opera 9 betas

With opera releasing new betas , just how does it compare to firefox now,regarding features,stability,speed etc?.The lack of roboform support put me off it originally (I tried it a year or two ago),and the "wand" was a poor substitute for it.Has that feature improved?.What are the pros/cons between these 2 browsers now?
tia
ellison

 

i have not tried the latest opera 9, but my reason for staying with firefox always will be the extensions. i can only assume that opera is as fast if not faster than previous version. and based on previous version, id say opera is either equal or possibly a tad bit more stable than firefox.

 

I'm using Opera 9 build 8219 at present and as always it's really stable.
The Wand still exists and does the job well for me.
As for speed Opera is really fast.
Some features have been added to this new version, but mostly I like the Site Preferences. (see screenshot)
Here you can set your preferences per site you visit, regardless of your main settings.

AFAIK the new version will also allow you to install widgets, but at present I haven't seen one yet
or maybe I looked the wrong way.
You could compare those widgets a bit with Firefox extensions.
It's only a matter of time that those widgets will produce the same disadvantage when upgrading, same as for Firefox.
I really don't have any cons for Opera, always liked my main browser a lot.
A matter of taste I guess.

As for Firefox it's also a good browser, but what I don't like is when installing a new build extensions get broken,
until those are updated, same applies for the Themes.

IMO Firefox is less stable then Opera. Firefox crashed several times already when doing almost nothing,
Opera didn't crash once on my system.
Some time ago (I don't remember which Firefox build it was) I had to completely reinstall Firefox and I guess one of those extensions was the culprit.

Both are good, secure browsers with both of them their pros & cons.
It all comes down to what YOU prefer to use.

 

well having trouble with my firefox settings, i decided it would be a good time to try opera once again. its pretty cool and very fast tho i its still just my secondary browser. the options dialog box has an odd format/organization and teh tab options are limited. having teh tab bar above teh navigational buttons/address bar is new for me, as well as the combined reload/stop button. im also trying to find a theme i like.

 

Opera is great, but firefox is my fav. I have sort of a love hate relationship with firefox, and opera, but I have respect for both..

I love.. the bookmarks manager in opera, it doesnt try to load every single bookmark with a repetive dropdown menu, and opera has way better skinning preview, and better set up, better about:config, and much more refined,

firefox is much more flexible, via extensions, i love extensions, firefox is very well put together, powerful about:config, it's customizable, and is easy to use, firefox's diffeninate strong point is extensions.. even though its in the 1.5 stage..

 

Anyone know when v9 is going to be officially released?

 

Nope, but if you're hungry, you can follow the weekly releases of Opera techPreviews Here!

Rgds

 

They are shooting for June, or July but that is just Opera's best guess according to their own forums.

 

I use FF as my main browser but I find Opera blows FF away by speed. Way faster on my machine.

 

Based on all the favourable comments recieved ,ive just installed opera to try ,and indeed it does seem faster than firefox.My only gripe at present ,is the opera mail seems very awkward to use ,though i guess practise makes perfect.I dont know whther id be ready to give up roboform yet though ,and this is still the biggest reason not to go over yet ...and some of the extensions of course.Im keeping a keen eye on it though.
ellison


ELDAR...
Is it possible to put RSS feeds on the bookmarks toolbar like firefox?.It seems to only show like a newsreader tree view for me,in opera mail i think?.

 

Don't use it much in Opera and not at all in Firefox, but you can subscribe to an RSS feed and you'll be asked to add it.
Afterwards you can manage it through Feeds on the menu.
Here are some screenshots.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/eldarwyn/Wilders/opera9_rss_feeds1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/eldarwyn/Wilders/opera9_rss_feeds2.jpg

 

Thanks for advice.I guess the rss feeds are a little different to what im used to with firefox (see pic) but i could get used to it.May i ask just one more thing?.
For some reason i keep on losing the slider bar on the right hand side of a web page ,and bottom of web page to move the page up and down and left to right.I can of course still use my mouse wheel ,but frustration i setting in with my inability to find how to get them back ,and what i did to make them disappear in the first place.
tia
ellison

 

You're welcome Ellison.
Sure it's a little different, but I only use my email client for RSS feeds, so I don't know a lot about those.

Maybe this will help getting those scroll bars back. Tools > Preferences > Advanced

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/eldarwyn/Wilders/opera9_advanced_scroll_bars.jpg

 

Thank you very much Eldar ,that has fixed it
Have a very good evening.
ellison

 

Good to hear it's working now.

You too Ellison.

 

Eldar~ Has Opera 9 been completely stable for you? ~pv

 

Stable for normal operations, but when I press F6 (Show Widgets) and Select Add, it freezes. Just found that out.
Haven't yet tried a lot of other new features.
Oh well, it's still a beta, so that's completely understandable not all bugs have been fixed yet.

 

Thanks - in that case, I'll just install v8 on my new notebook (lot's of important stuff on it)!

 

The widgets are a bit of fun in the new opera beta. here is an analog clock.

 

Thanx for the link, I didn't know they have weeklies now.

I've been using opera since v.5 despite all the shortcomings back then - it was fast and light on the system and I still use it today for the same reasons (by now I feel like I am married to it, I guess . Opera-specific configs is something one gets used to. Tried FF with some success recently with their v.1.0.x but without the extensions it's too basic and once you get into the extensions-groove it takes Windows down due to excessive bloat
Tried DeerPark next but had to uninstall right away due to impossible load on system.

Talking win98 and not enough ram. I realize most up-to-date people don't feel the difference but I am not alone riding an oldie, I think.

Will be trying out Opera 9 now. Hope it's not too fat :-/