Full-text blog feedOpera 8 is better
I have downloaded and tried both betas of Opera 8 (and I now see they have put out a thrid one), and I must say they have improved the user experience considerably since version 7.
However, it still took me something like four tries, and endless amounts of time, to get the toolbars the way I wanted them: menus, Google ads, basic navigation buttons and location bar, and then the tabs. Now, I would consider myself fairly computer-litterate, having made two themes for Firefox among other things, so it shouldn't be because of my level of general computer knowledge. I suppose it could just have been bad luck. It could also be due to the fact that I'm very used to Firefox. My feeling, though, is that the toolbar customization in Opera 8 is still fairly unintuitive. What do you think? If you haven't tried Opera 8 yet - give it a spin. It's the best browser around. Sadly, it's also (to my knowledge) the most expensive.
1 Comment(s):
At 1:43 AM,
Nuno said…
hey...
first of all I'm an Opera fan...
well, Opera 8 is really good!! The toolbars take time to arrange because you probably aren't familiar with the way opera let's you customize it.
I, that consider myself as an advanced user, take about 5 minutes to put the interface the way I want... well... in FFox i use 4 or 5 extensions... I have to find, grab and configure them... it takes me about 30 mins...
I use both regularly (Opera as main browser and mail client) and FFox to check browser compatibility on some of my web pages, to enter a page Opera doesn't render well (sometimes it has to be with IE....)
In my opinion, it isn't expensive... 20$ - student version (34$ standard, but you can install in every computers in your house) and they offered Opera8 to people that have bought Opera7 (released in 2003) so... if Opera8 stick arround for two years more, it would have cost 5$ per year for me... that's a price of a meal for me...
don't forget that almost every extensions to FFox are copies of features opera has for a long time... mouse gestures, option to continue with last session, even when the browser crashes, undo close tab... image show/hide, notes(very handy for me.. copy text to it with one click, insert a note in a text area...) see more here - http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/opera/firefox/ or - http://firefoxopera.blogspot.com/
and lots of things... real full-screen (I mean the whole screen! - F11), real page zoom (not only the fonts)...
Opera is a whole sistem, with these tools well integrated, and that makes you save money...
For instance, spartial navigation (when you link 2 tabs and put them tiled, side to side, and when you click the first, the resultant page opens always in the second one) have saved me a lot of time in my researches!! I do a lot of them...
I consider Opera the best browser for those that need internet as a tool for their work and really understand it's concepts. It isn't easy since it has so many things!! and more... and more... I use it for about a year and a half and i still get surprised with some features that i didn't know of... so generally to regular people (that want to see their webmail, check some sites...) I recommend FFox because it's similarity with IE and simplicity. For experienced users, that need internet about all day, that breed internet, Opera is much more better, since it can save you a lot of time!!! It consumes more time to learn... but it worth every dollar (or EURO :P) you pay....
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