new tab and paste the URL in the address bar. In Opera you just click Duplicate. The new tab will also duplicate the history.

2. Go to URL
You see a web address in a page, but it's not not hyperlinked. How do you visit the web page? You copy it and paste it in address bar, then press enter. In Opera, select the address, right-click and select "Go to URL".

3. Reload every 30 seconds
You go to a site that shows the live score of a baseball match and it doesn't reload periodically. So you'll have to press F5 every 30 seconds to see the score. In Opera, select "reload every 30 seconds".

4. Fit to window width
Nobody likes the horizontal scrollbar in a page, but some webmasters don't bother to view their sites at different resolutions. In Opera, select "fit to window width" to remove the horizontal scrollbar and shrink the content.

5. Rewind
You search for something at Google, discover a great site, you visit 20 pages from that site and then you want to go back to the search results. You can click Back 20 times or try to locate Google in the list next to the back button. Or you can just hit "Rewind" if you use Opera.

6. Nicknames for collections of sites
How do you visit you favorite sites? You bookmark them and then try to locate the sites in the Bookmars menu. Or you enter the first letters of the URL in the address bar. In Opera you can associate nicknames to sites or collection of sites. Picture this: type "news" and see your favourite news sites opening in their tabs.

7. Tab closing
You visit site A, open a link to site B in a new tab, but the tabs A and B aren't next to each other. If you close tab B, Firefox won't revert to the tab A. You'll see site C in a tab at the left of tab B. Opera shows the previous active tab.

8. Instant back
When you click Back, the browser tries to refetch the page. Opera shows the page from the cache, so the "Back" action happens instantly.

9. Page zoom
Some sites have almost unreadable font sizes, others have huge pictures. Opera zoom feature maintains the site integrity and allows you to view the site without losing the visual presentation.

10. Crash recovery
Your browser crashes and you want to go back to the sites you were visting before the crash. In Firefox, you have to go History and open them one by one. Opera automatically saves last session so you'll see the tabs in the same order when you open the browser.

And that's not all:

11. if you want pages to load faster, you can load only cached images
12. you can control the browser with voice commands
13. use mouse gestures (you can go back this way: hold right button and move mouse left or hold right button and click left button)
14. create beautiful presentations without using Microsoft PowerPoint (even online)
15. change keyboard shortcuts

All the features above are available in Opera 8. The new version of Opera (Opera 9 Beta) has even more: BitTorrent integration, widgets, thumbnail preview for tabs and page customization (that's right - you can save settings just for a page).
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One thing is for certain: I NEVER use MSIE unless it is absolutely requisite, for a very, very small number of websites. That was replaced just as soon as I learned about Opera. Unfortunately, I don't know how to make Opera work with this CNET feedback, and must use Firefox - a defect in your web site, IMO!

- itdincor

June 20, 2006 07:27

4.5/5
This wasn't a review of Opera, it was one man's opinion of how Opera compared to FireFox. When reviewing a webbrowser, it's always a good idea to compare it against the market competitors (in this case, IE and FF), but the first paragraph of this review reveals the depth of the bias the writer has:

"But should you trade in our current Editors' Choice browser Firefox 1.5? No."

Shouldn't that be in the summary? Or better yet, leave it up to the USERS to decide. It's not the reviewers place to make "matter-of-fact" statements that are better suited as opinions. Next time you want to review Opera, get someone a little less biased to do it. I'm not looking for a glowing review. I know that there are things about Opera that can still be improved. And I'm not arguing with the score (though I disagree with it). But this article is a prime example of how NOT to perform a review.

- Jito463

June 20, 2006 10:46

5.0/5
To sum it all up, opera is awesome. The editor who reviewed it didn't try to hold down the left click button on the back button, which DOES show all the previous sites you visited like the other browsers.

I love the way I can find some page that I don't feel like reading right away, I can just leave it there and I don't ever have to worry about losing it, except then I end up having about 20+ tabs open, which makes it take longer to open opera if it's been minimized for a while or if you open it anew.

It also has tons of useful cool features, like the trash and other random stuff. You know something's great when you love it at first, and then you find out more stuff about it that makes you love it even more. Also another cool thing about opera is that it stores all the pages you go to somewhere, so when you press the back button it's (except on a rare occasion) always instantaneous, regardless of your internet speed. The interface is also very compact, giving you the most space to view the actual page, which is always a plus.

Of course there are also useless cool things that might be useful to some people like the voice commands and mouse gestures(which would be cool but there are so many to memorize), the only thing I would like to see added is a feature that would highlight the word you search for when you press ctrl+f like firefox.

