If your vision is good, and you wish to escape the clutches of The Man and Fanboys, and are looking for a complete one-stop communication center, Opera is the way to go.
A.E.Veltstra
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Speed: ++.
Memory: ++.
Features: ++.
Looks: +-.
Usability: -.
Okay. I've been using Opera 11 Alphas on Ubuntu for a while. Now added 11 Beta to that list. I have quite a bit of experience with Opera on Wintel boxes and on MacOSX, but had yet to try the 11-series on either.
Good things:
Speed. Yes, it's fast. Especially when you tell it to open 64 connections to the same domain, and have it start up with Speed Dial instead of resuming your last session.
Last time I used M2, Opera's Mail client, it caused the start-up time to increase. Haven't tried using M2 for years, primarily because my mail server department refuses to enable POP3 or IMAP. Please try for yourself, whether M2 changes your start-up time.
Opera 11 also uses a lot less memory than say, Firefox, and it has yet to freeze the entire computer, like Firefox 3 continues to do. Closing tabs doesn't release memory immediately, but Opera will release it when other applications need it, and thus falls in line with all of the competition.
Features? Lots and lots of features. Most of them, I turn off.
Features I do use:
Usability... ack.
Keyboard short-cuts that keep changing from one build to the next, a lack in documentation that makes it difficult to find a help file about the new keyboard short-cuts, seeming inability to access parts of the UI via keyboard because of the lack in documentation...
And worst of all: no regard for the visually impaired. Go ahead, activate MS Windows' High Contrast and select the High Contrast Black colour scheme. Half of the user interface disappears.
Conclusion: Use it.
If your vision is good, and you wish to escape the clutches of The Man and Fanboys, and are looking for a complete one-stop communication center, Opera is the way to go. If your vision could do better, you won't find a better solution on Wintel boxes than MS' excuse for a web browser.
Poor me.
(The ΩJr.Net is not affiliated with Opera SA outside of using their products and services.)
Memory: ++.
Features: ++.
Looks: +-.
Usability: -.
Okay. I've been using Opera 11 Alphas on Ubuntu for a while. Now added 11 Beta to that list. I have quite a bit of experience with Opera on Wintel boxes and on MacOSX, but had yet to try the 11-series on either.
Good things:
Speed. Yes, it's fast. Especially when you tell it to open 64 connections to the same domain, and have it start up with Speed Dial instead of resuming your last session.
Last time I used M2, Opera's Mail client, it caused the start-up time to increase. Haven't tried using M2 for years, primarily because my mail server department refuses to enable POP3 or IMAP. Please try for yourself, whether M2 changes your start-up time.
Opera 11 also uses a lot less memory than say, Firefox, and it has yet to freeze the entire computer, like Firefox 3 continues to do. Closing tabs doesn't release memory immediately, but Opera will release it when other applications need it, and thus falls in line with all of the competition.
Features? Lots and lots of features. Most of them, I turn off.
- Extensions or User.JS? Have yet to see a good reason to extend an already complete communication center. (This is why I dislike Firefox: you have to extend it in order to browse pleasurably.)
- Link? I visit different sites at work than at home or on the road. 3 Different locations, 3 different sets of visited sites, notes, rss, and what-not. Synchronising them will only make things more difficult. So Link is turned off.
- Unite? I have my own web site, thankyouverymuch, hosted by a dedicated hosting company, because I refuse to keep my home or work computers on-line while I'm out.
- Thumbnails in the tab bar? When the tab bar is located on the top, they take up too much of my precious screen estate. I've tried the tab bar on the sides. That works, and then the thumbnails prove their use. Engaging MS Windows' high contrast black theme renders them quite useless in that position, though. Try it.
- M2 / Chat? I like both, and stopped using them due to practicality and disregard for the visually impaired. With the amount of roaming I do for work, storing e-mail locally makes little sense. I prefer the on-line storage provided by a couple web mail providers. And Opera Chat only knows IRC. I prefer to combine all my chat accounts for various protocols in a multi-chat app. And worst: both M2 and Chat are set up for use with light-coloured backgrounds on the system... change your background color to something dark and both features are rendered useless.
Features I do use:
- Html / javascript and the rest of the web? It's all good. That's the main reason why I prefer Opera. And when a web developer takes a wrong turn, the Q&A team fixes it with browser.js.
- Content blocking: yes, thank you.
- Bookmarks, Notes, Bittorrent, Password Wizard: love them. Especially Notes, because entering the contents of one into a form takes 2 key strokes. Eat your heart out, OneNote.
- Looks: The menu bar - erm, button - frees up space. The customizability of rest of the UI has been one of Opera's main assets. Some things leave room for improvement, sure.
Usability... ack.
Keyboard short-cuts that keep changing from one build to the next, a lack in documentation that makes it difficult to find a help file about the new keyboard short-cuts, seeming inability to access parts of the UI via keyboard because of the lack in documentation...
And worst of all: no regard for the visually impaired. Go ahead, activate MS Windows' High Contrast and select the High Contrast Black colour scheme. Half of the user interface disappears.
Conclusion: Use it.
If your vision is good, and you wish to escape the clutches of The Man and Fanboys, and are looking for a complete one-stop communication center, Opera is the way to go. If your vision could do better, you won't find a better solution on Wintel boxes than MS' excuse for a web browser.
Poor me.
(The ΩJr.Net is not affiliated with Opera SA outside of using their products and services.)
Need problem solving?
Talk to me. Let's meet for coffee or over lunch. Mail me at “omegajunior at protonmail dot com”.