Opera

Broken and still not working...

[SinclairUser]

Hi Y'all,

I have read serveral posts on this forum regarding Opera browser and have the folowing observations - your comments are invited...

1. Internet-magazine (UK) quoted Opera a being "badly broken" in other words - did not suport DHTML or CSS properly.

2. A respected Javascript developer said "I will never support Opera due to it's poor support of the DOM"

3. Opera is a "piggy in the middle" between I.E. and Netscape (ignore wonderful offerings like Konqueror) so why do people spend time and effort trying to build in support for a browser that has been killing itself (without success) to take 3rd, 4th, 5th place in the browser rankings and soing it badly?

[tedster]

First, because it's a standards supporting (HTML and CSS) browser, it works beautifully and it works fast, has an intelligent GUI with a host of smart features not found elsewhere, has a small footpront and works well with other apps, is much more secure against invasive practices, and all in all, it makes a great browser for anyone to USE.

I've said that using Opera as my default browser is liking getting a couple free hours given back to me every day, and I still feel that way every time I'm testing in IE or NN.

Yes, Opera's DOM support was sketchy in version 6, and version 7 is better in that regard, though not yet all the way "there".

But most of all, I think we Opera lovers want to see some serious competition back in the browser front. I don't like IE owning that paricular piece of real estate, not at all. It's just not healthy.

All that said, I will still bail on Opera support at times in my development if the budget is tight and IE/NN support is simple enough.

[SinclairUser]

Tedster,

Thanks for the well rounded response. I still am not convinced that Opera is a serious contender for real competition to IE and NN but I agree that some competiton is required to keep the market "honest".

<footnote>Is this reply okay Mr. Gates?</footnote>

[nex2k]

Opera is an awesome browser for viewing standards compliant pages. Of course, the other 97% of pages sometimes appear buggy.

I wouldn't say that Opera is "piggy in the middle". I think Opera has a real chance to beat out Netscape. (Notice, that I said Netscape the commercial version of Mozilla.) Also, Opera is the innovator in the browser world. MDI interface, tabs, mouse gestures, Fast Forward,... All the other browsers will play be playing catch-up.

[SinclairUser]

You are right - its not piggy in the middle its piggy thats gonna disappear - in the not too distant future. Unless someone wants to keep throwing money into development of a lost cause!