Opera 5 - Quirky, Fast, & Finally Free, But At A Cost
Written: Dec 18 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Fast page rendering, easy on resources, innovative built-in features,auto-refresh to maintain connection, stable
Cons: Terrible cookie management, not so great cache management, zero plug-in support, ad banner for free version
|
|
|
| awoolcott's Full Review: Opera |
To most Internet users, there are only two web browsers that are in the mainstream - Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator/Communicator. But for a while now there has been a third browser that has broken past the "Alternative" browser label and become more of a force - Opera. Until recently Opera came at a price - as in $39.95 for registration, with a 30-day free trial. Finally though, in an attempt to finally compete with Microsoft and AOL/Netscape (which I wouldn't wish on anyone), Opera Software released 5.0 in a freeware version. Again it comes at a cost - A nice teeny chunk of browser space for an advertisement. It's not spyware, for Opera plainly explains their stance (if they lie on the privacy policy they can get in deep trouble) at their website. However you can get a adless registered version (for $40).
Even with the advertisement, however, Opera is a viable and easy to use alternative competitor to IE and NS. It's got quite a few really good things that the Big Two could only wish they had - a small download and program, and speedy fast page loading & rendering. It's got some silly flaws and bugs - that weren't addressed in the release of 5.01 recently either. It's not a big boy yet, but once (if?) Opera gets the kinks out of their software, IE, and Netscape especially better watch their backs; or the fat lady will be singing really soon for the big boy browsers.
Two Flavors Of Opera - You can download Opera in two different ways - Java & non-Java. The non-Java version is considerably smaller of a download - at only 2 MB, it's ridiculously smaller than either IE or Netscape. The Java enabled edition is heftier, at 9 MB, but still smaller than IE or NS (though my upgrade to IE 5.5 SP1 was a tad smaller). I personally got the Java download later - oddly doing that resulted in a smaller overall download - the Java stand-alone was only 5 MB; + 2 MB is 7 MB - quite a difference from 9 MB! For that reason I recommend the non-Java download - Take the smaller download now and if you need Java later you can get it from the Sun (the makers of Java) later on.
The Java is actually kind of useless - it's the same Java as used in Netscape 6. Problem is half the Java applets that I've loaded have crashed in Opera - not exactly good. I'd definitely pass on that "feature."
You can download Opera at http://www.opera.com. It comes in versions for Windows, Mac (beta), Linux, & BeOS.
Opera Features - On first glance Opera looks very similar to Internet Explorer and Netscape it's got all the usual buttons and bookmark features (and includes a wad of bookmarks to use I've found some really really good stuff through the website links), such as back, forward, etc. And, just like Netscape 6 & IE 5.x, they have a sidebar-type feature to use called Hotlist. This bar has a handful of nice features that I'll get to in a second.
Some of the bigger features include-
-POP mail access: Like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, et al; Opera offers an email client for POP access. The difference is all mail checking runs through the browser like Netscape 6 Mail just without the hassles of Netscape 6 mail. And this ties into the Hotlist as one of the tabs on that particular sidebar so you can surf the Internet and check your email without jumping back and forth like you would from Outlook. However, as I've developed a sad love affair with Outlook (the whole thing, not OE) so I don't think I'll be using it any time soon.
-ICQ Lite: yes that is correct ICQ is somewhat built in to Opera. Just give the information asked (like ICQ number & password) and you can use ICQ along with Opera. This also blends into the Hotlist in the same way AIM blends in with Netscape 6. Very nice if you use ICQ (I do, but very, very rarely, not enough to bother with it).
-Integrated Download Manager: Unlike IE and NS that kind of open a little box window Opera gives you a full window to watch your download showing off all the info you need; such as the actual size, time remaining, the exact amount you've downloaded, and that sort. Best of all if a disconnection halts a download, it WILL resume next time you start it. It makes up for the lack of support for most major plug-ins and browser accessories.
-Built-in Online Keeper-Onner: Something I find very useful is the settings you can change to set Opera up to refresh the page after a certain time period. For instance you can set it up so the browser automatically refreshes a page great if you are away from the PC and don't want a disconnect, as well as those eBay obsessed folks who need to keep track of the latest auction for the over hyped PlayStation 2. Nothing better than something that keeps you online for free!
-All Windows In One: Say you want to open multiple IE windows sounds good, but the taskbar gets cluttered and can pick away at performance. With Opera, all the windows you open are stored within the browser - all lined up for you to click on, without getting cluttered with the rest of your programs on the Windows taskbar. I find this to be a much better manager of resources, especially when I run Outlook, AIM, & Winamp all at the same time, along with Opera.
-Customization Up The Kazoo: There are so many options around Opera you could get lost looking. An interesting option is to change a setting to tell a website what browser you are using by default Opera appears as IE 5.x you can change it to Opera native or Netscape/Mozilla. I found this interesting because when I went to Microsoft's website appearing as IE 5 under Opera, the site looked terrible; I changed it to appear as Opera and it was fixed. Interesting.
