While I don't typically change software very often, I've been a lot more experimental with new things than I used to be. So, here's another "I found something neat" post :-P
About a year and a half ago, I jumped ship from IE and started regularly using Firefox as my primary browser. Since then, I've been relatively content with it for general browsing, and downright thrilled with it as a development tool. However, over time, it's gotten progressively more bloated and slower to load/run, to the point where it's felt unusable in the past couple of weeks. A browser should never take 20 seconds to open, nor should it draw over 100mb of RAM just to open, and that's with all my extensions disabled (all 2 of them). My desktop computer is partially to blame for this, but when I can spawn multiple instances of IE and load several pages in the time it takes Firefox just to draw the UI, something is very very wrong. Plus, Firefox runs almost as bad on my theoretical-future-computer laptop, the same machine that consistantly gets nearly 100fps playing Portal at maximum detail/resolution.
Despite my annoyance at Firefox's performance, I didn't really plan to do anything about it because there just aren't that many browsers out there. Going back to IE is out of the question because I can't stand IE 7 or 8, and while I still rather like IE6, trying to use it for general browsing nowadays is like trying to use MOSAIC 3 (which I have actually tried before, it didn't work so well). And, I have a fondness for Google Chrome as a stripped-down secondary browser (it's great to use on my server via Terminal Services), but it's way too bare-bones to consider using for my daily browsing.
While looking for Windows Mobile software last night (more about that later), I tried to check on the pricing for Opera Mobile, only to discover that it's now free. With a bit of jumping around, I found that regular Opera is also free now, which is a change from the last time I looked into it, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Believe it or not, I've never in my entire life used Opera, or even seen a computer with it installed.
The Good
Right away, I thought "This is the most awesome browser I've ever used", mostly based on the fact that when I launched it, it was up and ready to go faster than I could think to myself "I wonder how long it'll take to load". That alone puts it ahead of Firefox for me, and not even IE can launch that fast. I used it for quite awhile, and quickly fell in love, mostly with its speed and features like Opera Link, a neat service that allows the user to synchronize bookmarks and history between multiple computers/devices. And, it's pretty darn efficient at managing its resources, only drawing about 40mb of RAM to start.
Another big plus is Speed Dial, a built-in homepage of sorts with quick links to various websites. Granted, there's nothing stopping me for building my own, it's not exactly difficult make a homepage with 9 big link buttons, but what makes Speed Dial different is that it pre-loads the sites for easy launching. Thus, it truly lives up to its name, because anything else would just be a bunch of links on a page :-)
And, while this is a really shallow "plus", Opera is one of the prettiest browsers I've seen. It has some flaws, but they certainly get an A+ for appearance. I don't think I've ever had a web browser (or any other application, for that matter) with an interface that was both genuinely pleasant to look at, and not jarringly out-of-place on an XP system with the Windows Classic skin.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the honeymoon quickly wore off. For one thing, the majority of web designers (myself included) don't spend much time testing things on Opera, so many websites look downright strange on this browser, and some (especially Facebook, and many sites that use Flash) have broken or bizarre functionality. It's better than browsing with IE6, but after using all three major browsers, it's pretty easy to see which one is the favourite of the people who build major websites. There isn't a whole lot the browser can do about that in cases of non-standards-compliant code, but it definitely has some weirdness even in standards mode.
Opera Link is also something of a disappointment. While it works beautifully synchronizing between my desktop and laptop, there's no Opera Link functionality in Opera Mobile, which was was prompted me to try the browser on my desktop in the first place. Opera Mini has it, and it's not too bad of a browser, but on a device that's nearly capable of running the desktop version of Opera, the idea of running a Java-based phone browser is pretty lame. On the plus side, Opera Link has a web interface, but that doesn't make up for it. At least there's the hope that they'll add it in the future.
I've also had to file a bug report in my first 24 hours of use. Opera has a handy setting to completely disable tabs unless specifically commanded to open one, which is great for those of us who loathe tabs enough to specifically avoid certain applications based on that alone (I'm looking at you, Chrome). However, apparently no one at Opera thought of the possibility that someone would want to disable tabs and also use Speed Dial as their homepage, because that combination of settings causes the browser to launch a completely empty shell. In order to use the browser at that point, a "tab" must manually be opened, which kinda defeats the point of a homepage. In the meantime, I've added a button to the toolbar that will load Speed Dial.
The last big disappointment comes from Opera's widget/add-in support. Now, to be fair, the browser has a ton of built-in features that negate the need for most add-ins, and even has things like Notes and a chat client to cater to those weirdos who think a browser should be a digital swiss army knife that does everything. But, having the ability to add extra functionality is a big part of writing a browser, and any browser that lacks that is doomed to only have niche appeal (again, look at Chrome). And, Opera does have a pretty decent Widget system, with lots of available plugins. The problem is that all the available widgets are AOL-grade crap. Where Firefox has a large quantity of practical, useful tools like NoScript and my beloved Web Developer Toolbar (along with hundreds of knock-offs), Opera has things like an analog clock, virtual fishtank, and paint canvas. Of course, it's easy to bias a comparison like that, so let's look at the top 5 most frequently downloaded add-ons/widgets for both Firefox and Opera.
Firefox:
1. Adblock Plus (Duh)
2. Video DownloadHelper (basically, an FLV ripper)
3. Personas (a skin plugin)
4. Greasemonkey (apply custom JS to various websites)
5. NoScript (Javascript blocker, and one of my personal favs)
Opera:
1. SimAquarium (a virtual aquarium "game")
2. Analog Clock
3. touchtheSky (basically just a front-end for Accuweather)
4. Google Translate
5. Google Toolbar
My point with all this is that I couldn't find any development tools to mirror functionality I have in Firefox. The "Web Developer" category on Opera's widget site consists of piddly "gee whiz" scripts, front-ends for search utilities like ARIN WHOIS, mis-categorized things like download accelerators, and reference info such as CSS documentation. Firefox, on the other hand, has tools to inspect any website in detail, examine structure, change rendering models, traverse DOM heirarchy, and all sorts of things that make my job much easier. I don't know if Opera simply has a different demographic, but it's the one thing keeping me from making it my One True Browser.
Closing
Overall, my opinion of Opera is on the better side of neutral. Really, it's not a bad browser, but it can't fully replace Firefox for my use. I've made it my default browser for general use due to its vastly superior performance, but I definitely won't jump ship entirely, because Firefox has the upper hand in a lot of areas.
Basically, my idea of the perfect browser would have all the features of Firefox, with Chrome's "ludicrous speed" performance/efficiency. Opera doesn't have all the features/configurability of Firefox, nor is its performance as impressive as Chrome, but it's a nice midpoint between them that makes it pretty appealing as a fully-functional everyday browser.
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