Browsing opportunities: 11 Web browsers compared


Contents
Introduction
 Avant Browser
 Camino
 Faststone
 Firefox
 Internet Explorer
 iRider
 Netscape
 Opera
 Safari
 Secondary Browser
 UltraBrowser
 Specifications
 Editor's choice
 About RMIT
Opera

Opera is not just a Web browser; it is has an integrated POP/IMAP e-mail client with address book and chat room support. Menus and toolbars are clear and easy to use. Tabbed windows, zooming and search toolbars are all present.

The history could be improved with a "by site" listing, although the search facility mollified me somewhat.

Session history, including all currently open pages, can be saved for your next session. Opera can be set to identify itself as Mozilla, MSIE, or itself to improve Web site compatibility.

Twenty language versions exist and product pricing is somewhat negotiable. It costs about AU$50, or you can just put up with the fairly unintrusive advertising -- which can be set to select ads based on your Google searches. The only difficulty I had was setting it up for automatic dial-up upon startup!

Page layout is generally compatible with the Gecko engine. It would seem that just about every platform you could want is catered for by Opera, including mobile devices (in limited form and price). One year's full e-mail-based support comes with your purchase.

Product Opera 7.54
Price

Free with ads or ~AU$50 without
Vendor Opera Software
Phone see Web site
Web www.opera.com
 
Interoperability
Multilanguage and multiplatform.
Futureproofing
Standards, compliant, secure.
ROI ½
Lots of features, pay for support.
Service
1-year e-mail support.
Rating ½
Opera
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Talkback 8 comments

    You say Firefox requires 52M d ...Anonymous -- 13/03/05

    You say Firefox requires 52M disc space.

    This is plain wrong. Its a 5M download and at most stretches to 15M unpacked. In the days of 80G discs standard, I don't think too many people are going to be complaining about 15M.

    But start by getting your facts straight.

    You say that Safari has compat ...Anonymous -- 15/03/05

    You say that Safari has compatibility with Mozilla-Gecko.

    I'm not sure what you are getting at here. While the core of Safari is open-source it is based on the KHTML rendering engine, not that of Gecko.

    Hi You have mentioned 11 brows ...Anonymous -- 15/03/05

    Hi
    You have mentioned 11 browsers, but you failed to include Maxthon browser. Ms. Natalie Hambly complains she's not been able to get away from IE6. Why don't she try Maxthon browser? It is like using IE6 with the features you are looking for. Once you have use it you'll never want anything else.

    You think Opera is great now? ...Anonymous -- 15/03/05

    You think Opera is great now? Just wait till you see the next version. Currently it is up 8.00 beta 2 or 8.00 preview 5.1.
    Many new features are included such as voice (XHTML+Voice), medium screen rendering, enhanced security...........
    The official changelog of the new beta can be found here:
    http://www.opera.com/windows/changelogs/operabeta/

    Latest versions can be found here:
    http://snapshot.opera.com/

    First of all, Firefox does not ...Anonymous -- 15/03/05

    First of all, Firefox does not take up 52mb of disk space. It's a small 4.7mb download that, when extracted, takes up a mere 16.6mb of disk space. So get your facts strait before making an obviously biased and unfair comparision of browsers.

    In my opinion, your futureproofing for Firefox and IE are totally backwards.

    Also, why does Firefox get an Interoperability rating of 2 and Netscape get an Interoperability of 3 1/2 when both offer the same in that area? (If anything Firefox offers more.)

    Opera? It's cool. But I would by no means make Opera my "pick of the litter". My choice would be Firefox. This is not a biased opinion, as I would use whatever works best for me. Firefox works best for me, so it's my choice. Plain and simple. If Firefox wasn't an option, I would choose Netscape. Opera? Ok that would come next.

    Both Firefox and Opera are gre ...Anonymous -- 17/03/05

    Both Firefox and Opera are great browsers. Each have different philosophies. Firefox is stripped down, though without any features it is still larger than Opera. Some of Firefox's extensions are simply excellent, and it generally as a very newbie friendly interface. Gecko is a great rendering engine, and the whole experience is very nice.

    Opera, though tiny in size and memory footprint, packs a hell of a lot into it - and is is AMAZINGLY FAST. They very cleverly have a system where, if you want just the browser, then the tiny communications module is not loaded, leaving you with a mean'n'lean browser. Adding a mail account or chat or RSS feed then activates communications. I prefer the way RSS is handled by Opera, you can create new feeds based on powerful searches! Lots of technology is still unique to Opera and Firefox extensions do not emulate them as well as the original (fast forward is one example). Opera is much more powerful out-of-the-box.

    The new version of Opera is going to come out soon, and having tried the beta it is an amazing step forward. I tried beta 3 and it has a new faster (if possible!) rendering engine, support for SVG and VoiceXML, and the best support for CSS2.1 of any browser around. User interface has been streamlined and made more newbie friendly too, while still retaining full power underneath.

    Yep, no argument with Opera Anonymous -- 17/12/05

    I've had 'em all, even browsers such as Deepnet Explorer which use the IE engine but offer greater functionality and security than IE, but once I spent a little time getting to know how to use and customise Opera (which it turns out to very good at) I'm now a dedicated advocate.

    And with the latest free version (8.50) they've removed the advertisement panel, although it never really bothered me anyway.

    Personally I can't see what all the fuss is about Firefox, it's no where near as much fun to use or as functional as Opera. In fact Opera is now my 'one stop shop' replacing the need for Windows Explorer and Outlook Express as well.

    Great stuff!!

    Firefox - Loss of Bookmarks. Frank Halliwell -- 10/03/07

    I love Firefox but it urgently needs a fix to prevent it from failing to display your bookmarks when required.

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