Comments on: Guardian: Forget Firefox - I’m going back to Opera for browsing and email

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:58:33 +0000

Here is the best reason I switched to Opera from Firefox. No surveillance. Despite following all of Mozilla’s instructions on how to prevent Firefox makes unrequested connections from the Firefox Knowledge Base, Firefox is still making outbound calls to Google and Akamai. I do not know what it is sending from my hard drive and I cannot seem to stop it no matter what I do. Firefox contains spyware is my impression and I will not use it again until they stop spying.

By: Owen

Owen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:51:28 +0000

You can sync all your bookmarks without problem in Opera. In my opinion you will be able to organize them even better and the sync within Opera has already served me well.

By: Jez

Jez — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:24:13 +0000

@techbangla.net

Very funny… but I thought the netscape source code was the “inspiration”

As far as Im concerned both Opera and FF do a good job, both have their strengths… but Opera is nicer, cleaner and more pleasant to use… it also looks cool which is what really matters

As far as I am concerned there is only one “bad apple” in the browser world…. both Opera and FF are great!

By: Jez

Jez — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:53:16 +0000

@Roberto: I think FF3 is pretty good from what i have seen so far, certainly its a lot faster and more stable than the previous version. Still waiting for a few essential plugs to be migrated before I make the switch to it though.

That said, this version of Opera is faster still, and it has a much cleaner feel to it. I think, for myself I will be using Opera for general browsing, and FF for the plugins as required.

@Qwen, thats always the way with OS stuff though… the obligitoray “no warantee… use at your own risk…”

For me the real problem moving off FF is the Google browser sync, in which I have hundreds of bookmars… I am sure I could export / import to Opera and use oSync, just not sure I want to just yet

By: Owen

Owen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:23:29 +0000

The comment directly above this one is one of the main reasons for my return to Opera. Not only does FF become less stable with additional plugins and addons of any kind it also bogs down on startup like nobody’s business. I would like to see Opera get it’s marriage with gmail worked out so problems with IMAP (notably the inability to delete the [Google Mail]/All Mail folder so that duplicate mails are not endlessly received. Otherwise, I can only speak the highest praise for Opera. It’s so, SO damn fast.

By: techbangla.net

techbangla.net — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:54:43 +0000

opera is great. firefox simply uses opera to “inspire” it to embed features that are popularized by opera already. ooopss… no no.. firefox doesn’t copy features from opera, opera is its inspiration.

By: Jesse Dorland

Jesse Dorland — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:51:40 +0000

It’s kinda funny how I started with opera. Back in 1999, I used to have a celeron computer it died on me, and then I was forced to use my trusty old 486 computer. As you can imagine Internet Explorer wouldn’t run properly on it. So I started looking for an alternative browser. Netscape (now called mozilla/firefox) was twice as bloated. So how I ended up installing opera, at that it time came with ads bar. It was amazing, and ads were bit annoyin, but speed made it up for it.

Eventually, I build p3, and first time I did when I install Windows on it was opera, got the full version and I have been using it ever since. Even though now I used Linux + Mini Mac. I have opera install on them.

The only thing I don’t like right now is removal of good old keys — we can switch to old fashion — but it’s very annoying, plus they have removed style shortcut, now have to go into view which kinda sucks cause I use it as text browser time to time.

All in all I am happy with it for now.

By: Roberto

Roberto — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:03:57 +0000

I really did not like Opera 9.5 when it was released because the expectation was bigger than the product.

Once I suggest a different interface which I recognised partially implemented in the new version but issues with CSS and DOM implementation, as well as the increase of the rendering speed by making it synchronous instead of distributing the work emulating parallel processes really disappoint me.

However, after trying Firefox 3 I agree with the article, Opera is now the best browser, not just for its e-mail, but for be a reliable product. Like a Toyota car, not exceptional but good enough to be better than the competence.

BTW, the most annoying thing I found in Firefox 3 is the lack of support to cross frames communication and distributed XSLT files how Web standards suggest and had been implemented over the years (Even by Firefox 2), something that Opera does pretty good without security holes.

By: abid

abid — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:05:25 +0000

I agree with this completely, especially that open source does not mean everything, i trust those few people who can handle code more elegantly that everyone having a go at it. When asked about open source, XYplorer’s admin said “Closed source but open mind”. Opera is one of those and I respect that. I am afraid firefox which used to be light and good once is heading the bloat way.

By: Jez

Jez — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:04:44 +0000

Sorry, I meant to say “teh problem is, the more plugin’s you use the less stable FF becomes”

By: Jez

Jez — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:02:35 +0000

I have been a committed firefox user for several years, but I have to say I agree with the comments made in this article.

The real strength of firefox is now the plugins that are available.

The problem is though, the less stable the app seems to be come, and the more updates you are harassed with.

Certainly FF is a lot less stable than it used to be, whether FF3 remedies this remains to be seen…. but I am increasingly inclined to switch to a different browser.

By: Chianti

Chianti — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:38:31 +0000

It’s funny… One of the reasons that Opera is my default browser is the customization/skins! Of course it’s a matter of personal preference…

Most people use a specific browser because they found it pre-installed in the OS and only for surfing. And most people use Windows. The rest of the market share rappresents exactly other OS and that group of PC users who like to try new things.

And here Opera has only one problem, site compatibility! It seems like an infinite chase and with each new major version new problems arise…

By: charlesdb

charlesdb — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:33:01 +0000

I’m surprised about his comments on Opera Email. For me it doesn’t come close to a good Email client like Thunderbird. OK it’s integrated with the browser, but when I tried it, I found the Email facility troublesome and when it was collecting Email, it slowed down the browser, particularly with feeds. At one point, all my stored Emails disappeared and the Email facility sopped working altogether. The latest Opera 9.5 is really superb and agreed, Firefox is well inferior without the add ons; but I still use Firefox as my default browser. Why? Because the skins are more fun and I enjoy downloading new add ons to enhance the browsing experience. Opera however, as far as I can tell, is definitely faster and I did make it my default for a time; but the skins are so boring - I know, I’m fickle.

By: Morghus

Morghus — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:07:27 +0000

@funtom - You won’t notice the difference between Opera vanilla and Opera with mail/chat and so on. Too well-programmed for that

Myself am glad there’s someone having the guts to write they’re sticking to Opera in these Firefox fandom days with rabid fanbois all over the internets.

I use both myself, and unless it’s entirely vanilla FF, Opera beats it hands down on speed, and FF is worthless without them

By: Steve Barker

Steve Barker — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:16:36 +0000

Looking at the Ubuntu package manager, Kazehakase web browser is included in the depository, and gets 3 stars for popularity!