Switching to Opera?

[Xen]

Here's the deal. I have been using Firefox for a very long time now but I've read that Opera is even safer and faster. So should I switch to Opera? Does anyone here use it? And do you recommend it? Is it very diffrent from Firefox? Thanks in advance.

[philip]

It has ads It's closed source and it's more than just a browser (has email and that kind of stuff)

It wasn't faster than firefox for me. About security I don't know.

[Xen]

Are the ads annoying?

[Arvon]

Originally posted by Xen: Are the ads annoying?

To me they were. That's why I switched back.

[shamrock_uk]

I prefer it to Firefox. It's smaller and most tests show it to be faster, but to be honest if you're on a fast connection it won't make that much difference.

Opera's page rendering is more aggressive, so you'll see text earlier on a slow connection, the interface is far more customisable too which I love. You miss out on extensions, but most of those in my experience are merely emulating Opera features anyway. Plus the latest version has UserJavascript which allows you to do an incredible amount of stuff to page content.

The bottom line is different horses for different courses [img]smile.gif[/img] I prefer Opera, many prefer Firefox.

Why not download it and try for yourself? It's a smaller download than Firefox, despite including an awful lot more so you can't really go wrong.

Make sure you select Google text ads (rather than generic ones) as they only take up a small strip along the top of the screen. On my large monitor I don't notice them, on a small screen they might be more intrusive. If you use a filter file to block adverts (mine is hosted on my site) then the toolbar is blocked too and you just get a generic opera message. It's no big deal for me, I think I'm going to buy it anyway.

There are links in my signiature about security using Secunia results and a very comprehensive speed test too (you'll have to scroll down for Windows results). The Secunia results listed on that site are for Opera 7, but that's because Opera 8 has fixed them all and there are no security alerts as yet for version 8 (so the page is blank).

Follow the other link in my signiature to the Painless Guide, look under the Browsers tab and you'll find links to the Opera Wiki which contains millions of customisations and various tweaks.

Personally, I've never enjoyed using a piece of software as much as I have Opera and find Firefox quite 'clunky' in comparison. The email client is very nice too and GMail copied their database system so if you use GMail it should be easy to become acclimatised.

But hey, its a free world so the best way is to try it and see what you think Firefox and Opera are both excellent browsers, but seeking to do different things. As long as people continue to move away from Internet Explorer its all good as far as I'm concerned!

[ 04-26-2005, 09:55 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[LennonCook]

Which is faster seems to depend alot on your particular computer - some people find Opera faster, some people find Firefox faster. In terms of safety and security, they're pretty much even: holes exist, but they are generally discovered and patched before any exploits are in the wild.

Besides the cost, the differences between them are mostly philosophical: Firefox tries to just be a browser, Opera tries to be a full internet suite. Firefox tries to minimalise and be extendable, Opera tries to have every conceivable option out of the box.

Try Opera. If you like it, keep it. If you don't, Firefox will wait patiently for you to rediscover it.

[Xen]

Well I have been using Opera for the last 20 minutes and I must say I like it very much. I think I will keep it but I will keep Firefox on my computer too just in case.

[Ilander]

I use Opera, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. It never hurts to have an extra browser around!

you might not need 5, but 3 is nearly a normal number!

[Xen]

Hehe you're probably right.

[LennonCook]

Ok, I forgot to mention this in my last post - Opera is as good at Firefox as rendering standard webpages, but it also implements a number of non-standard IEish things that aren't realy necesary. Things like CSS being able to change the colours of your scrollbar. If that sort of thing bothers you as much as it does me, Opera definately isn't for you.