Opera is really nice. | Hacker News Reader

Opera is really nice.

tomforb.es

35 pointsorf61 comments

Opera doesn't just use Blink, it is based on Chromium. If you have performance issues with Chrome, Opera likely isn't the solution you're looking for. Chances are tomforb.es felt it was faster because it had a new, fresh user profile without history and other cruft. Or it was just the placebo effect.

I mainly had performance issues with Firefox, to be honest I don't think Chrome was that bad (a bit sluggish sometimes perhaps). Even if it is the placebo effect it doesn't matter, I'm happy feeling like its faster.

And what was the version of Firefox you had these problems with? They made their browser much leaner and faster. It consumes far less memory than Chrome on my machine.

I'm sorry, what? I'd say it's the opposite, Opera is not nice anymore. Mouse gestures, mail and IRC client, huge options, its own engine, Dragonfly, tab stacking, Linux client... things why I still use Opera 12. That blog post is so uninformed and biased it sickens me.

(sorry about the rage mode, but seeing this at the top of HN really makes me furious knowing how dumbed down even Opera 20 is compared to 12 or 11)

FWIW, Mouse gestures still work in the new Opera.

My biggest gripe is that I used to love how opera could actually navigate its history very quickly. Forward and back are slow now like chrome.

Mouse gestures in Chropera work only partially. In fact, all I managed to get working is back, new tab and close tab. And yeah, "caching" (or whatever they call it) visited sites (even closed tabs) is a very handy thing.

Since they switched to be chromium-based they stopped publishing for linux. is there someone who knows why? I can't see any technical problem stopping them..

Here is the link for linux version: http://www.opera.com/computer/linux

There is someone who cryptically mentioned, I think on the thread about measuring a startup's product viability by whether or not employees voluntarily used said product, being a developer for Opera and his management team alienated a lot of developers by blowing off Linux and denigrating interest in it as a platform with supporting and the general low blow jokes.

I am too lazy to search. Maybe you or someone else will point you in the right direction.

So far Mobile Opera is the only browser to support:

* Readable text size after double-tap-to-zoom

* Text reflow

I still can't find a browser that remembers my zoom level per site.

Chrome remembers zoom level per site.

Not Mobile Chrome.

Firefox for Android supports text reflow. You need to enable it in the settings.

I'm not sure what "readable text size" means.

The default pre-kitkat Android browser supports text reflow. Opera Classic (presto), Opera Mobile, Dolphin do that as well.

Without the layout engine, what can they offer that Chromium doesn't?

A better interface? I’m not saying it has one mind you, but they could offer it.

Try it out. it has a nice feature-set that is mostly on par with the other browsers. here's a glory screen shot I just took: http://i.imgur.com/NpzUWWB.png (I'm ok with people knowing my home directory path)

In the mobile world they offer access to their compressing proxy built-in, similar to http://www.khelekore.org/rabbit/ so that you can save your OTA bits. I haven't found any other mobile browser that allows you to push your web connection through a proxy like that.

Like Chrome? https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/data-compre...

Are you comparing a mobile browser with a desktop browser?

Note that Opera’s “Off-Road mode” in present in Opera for Desktop as well; it’s not a mobile-only feature. Here’s a screenshot that shows how to enable it: http://i.imgur.com/rvGkQrI.png

That screen shot shows the pre-Blink/Chromium version of Opera. The new versions are quite different, and are still lacking many of the features that older versions of Opera offered.

It is the current version for Linux. I can't speak for platforms I don't use :-(

That's perfectly understandable. The way they've defecated all over Linux users lately is quite disturbing.

I only brought it up because users on Windows and OS X who download more recent versions will be getting a very different, and unfortunately quite inferior, experience.

Harsh words. They are rewriting everything, surely it's better to focus on 90% of their user-base first?

You "glory" screenshot shows Opera 12, before the switch to Blink and the simplification on the UI. Most features shown are no longer available.

That's the current version for Linux. I can't speak for other OSes. Sorry.

