Opera v6.05

[Groltz]

Since it now takes about 2-3 days to get news submissions put on the front page I thought I would mention this here.

New Opera version. Here's the changelog:

Opera 6.05 Changelog

This version implements changes in OpenSSL.

Security:

Applied OpenSSL ASN.1 patch
Fixed an issue where HTML content could be inserted into directory listings
Added new certificate authority roots

Miscellaneous:

Not possible to invoke "meta refresh" in an e-mail
Fix for Java-related slow navigation
Fix for handling of initial Byte Order Mark (BOM signature) in *.ini files

Download Page


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[Tea]

Thankyou Groltz.

Hey - here is something weird. Because I am lazy or stupid or something, I didn't click on your link, I just typed www.opera.com and clicked on the download link there. It leads to www.opera.com/download/get.pl?platform=win&force=6.04 - where your link is to the normal downbload page, which is 6.05. Why would they do this?

 

[Groltz]

Thankyou Groltz.

Hey - here is something weird. Because I am lazy or stupid or something, I didn't click on your link, I just typed www.opera.com and clicked on the download link there. It leads to www.opera.com/download/get.pl?platform=win&force=6.04 - where your link is to the normal downbload page, which is 6.05. Why would they do this?

I don't know, Tony. I just typed www.opera.com, clicked on the download link, and it brought me to the 6.05 download.

 

[Tea]

Ahh, they have changed it now. Should I take a screenshot of the "force 6.04" link and page? Nahh. (Tea closes window, consigns another ephemeral web page to the eternal dustbin of history.)

 

[e_dawg]

After having some fond memories of Opera 4.2 as a viable alternative to IE (but still not being quite up to the challenge), I decided to try Opera 6.05. So far, it seems to work well. While it is still a little clunky compared to the familiar IE interface, it represents a nice alternative.

Not having IE used to be one problem with running linux on the desktop for me, but it's starting to look like Opera can fill that void admirably.

I have never liked Netscape from 3.0 to 6.1 due to a poor interface, poor performance, and atrocious stability. I am not too interested in trying Mozilla 1 or Netscape 7, either. Would anyone say that either of these is significantly better than Opera 6 as an alternative to IE? Am I really missing out?

 

[e_dawg]

Oh yeah, and if you didn't know, Opera licenses are going for half price these days. $20, or $10 if you are a student. For all I know, this could be a regular promotion, but it seems like a good deal to me.

 

[time]

While it is still a little clunky compared to the familiar IE interface ...

I'm curious. Which parts of the interface are you referring to?

 

[Groltz]

I have never liked Netscape from 3.0 to 6.1 due to a poor interface, poor performance, and atrocious stability. I am not too interested in trying Mozilla 1 or Netscape 7, either. Would anyone say that either of these is significantly better than Opera 6 as an alternative to IE? Am I really missing out?

I have used all the Nutscrape versions up through the 4.7X's and also Mozilla v1.0. I feel that Opera blows both of them away in terms of speed, small footprint, and preference choices. It is unbeatable for a person that is stuck with narrowband. Its page rendering speed with images turned off is very good. The built in pop-up killer is another blessing.

There are others that differ with this opinion, though. Browser preference seems to be mostly a person-to-person thing.

 

[Groltz]

Oh yeah, and if you didn't know, Opera licenses are going for half price these days. $20, or $10 if you are a student. For all I know, this could be a regular promotion, but it seems like a good deal to me.

Opera licenses can be easily had for a lot less than $10, BTW. But that is all I am going to say about it.

 

[e_dawg]

While it is still a little clunky compared to the familiar IE interface ...

I'm curious. Which parts of the interface are you referring to?

Well, a couple examples include:

1. The Personal bar truncate most of the text for your shortcuts and shortcut folders instead of resizing to fit the text. Furthermore, there is no drop-down arrow that lets you access the rest of your shortcuts when you have more of them than can fit on the one-line personal bar. Conversely, the Links bar in IE does not truncate your shortcut text, and it adds a nice little drop-down menu so you can add more than 5-6 shortcuts, much like how the QuickLaunch toolbar is like in the Windows Task bar.

