Ditchin the flashy chrome for some classier opera

[wirednuts]

i was using chrome for quite a bit there... 6 months? but i tend to open a few dozen tabs during the day, i dont like to close them. then my laptop goes through sleep cycles and chome just gets all wadded up in a bunch... and it locks the whole laptop for minutes at a time. dont remind me how a few dozen tabs and chome cant even display them all...

so goodbye. hello opera 12. i must say, you look better then ever. and lightning quick i see.

 

[Raghu]

Welcome to the dark side

Try these extensions - extendtube, translator, imagus.

 

[SonicIce]

<3 opera

 

[nemesismk2]

I've recently used Opera and found it to be a reliable browser with good speed

 

[wirednuts]

well, it definitely opens faster then ie9 and it doesnt slow down with a lot of tabs and flash open like chrome. and it has a TON of settings and features.... so far opera 12 is kickin booty and takin names

 

[lxskllr]

Opera has more rendering errors than most browsers. I like Opera, but I wish it was libre software. That's the main reason I don't use it anymore.

 

[imported_brandon]

Opera has more rendering errors than most browsers. I like Opera, but I wish it was libre software. That's the main reason I don't use it anymore.

If you want to split hairs, the former CEO of Opera authored CSS, which in my mind, is very libre.

Also, some must-have extensions: Tab-grouper, ExtendTube, Opera Adblock, Autopager, and Notscripts.

They're all amazingly useful, powerful extensions.

And I'm sure IE has far more rendering errors. It's just that web devs are better at hiding them.

If Firefox/Chrome had minority marketshare, and a focus on standards compliance, they'd have just as many issues, if not more.

And their former CEO still authored CSS, which in my mind, puts it above all other browsers.

 

[lxskllr]

If you want to split hairs, the former CEO of Opera authored CSS, which in my mind, is very libre.

Also, some must-have extensions: Tab-grouper, ExtendTube, Opera Adblock, Autopager, and Notscripts.

They're all amazingly useful, powerful extensions.

And I'm sure IE has far more rendering errors. It's just that web devs are better at hiding them.

If Firefox/Chrome had minority marketshare, and a focus on standards compliance, they'd have just as many issues, if not more.

And their former CEO still authored CSS, which in my mind, puts it above all other browsers.

As far as libre software goes... Opera can't be opened up and examined, or changed. The technologies that go in it, or the people who developed it are mostly of historic interest.

IE? Yea, I'm sure you're right. People have to cater to that browser specifically to make their pages look right. They've been getting better over time, but I won't/can't use it. I think a lot of Opera's rendering issues can be fixed by spoofing the user agent. I never really fooled with that because most of time it wasn't bad enough to worry about, and it's never been a primary browser for me anyway. If they opened the code, I would certainly install it.

I just installed Chromium for a secondary light and fast browser. I was using Midori, but that has lots of rendering issues and ugly fonts. It also pegs my cpu on some pages, and crashes :^/

Anyway, the point is Chromium isn't especially light or fast. It doesn't feel very different from Firefox, and the ui, and extension system are terrible. I'm gonna play some more, but I may just use a console browser when I want something fast.

 

[imported_brandon]

Opera's problem is that it isn't Firefox. That's why the spoofing works so well. They adhere to standards more strictly than other browsers, which can also lead to issues. However, I can't use any other browser.

I'm spoiled by browser suites, since I can check my email, use IRC, and many other things, without having to fire up another program. So, that leaves me with two options: Opera, and Seamonkey. Seamonkey is too slow & clunky for me, and it's missing a lot of built in features Opera has. The only reason I keep Firefox/Chrome/Seamonkey around is for those few sites that give me issues with Opera.

And not being a developer, being able to see the code doesn't make a bit of difference to me. I use what's better for me. When I boot OpenSuSE, I use fglrx, since the open source ATI driver is far too useless for me with it's not-fully-functional power management.

 

[Anubis]

woot more for the master race

also i hardly every have rendering errors in opera, i actually cant remember the last time i hit one in something i visit on any regular basis

few sites dont work with it because they are stupid and recomend i upgrade to a modern browser like IE6.....

