Does anyone here use Opera as a web browser?

[cheater1034]

Opera is my third favorite browser:
1. chrome
2. firefox (3.5+, latest dev is much better than 3.5)
3. opera 10+ (opera 9- are not as close)

Try chrome 4.x (dev versions), you won't be disappointed (much faster, more features, webkit, fastest javascript by far)

Chao,
it's not far away:
antiads (better than adblock+ for chrome), greasemetal (don't use it, but supposed to be the same thing as greasemonkey) - noscript = ehh, not yet

They aren't as mature or implemented yet because of a lack of chrome features yet, but i'd give it a month or two and probably see these limitations removed.

[roaduck]

I think Firefox supports that. Chrome too.

I like microbrowsers - less than 1 meg in size (eg Offbyone ) and Opera.

I don't use bloatware full stop and if Opera gets any bigger I'll just use an older version of it.

To me a more efficient better browser means smaller more agile more responsive.Why can't they be written in machine code?

[timw4mail]

To me a more efficient better browser means smaller more agile more responsive.Why can't they be written in machine code?

Probably because machine code takes too long. Not to mention, machine code definitely isn't cross-platform. Assembly is probably too low-level.

[ch_123]

Last I checked, Chrome used less resources than Opera did.

And no one writes in machine code any more because modern compilers are approaching the handwritten machine code efficiency anyway. There's all sorts of other stuff too like portability and ease of debugging which make any speed advantage irrelevant.

[microsoft windows]

If you need a light browser, you need Internet Explorer 5.5. That's just about as fast as they get. But, of course, you get no tabs, no security, no nice-looking icon... But for playing games on the internet that are resource-intensive, you can't beat Internet Explorer 5.5. You just can't.

There's one slight problem with Chrome that makes me not have it on my machines (to try). It doesn't run in Windows 2000. But I've used it on work computers and it's definitely not as fast as Firefox or Opera (they're on the same machines). I don't really care what the computer magazine says. After all, about 67% of statistics are made-up anyway...

Overall, I like to use Opera on my computers for tabbed browsing. It loads pages faster on my machines with my internet, and has plenty of good features. That doesn't mean it's right for everyone though. People have their own tastes and I respect that.

[HaaTa]

There's all sorts of other stuff too like portability and ease of debugging which make any speed advantage irrelevant.

I still hate running Java VM's...lol


But yeah, using machine code doesn't make sense unless it's something you want to run very fast, and are too cheap to buy better hardware.
Being able to share the code-base between platforms helps a lot in maintaining software.

Take a look at ZSnes. Its drifting into obscurity as it was written in x86 assembly. Whereas Snes9x is not.


This is coming from a person who plans on using OpenGL to make his terminal emulator scroll faster, and reduce vim lag...
Hell, I'd probably even think about using assembly if didn't want it to be portable as well.

[Mr.6502]

If anyone feels like trying something interesting but unstable, Opera 10.5 Pre-alpha is out.  

I have tried it a bit on 64bit Win 7 and was pleasantly surprised by how different it actually feels.  It takes decent advantage of the Win 7 gui API.  I found I could kill the tab bar completely and rely on RMB+wheel up/down and Aero Peek to flip through tabs.  And the new javascript engine is pretty crazy compared to the old one.

I was routinely getting 8fps on JSNES (Javascript NES emulator) in Opera 10, and in the 10.5 pre-alpha I ran 2 instances side by side at 60fps.  

Can't wait to see what the performance is like in a more stable release.

[Rajagra]

I'm getting a problem with Firefox where the page doesn't update unless you move the mouse. I thought it might be my system, but googling found others have had the problem. Might be related to ABP or NoScript add-ins? Seems to be getting worse though. Maybe this is what people mean when they complain about FF being slow.

[keyb_gr]

I'm getting a problem with Firefox where the page doesn't update unless you move the mouse. I thought it might be my system, but googling found others have had the problem.

I've experienced that occasionally as well, seems to be a general Gecko thing. UI responsiveness has been a bigger issue for me ever since SM2 though (FF 3.x does the same), since apparently other tabs can "steal" computing time from the current open one. This is quite annoying as it means keyboard input stalls for a few seconds at times. Correcting tpyos blind isn't that much fun.

[Rajagra]

Now you mention it, I do have a bad habit of keeping interesting pages open in tabs instead of making bookmarks.

[nanu]

Now you mention it, I do have a bad habit of keeping interesting pages open in tabs instead of making bookmarks.

Same here, but that ended when my custom skin in Opera broke after upgrading from ver. 9 to 10a (I couldn't tell which tab was active for when tabs were vertical/docked to the left).  It also ended when the Tree Style Tab extension one day disappeared after some Firefox update.

Go figure that when I tried Opera 10.5a the other day (overwriting ver. 10) it turns out it's too unstable to use, so now I'm using Chrome again. Browser devs always rip^H^H^H implement obviously useful, ideally-universal features, so it's fine just switching browsers from time to time, here.  I'll try Firefox or Opera whichever next has a public release...

[o2dazone]

I can't wait until web developers band together and 100% give up on providing IE compatibility, as a matter of principle.

I personally have, but the people who sign my paychecks still want that 9% of users to be able to view their websites (or at least, the important parts, shopping cart, checkout process, etc)

[microsoft windows]

Actually, lnternet Explorer still holds about 70% of the lnternet browsing market.

[ricercar]

Where can we find recent statistics? I'd heard Firefox has 35%, which doesn't let anyone have 70%.

[timw4mail]

Opera has been rather unstable for me on OS X 10.4, at least for Opera version 10.10.

Sometimes things such as clicking on a textarea will crash the browser...it's actually quite irritating.

[ch_123]

Actually, lnternet Explorer still holds about 70% of the lnternet browsing market.

I think he was referring to IE6 users.

[microsoft windows]

I found that statistic in a computer magazine I was reading in the grocery store a few months ago in an article about Google Chrome.

[Xuan]

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

[o2dazone]

I think he was referring to IE6 users.

I was. At least with IE7 has CSS 2.1 selectors and 24-bit png support, but its still not very standard. I was basing the 9% off what the traffic we (Zappos.com) get from IE6 users.

Typically you run into a few situations why IE6 is still stuck around. Firstly is legacy software written for company use. To hire a developer to rewrite some software for another browser would cost money, so best to have the IT department keep everyone at IE6. Second, people just don't care. Until the cost of reformatting their machine from poor security becomes so much of an inconvenience, people will continue to use it. It's "good enough" for a lot of people, the same reason why most people can type on rubber dome keyboards with no problems whatsoever.

I really only see IE6 dying when enough people either switch over to Windows 7, switch to Mac, or when Microsoft stops patching the security holes (which is somewhere in 2014 or something like that). Until then, got to support those people using it.

[bhtooefr]

Myself, I've been (almost) exclusively an Opera user since 6.05. I've tried Firefox, didn't like it (but keep it around just in case,) I've tried Chrome, and didn't quite like it. Yes, Opera's a bit slower, but it just works for me, and I'm too used to it.

[Rajagra]

The funny thing is I didn't like Opera when I tried it some time ago. It seemed too alien. When I tried Firefox much later I liked it and stuck with it. But I recently realised the things I like about Firefox were present in that old version of Opera I tried (tabbed browsing etc.) Now I feel a bit guilty for not giving Opera more of a chance.

[ricercar]

Opera's problem has been that it started up by default with some silly skin instead of looking like an app that follows the standards of the os it is run on.

Agreed: Just like Google Chrome. Except Opera didn't rewrite the window manager, so when you minimize all, Opera will minimize and Chrome won't always do so.