Previously Opera didn't have enough going for it to compete but this new 9.01 has just about everything I need without extensions that Firefox needs and being much faster, less resource hungry, and memory efficient (if you use tabs) than Firefox. So right off the bat, STFU Firefox users and keep reading. (btw Firefox fanbois, Opera was first to use Tabs and Pop up blocking as well)
Opera 9.01, with all of it's features already included, is only 5mb.
First and foremost, the most important feature of any browser is the ability to open a search window result (using the web search engine of your choosing) in a new tab automatically without having to so anything other than type in the search and hit return. Opera can do this so I was able to continue trying it out.Memory and Resource Usage
With all applications that I run, this is one of the most important factors in deciding how I feel about the application. To test this I used Firefox and Opera simultaneously on separate screens and then began opening up tabs and loading pages. With CNN.com and Gomeler.com open in both browsers, Opera was using 36MB of memory while Firefox was using 28MB. Then with 5 tabs open Firefox jumped to 52MB while Opera rose to 41MB of memory used. Then I opened up 20 tabs in each browser and then let the memory resources settle into what I figured was their stable state. Firefox settled in around 140MB while Opera settled in around 78MB, almost half of Firefox. However the big story here was CPU usage. Using a 2.8GHz AMD single-core processor, Firefox was sapping nearly 35% of my CPU cycles while Opera hovered around 2%. To some people this could be very important so take this for whatever it means to you. For one last test, I closed every tab besides the first and then I let the memory usage settle again. This time Opera dropped to 61MB while Firefox dropped to 69MB. I suppose these results are due to Opera not clearing out its trash upon closing so keep this in mind, however both browsers are victims of this.
Some other key things that I must have are included with Opera:
-Mouse Gestures
-Advanced Tabs (groups etc)
-pop-up blocking
-ad blocking
-mucho customization, short cuts, drag and drop, etc
So far, I'm impressed with the speed and features of Opera 9.
It takes out-of-the-box tweaking and playing around with the menu bars and panels to see all that it can do.
It has bit torrent built in. Not a big deal to me as I don't use bit torrent at all unless I absolutely have to (not on newsgroups for some reason which is not the case 99.9% of the time) Peeps who do use bit torrent may like it.
-Easy to import bookmarks and customize the way they appear.
-Outstanding internal web page, history and bookmark seearching and great right-click context menus depending on what you're doing.
There are no extensions like Firefox has but Opera has all the important things that Forefox NEEDs extenstions for and is already faster than Firefox. Instead, Opera has "Widgets" which can be downloaded that add various things like RSS feeds, To do lists, clocks, etc. These float independantly from the browser and can remain open after closing the browser if you wish (keeping a to do list open for example) Opera also can download customized panels which range from RSS type info, dictionaries, to games you can have open in the panel. Skins are available of course.
Tabs are well done and have hover thumbnail previews of the web page. I like the little trashbox on teh tab bar which keeps your previously visited tabs in case you need to go back to a recent closed one quickly.
The side panel could use some work. Seems to be some wasted space there if using a side window to view your bookmarks. Not critical but could use improvement. It's easily hidden.
Another thing I like is the "fit to width" button option which squeezes a page that has a rigth/left scroll bar into the space provided and does a great job of it. Another outstanding thing handled by Opera is the magnifying glass which zooms or expands your view of a page...but it doesn't just shrink or enlarge the text, it shrinks or enlarges all the images in proportion...awesome. Don't know if Firefox has that but it's very well done in Opera.
Opera has built in IRC client and the fasted Mail client with great search funtionality etc out there (if you happen to use it. Faster then Outlook express).
Here's a list of features for Opera 9:
http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/
So far, I can't think of anything I don't like. I hear some pages may not work with Opera but the easy fix for those few pages is to set the browser to respond as a "mozilla" browser. Right clicking and "edit site preferences" for any webpage to customize it for pop ups, browser ID, cookies, scripting, etc)
So, basically it's another one of those iPod vs Zen deals. Opera 9 is faster, uses less resources, less memory, has all the key extensions already integrated while being less bloated at the same time. Seems like an easy choice!
As with many things, if you take a look at something for 2 seconds, you aren't going to get the whole picture. If you take a day to play around, investigate the preferences, menu, etc, you'll have a lot beter chance of making a wise decision.
If you want an IE based browser, go with Maxthon, otherwise, Opera 9 looks to be the best choice.
My opinion is subject to change if I run into issues as this is only my first day!