 

[wirednuts]

its been a few days and im COMPLETELY sold! opera 12 is freaking amazing! last time i tried it was version 10, and this is nothing like that.

forget slowdowns and hangups when there is 20+ tabs open! chrome, firefox or ie cant hold a candle to the type of abuse i give browsers. i am completely impressed, this is the best browser i have ever used- no question!

 

[pcslookout]

its been a few days and im COMPLETELY sold! opera 12 is freaking amazing! last time i tried it was version 10, and this is nothing like that.

forget slowdowns and hangups when there is 20+ tabs open! chrome, firefox or ie cant hold a candle to the type of abuse i give browsers. i am completely impressed, this is the best browser i have ever used- no question!

Fully Agreed.

 

[nemesismk2]

its been a few days and im COMPLETELY sold! opera 12 is freaking amazing! last time i tried it was version 10, and this is nothing like that.

forget slowdowns and hangups when there is 20+ tabs open! chrome, firefox or ie cant hold a candle to the type of abuse i give browsers. i am completely impressed, this is the best browser i have ever used- no question!

I agree 100%

 

[Nothinman]

Just tried it again and again don't like it. I'm glad they finally moved away from the QT dependency, but the UI looks incredibly similar to FF now of which I'm not a fan. And for a browser I don't want anything but a browser, not an email, IRC and newsgroup client too. That's just more things to break and cause problems. The fact that it's non-free is just the cherry on top.

And the Keepass extension didn't work which is a deal-breaker for me at this point.

It's nicer than I remember, but the tradeoffs just aren't worth it.

 

[Mem]

Just tried it again and again don't like it. I'm glad they finally moved away from the QT dependency, but the UI looks incredibly similar to FF now of which I'm not a fan. And for a browser I don't want anything but a browser, not an email, IRC and newsgroup client too. That's just more things to break and cause problems. The fact that it's non-free is just the cherry on top.

And the Keepass extension didn't work which is a deal-breaker for me at this point.

It's nicer than I remember, but the tradeoffs just aren't worth it.

My opinion is the opposite,was an early Opera/Firefox user years ago but don't like how latest Firefox is going with numbers game and had some lockups with Firefox that I don't get with Opera etc...Opera now IMHO is well polished looks far nicer then Firefox and can have tabs at bottom of browser(like I use) without third party add ons like Firefox.
Opera is just fast/polished and free for general users that want to use it, there's also an official 64 bit version of Opera and thats icing on the cake(I do use 64 bit version).

You got to love speed dial and we all know Opera was the first with that .

I don't think I will ever go back to Firefox as my main browser unless its to try version 6345555 or something lol,as to the mail client part of Opera I never use it so its not an issue,its there if you want to use it so end of the day handy if you do.

 

[Raghu]

Just tried it again and again don't like it. I'm glad they finally moved away from the QT dependency, but the UI looks incredibly similar to FF now of which I'm not a fan. And for a browser I don't want anything but a browser, not an email, IRC and newsgroup client too. That's just more things to break and cause problems. The fact that it's non-free is just the cherry on top.

And the Keepass extension didn't work which is a deal-breaker for me at this point.

It's nicer than I remember, but the tradeoffs just aren't worth it.

Opera is fully skinnable and the UI is very flexible. Spend a few minutes changing to your liking.

None of those extra features break/interfere if you arent using them. I dont use IRC, RSS and have never faced an issue.

Opera is free. Just not open source.

I dont use the keepass extension. Whats the problem? Maybe someone can help.

 

[zokudu]

Opera looked like how current FF looked before FF did their UI change in FF4. I've used Opera since Version 9 and could never imagine using something else full time. I have issues with Firefox locking up after a couple months of sporadic usage, namely Pandora because of the last.fm extension.

The worst part is how websites give bad code to Opera. Google did this forever with things like Calendar and Gmail. If you spoofed as Chrome or Firefox they worked great but if you did not it chugged along and ran like garbage. Opera has a whole team focused on fixing rendering errors on websites and working with site owners to fix code issues.

I also don't use e-mail, IRC, or RSS either to be honest. Just as a browser.

