Opera 10 : The Queen stands! Weep Firefox Weep…

I strongly believe, the funniest thing in the history of computing has to be the following:

1. people whining about Microsoft stealing other companies’ (or public domain) ideas with each new version of its popular Windows OS
2. people belauding Firefox for being truly open source and full of gadgets and stuff making navigation and surfing so much easier and such a nice experience.
…

Well, isn’t it nice? True brainwashing at work…
If Microsoft is to be blamed for stealing however… why is verbatim copying of Opera functionality OK?

I’m not implying that Opera did everything first (besides, I don’t need to. It’s common knowledge!) but it’s always fun seeing Firefox fans being so Joyful and Happy and Cheery over a new feature or widget or whatever, that Firefox managed to incorporate … lightyears after Opera…

And yeah yeah yeah … I’ll get all the tiny minded, close-headed, don’t-talk-badly-about-my-fox-with-the-burning-butthole up my rear but honestly … open your eyes and witness the greatness of Opera before your next-next-next-next-next-stupid-burning-fox version attempts to clone it.

So yeah, first off, I have to say that the new Opera looks so much cooler than version 9.

Oh, at which point I have to point out something. Seeing how Opera is the first browser to reach version 10, there’s an issue coming up concerning web designers. It’s high time you replaced that stupid javascript call returning the browser version. Just to keep it simple for our less code-literate brothers, the scenario is as follows: the new Opera 10 will be recognized as Opera 1 (as JS code only reads one digit for some unusually stupid reason) and in many cases the pages we attempt to visit will not be displayed. That’s what happens when you’re stupid and fail to admit it. Which translates into, “designers are not developers” (but fail to admit it).

Anyways, back to Opera.

It has been a fast browser since conception but, it’s even faster. Yes, even faster. Is it Chrome fast? I can’t say. I refuse to install any kind of application that considers my private stuff as public domain. It’s not. (side note: Google, screw you! my stuff is mine. end of side note).

Turbo

Check the screenshot above. At the lower left hand corner you will notice a red icon. That’s the Turbo Throttle! I have no clue how they did it but Opera 10 will identify your connection speed and if necessary, it will invoke a server-side compression (okay no clue how they did that) and your page will be served to your machine up to 4x faster (i guess they must be using an opera hosted proxy tube in order to deliver compressed versions through it to opera clients that raise a slow internet connection flag. more or less).

Enhanced Tabs

Don’t like the shape/look of the tabs (personally i love the new tabs)? You can pull down the handle under the tabs (it’s there believe me) and you can get thumbnails of the open tabs right there instead of just the tab name. Awesome, okay so maybe FireFox fans will have to wait for like 50 more versions but hey, they’re used to it.

Enhanced Speed Dial

Have you ever worked on Opera? Opera 9 had a speed dial. Much like the one Chrome stole, you got that right. Safari too but there, I cant be sure who copied from whom. Besides, I love Safari too. [actually i’m just trying to be nice, Opera had a Speed Dial 2 years before the first copycat ever started dreaming of having one].

[edit: i just read that the fox-my-butt’s-on-fire has an extension for a Speed Dial as well. Yeah lol … as if there was ANY way they wouldn’t “copy”that one.]

Anyway, the thing is that the new Speed Dial will not restrict you into a 3×3 grid giving you a total of 9 preset pages showing up on the dial. It can go to as such extent as 5×5=25 preset pages on your start page (kinda makes the whole bookmark idea seem so old, right?).

It will even let you set a wallpaper behind your dial to avoid that great white area that somewhat hurts the eyes. Well done Opera, it’s like teaching people how to breathe… inhale … exhale …

Enhanced Tab Memory

Okay, so can we all agree on one thing? Program crashes suck big time. Specially with tab-based programs which take a number of tabs with them when they crash.

However, that’s not the case with Opera. Cause Opera developers see way ahead of time since they were the first to incorporate Sessions into Opera. There are two types of Sessions in Opera: the Current Session (which is made up of all the tabs currently open in a running Opera window) and the Custom Sessions (that yeah, cry your heart out burning-butthole, they can be saved and be recalled with just one click – okay maybe two).

What’s so great with the Current Session is that it’s always saved. Even if your program crashes, you get the entire list of open tabs back on your screen the next time your browser loads up.

Yeah I know. The stupid fox does the same thing nowadays. Well, HOORAH for that. Didn’t take them way too long did it?

Anyway, I was trying to make a point about Enhanced Tab Memory.

The thing is that, when working with a browser, program crashes are not the only thing that can take you from an interesting page, never to be found again. What happens if you accidentally close a tab that you meant to keep open? Well then my dear brainwashed brethren … you’re screwed.

Does that happen in Opera too? I’m afraid not. But never fear, I’m sure Firefox will certainly give you that option ummm someday.

edit: they finally did it. in between my original post and this repost here, they finally managed to do it. Groovy!

Ctrl+Z and …voila! Your closed tab comes back up on your screen. And you can keep on undoing to your heart desire. All the closed tabs come up on your screen in the exact same order that you closed them.

How can something be more practical than that? Well the new Opera 10 will give you a list of all the closed tabs so that you can specifically open the one you want without having to trace back all the in-between tabs.

Yeah, Opera is THAT good.

And if you ‘re into tech stuff… it’s still the only 100% Acid3 compatible browser. What does that mean? Well, lets for one second accept that for anything that happens there’s a well laid down foundation and blueprint that need to be followed so that everything will certainly work alright. Alright? Okay, now lets call that foundation and blueprint mmm Standards. Good? Nice. Since we’re on the Web, we’ll call them Web Standards. And since Web Standards are to be followed, we’ll have a test to make sure that applications follow these standards. Okay?

Good! You got it then.

Acid3 is the test and yes, Opera 10 is the only browser that scores a whooping 100% success on the test. Yeah, eat your heart out burning-rodent.

Oh … and by the way … I wasn’t gonna do that but … well who am I kidding of course I would:

1. Tabbed Browsing: Introduced in 1994 by MultiTorg Opera.

2. Saved Sessions: Introduced in 1996 by Opera 2 [hey foxy, you’re falling behind]

3. Full Page Zoom: Introduced in 1996 by Opera 2

4. Pop-Up blocking: Introduced in 2000 by Opera 5 [foxy got it the next year, IE needed another 3 after that]

5. Private Data Deletion: Introduced in 2000 by Opera 5

6. Mouse Gestures: Introduced in 2001 by Opera 5.1 [yup, i know … you have an extension for that too … well boo hoo]

7. Bit Torrent Client: Introduced in 2005 by Opera 8.02 [i’m pretty sure Opera was the first to incorporate a download client altogether but I’ll have to look into that]

8. Speed Dial (i couldn’t resist): Introduced in 2007 by Opera 9.2 [i just love titles like this—> Get Opera-like Speed Dial in Firefox <—- www.downloadsquad.com/2007/05/08/get-opera-like-speed-dial-in-firefox/ ]

Yeah… point is … YOU SUCK!…
Oh I love Opera 🙂 The Queen Stands.