You all know that I don't particularly like Opera. I find the product to be lacking polish, over-complicated and without the marketing pizazz that has made Firefox a household name. That's just my personal opinion, and that opinion has garnered many complaints of unjustness. To that end, to present a fairer discussion I would like to put a simple question to the community: "What should Opera do?".
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Member since:2005-07-06
1. A tab model that works, e.g. new tab opens next to the active one, focus switches to the last active tab after closing the current one, unlike Firefox's Keep It Simply Stupid model that more or less forces me to use Tab Mix Plus, which itself is a real pain to keep up-to-date with all the Firefox Alpha/Beta/RC, especially if you use multiple computers.
2. Tab bar on the sides, which is not supported by Tab Mix Plus, and thus not supported by Firefox because the extensions that allow you to do so doesn't work with TabMix Plus, and any self-respected user can't use Firefox without Tab Mix Plus.
If Chrome developers were any smart, they would have copied this instead of/on top of the tab bar on top thingie. Netbooks, their targeted market, got wide screens. Use it.
3. Per-tab search box, unlike Firefox/Arora where the location bar is per-tab while the search box is global, which is just stupid.
4. A location bar such that if you type in a URL or select an item from the dropdown, it will go to the top of the list. Awesome Bar only does so for selection, so it is not so awesome for me. Chrome OmniBox doesn't even have the dropdown, same for Arora.
5. Once you close all the tabs, you can have a browser window without any opened tab (note: this is configurable). Firefox, with its infinite extensibility, cannot do this. Arora can't. Chrome can't.
Btw, this is related to #1, i.e. someone has actually put in some thought when designing the tab model.
6. A fully customizable UI, so that you don't have to install a "Show Go Button" extension in order to show the Go button.
7. A fully custmizable shortcut system, so that you don't have to install a "Disable Backspace Navigation" extension in order to disable the backspace navigation.
Member since:2009-09-19
In the distant past I have used Mozilla, which inherited a decent method of configuring the encrypted TLS/SSL connections. Unfortunately the Firefox developers replaced that style of configuration with the style of configuration used by MS IE, where you do not have any control over the protocol used for secure connections. I make a lot of online transactions, either buying online or giving instructions to my banks, so I cannot accept a browser that lacks control over the security features. Therefore, when Firefox replaced Mozilla, I had to switch to Opera. Regarding other features, some are more convenient on Opera, some are more convenient on Firefox, the two are practically equivalent, at least on Linux, where I use them. But the single feature that I mentioned, the security configuration, totally disqualified Firefox for me. If Opera had not existed, I might have worked to modify the Firefox sources or to create a custom extension, but since Opera already does all what I need, why bother?
Member since:
2006-01-01
Personally, I'm not really interested in what Opera should do to increase its market share, because I much prefer FOSS software. I'd be more interested to hear opinions about what Free / Open Source Software browsers could learn from Opera? So, where do you think Opera does better than Firefox, Midori, Konqueror, Arora, ...?
I use Elinks quite a lot, because it works even without the Xorg-server. The Links version from the Twibright guys also shows pretty pictures (in directfb) without Xorg. For Xorg desktop environments I prefer XFCE4, and the new WebKit-based browser called Midori is well integrated with that environment. For KDE4 there are Konqueror and Arora. The gecko-based web browsers are also quite popular in all desktop environments.
I don't actually use desktop environments that much, just some applications that come with those environments. In practice I prefer stumpwm, and occasionally ratpoison, if I need a GUI. Anyway, I'd like to hear what advantages the Opera fanboys think their favourite browser has over the leading FOSS browsers. So, I'm here offering you a chance to praise Opera's virtues. Are there any?