2. No Alt+D shortcut that switches the focus to the address bar and allows you to enter a new URL. Instead, you have to use the F-keys, which is inconvenient for me to reach, as the space at the top of my keyboard is severely restricted because there is only so much space between the keyboard drawer and the desk.

3. Bookmarks cannot be dragged and dropped to different folders as you can in IE. Instead, you have to open up the Manage Bookmarks window, which again is a pretty clunky design. I'd prefer to just drag and drop directly when using the Bookmarks menu.

There are some other minor quirks here and there in the interface that I just don't like because I have been using IE for years... Otherwise, Opera 6 is an admirable release from the folks in Norway.

Groltz, I can see the need to obtain stupidly expensive programs like Office Professional from non-traditional means if you can't afford/justify the $600 expense, but we're talking $10 here for an excellent program. Pay the folks at Opera so they can continue developing a viable alternative to The Predatory One's "webpage viewer that just so happens to be inseparable from Windows"

 

[CougTek]

Since it now takes about 2-3 days to get news submissions put on the front page I thought I would mention this here.

The above is only true when the fu****g bastard of frustrated dogs employees of my ISP (in lock out) cut the cable that gives me both internet and TV. Sorry for the delay, but I'm not responsible for it.

As for the link to Opera 6.05, it took me 14 hours from the moment you posted it on the forum until the moment I linked it on the front page. I saw it earlier, but I've been a bit sick because of the intense heat wave that plagues Québec these days. It has been 35C in Montréal today and 32-33C where I am. Combine that to a very high humidity level and you get the perfect mix to bring me down. I don't tolerate heat, unlike cold.

 

[e_dawg]

No A/C, Coug? Indeed, it's been disgustingly hot for most of the summer in S.Ontario and Quebec. I was a groomsman in my friend's wedding this weekend. Think 3 layers (black tux plus vest), 31 C (88 F), standing for 3 hours straight as we ushered guests to their seats, flanked the altar as the wedding party, and then did a massive photo shoot with friends and family. And of course, there was the wedding reception as well for the next 7 hours. I feel sorry for whoever is using that tux after I got through with it.

 

[Tea]

Please send 15 or 20 of those degrees of yours over here right away! I know they are only weakling little Canadian degrees, which are not as warm as our Australian ones, but we would love to have a few of them just the same. (You do use the normal Canadian/European degrees C in Quebec? Or have you got some more muscular home-grown French-speaking ones of your own? Either way, send them over. I'll pay for the download.)

 

[e_dawg]

It's not that cold in Ballarat, Tony. 11/1 C? You call that winter?

Yes, we all use the SI metric degree Celsius. Not like those wacky US vs. Imperial Gallons.

 

[Mercutio]

Groltz, I'll fight you on browser of choice for modem connections any day of the week. Opera is reasonably fast with images turned off, yes (ANY browser is fast with images turned off), but with Moz, I at least have the option of leaving on SOME of the images. Add to that the "Scripts and Windows" control that keeps me from seeing pop-anything ads, window resizing or any of the hundred other annoying pranks, and I think Moz takes the cake.

I'm sure you can hit SR or even SF for my opinion of opera as a browser. I don't think it's worth $10.

e_dawg - try the netscape-standard CTRL-TAB to switch to the address bar in opera. Just another case of bastardization if it works, but... where the hell did CTRL-D come from?

IIRC, opera uses netscape-ish bookmarks, which IMO is a good thing. A bookmarks.html file kicks the crap out of 500 20-byte long .url (or whatever. See how much I use IE?) files. I can't believe anyone would even complain about that.

At least Opera doesn't have my number one IE pet-peeve - the "mindlessly moving progress bar that doesn't actually mean anything". The nice people at operasoft can't make a browser with a normal netscape/ie-like UI, but at least they get that much right.

