30 Days to becoming an Opera8 Lover

Who am I? I have been using Opera since version 4, first on Windows and now on Mac OS X. I have been an Elektran (Opera ASA’s name for the group of testers who see private builds of Opera before they are made public) since 2002. Whoo boy! The stories I could tell, if I weren’t under NDA. What I can tell you is this: I have a huge amount of respect for the people who work at Opera ASA. They have put together a great piece of software which has been around for over 10 years in a market where most software (especially software which competes against free alternatives from Microsoft) has a very short life.

Why is Opera still around when there are free, already installed options like Internet Explorer, and other free alternatives out there like Firefox? Because Opera has put together a quality piece of software which allows people to work more efficiently, spending less time configuring their software or downloading add-ons, and more time just doing what they want to do.

What you hold in your hands (or are reading on your computer screen) is the 3rd edition of that Opera Lover series, covering the newest version: Opera 8. Why am I re-writing the series again? Because there are new features in Opera8 which warrant an update, and there are even more people today ready to ditch Internet Explorer. In addition, there are others who have realized that Firefox, while an excellent browser, lacks some of the features that they want, and they are tired of downloading extensions and hoping that they don’t conflict (oh boy, am I going to get letters now!!).

This seems like a good time to get a few things out of the way, which will save people from writing to me. These comments come in response to actual feedback which people have written to me from previous versions.

1) Do you work for Opera ASA?

No, I do not now, nor have I ever, worked for Opera ASA. (By the way, “Opera ASA” is the way that I differentiate “Opera, the company” from “Opera, the software”.) I have never received any financial support from Opera, in fact, I haven’t even met anyone from Opera ASA. In the interest of full-disclosure, someone did send me an Opera t-shirt a few years ago after the Opera7 Lover series was written. If that makes you skeptical, well, you’re one cynical cat.

2) Do you really think people are going to spend 30 days learning how to use a browser?

No, the “30 days” part of the title referred to the original timeframe that the series was published (one “page” per day for 30 days) and in fact I took the weekends off, so it was even longer than that! See, already you’ve caught me in a lie, I said it was 30 days but it was closer to 40! I think the confusion comes from those books “Teach yourself X in 24 hours!” which are intended to be an intensive learning process of a new programming language or piece of software. I suspect that most people could sit down in front of Opera and figure out how to use most of it right away, at least the basics of web surfing. Most of the knowledge that you bring with you will carry over to Opera. If you’ve never been on the web before, a) Who are you and b) It may take a little longer. There is no requirement for you to take 30 days to learn Opera. You can read this as fast or as slow as you’d like. You can even (*gasp*!) skip some sections if they don’t interest you. If you do, you risk missing out on some of my very witty remarks, but that’s a chance you’ll just have to take.

3) “But Firefox is free and it has extensions”

This is actually the most common response to anything that I write about Opera, so let me address it here and maybe someone will save us both the time of writing to tell me that Firefox is free, and has extensions. Yes, I know.

First off, what people mean when they write this is that Firefox has no ads. Opera is available in a free, ad-sponsored mode which includes an option for Google Relevant Ads (similar to what you see along the side of search results in Google). Opera is also free to higher education institutions (see http://www.opera.com/education/ and http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/01/12/ for details). Otherwise Opera costs $39 (US) or $20 if you are a student (but if you are a student, encourage your school to apply for an Opera site license).

As far as extensions, those are a very cool addition to Firefox but most of the features that they add are built into Opera. They risk being outdated as Firefox is further developed (imagine growing used to a tool and then finding out it no longer works with the newest version). Opera’s features are integrated into the app, so they will continue to work as Opera continues to grow.

There are others, but those are the main 3 that I wanted to get out of the way before we go on. I’d also like to thank the many, many people who wrote to me to thank me for writing the first two versions of this. Special thanks to those who wrote with corrections, to my fellow Elektrans who helped proof-read and review earlier drafts. As always, any errors that remain are mine.

“Why would I want a different browser?”

I don’t hear this question as much as I used to, but it’s still worth answering. For some people, the issue is security. Internet Explorer is integrated into Windows, and has an atrocious security record. The entire spyware business came into existence largely because of the security lapses inherent with Internet Explorer and Windows. While Windows XP Service Pack 2 has solved many of these issues, that comes as no help to people who are running older versions of Windows.

For others, it’s simply an issue of speed. To many, Internet Explorer just feels like a huge bloated app that runs slower. Still others like the ease of customization of Opera versus the opacity of Internet Explorer’s “Advanced” preferences which can confuse even experienced computer users.

Personally, I hope that fewer people will use Internet Explorer because its support for web standards is so poor that it makes it much more difficult for people who want to make good web pages. I have serious doubts as to whether Internet Explorer will ever truly be secured, and Microsoft has basically dropped support for older versions of Windows.

But there’s more than just things that you want to avoid. Opera has a whole lot of features that are simply missing from Internet Explorer or are far too difficult to be useful. These are features which take some time to explain. I used to get people asking me all the time why I used Opera, and the answer was that it was a culmination of reasons that really have to be experienced rather than just explained.

So I wrote this series to answer that question.

“How do I get Opera?”

Good question. You really ought to have Opera installed so you can play along as I’m describing things. So head off to http://www.opera.com/download/ and you can download Opera for Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris, QNX, OS/2, Mac OS X, Linux (Sparc, PowerPC, and i386), or BeOS. If you don’t know what any of those other operating systems are, don’t worry. The good news is that just about any computer you are likely to own can run Opera. Also note that the same license can be installed on all of your computers. Do you use a Mac at home but have to use a Windows machine at work? Put Opera on both of them. Aren’t options a nice thing? Better get used to it, Opera has a lot more coming.

A minor detail to some: Opera is smaller by comparison to either Firefox or Internet Explorer. Firefox for Windows is down to about 4.6 megabytes (well done) but the Mac OS X version is almost 9 and the Linux version is over 8. That’s not nearly as bad as Internet Explorer which can top out at 75 megabytes! Sure, you only have to download it once, but every line of code is another opportunity for bugs. Opera, by comparison, is 5 MB for Mac and 3.6 for Windows.

Oh, and don’t forget that with Opera, you get a browser, mail client, RSS/Atom reader, and IRC client. All you get with the other guys is a browser.

So go ahead and download Opera. Installing it should go like any other application (if you’re unsure, just choose the default options. One more thing: if you don’t have a license for Opera, you’ll see this window when Opera first starts up:

I highly recommend that you choose the first option for relevant text ads. The ad bar is much smaller and the ads are fairly unobtrusive. The ads (known as Google Relevant Ads, or “rads”) work the same way that the ads work when you do a Google search. The strange thing about these ads is that they’re actually helpful. I’ve found good resources with them, and I’ve even heard some people who have purchased a license for Opera and decided not to register it so they could keep the ads. Strange? Perhaps, but true.

If you decide that you want to change the type of ads that you see, goto Preferences and select “Advertising”. You can change back and forth as often as you wish.

Opera is not spyware nor does it contain any, although it is occasionally misreported as such. Opera does not collect any personally identifiable information about you. If you would like more assurances, please visit these pages:

• Privacy, Security, and Advertising in Opera http://www.opera.com/privacy/ads/
• Banner Advertising Implementation http://www.opera.com/docs/ads/

If you wish to register Opera, a license can be purchased from http://www.opera.com/buy/ (free licenses are available to higher education users, and discounts are available to all students). Once you have received a registration code, enter it by going to:

• Microsoft Windows: Help → Register
• Mac OS X: Opera → Register
• Linux: Help → Register Opera