Whoa. Opera is free. Permanently.

[charlie]

No ads, no registration, no unlock codes. No more excuses to not give this fine browser a spin.

http://www.opera.com

One more world class browser joining Firefox, Moz, Konqueror, Safari, and the like laying a bit more uncertainty and doubt on the beast from Redmond gives me the happy shivers :)

[welshTerrier2]

1. how does opera compare to firefox ???

does anyone know what the main differences are?

i'm currently running firefox ...

[Berserker]

2. I am using FireFox

and I am very happy with it I have been using it for a few years now. The first thing I did when this was posted was to go to the Opera Forums and read a few posts.
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/
I quickly found out that it does not compare to FireFox and needs to be worked on a little more before I try it. For instance ESPN.com don't work properly and Ticketmaster has a problem with Opera. http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=91293
I realize that FireFox has some problems with certain websites also but I personally have never found one that has been a problem.
Bottom line I will stick with FireFox.

[RoyGBiv]

3. That was my conclusion as well ...

The interesting thing is that Opera is actually a more refined, mature product.

It's kind of a hit-or-miss game. I know people who use Opera and have no issues with it at all but do have problems with Firefox. It seems to boil down to what sites you visit most frequently. With my web habits, Firefox is the better choice. A friend who uses Opera says that if it won't display properly in Opera, he doesn't need to see it.

Sure would be nice if standards based web authoring actually meant something. Then we could choose a browser based entirely on features, security, stability, etc.

[Xithras]

4. For companies, it's a better solution.

Unlike Firefox, Opera has actual support reps you can contact if you have problems. This isn't very valuable to home users, but for closed corporate environments where browser customization is an issue, it's huge.

For the home user, the primary reason to run Opera is its speed. Unlike Mozilla, Opera was written as a Windows program and takes advantage of OS hooks to accelerate its performance. On older (i.e. slower than 1.5Ghz) machines, or machines with limited RAM, this translates into a very visible performance improvement.

Basically, you have the compatability and features of Mozilla in a Windows native application. Opera has been around a lot longer than Mozilla, so security and application bugs are pretty much gone at this point too. Most of the "problems" that remain with Opera have to do with making it understand nonstandard code that was written to work in a nonstandard Microsoft IE environment. It's neither better or worse than Mozilla in that regard.

Personally, I wish the Opera guys would open source their browser. Making it free (as in beer) is a good first step, but if they're rebuilding around the Open Source Support Model anyway, there's really no longer a point in keeping the source code locked up. They should draft a license, open the code, and let the community tinker with it.

If they did that, I'd bet that Opera would SERIOUSLY bite into the Mozilla marketshare. Their market right now is primarily comprised of educational and business clients, and simply making it free (as in beer) isn't going to get the wider home audience to pay attention to them. To do that, they need to build a community.

[idiosyncratic]

5. I purchased Opera almost three years ago. Best software I've bought!

Although I have Firefox on my computer, compared to Opera it is unsophisticated and clunky.

Opera is a smaller download, which is important for people like me with slow dialup connections.

I love the Mouse Gestures and the Notes and the infinite customizations you get "right out of the box." You don't have to download any "extensions" to get all the functionality of Opera.

This is really, really good news! Now no one has a valid excuse for not trying out this excellent browser.

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. Thanks for the info!

I'm using it right now on my old laptop, runs great so far!

[Berserker]

7. Using Opera?

If you like sports go to ESPN.com
If you like games go to POGO.com
Good luck lots of sites work poorly with Opera or won't work at all.

[gulfcoastliberal]

8. Really? I just tried it and it loaded fine?

Don't get me wrong, firefox is my standard but espn.com came up just fine and I read an article about Chargers backup QB Rivers wanting to start next year. Maybe they fixed it in this free version I downloaded (8.5)? And the machine I'm tping on is an ancient Campaq Presario 1200 with a celeron and is strictly a web surfing and occasional word processing machine. I use my HP ZV 5000 P4 3 Ghz machine for any games. But I just tried pogo and it loaded fine, too.Bank of America just worked. Seems to work ok for me, just not used to the menus yet. I guess they've worked out most of the bugs.

[Berserker]

9. Don't get me wrong

All I am saying is that Opera has a problem with frames. They have plenty of bells and whistles and seem to expect users to be happy with that alone and not correct what is really the problem with Opera.
Opera also has a problem with CPU usage.
When you go to a site like Pogo.com and the page loads fine but you will have a problem playing a game.

This is from pogo.com
We only officially support a few browsers as they are the most common and compatible with our site. They are Netscape 7.x, Internet Explorer 6.x, Firefox, and Safari for Mac OSX.

The bottom line here is it don't matter what other browser is used as long as people get away from IE. I am happy to see FireFox and Opera growing. They are at least trying to do something to fight against all the garbage thats on the internet.

[idiosyncratic]

10. If a page doesn't work in Opera, it isn't Opera's fault

Although I don't play games over the Internet (couldn't anyway with my 24K connection speed) and I don't go to ESPN.com, I know if Opera can't open a site it is because the code for that site is abysmally-written.

Just plug the URL of a problematic site into this helpful site.

HTML Help Validator

Now that Opera is free, perhaps some of these webmasters that were so IE-centered/Opera-opposed will try to write better code that can be read by any browser, not just IE.

I'm glad so many people are using alternative browsers, but I wish more people would give Opera a try. It really is wonderful and completely changed my browsing experience.