 

[LiamC]

Groltz, I guess browser preference is a person thing, because I have been using Opera since 5 and always preferred IE. But since using Mozilla (1.1b) I use it instead. Opera is still installed (as is IE 5.5) but for me Mozilla is the thing.

I really wish that a few more would copy the IE fav icon thing though - I like it as it makes identifying sites a snap with the favourites/bookmark folder open. SF should have it's own custom fav icon too

And I wish that Mozilla could at least sort bookmarks properly - sub folders don't get mixed up with site names, and since when did AMDZone get sorted before Ace's Hardware? Hey Konqueror can do it so...

CougTek, come to Canberra, Australia in summer - +30 degrees for 3 months straight, that'll set you straight . Heat must be hard for you northern hemisphere types, but I reckon I'd suffer in the cold.

BTW, I've got a new look for my personal site (no frames, no tables) so could a few of you with non-standard browsers have a look and let me know of anything funny - I've found a few broken links and some strange table quirks but I want to know about rendering "quirks"

 

[SteveC]

Browser use is a personal preference. I don't think I'll be giving up Mozilla anytime soon, although the favicon is something I wish it had. I've given Opera a try for about a week, but I just don't like the feel of it. I can't put my finger on just what it is I don't like about it, but I just like Mozilla better, especially with the Orbit theme.

Steve

 

[e_dawg]

I will try Mozilla 1.1b and see how it goes. The clincher was that I found you could get an IE skin for it :roll:

 

[time]

1. The Personal bar truncate most of the text for your shortcuts and shortcut folders instead of resizing to fit the text. Furthermore, there is no drop-down arrow that lets you access the rest of your shortcuts when you have more of them than can fit on the one-line personal bar.

I don't agree that this is an issue. I'd criticize any software with so many root menu groups that they wouldn't fit across the screen, so if you have that many shortcut root folders, I think you're misusing the feature. To be honest, I find 'personal' bars redundant on all browsers anyway.

2. No Alt+D shortcut that switches the focus to the address bar and allows you to enter a new URL. Instead, you have to use the F-keys, which is inconvenient for me to reach, as the space at the top of my keyboard is severely restricted because there is only so much space between the keyboard drawer and the desk.

I'm not sure what to say to this one! :roll: I guess any app that uses Function keys loses points in your book. And no, Mercutio, [Tab] won't get you there. That will cycle through the elements on the viewed page, as it should.

3. Bookmarks cannot be dragged and dropped to different folders as you can in IE. Instead, you have to open up the Manage Bookmarks window, which again is a pretty clunky design. I'd prefer to just drag and drop directly when using the Bookmarks menu.

It's true that the Bookmark menu doesn't support drag and drop, but I don't think this is an issue either, because it's only an adjunct to the Hotlist manager. And I vehemently disagree that the Hotlist manager is clunky. IMO, Opera has by far the best bookmark/favourites manager around, while IE's is like some kind of toy for the intellectually disadvantaged. :-?

I find Opera's interface to be easily the most utilitarian of all the browsers, especially once customized. If people like Steve would rather choose their tools on the strength of skins, there's not much I can say that wouldn't be insulting.

And Mercutio, the Show Cached Images Only mode blows Mozilla into the weeds. Not only can you selectively load images, but you can use different settings in different windows, all changeable with a mouse click or a single keystroke ([G] for Graphics). Popup blocking (or forcing into background) is easily switched from the Quick Preferences menu ([F12]).

So if I want to see all the images on SF, I simply click on that window's Image Toggle button, then click twice again to change to Cached Only. I can now navigate the threads with avatars and graphic buttons visible, but none are loaded from the site unless I say so. S'easy.

I think perhaps some people just haven't looked closely enough at the product.

 

[e_dawg]

Freaky, ain't it?

