Opera Users

[Skrying]

I recently made the switch to Opera from Firefox and I'm starting to regret it. Opera has lots of built in capablities that I find very useful, but the web site compatiblity is just..... bad.

I find myself running into a problem a day most of the time, and just lots of weird behavior.

Also, where's the famed memory usage on this thing? I'm actually using MORE memory than I did with Firefox..... dont get it.

 

[Spaceman-Spiff]

I tried Opera a few months back. I like Opera for it's speed, but I don't like some of it's behaviour compared to Firefox. I hate how I can't arrange my toolbars. I now still use Firefox mainly and Opera for opening pages that contains a lot of media.

You can use Firefox 2.0 alpha if you like living in the bleeding edge. I think Alpha 2 should come out fairly soon. What's new in Firefox 2: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox2/Requirements

 

[ANova]

Opera is much faster than Firefox, but yes it does have rendering problems with quite a few webpages. It's usually not that bad though. FYI, you can arrange the toolbars any way you like, more so than with Firefox imo.

 

[chavvdarrr]

yep, toolbars can be arranged any way... just use rihgt-click and customize
As for rendering problems - these days I have veru few such problems, and switching browser ID (F12) from opera to IE or Mozilla or vice versa helps.
AFAIK, Opera 9 scheduled for release in few months is supposed to pass the ACID2 test... so web-site incompatibilities are hardly Opera issue - rather web designers using proprietary (MS-centric) decisions

Memory usage - what do you want, speed or less memory used ? Try preferencies - advanced and tweaking cache settings...

Right now I use Opera 8.53, latest FFox 1.5 and IE7 beta2 . Both FF and IE7 have nice features, almost as good as Opera... yet there are things that I lack... like switching "show images" <->"show cached only" from keyboard, zooming, switching from one tab to another, integrated and very useful RSS reading, page refreshing... etc ...

And whenever I try to open 10+ tabs in FFox (in Opera I never have less than 10 ), it starts to lagggg, switching slowwllllly (although now its much better than before).

 

[KimB]

And whenever I try to open 10+ tabs in FFox (in Opera I never have less than 10 ), it starts to lagggg, switching slowwllllly (although now its much better than before).

That's odd. I just tested this, and after opening 17 tabs to different websites, I noticed no slowdown whatsoever in switching between each. Memory usage did bloom to 240MB, though.

 

[chavvdarrr]

That's odd. I just tested this, and after opening 17 tabs to different websites, I noticed no slowdown whatsoever in switching between each. Memory usage did bloom to 240MB, though.

Actually its ok when you are constantly in FFox.
But try switching to Excel, outlook, remote desktop, IFNS (instant file name search - the best file indexing& searching tool that i find, freeware too!), then back to FFox. Then its is slow. Ok, I mean slower than Opera , and I still lack features which I'm accustomed to and don't wanna lose...
PS: and I do prefer to use the browser that creates new features not the one that follows . OMG, maybe I start to look like a MAC user ?! scary thought

 

[Rodéric]

Opera is nice, I used it in the BeOS before Firefox came, however I'd much prefer a x64 version for windows since otherwise it's crawling through the emulation layer...

 

[Graham]

try out the opera 9 beta. This fixes some of the bigger text layout issues, where you get text overlaying on top of an image.

You still can't beat Opera for speed. On my work machine, which is utterly full to the brim with dev tools, servers, etc, Opera still manages to run amazingly fast. Even with 75+ tabs open. This on a machine that is so slow that I often have to wait 2-3 minutes for programs to load (such as VS, PS, etc) - it's an older HP, so it's hdd is pants.

You will find you miss the instant back/forward when you go back to other browsers

 

[zsouthboy]

I'm using (and have been using for about 2 months now) the 9 Beta, and it kicks ass!

I'm not sure what you're talking about, btw, regarding toolbars: where exactly can't you move them?


The compatibility is "bad" (even in comparison to FF) mostly because of its marketshare(it's not that it's buggy; rather, most site just don't do complaint things); though I'm glad of FF for eating away at IE because, in the end, we end up with standards-complaint webpages for ALL browsers, not IE bullshit.

 

[KimB]

Opera is nice, I used it in the BeOS before Firefox came, however I'd much prefer a x64 version for windows since otherwise it's crawling through the emulation layer...

More important than an x64 version of the browser is an x64 version of certain essential plugins. Most are only i386 at the moment.

 

[Skrying]

My experience with Opera 9 was rather bad really. It didnt have much improved compatibility over the most current version of 8. It also crashed rather often and consistenly on certain sites.

I'm keeping it though, it has many useful features and has lots of great things packaged in that I find very useful. The IRC and Email clients, while simple, really get the job done for me. The download manager is also nice in the fact that it has built in torrent capabilities.

