Opera = Chrome,,, Why bother with Opera at all?
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alreadybanned last edited by
Opera ditched Presto which meant they ditched just about everything when starting over with Chromium.
I have been an Opera user for years. I paid for it when it was commercial back in the day. I have Firefox with about 20 addons vs Opera 20 with three. Opera is much better Firefox. With Presto it was a constant hassle using Opera due to web page rendering issues. I needed Firefox as a fallback. Now it looks like I can actually permanently dump Firefox.
Start of an era.
ps - These anecdotal comments, like mine above, are useless. What counts is usage statistics and income. Statistics are going up because of higher retention. That is what Opera looks at.
Opera stats
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Feb 2014 - 1.9%
May 2013 - 1.6%
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php?year=2013&month=5
March 2014 - 2.9%
May 2013 - 2.4%
There are significant differences, however, the trend in them seems to be an upwards count.You can take those number with a grain of salt.
W3Counter - This site counts the last 15,000 page views from each of approximately 70,000 websites. This limits the influence of sites with more than 15,000 monthly visitors on the usage statistics.On the other hand - Wikimedia traffic analysis reports are based on server logs of about 4 billion page requests per month, based on the user agent information that accompanied the requests. These server logs cover requests to all the Wikimedia Foundation projects, including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wikiversity and others.
Jan.2013 - Desktop 2.72% Total 3.88%
Dec.2013 - Desktop 1.54% Total 2.86%
Jan.2014 - Desktop 1.51% Total 2.83%
Feb.2014 - Desktop 1.50% Total 2.77% -
alreadybanned last edited by
Good point, Leushino. Opera is free. As such it's a gift. We can choose between different products, and encourage developers. But being angry here over my rights in a free product is ludicrous. We don't risk losing money. They (the developers)do! I wish (smile) I were younger, even if -- haha -- angry. Like you Leushino, I have features I wish were still there from Opera Presto, But what there is here on the desktop, and Coast with Opera, and Opera for Android are pretty well done. Like wow. And Firefox, IE and Chrome are well done also. For some reason, even with this changed Opera, I prefer and enjoy the look, and what it does. I will end up using the browser that I enjoy most. For the moment, I still prefer Opera.
There is no choice in a monoculture which is what is happening with browsers. While the latest nightly builds of Firefox still use the Gecko engine, they are dumbing dow...er..I mean streamlining the interface which translates into less customization. So once again, work flow suffers as it does with finger painting OS'
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lem729 last edited by
Sometimes we go one step back, to be able to go two steps forward.
While in the past, the browsers had many fine features, there are issues of speed, and simplicity (that some want) (while others want infinite customization), and there's a balance at issue. Not everyone may end up instantly happy.
The thing to keep in mind is that we are NOT paying for the damn product (though I did pay my pittance for it many years ago). It's a freebie. When I pay good money for something and the quality is going downhill, I have a reason to be concerned about the civilization and the culture.
Here, I'm not ready to start complaining, because this is a product in development. I have an idea what Opera is trying to do, and so far, for me there are things I'm quite happy with, and features I wish would be improved -- with even a look to the past.On Firefox, I definitely liked it much more in the past. At one point, Opera and Firefox were for me close calls, though I preferred Opera. Now, I feel lost in extension bloated Firefox. I don't like the look, and have some technical problems with using it (flash conflicts, etc.). I personally find the minimalist look in Opera appealing, have always thought that a limitation with Opera was its non-development of extensions (now mostly addressed through the new browser engine, which opens the door to all of the chrome extensions), and I salute Opera for its invention of the speed dial -- made better through its folder innovation. Opera is a very creative company. Look at the innovations in the Coast browser for the Ipad. It has some shortcoming, but it's also, like wow -- another world. I say, hats off too Opera for thinking outside of the box. So be of good cheer: the future may still bring great things.
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mightymelvin last edited by
I want to use Opera. I really do. But there are some really stupid user-hostile aspects and maybe people who like games and puzzles and problems will enjoy them but I'm not really that market.
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Deleted User last edited by
I want to address some of the points made here. I researched browsers because I wanted to ditch Mozilla. Opera was highly recommended on the website I viewed. After trying it, I'm thinking it must have been an old comparison. The Opera I've been trying to use is, at least, 3-5 years behind MS IE and Firefox as far as features and functionality. I've documented the issues elsewhere, and haven't seen an answer to problems long ago solved on other browsers.