 

[e_dawg]

1. The Personal bar truncate most of the text for your shortcuts and shortcut folders instead of resizing to fit the text. Furthermore, there is no drop-down arrow that lets you access the rest of your shortcuts when you have more of them than can fit on the one-line personal bar.

I don't agree that this is an issue. I'd criticize any software with so many root menu groups that they wouldn't fit across the screen, so if you have that many shortcut root folders, I think you're misusing the feature. To be honest, I find 'personal' bars redundant on all browsers anyway.

True, I guess I could reorganize my bookmarking system, but old habits die hard, ya know... (and IE dealt with it beautifully, BTW). Here is a shot of my bookmarks... I use the Bookmarks menu to hold ALL my bookmarks (I think I have over 2,300, some organized 5 levels deep.

The purpose of the Personal Bar (aka the Links bar in IE) is to have the 20 most frequently used bookmarks immediately accessible 1 level deep. Instead of taking 5-6 seconds to hunt through a massive list with multiple levels of folders, it is so much more convenient to use the Personal Bar. Allow me to ask: how do you organize your bookmarks?

--------

RE: F-keys, Ctrl-Tab, and Alt-D...

I have been able to reconfigure Mozilla to use the Alt-D keyboard shortcut by modifying .jar files in the chrome folder, so this is no longer an issue with Mozilla.

--------

I find Opera's interface to be easily the most utilitarian of all the browsers, especially once customized. If people like Steve would rather choose their tools on the strength of skins, there's not much I can say that wouldn't be insulting.

Ah, but the IE skin is worth its weight in gold

One thing I like about Opera is that it has awesome functionality, especially with its multiple window browsing. I prefer Mozilla's tabbed browsing metaphor better, but the stupid thing doesn't continue browsing where you left off in all windows -- only remembers a single window. Also, you cannot replicate an existing browser session in another tab (only in a separate window). Mozilla seems like it's still a work in progress, and this is one example of that.

I find Opera to be LOADED with quickly accessible features and keyboard/mouse shortcuts, like that F12 trick you mentioned to toggle pop-up and image loading. Only problem is that you can't customize your keyboard shortcuts to something you find more convenient. I bet a good many IE users were turned off this wonderful program just because of that. Give the power of customization to the people, Opera!

For Mozilla, I like its ability to customize appearance and the odd keyboard shortcut to match IE, as well as the preferred tabbed browsing metaphor for multiple windows. The Image and Cookie Management Tools are a bonus, although the Form Manager doesn't seem to work for me. Certainly alot easier than messing around with the Internet Options in IE. I prefer Opera's personal information feature for its simplicity, though.

Overall, I am impressed with the current level of competing browser offerings from Opera and Mozilla. But so far, I have to give the edge to Opera for now just based on personal preference. It may be quirky and clunky in its own way, but at the end of the day, it is efficient and packed with polished features that I enjoy. I think I will make the effort to get used to its keyboard conventions. Believe it or not, little things like the inability of Mozilla' to remember the previous location of all tabs and having to navigate through too many levels of menus for frequently used features keeps it from beating Opera in my eyes.

 

[time]

... how do you organize your bookmarks?

You mean how do I disorganize my bookmarks? They're scattered among four or five different bookmark files, well overdue for some maintenance.

Seriously, when I do organize them, it's in a hierarchy. If I can't fit a single level's folders and bookmarks on one drop down menu, I figure I need to regroup.

But for commonly accessed sites, I just type it in. It's usually in the drop down list and I only have to enter two or three characters. I can do this far quicker than I could click on anything with the mouse (Tea and Tannin will be nodding their heads about now).

I also use the bookmark aliasing feature of Opera. This enables you to assign a nickname to any frequently used bookmarks. So to visit the ABC news front page, I just type [A][C][Enter]. Likewise 'JC' for JC's News and 'INQ' for The Inquirer. I can complete the action in about half a second, and I don't have to hunt with the mouse.