 

[Anubis]

yea iu dont use opera as anything but a browser, ive been using in since 2003, back when you had to pay to remove the add

i dont use the 64 bit version because the skin i use isnt compatible - or wasn't when i first tried it

 

[lopri]

Anything wrong with using both..? That's what I do! Ditched IE and FF and replaced them with Chrome and Opera.

 

[Nothinman]

Opera is fully skinnable and the UI is very flexible. Spend a few minutes changing to your liking.

None of those extra features break/interfere if you arent using them. I dont use IRC, RSS and have never faced an issue.

Opera is free. Just not open source.

I dont use the keepass extension. Whats the problem? Maybe someone can help.

I don't care about skins, I want to use the browser for browsing, not spend time picking out how it looks.

The extra features are extra code which has the potential to break, the more complex something is the more problematic auditing and security fixes are. I want a web browser that browses and nothing more.

Opera not being open source is a huge negative for me, I like free software, I'm not just cheap. There has to be a huge feature or usefulness gap between free and non-free software for me to choose the non-free version. VMware Workstation is a great example of non-free software that kicks that ass of all of the free alternatives. Opera isn't anywhere near that caliber of software.

The Keepass extension doesn't do anything at all, it's completely non-functional. A little googling suggested it should work with the standard auto-fill shortcut but that didn't work and some sites suggested it's just plain broken with Opera 12+.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

id be willing to try, but chrome is the only browser that syncs my bookmarks correctly. Other programs/browsers would lose many bookmarks, and not sync frequently enough.

And is there adblock plus, web of trust, and any other important extensions for opera?

 

[Mem]

id be willing to try, but chrome is the only browser that syncs my bookmarks correctly. Other programs/browsers would lose many bookmarks, and not sync frequently enough.

And is there adblock plus, web of trust, and any other important extensions for opera?

Depends what you need,anyway have a look here https://addons.opera.com/en-gb/extensions/ .

 

[Raghu]

id be willing to try, but chrome is the only browser that syncs my bookmarks correctly. Other programs/browsers would lose many bookmarks, and not sync frequently enough.

And is there adblock plus, web of trust, and any other important extensions for opera?

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/wot/

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/opera-adblock/

Opera has native adblock. There are several other adblock extensions too.

@Nothinman, you say you dont like the UI, but not willing to spend few minutes customising or choosing a skin. Not sure you understand the difference between free and open-source either. Anyway, whatever rocks your boat

 

[Nothinman]

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/wot/

https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/opera-adblock/

Opera has native adblock. There are several other adblock extensions too.

@Nothinman, you say you dont like the UI, but not willing to spend few minutes customising or choosing a skin. Not sure you understand the difference between free and open-source either. Anyway, whatever rocks your boat

I've been using Linux as my desktop OS for over a decade now so I'm well versed in the difference between free and open source software and many of the licenses which make those waters so murky.

But I stand by my belief that Opera doesn't have any features that make it significantly better than the free alternatives such as FF and Chromium. I've actually been using Chrome for a while now instead of Chromium because I'm pretty heavily invested in Google's infrastructure at this point. Chrome will sync all of my preferences, tabs, history, extensions, themes, cookies, etc with all of my installations. Whenever I do a reinstall or new install it's setup exactly as the other automatically within minutes, does Opera do that? Chrome on Android also syncs the open tabs list so I can have a link open on my phone and as soon as I get home hit new tab->other devices and open it and continue on my PC, can Opera do that?

 

[lxskllr]

Free has nothing to due with price. It refers to the freedom to use the software as you wish. "Open source" is usually "free software", but it bypasses the ethical discussion to make it sound corporate friendly. Open source is a pragmatic approach, and free software is an ethical approach. I align more with the free software side, though I'm not strict about it.

The confusion is why I prefer the term libre. It unambiguously means freedom. Explaining to a few people what libre means is easier than explaining to everyone what free means. Some may assume they know what it means when they really don't, as in this case. Opera is freeware, not free software, and not libre software. I also don't use it for mostly the same reason as Nothinman. I actually do like the program, but software being libre is important to me. I prefer Firefox regardless of license, but I would take a slight disadvantage to use libre software.