Other customizations include color changes (as in the browser windows & toolbars and that sort), Proxy settings (basically default in all browsers), Cookies (but more on that later it's not that superb), Advertisement settings (so the browser can tailor ads for you best to leave anonymous I reckon), and quite a few settings for the cache (saved webpages; this setting is very important for a lot of reasons). There are a ton more but a lot of them are for visuals, sounds, and that sort. Nothing too important.
-Stable: I've had no Opera crashes. That simple. It takes very few resources and is very easy on RAM which equals better performance and stability. And it remains it's stability on older machines it runs really well on an old 486 Intel PC running Windows 95 (which is a crash test dummy in itself). It's the Linux of browsers in terms of low system requirements.
Stuff That Ain't So Great - Well it isn't that they aren't great just not used very well, and can very much so inhibit your use of the browser.
-Terrible Cookie management: Opera has a bad habit apparently while they make the cookies they also eat them as well half the cookies I use never ever stay after I close down the browser, despite having it set to accept all cookies. Sites like Yahoo have no problem at all with cookies within Opera but in order to get to my stuff in Epinions I have to log in each and every time I start the browser. And that kind of thing gets very annoying, especially when I get in a hurry. I was hoping that Opera would address this with their 5.01 update, but unfortunately they did not. Maybe by 6.0 it will be more improved.
-Much Overdone Cache: The Opera cache definitely makes surfing faster, but it can also be a serious pain in the butt when you are trying to submit a form page. Every time I logged into Yahoo webmail, I would have to click and refresh just to make sure that I could really check my email. It's sort of like NetSonic hurry up and wait or snap and strap C4 to your computer and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Thankfully the advanced options let me completely disable the feature, so now the thing surfs much better and I actually get things done a bit faster.
-VERY limited support for plug-ins: There isn't even a FLASH player for this thing! I found that out when trying to access Joe Cartoon (blame Hard To Please for that) it directed me to the Flash page, which kindly told me that they didn't have a player for my browser. Sheesh even Netscape has Flash! No shockwave either no Yahoo Companion, no PDF translator (Adobe Acrobat), nothing. Can't even use a download manager. Definitely if Opera wants to be a big player, plug-ins as useful as this without a doubt NEED to be implemented in their browser.
-Ad banner: Just that is an entire Con in itself but Opera is a small company; they just can't offer their browser for free like Microsoft and AOL does (considering they are the two biggest monopolies around), so I can understand the advertisements. They obviously hope that most will enjoy the browser so much that they'll pay for it (and I'm thinking about doing it, believe it or not), since paying takes away the advertisements. Still it does take up a nice chunk of your screen and if you run at a low resolution (800X600 for example) the browser buttons will overlap the ad, causing some ugliness and some distortion using the browser. Not good. But if it has to be there then so be it I can't argue that you get a very nice browser for free.
Who Cares? How Does It Do With Surfing!? - Personally, I know nothing about HTML and W3C standards and all that stuff I'm more concerned about how the software runs on the machine. Saying that, Opera is a speedy browser. Loading pages is faster than IE or Netscape normally by a couple seconds or so improvement wise. Not major differences, but still it's an improvement. The rendering is very similar to IE 5.x, and Netscape 6. It also has a Netscape 4.x feel to it on some sites the text and links load very fast, and fills in the graphics later. But unlike Netscape 4.x, which takes so long to load you need to pack a lunch, Opera gets these sites visible almost immediately.
Pages do look good enough and adhere very closely to W3C standards almost to the letter. Web designers have said that designing a page to look good on Opera requires a ton more effort than even Netscape 6, which is good and bad. And best part is, if a page looks terrible, being able to change the browsers shell appearance (like my Microsoft.com example), can be used to see if the page looks any better that way.
Even then, there are some weird rendering problems. Try visiting Yahoo clubs and you'll see some rather odd placement of objects at times. Some pages load up their Ad banners in different places, which throws off the site's look. Most interesting, some pages don't even finish loading which is as odd as it gets. And the Java applets that would require the Java download crash more often than they work.
Still, 99 percent of pages look great, and load fast. Some sites do kind of get thrown off by Opera, but it's a lot more tolerable than some of Netscape 6's rendering gaffs.
Overall - Opera isn't up there with Internet Explorer, but it's gaining on Netscape with each release. There are a ton of bizarre flaws and bugs and that sort, but nothing that can't be either stopped (cache thing) or tolerated (Cookie management, advertisement). No it's not perfect and honestly it isn't even close, but Opera is still a viable browser, especially if you hate MS or AOL (and who doesn't hate one or both of them? Well I don't care for AOL but I happen to like MS. Direct tomatoes at profile pic). The small download size and speed of the browser make it at least a download for everyone to test out. Just be prepared for some quirks and you'll do okay.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
awoolcott
|
 in Games |
 - Top 200 |
|
Location: Arizona
Reviews written: 411
Trusted by: 401 members
About Me:
2009 was a pretty good year for games, but next year, wow.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.