Opera, the Forgotten Browser

-Maybe because the old versions showed the websites very badly... The last versions are very better in this aspect...
-Maybe because the free version have advertisements...
-Maybe because doesn't have plugins...
-Etc...

In my opinion, the great feature of Opera is the speed. Just great in this aspect...

 

I tried Opera and then Firefox. I preferred the design of Firefox - a lot simpler - and decided to stick with it.
I made a good choice.

 

The new ver. 8.0 opera beta is a pretty nice browser. I like the new GUI a lot better than the older versions.

bigc

 

I think FF is the more popular choice because it's completely free, and who doesn't like free stuff. But also because it's easier to use and just more user friendly all around imo.

 

"Opera, the Forgotten Browser"

Not forgotten by me. I was a dedicated IE user always trying different browsers. I tried Seamonkey, Mozilla, Netscape, Phoenix, Firebird, Firefox, and all the IE shells but it wasn't until I tried Opera 7.x that I was hooked. Fast, smooth, and very configurable with most functions you would want built in. I can easily make it look exactly like Firefox or IE 6 just by changing the skin.

Mozilla has been campaining for years, claiming to be the "David" that was out to slay "Goliath"... IE. Prior to the release of Firefox 1.0, many websites urged users to "take back the web" immediately. Hype is okay, but Opera offers stability. Great software is worth paying for.

I think most out there are thinking about Opera 3 when they talk about Opera.

 

Opera doesn't have plug ins because many options which FF gets by added plugs are default-enabled in Opera since many years, for example mouse gestures, tabbed browsing (all right, this one is default in FF too, but only since very recently), integrated pop up blocker, user agent switch, etc.

The only thing which is lacking by now is an ad-blocker.

For those not liking the ads appearing in banner on Opera, you can always block these by firewall

I surf the net on Opera and FFox, just switching from one to another.... Bigamy is allowed with browsers

Great thing with FFox is open source, always a guarantee of 'glasznost'
and often quality.

I tend to think that, would opera have been free for the past - say - two years, it now would be the number one browser on the net. UI think the ad banner bought sufficient time for FFox to catch up.

Rgds

 

One thing I'd like to add

When Opera reached the 6.05 version, the Opera team realized they had probably reached a plateau as far as progress was concerned.

Instead of just taking the apparently easy road and just patching the browser, they decided to completely rewrite the whole code, which led to the next generation.

The Opera 8beta1 is very pleasing and complete... I think the 8Final will be as near to perfection as a browser can be.

This team is always so quick to react and correct and improve... Never been as impressed with any other development team...

Rgds

 

Another reason is that there are the Java and Non-Java versions avaliable for download.

Java is around 11 mb, Non-java is around 6 mb. I bet some people are confused by which one to get, and this adds SOME hesitation to using Opera over Firefox.

With Firefox, it's just a 6 mb download.

Opera is also closed-source and has no plug-in or extension support.

It's main pro is its speed, but the big con is that it uses up a lot of Memory (around 52 mb over here for some reason)

And as mentioned above, their free version has an ad, so I think that's a turn off for most people. If they'd remove it, then I would think more people would use it