I don't bother doing this for SF and SR because I have shortcuts on the desktop (or see "I just type it in"). I typically launch Opera from one of these, then [Ctrl][N] to open a new window and jump to something else while I'm waiting for SF to load.

Based on your screenshot, I'd like to suggest you move your status bar to the top. It gives you more screen real estate:

 

[Tannin]

There is actually only one essential feature for the Personal Bar. That is currently rather clumsily organised under a manual right-click and select method, but it is at least functional. Hopefully in future versions, that essential feature will be automated, and the Personal Bar will automatically close itself never to reappear. If I wanted a 15 inch display, I'd buy one. Spending good money on a 19" or 21" monitor only to waste most of it on a useless, space-hogging bit of eye candy is quite pointless. Still, you only ever have to switch it off once per installation, so I can live with that.

Opera, for all its virtues, has primitive bookmarking abilities. Can't say that IE is a whole lot better (though there are probably features in IE that I have never yet discovered). But the best bookmarking system is undoubtedly Netscape's. Make bookmark, file bookmark, go to bookmarks. Simple and very effective. Mozilla carries it over more or less complete but manages to make it a lot uglier. (But then, Mozilla makes everythig ugly.) IE manages to get it half right. But only Netscape/Moz has that essential "file bookmark" option. Yes you can boomkark something in Opera or IE and then either (a) interupt your train of productive thought in order to move it into some logical place, or (b) leave it till later and never do it, which results in chaos, or (c) go back and attempt to organise the bookmarks you made earlier only to discover that you can't remember what half of them were or where they belong. Only by using Netscape or Moz is it possible to file them in the right place on the fly without interupting your work, and then look at them later and know what they are there for because the context (i.e., the place you filed them) reminds you.

IE stores its cookies and bookmarks in an appallingly inefficient and clumsy manner. If it wasn't written by Microsoft, I'd have thought it was written by Microsoft.

Opera uses a much more sensible single file format, but stupidly names it something that is difficult to remember: I mean, who would think of looking for his bookmarks in OPERA6.ADR? As for the Opera cookies file, that has an even more stupid name, whih I am to lazy to hunt out at this time of night. I only managed to find OPERA6.ADR just now by dint of doing a global search of the Opera tree for "Storage Forum". It was either that or trawl through the Opera.com site hunting for it, or else resort to Google.

What a shame Netscape has become such commercial pox and that Mozilla remains the ugliest browser ever made.

 

[Tea]

Degrees. You might measure them in SI, Coug, but I assure you, they are quite different. In particular, small numbers of them are much colder down here. I'd have to do some extensive testing to make exactly sure, but roughly, 5 degrees C here is about the same as -15 in Canada or Norway. This is because, as you know, the Antarctic is the weather factory of the world. Most of the worldwide weather patterns, even those in the northern hemisphere, originate in that strange, frigid place in the deep south, which is surrounded by unbroken ocean and considerably colder than the Arctic ever gets (even if we ignore the different amount of cold in the different degrees and just look at the numbers). For example, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Asia or Europe is -55C, for the Americas, -63C (in the Yukon). Compare these toasty sunbaking numbers with Antarctica's coldest: -89C.

So, you see Coug, the world's weather originates in Antarctica. We get the degrees while they are still young and fresh and full of youthful mischief. By the time they make their way up to you they are old and tired and no longer have the same bite in them.

 

[SteveC]

I find Opera's interface to be easily the most utilitarian of all the browsers, especially once customized. If people like Steve would rather choose their tools on the strength of skins, there's not much I can say that wouldn't be insulting.

