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Opera 9

By on 23 June 2006

We really like Opera 9, but we like it more as the cool, arty browser that it is and not as our everyday workhorse for the Internet.

Editor's rating:7.4 User rating:9.4

Comments (12)

  • neitakk gave 10/10 on 06/10/2008 08:11

    Opera isvbetter then Firefox. You said you missed a function to see the visit history by right clicking the back button? Well, it's easier with Opera. Just click back or forward arrow, and hold your mouse button for 1 second. Then a dropdown list of all visited site rolls out.

  • sarfaraz gave 9/10 on 07/06/2008 14:16

    excellent- i like it

  • InfraredNinja gave 10/10 on 21/05/2008 17:14

    • Good: Too many to list.
    • Bad: Doesn't work with a few websites, most of which reqire certain IE hitches(Read: screwed up code) to operate. Personally, i beleive this is a mistake on the part of the web developers.

    I agree with my fellow commenters. This reveiw is crap.

    The fact that the reveiwer claimed incorrectly that full history could not be veiwed easily shows that the reveiwer not only failed to give the browser a fair trial, but, upon discovering an inconvenience, decided that the browser was lacking in that department and wrote it off, rather than using either Opera's help feature OR the community! This seems to be a clear lack of effort on the part of the reveiwer.

    The reveiwer's entire commentary regarding the inclusion of BitTorrent support is best described as "clinically retarded." Not only is it, as has been pointed out, contradictory by it's nature, but the paragraph is more a commentary on BitTorrent itself as a utility, NOT opera's inclusion of it. The pros and cons of BitTorrent should NOT be a subject of discussion in a reveiw of a browser. One might as well discuss website content in the reveiw for all the inteligence that this shows. The truth is that Opera's BitTorrent client is a very convenient feature. Admittedly, it is not a complete replacement for a proper BitTorrent client, with downloads endidn when the browser is closed (relatively speaking, a minor concern), and the lack of control over handling the downloads (particularly being unable to download only one file from a torrent). For these you need a pure BitTorrent client. I will regualrly use Opera for a torrent download when these features are uneccessary for the instance and i find it to be delightfully convenient. I am confident that later releases will improve on operas functionality in the department, to the point that it may soon be a valid competitor for programs like utorrent and azurus.

    The commentary on opera's security is likewise contradictory, both praising and belittling it. I personally find it offensive that the reveiwer felt it appropriate to speculate on the relative status of the browser's security as its popularity increases. The statement is blatently speculative and has NO basis in fact. Had the reveiwer simply given token nod to the contribution of obscurity to the browser's security, it would be acceptable. Instead s/he makes the claim that the browser's relative security would change with popularity. No evidence is given to support this claim. In fact, the reveiwer goes on to praise opera for dealing with security issues quite well. At least keep your stories straight!

    Regarding the presence of Faqs from opera, i have to ask, did you ever bother to look under that Help menu, or even really browse the site? Opera's help database is simply massive, covering seemingly everything you could need help with. And opera as a large number of tutorials on its website covering all sorts of subjects, filling the place of FAQs

    I also find the lack of mention of Opera's in-browser email client to be annoying as well. Opera mail, while not perfect, can prove incredibly handy to ANY user with an email account. Rather than having to constantly sign in to websites to check your mail, it's right there on startup. opera even lets you know when a new email is received. simply setting up my email to work with opera has increased my email use tenfold, making it a convenience to check, rather than an annoying pain.

    Lastly, how can one talk about opera and not discuss it's superior web standard compliance!? what other major browser passes the Acid2 test? Standards compliance is a requisite for modern web developers and only opera truly offers it.

  • define:editor - ff fanboi gave 10/10 on 03/05/2008 13:53

    • Good: even if it wasnt the fastest web browser, using opera would still make browsing the internet faster because of all the features designed to help you.


      widgets
      mouse gestures
      speed
      most idiots can work it out easily (I say most because obviously the reviewer did not work it out ps yes I just put the reviewer into the catagory of "idiot")
      speed dial
      multi purpose address bar
      secure
      it just works (the most important feature, Ive installed firefox and internet explorer on a few machines and found errors, not once have I found an error with opera)
    • Bad: opera is "competing" with microsoft and google which have a lot of power.

    this review is crap.

