Opera 9 beta 1 user reviews

Pros Handsdown the fastest, greatest and most secure browser ever!

Cons Often relegated to the backlines due to a lack of mainstream support

Summary Seriously, Opera is great yet the reviewer fails to see that more than half of what he's mentioned was part of Opera since version 7...

If you are gonna write a review about it at least know your facts.

What's really new in version 9 will be that BitTorrent and Widget support. Others are already in the current version 8.

Pros Too many to mention here, just try it.

Cons very few to speak of

Summary Hi all,
A little bit-o-history...

The first browser was created by Tim Berners-Lee
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html

In the very early part of 1991 (pay close attention to the date) I was working in a Software Engineering / Products R&D Center that had a large quantity of Next Computers.

Here is a link to the change history for the NeXT browser.
http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/NeXT/Implementation/Features.html (shows dates)

In our shop, we acquired this browser very shortly after it was released. The early NeXT’s were gray scale but soon we were browsing in color. Screen shots available on the first link of this response. In case you missed it… http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif


Why go and say all of that? Because I have been using browsers longer, almost THREE years longer than just about everyone who reads this reply and this probably includes the author of the review.

You could say that that makes me at least very knowledgeable in WWW browser related functionality.

I have used more browsers, on more Operating Systems in the last 15 years than most of you reading this reply. This includes the latest FAD craze called Firefox.

Truth and fact. There is no browser that is absolutely 100% perfect. All of them have their faults.

I have been using Opera since version 5.something. I keep trying to find something better, so I try every new browser that comes along (a pattern that I have had for a good many years anyway) and I keep coming back to Opera.

Robert Vamosi,the person who reviewed Opera did NOT do his homework, or he was absent from class the day they talked about Opera. Perhaps he got his information from the Cliff Notes version.

There are sections of his review that are so inaccurate that it borders on negligence. From what Robert mentioned, it clearly shows that he only knows or understands about 25% of the full functionality that lies behind this well thought out product.

Robert, for the record, if you had simply spent some time with the product you would have found:

That you can customize Opera with a few clicks to display search, book marks, mail, contacts, chat, notes, transfers, history, links, windows and info on your screen with screen placement values for left, right, floating or off.

You would have also discovered that selecting the search engine has been available for many versions.

You would have mentioned that Opera has a zoom feature by simply using the ‘+’ or the ‘-‘ keys on the key pad that will allow the zooming of any web page.

You would have mentioned that it has hundreds of time saving key strokes to enhance the experience.

You would have mentioned mouse gestures.

You would have discovered that if you go into the Customize Appearance panel and simply select the radio button that says 'Find more skins', you would be deluged with hundreds of skins to choose from.

I am often irritated by reviews of products because all too often the people with the largest voice and influence do not spend the time to be as accurate as they should be.

In his review the tone of the review is such that Opera is ‘catching up’ to Firefox and Microsoft’s abysmal browsers, when it fact Opera has been the leader and trend setter for many years. The people, who are supposed to be in the ‘know’ simply don’t know so they make assumptions.

I’ve used Firefox and while I think it is a pretty good browser, for me in my humble opinion, it does not even come close to Opera’s functionality.

Dear readers, Opera is not without its faults, it does misbehave on occasion, failing to render some web sites properly. Most of the time you will find upon closer inspection, it is NOT Opera’s fault as much as it is the creator of the web site that conforms to the loose standards set by Microsoft’s abysmal Internet Explorer which dominated the market for so long.

Opera does its best to create a browser that renders web pages that conform to the standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org/


Even with all of its faults, for me it is still the best browser this planet has to offer.

Opera is like the television show '24' ... the best television show that too many missing out on.


Regards,
Wiz-bang

Pros Mouse gestures, very customizable, tab previews, cool new widgets feature

Cons Interface is not as "clean" as Firefox out-of-the-box

Summary There have been a lot of improvements in this version: overall better tab and window management, being able to press CTRL+Enter to fill in "www. .com", and better password management, among others.

New features are pretty useful and innovative: the widgets add a new dimension to browsing, and I'm sure that bittorrent users will find use for the built in DL support.

Overall, Opera has addressed many of the shortcomings of the past, and its new features really stand out. I recommend giving it a spin!

Pros Extremely fast, fully featured, voice commands, email, very customizable, able to re-open closed tabs, widgets, free email and built in client

Cons I'm having a hard time pointing them out because I was so excited everytime I stumbled on a new feature, I cant believe this is beta!!!

Summary Opera is nothing short of amazing. It's biggest achievement is making you more and more curious of bountiful features. I was not immediately impressed, until I actually started using it's features, I was hooked, I am fan of mozilla ff but I've become addicted to Opera. It was worth the download.