I wouldn't call that a "glory" screenshot. It looks rather messy. :-)

Perhaps "bell and whistle" would be better? I was trying to illustrate many of the features.

Chrome for Android and iOS optionally does this, now. [1]

[1] https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/data-compre...

Exciting. I'll be sure to check that out!

Note that Opera’s “Off-Road mode” in present in Opera for Desktop as well, so it’s not a mobile-only feature. Here’s a screenshot that shows how to enable it: http://i.imgur.com/rvGkQrI.png

The things I learn here... many thanks! :)

> In the mobile world they offer access to their compressing proxy built-in

Off-Road mode in present in Opera for Desktop as well. Here’s a screenshot that shows how to enable it: http://i.imgur.com/rvGkQrI.png

I use Opera Mini on a Nokia dumbphone and the proxy is amazing.

Some cool features I haven’t seen in Chromium yet:

Lazy session loading: when restoring browser state from session, only the active tab will be loaded. Remaining tabs will be loaded when activated. Enable here: opera://flags/#lazy-session-loading

Extended lazy session loading: changes mode of operation of lazy session loading so that all tabs are gradually loaded in the background. Enable here: opera://flags/#extended-lazy-session-loading

I use my browser tabs as a to-do/to-read list – bad habit, I know. At any given time I have at least 40 tabs open. For people like me, features such as the above boost browser startup time significantly and help consume less memory.

Wow. This alone is reason for me to try it out. I also always have many tabs open.

Firefox fanboi here.

I use my browser as a reading list as well. And I like it.

I have had epic browser sessions with more than 500 tabs, until I discovered the Max Tabs extension, that let's you set a max limit. I use 100 now.

The extension Bartab Heavy lets you load only current page on start and automatically unloads tabs after x amount time. Otherwise 500 tabs wouldn't be possible.

Furthermore I use Tree Style Tab extension, that put them on the left side. I got used to this in Opera. Still miss the Ctrl + Tab (IIRC) feature, that only showed the list when you tabbed trough them akin to Windows' Alt-Tab window.

The existence of these extensions sooths me a bit since it means I am not the only one with these bad habbits.

Good to see Opera still attracks new users.

You haven't needed Bartab for on-demand tab loading for a while now, it's the "Don't load tabs until selected" setting on the Tabs page of preferences. Automatically unloading still requires an addon, though. I've got a serious tab habit as well (459 at the moment) and I'd recommend the Pano addon. It has tab/page title/url search that narrows the tab view to matches, drag & drop re-ordering (en masse), closing tabs directly from the list, tab group management, and visual indicators for whether a tab is loaded (nice when disconnected). It's nice when I'm cleaning out my old tabs to be able to put in ycombi, select all, and close them in one fell swoop. Heavy tab users probably want to turn on some of the optional features.

[Edit] Pano can also hibernate tabs or groups, so if that's the last thing you're using Bartab for it can replace that as well.

http://teramako.github.io/Pano/index.html

I just discovered that due to lack of time (if Google Translate is correct) Pano has been removed from the Firefox addons collection by the author and the github repository has been taken down. Since it's MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 according to the source I've posted a copy of what I believe is the last official release at https://www.dropbox.com/s/3yscqilam8gi8ut/pano%40teramako.gi... (please skim the code rather than trusting me).

There's a maintained and actively developed fork at https://github.com/salamiwst/Panopticon-Forked

This is relevant to my interests. I get the search feature through Vimperator as well, though.

I'm an average-Joe in browsing matters and well, it did a good first impression on me in regard to browsing itself, but then I got frustrated with the default options stuck on me. For instance the theming - is it supposed to change only the background of the browser's internal pages? That's something one barely encounters. I couldn't change the color of the window itself which is actually something I'll have permanently before my eyes, save the full-screen browsing! ...and as more I come to use it, the more that default intense blue color grew on bothering me. I've tried to look for ways to solve it several times, and each time giving up in frustration - it's not only only the inability to change a default skin, it doesn't actually leave you much control over almost anything. The browser isn't just brought up with a design that removes the interface clout leaving it buried somewhere on a deeper reach, it removes it outright leaving you bare-bones!

