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February 09, 2006
Review: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, And Other Browsers In Four-Way Shootout Opera 8.5
Opera was born in 1994 as a project by the Norwegian telecommunications firm Telenor. In 1995, version 2.1 was released to the public by Opera Software ASA, and I was immediately seduced by Opera's security and speed. Over the years, Opera evolved, added features, and gained fans. In 2003, ten million copies were downloaded, making it a serious competitor on a stage dominated by Internet Explorer. The free version supported itself through banner ads, which you could lose for a modest registration fee. Not that Opera was easy to get along with. It could be as temperamental as Maria Callas when it came to configuration. But heck, it ascended the heights like the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute, so I put up with the tantrums when trying to motivate it to do what I wanted it to do the way I wanted it done.
Then, last year, Mozilla Firefox debuted to rave reviews. It was good, it was fast, and it was free. For a time, I was distracted by this new diva's vivacity, not to mention all the hype. I gave it an audition and then a place on my desktop. Even when Opera 8.50 was released, dispensing with the ads and registration fee, I stuck with Firefox. Until I was asked to do this review — and rediscovered what a virtuoso performer Opera had become. It matches Firefox on the basics, and adds some trills and runs that Firefox lacks. I've rejoined the Opera fan club. Tabs, Toolbars, And Panels In addition to the usual Main Menu across the top, there are eight toolbars available which contain a wide variety of icons and input boxes, some duplicated on more than one toolbar. Besides the usual Main Toolbar (icons for file open, print, save, home page, etc.) and the Address Bar (which has the URL entry box, the forward and back arrows, stop and reload icon, etc.), there is the Personal Bar, which is a place to put bookmarks I don't want buried on the bookmark list, and which has input boxes for searches, such as Amazon.com and Google. Then there's the Page Bar (where the tabs appear), the Status Bar (which shows how a page is loading), the Start Bar (which offers a quick way to navigate certain Web sites, such as the Opera home site), the View Bar (with icons to bring up the bookmark list, top ten list, home page, and toggle the loading of images on or off), and the Navigation Bar. On all of these toolbars, icons can be resized from 40 percent up to 200 percent, in 10 percent increments.
One of Opera's distinctive features is its panels, which consist of a pair of windows, one a menu, the other containing a variety of data types. There's a panel for notes, a history list (configurable up to 10,000 entries), a list of all the links on the page you're viewing, a chat window, etc. By default there are a total of 11 panels to choose from; you can also turn a bookmark into a panel, or download additional panel formats from the Opera Web site. |