That's what I get for posting half-asleep after a long, hot day! Let me say now, what I should have said earlier. I don't pick a program based on its skins. Both Mozilla and Opera have the basic features I need, such as pop-up blocking, and tabbed browsing, and I would choose either over IE. As for the personal bar, I like having the sites I spend 90+% of the time at 1-click away. It's quicker for me, since I usually have a hand closer to my mouse than my keyboard (I use an underdesk tray for the keyboard). Mozilla has a couple more seletive JavaScript blocks built in, and I like the selective image blocking better. Opera has the mouse gestures, which I do like (since I use my mouse more than my keyboard). I have the optimoz plug-in for Mozilla, but it's something I wish was built-in. Opera seems to choke on espn.com, one of my visit-more-than-once-a-day sites. It never display's the poll in the bottom right unless I reload the page, and the flash navigation on the right-center doesn't display at all. It is designed by MSN, however Mozilla has no problem with it. As for bookmarks, I've given up on them, and just use Google.
Overall, there are fairly evenly matched, and I see no compelling reason to switch to Opera, since I can get the one main feature I want via a plug-in. It also handles all my frequently visited sites perfectly. If it also happens to have a theme which I think <gasp>looks nicer</gasp>, than that's even better, however it's not a necessity.

Steve

 

[time]

But the best bookmarking system is undoubtedly Netscape's. Make bookmark, file bookmark, go to bookmarks ... But only Netscape/Moz has that essential "file bookmark" option.

Eh? The Opera equivalent of File Bookmark is Add Page Here.

To create an Opera bookmark to "The New York Times" and file it in the folder "US" under the root folder "News", either click on Bookmarks or press [Ctrl][Alt][A], point to "News", then "US", then select "Add page here". You can edit the description etc in the dialog that pops up.

Perhaps you have been confused by Opera's 'default folder' feature? If you press [Ctrl][T], the new bookmark will be automatically filed in the default folder. Similarly, [Ctrl][Alt][A] opens only the default folder, so you should set it to be root for best effect.

This is not an issue with the mouse.

Opera uses a much more sensible single file format, but stupidly names it something that is difficult to remember: I mean, who would think of looking for his bookmarks in OPERA6.ADR?

From version 6.03 (I think), it has been renamed to just Opera.adr (short for address, and indeed it also holds email and contact addresses. Extremely easy to backup).

I only managed to find OPERA6.ADR just now by dint of doing a global search of the Opera tree for "Storage Forum". It was either that or trawl through the Opera.com site hunting for it, or else resort to Google.

If you right click anywhere in the Hotlist (bookmark) manager and select 'File' - 'Save As' from the popup menu, the current address filename is displayed.

 

[Groltz]

The above is only true when the fu****g bastard of frustrated dogs employees of my ISP (in lock out) cut the cable that gives me both internet and TV. Sorry for the delay, but I'm not responsible for it.

As for the link to Opera 6.05, it took me 14 hours from the moment you posted it on the forum until the moment I linked it on the front page. I saw it earlier, but I've been a bit sick because of the intense heat wave that plagues Québec these days. It has been 35C in Montréal today and 32-33C where I am. Combine that to a very high humidity level and you get the perfect mix to bring me down. I don't tolerate heat, unlike cold.

I'm not pointing any fingers at you, CougTek. I am well aware you have a lot going on, including ISP troubles. Just wanted to get that info up right away since there is a lag in getting news posted.
BTW, I am the same as you when it comes to heat. It was >90°F/32°C yesterday here in the Puget Sound. Not having a home or vehicle equipped with any type of air conditioning was awful, to say the least.

Groltz, I'll fight you on browser of choice for modem connections any day of the week.

Well, you will be wasting your energy. With you in mind, as a matter of fact, I wrote "There are others that differ with this opinion, though. Browser preference seems to be mostly a person-to-person thing." The key word is opinion. I was sharing mine, not standing on a soapbox preaching for religious conversions. In no place was I saying "This is better than that" but instead: "I feel that...."
If you want to fight and flame and attack, go ahead. I won't respond to it. I'd rather interact with the other members here on amiable terms.

--Steve

 

[Tannin]

Opera does Fav Icons now, LiamC. At least I remember seeing them popping up somewhere I didn't expect them the other day. was it here at home with Opera? Or at work with Mozilla/2 1.1b?