    "but there's no mention of the pages you've visited"
    please hold down the left mouse button to see this list.
    do macs have a left mouse button, NO
    so opera by doing this is more cross platform than IE and ff and netscape. so this should increase not decrease the rating.

    why are you complaining about bit torrent being included and saying its bad that opera has it but other browsers will integrate it (implying that having bit torrent in your browser is a good feature) which is a bit contradictory

    opera is faster, more secure and easier to use than firefox. however you imply that firefox is not only better (a vaguely defined comparing word) but also more secure (which is a complete lie) than opera.

    fun fact
    time spent using opera:2 years every day a few to 10 hours a day.
    crashes using opera:0
    time spent using firefox: 1 month
    crashes using firefox: about 10
    and obviously internet explorer gets the most crashes.

    "It's unclear why the browser needs this feature" - "Widgets offer specific functionality" another contradiction?

  • saudiqbal gave 10/10 on 05/11/2007 08:42

    • Good: Everything works perfect for me
    • Bad: Nothing, Uninstall Firefox and start using Opera

    Opera is the best and fastest browser. It has a built in Email client which I use everyday

  • Frank Pinto gave 9/10 on 22/09/2007 02:13

    I will like you to extend my thanks to Rob whose web site helped me to install Opera 9 Web Browser on my Red Hat Linux

  • curigeorge1945 gave 8/10 on 27/04/2007 08:47

    • Good: Fast
      Some 'cool' features that I'd like on an everyday workhorse.
    • Bad: Google desktop does not yet support it which would be so bad except that Opera's history functionality has been so abysmal.

      Also it doesn't have many Greasemonkey and other extensions that are useful in Firefox such as bumblesearch, GTD (for Gmail) and Gmail preview.

    Opera is a fast browser but I agree that it seems to support cutting-edge rendering development more than "workhorse" functionality (especially information management; see cons below). It'll never increase market share significantly unless it can be used as an everyday workhorse browser.

  • anonymous gave 10/10 on 02/01/2007 19:02

    The review is terrible.

    Firefox eats memory, even with no pages loaded. Opera has a tiny memory footprint at all times.
    Firefox is slow to load and has a history of being buggy, which it maintains. Opera is extremely fast to load and very refined and I've never encountered a bug or freeze-up in YEARS of usage.

    Forget extensions -- opera is streets ahead of firefox. How many non-poweruser users use extensions? Then don't say opera is not a good day-to-day browser.

    How will more users using opera make it less secure?

    This review is extremely poor and does not consider anything that should matter (speed, memory footprint, effectiveness at BROWSING).

    The standard mozilla browser is a better browser than firefox (any version of FF). It is stable.

    Whoever wrote the review has made me laugh so hard.

  • ZéB gave 10/10 on 09/11/2006 03:54

    • Good: Fastest web browsing;
      Ergonomics.
    • Bad: Problems with some flash animations;

    It looks like you've spent only a couple of minutes with Opera and 2 years with Firefox.
    As it was said in a previous comment, YOU CAN SEE PREVIOUSLY VIEWED PAGES - just maintain the click for 1 second (please update this error in your review!).
    The widgets aren't just cool. They are real apps that just happen to run in your brower thus perfectly integrated with the web.
    And it has a lot of time saving solutions, becoming the best "worhorse for the internet". Two examples:
    1- Press left button, right button and go forward; press right button, left button and go backward;
    2- Press right button+scroll wheel and scroll through tabs.
    I still keep Firefox and IE because no browser can open all pages. And also, as it was already mentiones, opera has issues with some flash animations.
    Just give it a go for a few days and I think you'll be positively surprized.
    And, please, updated this review!

  • Anonymous gave 8/10 on 21/08/2006 13:36

    • Good: Mouse gestures are a wonderful addition
    • Bad: Problems loading flash animation

    Coolest feature is mouse gestures

    Apart from what has been said, a feature not often mentioned which i have found really useful is mouse gestures where u hold down the right mouse button and depending on the direction you move the mouse you can go back a page, scroll to a different tab etc. This is just so convenient and once you use it you wont go back. None of the other browsers have this as far as I know...

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