Is Firefox even in competition to Opera?
General Thoughts, Web Browsers December 25th, 2004
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Is Firefox even in competition to Opera
Ever since people started noticing a new browser coming on the horizon called Firefox (I noticed it when it was called phoenix), they have been saying that Opera would go down big time. I have seen messages on the discussion forums and even on personal Blogs. But most of these guys forget something very apparent…
Internet Explorer managed to kill Netscape Navigator… Opera Browser has survived everything since its inception around 10 years ago. They have got a relatively small user base which is very loyal and in fact pleased with what they have been provided by the small company from Norway. Most users of Opera Browser would definitely have tried Firefox by now… and if they still prefer to use Opera… maybe they know more than something others don’t know.
Most Opera users do not even consider Firefox as competition (the reverse case might not be true). Opera presents itself more as a web suite while Firefox is a plain-jane web browser which comes with the facility of adding features through extensions. People say Opera is bloat but forget to realize that it is smaller in size with many more features. Best of all the latest versions have streamlined the interface so much that even Opera converts are finding it hard to resist.
Something else people do not realize is that Desktops is not even the primary market for Opera Software ASA. They make most of their revenues from mobile platform versions. There is little competition to Opera Browser on this platform which makes it the chosen one for some of the best mobile companies out there. So, in broader terms… Opera Browser is yet to find a competition. And if we believe Mozilla Foundation… Minimo might be it.
And, we are desperately waiting for the fight to begin…
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Indeed so. Firefox is a thorn in IE’s side, not Opera’s. Firefox does everything IE does: Simple in the outset (granted it has some unique features), capable of adding what you want. If anything competes with Opera, it i the Mozilla suite which provides the same feature set with the addition of a rather nice HTML editor. In addition there are the IE shells, og which the most popular one, Avant Browser, was once called “IE Opera” (!). These shells are interesting and fast moving, since the authors can build on Internet Explorer without needing to care for the engine itself.
- This is the only reason people keep shouting browser war between Firefox and Opera: They are historically the only serious competition to the IE engine. But the user dont care, what the user care about is easy of use and if their websites are displayed in a usable fashion.
The fact that Firefox lets you add extensions which simulate Opera has no merit in upholding it as an Opera challenge. Firefox Extensions is what IE users call IE add-ons. And there are thousands of them.
What Mozilla and Opera do is take the things people need and put it together in a smooth package, where nothing is conflicting, where you dont need to uninstall an add-on to make another one working (Pie menus and mouse gestures in Firefox for example). You get mail, you get chat, you get RSS feeds with content (Firefox dont have this). With IE or Firefox you need several add-ons, even other applications to get your basic needs on the internet. With Opera and Mozilla you get it all.
If there is such a thing as a browser war, it is fought on two disperate fronts:
The simple front: Firefox and IE (and some shells)
The Internet workhorse front: Opera vs Mozilla (and other IE shells).
sushubh, you and I seem to share very similar views on the browser market. I used to exclusively use Opera until a few months ago, when I decided to give Firefox a real try (I had downloaded it previously and barely ever really used it). Since then, I have found myself using both Opera and Firefox simultaneously for different purposes. I tend to use Opera mostly for its wonderful download manager, and I tend to use Firefox mostly for general browsing use and keeping track of my RSS feeds (I am now addicted to Live Bookmarks). The main thing I like better about Opera is the way it handles tabbed browsing. I love Opera’s MDI (multiple document interface). I have always found Firefox’s tabbed browsing to be a bit rusty, and in order to get it similar to Opera’s style, I have to go deep into about:config and toggle different things around just to get the correct options to appear in the preferences settings, which I shouldn’t have to do. All in all, I think both Opera and Firefox are great browsers, and I use them both for different purposes.
New Opera has steamlined interface in response to “Opera is bloated” argument. Opera isn’t bloated anymore. It has now smaller and more elastic interface (check this customization and skinning!).
Firefox has got amazing hype. Such hype is not possible with commercial browser like Opera.
Minimo is not yet competitor to Opera. It is still early beta, and Opera has already years of experience on the market. Both desktop Opera is smaller than Firefox and mobile Opera is less resource-hungry than Minimo.
With new version even less advanced IE users now have a choice. Personally I think Opera has advantage here - everything is integrated and works together smoothly. To use advanced feature user only has to enable it (or just know about its existance :)). With Firefox there is a bit more complicated process of finding, downloading and installing a 3rd party extension (which has recently got some strong criticizm, even posted on slashdot)
Firefox doesn’t have to compete against Opera. We only need to beat IE, so web-standards will be followed everywhere.
This will be good both for Firefox and Opera.
I’ve seen enough arguments between people using Firefox or Opera. Use what you wish, but keep the goal in mind: web-standards everywhere.
Mozilla Foundation is about bringing choice and innovation to the Internet. It’s a nonprofit Foundation and actually works with the Opera team to push the future of web browsers. We think we have a pretty compelling feature set as well as a great model to build browsers. It’s nice to see Opera building browsers that people prefer and building their browser to support web standards. There’s more cooperation with Opera than there is competition, from my point of view anyway.
I’m a firefox user. I don’t use opera, I can’t stand opera I don’t want opera. If they wanna use opera then please let them. At least firefox doesn’t to pretend to be something that it’s not (opera emulates internet explorer by default.)
good for you. you certainly have no idea about how things world. do you!
mike, Konqueror can do that too. So can some Firefox extensions. Opera sends User-Agent string as IE by default because most web developers hardcode their browser detection script to recognise ie and mozilla(and a few more i think), but leave Opera out. This is not Opera’s fault, now is it?
Opera crashes frequently. Is not so fast as Firefox. But it has tiles, the only feature that is important to me. I use both. Prefer Firefox.