Opera more productive than Firefox
General Thoughts, Web Browsers November 26th, 2004
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Opera more productive than Firefox
I have been using the Opera Browser since the early 7.x versions and I was first introduced to Firefox when it was still known as Phoenix (version 0.3 I think). And after more than a year of using both the browsers, I have found Opera to have the upper hand when it comes to increasing productivity.
Opera has a smaller download size and comes packed with features. I use it not only as a browser, but also as a mail and chat client. It even works as my primary Feed Reader. It saves me from running separate applications for all these requirements. Saving memory and desktop space for me. It comes packaged with features like the much-hyped tabs, mouse gestures, wand and more. The browser cache capabilities are awesome and moving between pages is extremely smooth. I can browse 100 pages and it will reload the first pages in a snap. I keep up with developers channels on the inbuilt IRC client, which is simple and highly configurable. The mail client is extremely functional and offer excellent searching capabilities. With filters, I can sort out mails in much effective way. And all this inside one common window and everything work out of the box.
Firefox has been excellent since the first day for me. It comes out to be an excellent Internet Explorer alternative. However, when people claim it helps us improving productivity, I find it confusing. If they are talking about time saved by not worrying about security glitches and stuff (in Internet Explorer), Opera already does it and more. Firefox is a bare browser with little thrills thrown in. they have managed to bring the download size to a respectable size (for windows) using better compression technologies but it still needs many extensions to smoothen the browsing experience. I have tried installing extensions to bring it closer to Opera in features and I have failed. I have to rely on an external mail and chat client for these additional routine requirements. Thunderbird and Chatzilla are not integrated so take additional memory and desktop space. It has excellent extensions, which do not exist for Opera, but many of them are hardly useful to generic web surfers. I have found many extensions breaking with upgrades in the browser. Mozilla Foundation claims it would soon be history, but for me it is not fun waiting for extension developers to release updated versions.
Mozilla Firefox is an open source application compared to commercial application that Opera is. But surprisingly Opera forums and IRC are generally more helpful compared to Firefox. And this is for a non-paying customer that I am. With Firefox, the general feeling I got was that since it is a free software I should be happy with what I got. Opera Developers on the other hand are open to suggestions and most of the time I get solutions, which sometimes even include using Firefox with a particular extension. While, I have even been called a troll for recommending Opera on the Mozilla forum to a particular user who was having certain problems with Firefox.
Nevertheless, the fact remains, I use all the browsers I have downloaded and given a try to and that include certain older versions of Netscape browsers. Each browser has its own advantages and disadvantages. Most of the time I end up using Opera Browser, but I know people who prefer Firefox because of its web development extensions. Some others are still stuck with Internet Explorer but are moving on to safer alternatives like Maxthon.
Firefox fans might argue that Opera is not free and comes with an advertisement. But well, Opera servers seldom go down with new releases and I do not have to waste time installing and managing extensions. So, it all evens up. Opera even with a small ad-bar is more productive than Firefox in its out of the box version. Considering Firefox is designed to be a browser and not a web-suite, even Mozilla users would agree with me.
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About
Opera has a Web Developer Toolbar too:
http://nontroppo.org/wiki/WebDevToolbar
In fact, there are many ways to “extend” Opera in various ways.
If you want integrated mail and chat, why not just use regular Mozilla? Firefox is meant for STANDALONE use, silly.
The fact still remains that Opera has far more sites (San Diego Zoo, for example) that do not function on it than Firefox does. Sure, these sites may not follow W3C standards, but what does that matter when you can’t use the site? When it comes to productivity, being able to view a webpage and navigate it properly trumps whatever included extensions Opera has. Honestly, Opera comes with a whole ton of crap that I usually have to configure OUT after I’ve downloaded and installed it.
This is incorrect: ” Opera is not free and comes with an advertisement”. Opera can be used for free when you allow ads to be displayed, 2 methods are available: Google rads or graphic ads. OR you can buy a license, then no ads are displayed.
opera’s size is 3.6 MB and the comparable mozilla suite(integrated chat mail) of 12 MB and is slower than opera.Imagine!!
ANd what most firefox fans forget to mention as to where they get there ideas for extensions, opera ofcourse . I c no point in downloading and searching for extentions when the same features r built in to my opera. In fact many firefox users miss plenty of features as they do not know abt certain extentions. Do u use show hide images or mouse gestures or rss feeds ,huh?
OPera does not come with crap ,if it does, it is highly unobtrusive. and will someone point out exactly what crap r we talking abt that u hav to remoeve.
Its just firefox thing against about opera not being free and open source otherwise opers’s better .even firefox users admit firefox is no match without extensions. So if u want to search through a thousand extensions just to reach the power of opera its your choice
Extensions introduce untested software into the browser; there’s no validation or certification of the function of particular combinations of Firefox and extensions the user may install. For all the user knows, extensions may break the security of Firefox.
W.
The San Diego Zoo problem, as with most sites, has absolutely nothing to do with “standards”, but everything to do with bad scripts. All that needs to be done to get the SDZ site menus to work with Opera is remove the word “Opera” from Opera’s user agent string. eg. The Proxomitron’s “SpaceBison” UA string. Opera is perfectly capable of handling many sites, if only it wasn’t prevented from doing so.