To sum it all up again, opera is awesome.

- Valgon

June 21, 2006 01:23

4.5/5
Opera has been my main browser since Windows 3.1 days. It continues to be my main browser in both Windows and Linux. Opera's built-in e-mail client is my program of choice in both Windows and Linux. In fact, I use the exact same e-mail files in both OSes on my dual-boot computers, which makes for tremendous convenience and flexibility in doing e-mail no matter what OS I'm using.

Opera is loaded with features. Even after all these years, I learn about new ones. I use Firefox in Linux and it's a fine browser, but it lacks features Opera has. Example: Fit to Width. This fabulous feature eliminates that super-annoying horizontal scrolling that happens on some Web pages. Can't do without it!
Example: zoom both text and graphics up and down and do it with the keyboard (0 goes up by 10%, 9 goes down by 10%, 6 returns to the default 100%).
Example: rewind. You don't have to go back page by page; you can return to the start of the domain. Contrary to the review, you can left-click back to previous pages. Just hold down the left mouse button on the Back icon.
Example: Easily customize just about everything on screen through a simple menu in Tools, Preferences. This includes the typeface and size of the menu bar, text appearing on screen, dialog boxes, etc.
Example: do just about anything from the keyboard and use any of several keyboard shortcuts for several tasks.

The CNet review is incorrect about the availability of legal BitTorrents. An increasing number of large Linux open-source downloads are available as Torrents. Even with a broadband connection, a Torrent can be considerably faster than a regular broadband download.

In fairness to your readers, who may read the review but not the comments, you should correct the mistake about not having a choice of previous pages with the Back button and you should revise the section on the BitTorrent client in Opera.

- OldLadyGeek

June 20, 2006 08:48

4.5/5
Frankly I cannot understand why this person could recommend the over hyped and memory hungry Firefox over Opera. He mantains that it's CNet choice nobody knows why (no link to his review). He points out false things like Opera not having the ability to show the history over the back button while that is not true. You just simply do not have to release the left button for one second and it will appear.

Let's say that the widgets sucks, so what? Do not use them and that's all. Firefox instead is a browser with rudimentary tab support which is light years behind Opera's and it is slower. There are "extensions" that give it this ability but either they are banned by Mozilla because they are super buggy, or the support they give is so basic that they are not so useful. Furthermore, the own users in the mozilla site refer that after uninstalling such extensions the browser gets faster and the CPU consumption drops. Vamosi says that he prefers Firefox because "it is more extensible" and that "for most people who simply want a good, secure browser ... we recommend Firefox 1.5" Wow, first he praises FireFox because it is more extensible but then he argues that it is better because is enough for people who want to surf the net securely. Opera is no less secure than Firefox and furthermore, without any stupid "extension" is more feature rich. In fact, even without any extension Firefox 1.5.x consumes more memory than Opera and is less flexible.


On the other hand, he says that "Unfortunately, there are few FAQs on the Opera site, and there is no telephone support.". Since when Mozilla offers telephone support? What do you want in your "FAQ" Mr Vamosi?? Is there anything special you need to know? Information about Opera is everywhere and you can answer any question you may have. True, having a FAQ with myriad Q&As will be nice, though it is not a reason to dismiss this browser. He does not say, that in the current Opera FAQs he could not find an answer to this, this and this thing. He says there are "few" of them, he does not say any specific.

Most funny thing is that these people have always something to complain about. If Opera has too many options, it is confusing for the user. If it does not have full support for such and such W3C standard, is bad. Now, Opera supports every useful standard out there and the interface is clean and user friendly (under their stupid standards, because I always found it very intuitive). So they never run out of excuses. The last excuse is that Opera is more for the "technically adventurous". What a crap. The fact is Opera is far better than FireFox and IE and some people refuse to recognize this. Why? It is a mistery. However there are some indicators. I guess they think that Opera is not the rival that can beat IE or something similar. Wait a second! It is not Open Source! What a sin! How is it possible that a non Open source product kicked the ass of one that took several years to complete! So what? Out of the box is the best browser right now Period.

I can even swear that if Opera tomorrow releases a version that allows FireFox extensions to install in it Mr Vamosi and the other crowd will make another excuse. Give me a break! CNET: hire a competent editor and not an ignorant and biased person

Note: I do not give it a 10 because CNET warned several times that it will be very difficult to have that rating, so in order to stop its complain, I assigned 9

- markbn

June 20, 2006 11:10

4.5/5
Quoth the reviewer: "For example, in IE, Netscape, and Firefox, you can right-click over the Back arrow to see a menu that lists your most recently viewed pages. In Opera, a simple mouseover reveals only the URL of the last page visited; a right-click offers a choice to either "remove from toolbar" or "customize" the icon, but there's no mention of the pages you've visited."