Ahhh! Thankyou Time. I never knew what that "add page here" did. Perhaps it's a reflection of the fact that the Opera designers (presumably) don't speak Engish as a first language that it has such a ridiculous name. Buttons should always have names that reflect their functions.

This short address thingie sounds very nice too, I'll have to try it.

My problem is that my routine is such that I spend a little bit of browsing time on each of four different machines, running four different operating systems, and run various different browsers on each of them. The result is that I never ever get any one machine just the way I'd like it, and don't get to know the packages in too much more than a lowest common denominator sort of way. (As has already become apparent.) I not only have to remember which machine I bookmarked Site X on, but which of the various browsers I was using at the time.

For the record, on my favourite Windows box (the XP 1800) I mostly use Opera when I am being Tannin, and Tea uses IE 5.0. We have the browsers set to auto-log us in to SF and SR. When we are unsure who we want to be, we use Mozilla, which is set to let us log in as any of our various personalities but requires extra mouse clicks to choose which one. At the office we mostly use Mozilla/2 (despite the horrible font rendering - why that should be, I don't know - Netscape/2 was perfectly OK) on the main machine, or sometimes IE or Opera on the K6-III/560 Windows box. Opera for OS/2, by the way, would be a delight. If it worked. I must remember to try it again now that it's in beta. The alpha was terrible.

 

[e_dawg]

Yes you can boomkark something in Opera or IE and then either (a) interupt your train of productive thought in order to move it into some logical place, or (b) leave it till later and never do it, which results in chaos, or (c) go back and attempt to organise the bookmarks you made earlier only to discover that you can't remember what half of them were or where they belong. Only by using Netscape or Moz is it possible to file them in the right place on the fly without interupting your work, and then look at them later and know what they are there for because the context (i.e., the place you filed them) reminds you.

You haven't discovered the File Bookmark equivalent of IE yet? When you click Add to Favorites in IE, you are presented with an Explorer like hierarchy of bookmark folders which you can expand/contract/navigate through very quickly. Time has already covered Opera's Add page here... equivalent, but I find it does it in the reverse order -- go to the folder you want the bookmark to reside in and then call the command to add it there instead of requesting the addition of a bookmark and then choosing where to put it (a technicality, yes).

 

[e_dawg]

But for commonly accessed sites, I just type it in. It's usually in the drop down list and I only have to enter two or three characters. I can do this far quicker than I could click on anything with the mouse (Tea and Tannin will be nodding their heads about now).

Yes, this is what I normally do in IE, but because of Opera's lack of Alt-D shortcut, I can't do that! And the shortcut Nazis at Opera don't allow you to have custom keyboard shortcut assignments. I guess they don't care that IE has 65% market share and Netscape 25%, Opera probably having less than 5%. And yet they still persist in not catering to the millions of users coming from other browsers.

The bookmark aliasing feature sounds neat. I will have to try it.

Based on your screenshot, I'd like to suggest you move your status bar to the top. It gives you more screen real estate:

I had it at the top at first, but it felt weird. I guess I will give it another chance. I like your nav bar icons. Where can I get them? ... Well, nothing compares to IE and its ability to customize your menus and bars to save screen real estate. See how you can even make every bar (even the menu bar) dual purpose and put address or search fields there? Everything can be resized, restacked, and reordered according to your wishes, and drop-down menus everywhere >> allow you to save even more screen real estate:

 

[e_dawg]

I can't put my finger on just what it is I don't like about it, but I just like Mozilla better, especially with the Orbit theme.Steve

Opera has a skin that is similar to Mozilla's Orbit theme called Simian. It is based on the Ximian skin (for X windows, I'm assuming?):

 

[e_dawg]

Here is a browser faceoff of Opera 6, Mozilla 0.96, and IE 6. The reviewer is obviously biased in favour of Opera, but if you can filter out some of that bias, he does make the odd good point about...