As for performance, its about the same as far as memory and feel as Firefox. Loading pages is slow, but that's limited by my connection and its certainly not faster than Firefox was for me.

We'll see, I'm really hoping the official version of 9 will help.

 

[McDusty]

That's odd. I just tested this, and after opening 17 tabs to different websites, I noticed no slowdown whatsoever in switching between each. Memory usage did bloom to 240MB, though.

I have 18 tabs open in opera 9 beta now and its using 82 meg. I still encounter occasional rendering issues, but less with 9 than 8.5 and usually they're only minor.

My experience with Opera 9 was rather bad really. It didnt have much improved compatibility over the most current version of 8. It also crashed rather often and consistenly on certain sites.

I found problems with Opera 9 TP1, and Opera 9 TP2 didn't work at all when i tried it ... it just refused to connect to my internet, but the Beta 1 seems pretty solid. Its crashed a couple of times though when viewing videos recently ( all these E3 ones i've been looking at) so maybe there is an issue there. But no real problem, because opera remembers all the pages u had up when it crashed, so ur soon back were u were.

When all is said and done Opera is the best browser overall. Firefox is great for techies who are happy to search for and install plugins, but for the majority of who won't Opera is the best choice.

edit - misquoting

 

[KimB]

Psst, it wasn't me who said that second quote

Firefox is great for techies who are happy to search for and install plugins, but for the majority of who won't Opera is the best choice.

I don't understand this. Firefox has a great pluginfinder that will automatically install and load the majority of plugins.

 

[McDusty]

Psst, it wasn't me who said that second quote

I don't understand this. Firefox has a great pluginfinder that will automatically install and load the majority of plugins.

Opps ... quote fixed. Your right, The program automatically updates and finding/installing extentions is made very easy. Im simply suggesting that many average web users still won't look through them and take advantage of them and that Opera offers more features 'out of the box' ... but maybe im wrong, have firefox installed but hardly used it. It failed to persuade me to switch from opera.

 

[Skrying]

Another program, but its been limited to forums only so far. Sometimes the cursor will just suddenly go away and then movement on certain parts of the page the cursor starts blinking very rapidly. I close the tab and it goes away.

Just annoying.

Opera seems rather buggy to me. Beyond the built in features, it feels like a second rate browser its lots of regards. The bugs, crashing, and usage memory (just measured it, its higher than Firefox....) just dont sit well with me on recommending it to thoughs who are not experienced users.

 

[Diplo]

I'm actually using MORE memory than I did with Firefox..... dont get it.

And the problem with that is what? I never understand why people have a 1GB of RAM or more in their machine and then complain when applications actually utilise that memory! Yes, by default, Opera will use lots of your available RAM to cache pages and data to make your browsing experience faster. That is what RAM is for! It is not to be hoarded and guarded and never used. If other applications need the RAM Opera will free it.

You can also conifgure memory managment in Tools > Prefences > Advanced > History by changing the automatic memory management settings. If you really want Opera not to use any of your available RAM then you can force it to do so. Though why you wouldn't want it to use that RAM is beyond me...

 

[zsouthboy]

Agreed.

People don't realize that the amount of RAM usage showing up in the task manager isn't necessarily what they should go by when making these judgements.

Sometimes the cursor will just suddenly go away and then movement on certain parts of the page the cursor starts blinking very rapidly.

Something else is wrong with your system, methinks.


I've used Opera since 7, FF since back when it was FireBird and every version of IE since 4 and I've never seen anything like that.

It sounds like a background process is doing something to your cursor.

 

[Skrying]

And the problem with that is what? I never understand why people have a 1GB of RAM or more in their machine and then complain when applications actually utilise that memory! Yes, by default, Opera will use lots of your available RAM to cache pages and data to make your browsing experience faster. That is what RAM is for! It is not to be hoarded and guarded and never used. If other applications need the RAM Opera will free it.

You can also conifgure memory managment in Tools > Prefences > Advanced > History by changing the automatic memory management settings. If you really want Opera not to use any of your available RAM then you can force it to do so. Though why you wouldn't want it to use that RAM is beyond me...

I DONT KNOW! So tell all of the Opera users who bash Firefox and praise Opera because Opera uses less memory about this.

I could honestly care less while I'm browsing if its using 1GB of memory, but if its a touted thing by Opera users generally then I'm going to say something about it.

 

[KimB]

Well, the question is when the memory usage becomes an impediment. I too could care less how much memory it uses, as I have 2GB. But those with only 512MB may care.

 

[chavvdarrr]

afaik by default Opera tries to use up-to fixed % of available memory