Actually, it's very easy to see the full list of pages you've previously viewed in a given tab. Just click on the "Back" arrow and don't release the mouse button. Voila.

(Incidentally, legal applications of BitTorrent are flourishing, particularly in the open-source movement, but that's not really an Opera issue.)

In general, Opera does everything I'd ever want from a browser, and does it faster and better than the competition, with no need to find and add extensions. And while the widgets do seem unnecessary, I note that even with them and every other feature built in, Opera's still a smaller download than the stripped-down version of Firefox, let alone IE.

- Shmuel510

June 20, 2006 10:31

4.5/5
The CNet reviewer wrote that Firefox is the browser for the every day use and Opera might be more for the technical guy. Au contraire. What is going to happen with a non technical person doing the every day browsing with FF is that will end up with a browser plagued with extensions that will add up to the known bug in FF about memory leaks, so, not good. A non technical person would be better of with Opera, which is extremely easy to use, simpler, with basic mail and RSS reader.
Give it a try. If you're a keyboard guy, you'll love this thing, there's no keyboard support like Opera's out there.
BTW, IMHO, Opera is better than Firefox by a mile.

- julio361

June 20, 2006 06:18

5.0/5
Opera always has the most cutting edge features integrated into their browser first. That will never change. Opera finally opened their eyes and eliminated the few drawbacks that held it back from truly being the best browser on the planet. Opera has everything you love about Firefox integrated from the start, plus additional features you can only find in Opera. Opera is finally totally free of charge. Give it a try, you can't help but love it to death.

- NerdyNick

July 3, 2006 01:22

5.0/5
I think the editor is very biased. I used Firefox for 2 years, and I recently switched to Opera 9. Opera is definitely the better browser. Opera has most of the features I used Firefox for, but it has these in addition:

1. Awesome zoom feature - does not screw up the webpage. If the webpage text is small, Firefox could only increase the text size. Opera does a zoom, and can dynamically render the contents so they fix in the window without side scrolling. Opera not only displays the content, it renders it intelligently.

2. Opera is fast. I think it's faster than Firefox.

3. Useful password wand feature - works even if you have multiple accounts on a site.

4. Better bookmarks and interface. You can put bookmark folders onto the personalized bar, not just individual bookmarks.

I think the editor is very biased. Here is why.

The first half of the article pointed out all the faults. But they're not really a big deal.

1. Editor mentions that "While Opera 9 is free to download"...it's free to download and also free to use. He wasted a sentence. What software isn't free to download these days?

2. Editor spends 1 paragraph talking about how Opera's BitTorrent feature is "overblown". Half of that paragraph cited issues with BitTorrent itself, not with Opera. For example, not being able to download the last third of a file is because people stopped seeding the file. I'm amazed he spent 16.99% (by word count) of his editorial talking about this BitTorrent feature. Sure, Firefox has a larger community of developers, but how many of the developers are working on totally "overblown" extensions that are totally useless?

2. "But Widgets are not new; they're available all over the Internet...". No one is saying Widgets are new. And your inability to see "why the browser needs this feature" is due to your lack of insight.

3. True, there is no telephone support for Opera. When was the last time you called up Microsoft? If it makes you feel better, you can call me. 734-560-1014.


Also, I don't think that flash object used for ratings works very well.

- permitivity

June 20, 2006 11:22

5.0/5
"We really like Opera 9, but we like it more as the cool, arty browser that it is and not as our everyday workhorse for the Internet."

You ARE kidding, right? "arty browser that it is and not as our everyday workhorse for the Internet". Obviously, you have not extensively, or even spent more than an hour or two using Opera. Have you even looked at the INDEXED bookmarks? How about the INDEXED history? How about the INDEXED Notes feature? Does IE do this? In short, NO. In fact, Opera is several incarnations ahead of Internet Explorer.

Please, if you are really going to make a judgement on this browser, at least give us the curtesy of spending more than an hour or two looking at it. USE it as your primary browser for a few weeks, and I bet you won't go back to IE or any other browser out there, (with the exception of Safari, perhaps).

Yes, I am a die-hard Opera fanatic, but with good reason. Try it for 2 weeks as your primary browser, I bet if you are honest with yourself, you won't go back because Opera spoils you. It's so feature rich, and everything else is so bland compared to what Opera offers. I'm not even talking about the widgets, or it's built in e-mail program. I'm just talking about the browser itself!

- skydart