Maybe there are solutions that would solve my needs, but those weren't to be found easily when I still had patience.

I miss Dragonfly so much. It felt leagues beyond anything Chrome and Firefox had.

It's opensource.. wonder how much it's tied with the old opera/presto. Perhaps it would be possible to port it to Firefox?

Dragonfly was/is by far the best debugger of any browser. I still use Opera 12 so I still use it, but for how much longer remains to be seen... I don't have high hopes for the new Opera being supported on Linux and even if it is, dragonfly is gone.

I like Opera a lot, especially on the road with crappy internet connections. You are right, I should switch on the desktop, too.

Especially since they're from Europe, if I were them I'd probably focus on anti-tracking and privacy, much like what Epic Browser [1] is trying to do. But I think Opera would have the brand name recognition (and better technical expertise, too) to pull it off. Become THE privacy browser.

Later on, start to support next-gen stuff like Namecoin for P2P DNS, Ethereum, and other stuff like that. At their 1 percent market share or whatever they have now on the desktop, what do they have to lose? I only see upside, because there's a strong and growing community that would support and spread the word about such a browser, if it was really that good for privacy and so forward-looking towards a much more secure and privacy-friendly Internet.

[1] https://www.epicbrowser.com/

I am amazed at how fast opera has changed. I used to have installed, but haven't gotten around to in a year. It has changed from this rebellious "doing it their own way" kind of browser to "chrome with a different interface".

Which I understand, the browser business must be pretty harsh when you're one of the few players that actually needs the revenue.

I like it too but I just couldn't get used to the fact that the top pixel line is not part of a tab I keep clicking above the tabs, it annoyed me back to Firefox. (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1418282)

Opera WAS very nice. Fast, great keyboard navigation, native mouse gestures, native tabs on the left instead of above.

But sometimes it would just hang, some sites would not show properly.

I kept it around for way too long. Now I use firefox with a tab addon and curse its sluggishness..

There just don't seem to be any browsers that don't suck in some way.

My opinion about Opera was always sort of ambivalent.

The sad thing though is, now its nothing more than yet another Webkit (or even Chrome) shell

http://www.binarypassion.net/2013/05/a-farewell-to-opera.htm...

Until I can put my tabs on the left of the window with the new releases, I'm staying with Opera 12.16.

I'm still using Opera 11.xx. Just at work I have Opera 12.xx. That browser line was effectively killed and there is nothing even remotely comparable. I tried to switch to both Chrome and FF several times, but it didn't went well. Now I use multiple browsers. One for normal web and one for stuff like gmail (that has trouble running in the old Opera).

Gmail's HTML-only mode works fine in Opera 12, and unless you really like the (imho slow and bloated) interface of regular gmail, it is better. The only issues I had were bulk deleting spam and trash, it took me only a 5 line userscript to add a "select-all" button and the problem is solved. Also worth mentioning that this interface isn't exactly html-only, it still has some assisting javascript like automatically completing typed addresses from your contacts.

I have Opera installed on my Nexus 10 tab. Performs so much better than Firefox/Chrome - it doesn't get stuck whenever loading a website.

Also used to use it on Windows. But now I've moved on to Ubuntu it kind of sucks - fonts for Opera sucks so much.

I used to be an Opera die-hard fan--mouse gestures, built-in email and RSS client, tabs much more functional than any other browser, and very fast. It's had a long and circuitous journey, and much has changed, but the more choice the better.

Does anyone know if the new version of chrome can download bittorrents? I don't have any windows/mac computers to try it out at the moment.

I used to be able to run 300 tabs (of websites some years ago) at once without lag in Opera 11. It is the most efficient browser I've used.

On an AMD Turion.

I'll never use a non-free browser except when forced to.

What is your definition of ‘non-free browser’?

A browser denying one or more of the basic software freedoms: use, study, share, improve.

http://fsfe.org/about/basics/freesoftware.html

502 Bad Gateway here。。。

Surprisingly nice.

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