That being said, it does work. I can't say it does anything better than the big boys, but it may be a little faster loading some of the pages I think. Here's the problem. I don't like MS IE because of security issues. I don't want to use Mozilla because I don't respect the company. So, the question to me is : How beholding is Opera REALLY to Google? And from looking at it for a day, it seems like it is quite beholding. Since I have issues with privacy with Google, I'm not at all convinced that Opera doesn't share those same traits that Google has displayed with its other products.
Until I make up my mind, I'm uninstalling Firefox, keeping Opera as a backup, and going back to MS IE.
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Deleted User last edited by
Opera is not beholding to Google. The real question is: why are you trolling in this forum? I've read your comments in several threads now and all you seem to do is criticize, ridicule and demean Opera. Look... if Opera doesn't float your boat go elsewhere. You say you wanted to ditch Mozilla... and why is that? You don't like this browser and you don't like that one. Well... find one that you DO like and stick with it. If you want the options provided by the "old" browser... then download v.12.16 and go with it. Many here are continuing to use the Presto versions without a great deal of problem so what is YOUR problem?
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Deleted User last edited by
Opera is not beholding to Google. The real question is: why are you trolling in this forum? I've read your comments in several threads now and all you seem to do is criticize, ridicule and demean Opera. Look... if Opera doesn't float your boat go elsewhere. You say you wanted to ditch Mozilla... and why is that? You don't like this browser and you don't like that one. Well... find one that you DO like and stick with it. If you want the options provided by the "old" browser... then download v.12.16 and go with it. Many here are continuing to use the Presto versions without a great deal of problem so what is YOUR problem?
LOL. So much anger... over a browser. Very much like what you used to find in the Linux forums... which is why virtually no one uses it on desktops (currently about 1.5%). Don't take software appraisals personally. It's not a cult, but a product. If you enjoy Opera, that's fine, it occupies about a 1.5-2.0% market share. As I said, it'll be my backup until some of the issues get resolved. I hope they do.
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lem729 last edited by
bangorne, you say you are concerned about privacy: you might want to look at the Disconnect extension (Opera has it)
https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/disconnect/?display=en
and the Disconnect Search extension that Chrome has, and that you can get to work in Opera.
My understanding is that a former google executive created disconnect.me to counter browser tracking. You say you don't like IE because of security issues. Well, security is a big deal. In any event, I don't like the look of IE (and the lack of a good speed dial). Still, as leushino suggests, you need to go with what you like.
Of course, percentages may be relevant here. Internet Explorer has the large preponderance of the browser market share. Every hacker in the world will go after it
Good luck! -
Deleted User last edited by
Thanks lem. I haven't given up on Opera. It's got some good things going for it. As some have said, it's just beginning to use the blink engine, and I expect it to be competitive as the project progresses. One thing I've noticed since going back to MS IE, is that Opera is noticeably faster than MS IE. That's a big plus. It's also less prone to security attacks (although Chrome is popular enough to make it a target).
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lem729 last edited by
No problem, bangorme. One concern about Google is what they do with private/privacy data they have. With Opera, you get - in terms of speed -- Chrome performance (the blink engine) (and access to Chrome extensions), but without the Google account. Hmmm, that sounds like a plus. Of course there are a lot of other distinguishing features, that I think make Opera a good bet (including Off-road mode for speed when the computer connection is slow), the speed dial (with the ability to create folders within folders), etc, but there's no point going through the distinguishing features (that I find persuasive and that make Opera more enjoyable to use), because what I'm looking for and what you are may be totally different. .
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mightymelvin last edited by
As for the original question, why even use Opera any more?
Well, Internet Explorer has a reputation for incompatibility with the Web. I don't know whether that's true now.
Chrome ignores my settings or does crazy things in response to my attempts to set settings. And Chrome is Google and Google is the Borg.
Mozilla was recently exposed as being run by fiercely bigoted heterophobes, and there may be some people who don't want to do business with that.
So what remains? Opera and a long tail of little bitty others. And Opera is kind of user-hostile, always was, so some of us have no choice but to bottom-feed. Every year or two I try Opera, get totally antagonated, and the next year I try it again.
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