Interesting to see the Firefox zealots in a frenzy when someone dares to suggest that Firefox is not their religion… :D
I know about the non-troppo’s web toolbar. the thing i miss is the css editor that changes page formatting on the fly! :)
View > Refresh display ;)
I loved Opera. Years ago when I was first using it, my friends couldn’t handle a tabbed browser. How times have changed. But I do use Firefox, because it works well. Opera is fast though. Very Fast. I just can’t be bothered with more than one browser. Although in saying that I might go and download it right now.
go get it! :)
http://snapshot.opera.com/windows/w760p3.html
I agree. Firefox is nice, but it is for non-tech ex-IE users. Opera has all advanced features tightly integrated and this works very well.
Downloading bigger Firefox and then bloating even more with extensions to get it equal with Opera features makes no sense.
For a few bucks you can have high quality browser and get real technical support.
Open-source community is really lousy when it comes to helping typical users — RTFM, STFW and STFU.
With Firefox you’re at the end of food chain - mighty developers give you their browser.
With Opera you’re at the top and because developers make for a living making your browser - they must care about you.
I don’t think that there is big difference in compatiblity. Both Firefox and Opera aim at web standards. Both have “quirks mode” to cope with IE-only pseudocode. Opera additionally can disguise as IE to bypass sites blocking non-IE browsers.
I have had a problem with firefox in accessing drop down menus of a particular web site (asx.com.au).No help available from firefox web site.Will look elsewhere for an alternative to IE.
Mozilla’s e-mail client has a bug: in a certain window layout instead
of tree appear only “?” signs. Thunderbird is OK. But M2 is the best,
with his filter-concept.
I had been using Firefox for about a year in the last month my brother got me to try Opera. I admit it took a few weeks to get things to get every thing set up to where I like it. But now that things are set up I can’t see my self ever going back. As for the small Ad bar at the top of Opera. Its no bigger then a normal tool bar at the top of the page and I stop noticing it with in a day. Now for the problem viewing sites, I’m looking at http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ right now on Opera. No trouble here.
This is stupid. The only one who benefits from this kind of Opera-versus-Firefox bickering is Microsoft. I’m sure they’d love nothing more than a browser war between the two fries. So keep it up, you’re doing them a great favor.
Yeah but what operating system are you talking about tard. I run Crossover Office Internet Explorer, Opera 7.54, and Firefox 1.02 all on Linux. In fact I run both 32bit and 64bit versions of Firefox and 64bit Konqueror (Linux Safari) and 64bit Mozilla suite. And after extensive benchmarking, I’ve found 32bit firefox is the best all around for linux. Yes opera is faster in specific javascript tasks, and natively compiled 64bit optimized firefox is faster in others, and Mozilla Suite is compatible with a few SSL banking pages that don’t work in firefox. But 32bit firefox is FAST ENOUGH, and ALL THE PLUGINS WORK, and ALMOST ALL THE WEBSITES WORK. IE is balls slow on linux. 64bit browsers crash and burn on plugins (except konqueror, which can beautifully embed a 32bit plugin into a 64bit browser, though it still can’t render many websites correctly. Bottom line: 32bit Firefox Rulez Linux. And no I’m not an open source zealot, back when Mozilla sucked a nut I was rockin Opera day to day watching fools on Netscape 4.73. I just intalled Adobe Acrobat 7.0 for linux and it rules too. Author is a tard because he writes a comparison article without even mentioning what he is comparing.
comparision article? i think it was opinion based on personal experience.
Hello, first thing I have to say is, that both Opera and Firefox/Mozilla are best choice programs.
Then, I’m a satisfied Opera user since v6.
For me, here are the benefits and drawbacks of it, compared to Firefox.
Pros:
* size and speed
* customizability
* support (opera forums)
Cons:
* I miss easy-to-install extensions from Firefox. Still, Opera comes with _all_ I need for everyday browsing.
* Stumble toolbar. Although I’m not a fan of toolbars, this is an exception.
Any of these browsers provide with better browsing experience than IE. The main points why IE is _bad_:
* Security flaws
* Makes ad-hoc “standards”
* Poor UI compared to alternatives
* Memory hog
PS Both browsers aim to be web-standards compatible.
I have the full version of Opera and firefox. I generally prefer Firefox because of the power of the extensions. Opera doesn’t have the likes of Spiderzilla, googlebar, decent adblocking, the ability to use any search engine, a color eye dropper, etc, etc. Most people won’t want some of these things, but I can have them because I can extend my browser this way. This is preferable to having a generic product where the inclusion of features is based upon the wants and needs of the general populace. I use opera for general webbrowsing because the caching is good and the pages load and render way faster than FF. Web developing wise opera sucks because you can’t add validation features, it won’t parse XML into a tree or support XSLT. With FF you can debug javascript, inspect css etc, etc.
Perhaps Opera has changed recently but when I looked at Opera it had no dynamic object creation which meant my dynamic html fun was out the window then trying to find any form of javascript debugger or even js error reporting functionality… sheesh and its commercial?????? I couldnt even debug my DHTML map client to have it work with Opera.