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1. On April 30th, 2005 at 5:03 pm, Datrio said :

Opera comes with an email and an IRC client. It’s also a bit faster while loading than Firefox.

If it wouldn’t be for the fact that Opera isn’t free, it might’ve been my default browser by now. But sadly, I use it only to test webpages in it right now, and I don’t think that’ll change.

2. On April 30th, 2005 at 7:05 pm, Carsten said :

Opera implements the quirks mode of IE; I think this is at least one minus point.

Further on it can hide itself heavily, so that many stats may think there’re IEs accessing the site and not Opera; that’s a minus point too.

And the interface is more than one minus point for me… ;-)

As for the RSS reader: there’re extensions for firefox and for email there definitely is Thunderbird.

3. On May 1st, 2005 at 4:22 am, David said :

I too recently tried Opera, and was ridiculously confused by the interface. Granted, it did seem a bit faster, but the UI and ads are a definite downside.

4. On May 1st, 2005 at 8:48 am, septor said :

They’re both trash, real men browse the internet from their cell phones ;]

Carsten - If you mean browser detection, I’m sorry to tell you this but, Firefox has an extension that does this very thing. As for your first line, if you’re implying that Firefox doesn’t have quirks, I suggest loading a website that has many images. Watch how it loads it, disgusting. And as much as you all like bashing IE, please inform me how you recieve your precious Windows updates via Firefox? Oh, you don’t.

Now for Opera; It costs money in order to get the full benefits of Opera, therefor, it sucks x 100.

5. On May 2nd, 2005 at 1:42 am, TreeGo said :

I do indeed think that Opera is worth trying as a suite if you have always preferred Mozilla to Firefox. I have tried every browser and suite out there, I think, that has any resemblance to good software and I find Opera absolutely a “smash wonder” that is my number one on the Internet.

You could read a few links here, possibly:

http://www.opera.com/features/
http://nontroppo.org/wiki/WhyOpera
http://tntluoma.com/opera/lover/7/
http://tntluoma.com/opera/lover/8/
http://nontroppo.org/wiki/VisualTutorials

Good luck and feel free to ask questions over at the Opera Forums (http://my.opera.com/forums/). People there, including Opera reps, are more than willing to help Opera users.

I wish you well.

6. On May 5th, 2005 at 3:19 am, bandi said :

Which one is better? It depends. I’ve got Firefox at home, but I have to use Opera often too. So I have experience with both. Firefox is really good, and is free, and there’s a lot of extensions, FoxyTunes for example :-)
Opera is very good as well, but I hate the ads. So what decides? You use what you has always used. I use always Firefox, so I won’t start using Opera, and I expect people using Opera won’t change to Firefox, especially if they’ve already paid for it.

bandi

7. On July 4th, 2005 at 1:58 am, Aktee said :

Although I install Firefox with every computer I repair and install (because it’s free), I always use Opera when accessible. I do not quite understand when you guys says the UI is horrible. Look at my Opera: http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/9386/opera3xj.png
The author missed alot of Op’s function.
1- In the screenshot, you might see 2 time the forward button. It’s called the Fast Forward button. It is used in thumbnail gallery. Instead of clicking on an image, pressing back, and clicking on the next, you press the F. Forward button (or space bar) and it goes on like a slide. I know there’s extension for firefox, but you should try the Opera version and the extension, you’ll see the big difference.
2- Mouse gesture. Some of my friends are so used to Mouse gesture that they use it in windows explorer and other programs. For more info: http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/
I know there’s extension for it, but, I tried it, and once again, it doesn’t work as nice as Opera.
3- Keyboard shortcut. As far as I know, I don’t know of a way to change firefox’s keyboards shortcuts without extension. I use 1 to go to the tabs on the left, and 2 to go on the right tab. The fact that you can use your keyboard ONLY to browse is crazy. Time-saver.
4- Speed. Yes, I am aware of firefox’s tweak in the about:config thing.. but it’s not just as fast as Opera. You really should try on a 600mhz computer (If we go by logic, something that runs fast on an old computer, run faster on a fast computer, than a program that run slow on a slow computer). Opera is also less memory-hungry. (FF shows 36mb in memory, Opera shows 19mb). Try googling. Now, press the back button 10 times, and see the speed difference. It’s REALLY noticeable.
5- Undo button. Let’s say you misclicked and closed 6 tabs in one click (never happened but it’s a scenario). You go to Edit / Undo, and POP, you’re tabs are there again. Let’s say your computer crash because of a power failure and you were on the 6xxth page of a google research, and you completetl y forgot what you typed and which page you were at, and you also had 15 tabs open. No problemo, fire up Opera and it’ll go to the latest saved session, that is, before the ocmp crashed. Ain’t that a life saver? If there’s a firefox extension that do this, please tell me, I’ll test it out and will post back to tell if it does as good as opera.
6- Real Tabbing experience. Firefox default tabbing is, please admit it, not nice. You really need an extension for it - still has not figured out which one - for it to work properly. My request is simple: One window and ONE ONLY. Every popup, every keyboard shortcut, every click, everything, in one window only. I still can’t manage to do this, (I gotta admit the layziness to try each of the tabbing extension). In Opera, you can be assured that it always has 1, but, 1 window.
Also, try opening 35 tabs in operav(with content in it), and 35 tabs in firefox (with the same content in it). Try going back and forth, and continue to surf on another tab. I dunno about you, but I feel the slugginess..
7- IRC and email. To be honest, I never used IRC and I think it’s somewhat a useless thing. But the mail thing, that’s big. Works so well I never have to browse to Gmail again! =).

anyway. That’s about it. Yep, it cost 39$ and firefox is free. I tried the product before buying it so I’m really relieved that my Opera, that is worth 39 cheeseburgers (eat 1 cheeseburger instead of 2 during 1 month and you’ll be able to buy Opera!!) is working very well.
What I dislike about extension is.. Lack of testing and quality. Since it’s not made from the developper, we can’t assure it working well, or well scripted. With Opera, I’m happy to say that my 39 bucks was well spent to beta-test those multiple functions. Plus, it’s up to the developper to make it open-source or to sell it… but anyway, I suggest the only way to know is by testing it. (A full testing, please.)

Aktee. Phew, that was long.