Mozilla:

- not being as fast as it was expected to be with its highly touted "Gecko" rendering engine

- its lack of quick-toggle style/css/image handling features

- very good image/cookie/pop-up/password management system

- good DOM/DHTML/JS handler

Opera:

- small and speedy

- quick toggle features

- excellent MDI

- keyboard and mouse shortcuts

I especially agree about needing a way to customize keyboard shortcuts in all 3 browsers. Another thing I would like to see from Moz and Opera is the ability to customize the menu/nav/personal/address bar layouts like you can with IE.

 

[time]

Happy to accept a challenge, e_dawg.

BTW, you can customize which buttons and their sequence.

 

[e_dawg]

Not bad, time... but where is the address bar? And can you rearrange the width and location of each section by simply dragging and dropping? (like the Windows taskbar) And can you include drop-down menus to keep important buttons and bookmarks close at hand yet out of sight?

With great sorrow, I retired my Personal Bar in Opera to maximize screen real estate, and have started to use the Nicknames/aliases I created for my favourite bookmarks. What a cool feature! I hit F8 (argh!!), type sf, and I'm at Storageforum.net. F8 again, type sr, and I'm in StorageReview.com. Excellent...

I just learned that you can assign keyboard shortcuts to your favourite bookmarks in IE as well if you edit their properties. The shortcut must be in the Ctrl-Alt-A format, though, where A = alphanumeric or keypad character.

 

[time]

... but where is the address bar?

Ha, you noticed! I cheated. The second button from the right pops up a URL input dialog. You can do this any time by just pressing [F2].

This is fun, but I'd rather Opera Software increased compatibility with certain websites, such as solving the flash problem Steve mentioned. I understand that it's hard when MS keeps moving the goalposts, but I do think they could try a bit harder to run more of the proprietary 'JavaScript' code that infests many sites. Either that or publish workarounds for webmasters.

 

[CougTek]

Here is a browser faceoff of Opera 6, Mozilla 0.96, and IE 6.

This review (didn't read it) can only be obsolete about Mozilla. The Open source project has had many speed optimizations since release 0.96. I use both Opera 6.05 (first release of Opera I haven't experienced a serious crash so far, it's getting better) and Mozilla 1.0 (not yet switched/tried 1.1b) and on my cable modem access, speed is about equal, with Mozilla being maybe even slightly quicker.

My gripe with Mozilla are the bookmark management (still no automatic alphabetical ordering) and the fact that you cannot open a new page automatically in a new tab instead of opeing a completly new windows.

Against Opera : The page rendering isn't as good/accurate as with the Gecko engine (the best of all browsers IMO), the fact that up until the current v6.05, it crashed a lot more often than both IE6 and Mozilla on my computer and finally because Opera, no matter how much its supporters will cheer it, slows down my FAH console more than Mozilla does. I complete units faster when I let the FAH core run while I'm browsing on Mozilla then when I'm using Opera. I don't remember what the difference is, but it's noticeable. So in some way, Opera takes more CPU ressources than Mozilla. For most people, it's not a problem, but for a mad top-1000 FAH cruncher, every bits count.

 

[e_dawg]

Ugh... JavaScript. As Tannin would say, a pox-ridden scourge of the web if there ever was one.

 

[Will Rickards WT]

Ugh... JavaScript. As Tannin would say, a pox-ridden scourge of the web if there ever was one.

It is quite an interesting programming language though.

 

[CougTek]

I found my first obvious bug in version 6.05. Under Opera, this page on Western Digital's web site (linked in another thread) doesn't appear correctly. The text in the windows that's supposed to list the spec of the drive is missing. This kind of rendering problems is pretty frequent on Opera and that's one of the reasons I prefer Mozilla.

Update : The text now shows on the page when I click on the link above. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But Mozilla always gets it right. Opera, no thanks for me for now.

 

[time]

The text appears if you reload the page, and always after that.

Some sort of caching issue?