Opera 7

[Eaglefeather]

Just downloaded Opera 7. I have never used anything but IE and Netscape before.

Seems to be pretty good, but I don't think it is as fast as I was led to believe. As well the browser will not function while it is downloading. So although the new page flashes up right away, one still has to wait until the page loads completely before you can do anything.

Can not say I like the main bar. It is huge and takes up a lot of space. Perhaps once I get to know the browser better I will figure out a way of replacing it with something smaller. I do, however like being able to position the tool bars where I want them with just a couple of simple clicks.

Have tried to use the bookmarks but have not figured out how to make them work the way I want. I will continue to use Passmark for now. But I did like some of the things that came prepackaged in the bookmarks. A bit of thought went into it, unlike IE.

Also this is the ad supported version. They have given me 14 days to purchase before the ads start. Well If they place a banner on this thing that is going to take up even more of the screen, not so sure I will like that. But if the browser turns out to be worth it I will gladly pay the $39. US to keep using it ad free.

It does seem to be much more stable than IE. I have been having a lot of trouble with IE since I got back online a few days ago. I have tried the IE selfrepair but that hasn't helped. Then I saw the stuff about Opera and thought I would give it a try.

Been using it for a few hours now and it hasn't locked up or crashed at all. IE would have at least locked up once by now. So that is another point in it's favor.

My overall feelings so far........I like it. Be interesting to see how I feel in 14 days.

Thought there might be a few folks out there considering that long download, 12.9 mgs, 56 min on my dialup line, that would like to have the impressions of someone new to the browser before going for it.

[glc]

The ad banner will simply fill the blank space at the right side of the main bar. Screen shot attached. Sorry about the quality, it's tough getting a 1280x1024 shot into a jpg under 100k.

[Kubie]

Eaglefeather,
You feel the same way I did. I used IE for 4 years and the change was something else when I went to Opera.
Just work your way through the preferences and set it up the way you like.
As you get used to it, you will like it more and more.
Carl

[Eaglefeather]

Hey that is not so bad. I can live with that. Thanks for the heads up glc.

I think you be right Carl, the more I use it the more I like it. Have been using it all morning and on some pages it is a speed demon compared to IE. Still no lockups or crashes so it definitely is much more stable than IE.

[Tuf]

I haven't used the newer versions of Opera but I liked the older one OK. I really like Mozilla but I am so used to the keyboard shortcuts in IE I still use it most of the time. Plau IE is faster on my computer.

If I could get the tabbed interface the others offer in IE it would be fine for me. Because that's what I really like about Mozilla.

[pillainp]

Tuf,
Try Netcaptor (www.netcaptor.com). It is a shell for IE that has a tabbed interface and lots of other goodies like a popup stopper. Another feature that I love about it is that you can create aliases for your commonly used websites. I have assigned pcm for the PCMech Forums, so when I want to go there I just type "pcm" in the search bar and hit ENTER, and voila, there I am.

Try it and let me know. It is all I use nowadays.

Since it is a shell, it uses the same KB shortcuts as IE.

NPP

[Kubie]

Tuf,
Opera 7 has a "page bar" and to me thats the same as tabs. I just click on the tab of the site I want and go anywhere I want.
Carl

[Mac Medic]

Instead of paying $40, why not try Avant Browser, formerly ieopera. It's a combo of IE and Opera and it's free and not spyware. Ad-based software is generally spyware. Not to sure if this applies to opera, but I imagine so.

[Kubie]

oem_guy_2002,
Opera has a pay and a free version. Have yet to run into spyware with free version.
Carl

[Mac Medic]

I was just looking at their FAQ. They go to a lot of lengths to explaing why spyware sites report it as spyware when it really isn't. Huh. Apparently a profile is sent out and a unique ID is generated for each user. They say it contains no personally identifiable info.

[glc]

If you don't enter any personal information into Opera's preferences, it doesn't have anything significant to report.

[Eaglefeather]

Well day three and the thing still hasn't seized up or crashed. One thing I have noticed though, although it is generally faster for most loading, it is much slower than IE at Pogo.com. I like to play cards there and Opera is noticably slower there, but only while playing the game. The pages themselves load faster.

Another thing I found was last night everything kept getting slower and slower and slower while I was surfing. I didn't know what was happening and then my modem shut down. Well I went to close Opera by clicking on the X but hit the one for the page instead.

To my surprise the page I had visited before the one I was on was there. I hit the X again and the page from before that was now on. Well there were some 15 or twenty open sites. Opera was not closing them as I moved from one to the the other but unlike IE it doesn't show them on the task bar so I didn't know they were still open.

I did some searching and found out how to get it to close each site when I move to another. It is going to take some time to get it set up the way I want it, but so far I am really happy with it.

[glc]

Set it to view the "page bar" - this is tabbed browsing.

[Tuf]

I'll check that out pillainp, thanks!

I don't really want anything that IE doesn't offer except the tabs. That has to be the most useful feature added to a browser in years.

[Eaglefeather]

Thanks again glc. I suppose I would eventually have found it. This thing has more doodads than Carter has liver pills. I likes my new toy.