So a lot of you right might must be thinking, ‘ewwwwww. Opera’. Have those of you who actually claim that, ever used it? I ask this because I used to think the same thing.

I used to say, “Opera? it could never be as good as a ‘normal’ browser.” How harsh I used to be to something I never experienced for myself until recently.

The Browser, The Legacy:

Opera is rather stylish. It is definitely one of my favorite browsers to work with. If I keep finding new features I like on it soon, it may very well replace my Firefox and the occasional Internet Explorer usage on this computer. I have found some awesome features and widgets to place on my Opera, and the fact that it is lighter weight than Firefox and Internet Explorer makes it quite useful to someone who opens up about 30 tabs at once (Entrecard drops).

The Requirements:

It is recommended to have at least 64mb of ram. Opera has older versions called ‘Legacy’ versions which require even less. For versions other than Windows, there is an option that you can select. Under Opera 9.26 For Windows there is an option called “Show Other Versions”. Here you can get Opera for any version of OS you choose. (And its a nice list). Thank you Rijk for pointing this out. Many of the commenter’s probably have not noticed this either, nor did I.

Opening up a New Tab:

Instead of having a blank tab when you open up a page (quite like in Firefox or IE), Opera opens up something called ‘Speed Dial’. Its a page that has 9 boxes on the screen. These speed-boxes are basically 9 different ‘homepages’ when a new tab is pressed that you can connect to just by pressing them. (you can also, obviously, change these speed-boxes to whatever you desire).

These boxes have a thumbnail of the actual site which is kind of nifty, too.

Resources Required:

I opened up 30 tabs in Firefox, 30 tabs in Internet Explorer, and 30 Tabs in Opera. Opera wins hands-down for the resources required to run the browser with those tabs open. It had about 30% less resources used than Firefox and about 50% less than Internet Explorer.

Excitement:

It looks like the creative minds behind Opera are working hard on a new version that is supposed to be ready by June of this year, I cannot wait
Downside:

It does not have any Alexa toolbar available for it, which I find quite sad. I looked through the widgets and there was nothing available for it. Though lately I have not been using Alexa as I have been finding it rather annoying with all of its recent problems, it is still a good thing to have just in case if someone wants to use the features.

Conclusion:

Thus far, I think it is a pretty good browser. I really hated trying it out first because of the mental hatred I had for it prior to even reading up on it. All I can say it is lightweight and it seems pretty secure. Its pop up blocker seems to catch just as much as Firefox does which is also pretty decent.

Perhaps you have some comments you’d like to mention about Opera? Bring them forth! Share your knowledge. Like it? Hate it? Lets find out why.