Wednesday Jul 4, 2007

Opera 9.21 review

Posted at 01:10:44 pm by hari under Software and Technology (295 views)

I downloaded and installed the latest version of the Opera web browser yesterday and I've been pleasantly surprised by the new features since the last time I tried it out. Here is a list of what I really appreciate about Opera:

Fast, responsive and stable with low memory footprint. Even JavaScript code execution seems snappier in Opera than in Firefox.
The new "Speed Dial" feature.
More up-to-date in adopting W3C standards in general and CSS in particular.
Excellent built-in RSS/Atom feed reader. Much better than the "Live Bookmarks" feature of Firefox.
Much better tabbed browsing interface. Feels much more comfortable than Firefox's tabbing interface. I often make the mistake of closing the tab in Firefox when I want to click on a toolbar bookmark instead. In Opera, the tabs are above the navigation bar which is definitely a better layout.
The ability to easily validate HTML and XHTML by directly uploading pages to the validator page. This one is a real boon, especially for web developers.

Not convinced? Check out the full list of features.

On the downside, I did notice a few quirks in some JavaScript code execution as well as in loading certain websites, but overall it's an excellent, matured browser which shows in the polish of its interface and features.

Update: There is a problem with complex Unicode font rendering. So I cannot read my Tamil posts properly in Opera as the complex characters aren't shaped properly. The bug has been reported to Opera.

Opera is now my primary web browser. Yes, I'm a convert. :cool:

18 comments, 1 pingback

Comment from: Dominic [Visitor] · http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/

I was about to ask how on Earth you manage to close a tab when you mean to click on a bookmark, but then I figured that you must mean you use the bookmark toolbar folder?

I prefer the bookmark sidebar - I have too many bookmarks for a mere toolbar to be any use to me

On the validation front, have you tried the Firefox extension: http://users.skynet.be/mgueury/mozilla/

I use it to keep my blog properly-compliant, it's actually stricter than even the W3C validator page..

Oh, and the Sage RSS reader extension for Firefox is pretty good, tho I confess I don't use it much. MagpieRSS on my web page and Thunderbird are far more useful..

Wednesday Jul 4, 2007 @ 18:12

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Dominic, yes, I meant the bookmarks toolbar folder. Sorry if that was not clear. It keeps getting in the way of everything. Another thing about FF is that every now and then I keep opening a whole lot of tabs accidentally by clicking the "Open all in tabs" menu item. A lot of sites also slow down and crash FF occasionally.

I know FF has a lot of extensions and plugins, but it's already slow, and I didn't want it to be slower and less stable than it usually is. The HTMLTidy plugin looks interesting though.

I used Sage too, but I simply like Opera's built-in feed reader better. I guess everybody has their own preferences.

Wednesday Jul 4, 2007 @ 18:28

Comment from: Dominic [Visitor] · http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/

Oh, that "Open all in tabs" item. That's caused me so many problems: I have a bookmark folder for my web page that I habitually navigate to by just pressing "o" and that's one keystroke you really don't want to do in the wrong place... Damn thing.

Biggest problem I tend to have with FF these days is the broken version Ubuntu insists on using that crashes all the time. Someday I really must get around to either installing a better version or just installing another distro..

Wednesday Jul 4, 2007 @ 20:23

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Firefox in general seems to have bloated a lot since 2.0 came out. 1.5 was stable and probably the best release. 1.0 was nice and lightweight. Ah... the travails of popularity :razz:

Wednesday Jul 4, 2007 @ 20:25

Comment from: Sudipta Chatterjee [Visitor] · http://sudiptachatterjee.blogspot.com

Now I'm tempted!!

Will see...

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 00:43

Comment from: drew [Visitor] · http://trickykid.org

Yeah, I started using Opera as my main browser about a year ago. I use it first to check my own sites that I code, then I usually have to go back and make heavy modifications for the IE crowd.

The only thing I don't like about Opera 9.20 and 9.21 from 9.10 and previous versions was that I absolutely loved the old drop down menu when you clicked in the address bar. I got so use to doing that to click on my set homepage, now I have to actually use both hands and click Alt+Home for quick access back to my homepage.. darn that Opera.

Although I do like the empty new tab speed dial where you can add the most frequent web pages, etc.

Other than that, yeah, Opera is my first choice nowadays.

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 01:11

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Sudipta, then I've done my job :lol:

Drew, the reason I installed Opera initially was to check the correctness of my site design as well and its rendering with different browsers.

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 08:17

Comment from: Shrinidhi Hande [Visitor] · http://enidhispeaks.blogspot.com

How about new apple Safari? (that's not compatible with Linux I guess)

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 10:23

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Shri, Konqueror (the KDE file manager and web browser) in Linux actually uses the same underlying engine as Safari, I believe, although Konqueror is not "unofficial" Safari.

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 11:18

Comment from: Logesh TamilSelvan [Visitor] · http://loggyrhythm.blogspot.com

Yeah its cool lik.. THR BOSS :cool:

Thursday Jul 5, 2007 @ 21:46

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Logesh, long time no see! Are you back in Chennai? :grin:

Friday Jul 6, 2007 @ 09:33

Comment from: Nancy Protzman [Visitor]

I have been using IE 6 and 7 and have encountered a problem in that not all colors and graphics show on all websites. 2 Dell techs couldn't solve the problem. I began looking for alternatives. Firefox and Slim didn't seem to solve the color problem, and I was delighted when I found Opera 9.21. The correct colors and graphics appeared. Although I like some of the features, I found that Opera had some glitches. The Error Console kept popping up with no way to correct the errors or to take off the console. I wanted to add some desktop icons, and found no way to do this, and no instructions in the Help menu. I also found that I couldn't e-mail within websites like Classmates.com and BlueMountain e-cards.

Has anyone else run into these problems and found ways to solve them? I'm not a computer geek, so don't understand a lot of the technical tereminology.

Thanks.

Friday Jul 6, 2007 @ 09:35

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Nancy, what are the exact errors you had and in which websites? Also I use Opera on Linux, so some of the Windows specific problems aren't familiar to me.

Also to create a desktop icon in Windows, you just right click the desktop and create a link to opera.exe just like any other desktop shortcut.

You can post Opera-related questions about Opera in the Opera community at: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/

Hope that helps.

Friday Jul 6, 2007 @ 09:45

Comment from: Logesh TamilSelvan [Visitor] · http://loggyrhythm.blogspot.com

Yes hari i'm back :lol:
Kaaviri aarum kai kuthal arisiyum maranthu pogumaa? :cool:

Friday Jul 6, 2007 @ 20:48

Comment from: hari [Member] · http://literaryforums.org

Good Logesh. We'll meet some time... let us see.

Friday Jul 6, 2007 @ 20:54

Comment from: Logesh TamilSelvan [Visitor] · http://loggyrhythm.blogspot.com

sure hari!

Sunday Jul 8, 2007 @ 00:36