The Problem with Opera

Opera web browsers have always been some of the most advanced around, often setting the trends and advancing the technology. Despite this I can never find a use for it on a regular basis.

Opera Software logo

I really like Opera. They've always been way ahead when it comes to pushing for web standards, and with people like Bruce Lawson onboard they're paving the way for HTML5 and CSS3 to become "main stream". As a web designer I like Opera.

Knowing this then, it's hardly surprising that the latest web browser to roll off the Opera production line (the imaginatively named "Opera 10") is a really cute piece of kit. Opening it up for the first time you know it's going to be cutting edge when a little notification pops up to tell you that "Turbo Mode" has been enabled!

As you'd expect with Opera you get the usual plethora of gadgets including Mouse Gestures, Opera Dragonfly (Firebug for Opera) and a Session Manager. There are UI improvements too, with new resizable "Visual Tabs" (thumbnail previews of your open tabs) and interface design by respected designer Jon Hicks.

However, it seems the main development budget has been invested in rendering speed improvements with claims that Opera Presto 2.2 is now 40% faster on resource intensive apps like Gmail and Facebook. This has been coupled with Opera Turbo, which uses Opera's servers to compress web pages, boosting your browsing speed by (a claimed) two times.

The Obvious choice?

In light of all this amazing technology you'd expect that as a hard-core web user I'd have Opera 10 set as my default browser. Or would you? In reality, I just can't find a place for Opera in my web world.

Opera for Front End Development?

I do a lot of CSS work and whilst Opera's Dragonfly is a good bit of kit, I'm way too comfortable with Firebug to consider learning a new tool. Inevitably then Firefox 3.5 is my browser of choice for web development and that ain't going to change any time soon.

Opera for Utility?

As good as Firefox is, I find that all my web development addons do tend cause it to become pretty visually bloated. I crave a clean interface with minimal clutter where I can focus on content and not be distracted. I could choose Opera for this task, but I actually opt for Google's Chrome browser.

The reason for this is Chrome's ability to create "Application Shortcut's" for certain web pages which removes the browser "chrome" (see what they did there?) from around the view port. This is great for things such as Gmail. I just make a application shortcut and add it to my quick launch bar and I want to open my email quickly I just hit the icon. So convenient and there's nothing to distract me.

Opera for Speed?

Ok ok, so Opera's got to win on this front surely. Well yes...and no.

Whilst Opera's speed is a really great selling point, it's just not enough to prise me away from either Firefox or Chrome. I'm sure that if you measured one against the other, Opera might be 2/10ths of a second fast at rendering a page, but even to someone who works online everyday this simply isn't a noticeable enough difference.

So what is wrong?

I really want to use Opera 10. I think it's great but I just cannot find a reason to have a 3rd browser in my life. Despite all it's great features the overall package doesn't incentivise me to ditch either Firefox or Chrome.

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this. Do you use Opera 10? What features make it stand out for you? Why do you think that's it's still not making any inroads in the browser market?

Posted last year by David Smith

Tagged as: Opera, Browser

David is a web designer and a front end developer for DeepBlueSky Digital. He's reponsible for designing nice things and then making sure they don't break in Internet Explorer. Currently he's mostly interested in javascript and HTML5. You can follow Dave on Twitter as @get_dave or @deepbluetweets.

10 Comments on this post

Jim said “What about IE” last year

You gonna tell us what's wrong with IE?
David said “Where would I start!” last year

@jim
I wouldn't even know where to start!
Daniel said “Well, I do use Opera 10” last year

For a very simple reason: It has a more lightweight interface than FF and uses less ressources which makes it load easier. I also noted a faster response from web pages and I think this is still because of the lightweight interface. Chrome's interface is even more lightweight but it just doesn't offer all the options.
philipp said “what's wrong on mac” last year

well, at least for the mac version, opera is too slow and safari too quick for me to change.
maybe windows is different?
Jim said “@Daniel - I agree about FF” last year

Hi Daniel,
Yeah - I agree about FireFox... we all use Firebug heavily here ( it's totally changed our lives ) but it does make FireFox clug along eating up your RAM.
I tend to use Chrome for email, browsing ( and the newer Chrome release has a great new search which is brilliant for quick searches on some sites like "php.net [TAB] [command]" for quick doc lookups ).

I have to say I haven't tried Opera for ages but thing I might give it a test drive for a week :-)
Stewart said “Opera 10 on Mac Snow Leopard” last year

I've not looked into this yet, but Opera 10 is achingly slow on my sixth generation MacBook with 4GB memory and running Snow Leopard. Whatever the reason, it's made a terrible impression on me. Furthermore, in your recent post about HTML5 and CSS3 browser support, Opera 10 seemed to fail miserably compared to browsers like FF and Safari, which I found strange because I've always heard that Opera is an exemplary advocate of Web standards. I realize CSS3 and HTML5 are not yet standards, but I figured Opera would be more progressive. So I agree with you--I also don't see any incentive to use Opera 10.
David said “Opera isn't all that bad...” last year

@Stewart Thanks for your comments Stewart. I'm not sure about the speed issue (Opera 10 is fine on Windows), but you're right that it's a little less progressive than other browsers when it comes to CSS3.
However, as Bruce Lawson has pointed out, Opera 10 does have great support for other advanced features which as yet aren't tested by Modernizr or FindMeByIP.com. Bruce cites "Web Forms 2" input types and SVG graphics as prime examples.
Opera do great work for web standards but I think they need to get on-board with the CSS3 spec (even if it's in a proprietary format) if they want to attract the web dev community and compete with Safari/Firefox.
Mia said “i love opera” last year

I love Opera, even though theres things Id like to change!
It is so so fast (on my windows pc), and the password manager and speed dial makes my day!
Ghodmode said “Chrome for speed, FF for features” last year

With Firefox, the addons improve my browsing experience to such a degree that I just wouldn't be comfortable in any other environment.
The addons do make the browser start much more slowly, but they don't seem to slow down the page load times. And the productivity benefits easily compensate for the initial load time.
I have tried alternatives, including Opera, Safari, and many lesser Webkit-based alternatives and Chrome to have the fastest startup and page load times. For my needs, Opera simply doesn't do anything better than other browser choices.
Tommy said “...and that ain't going to change any time soon.” a few months ago

So what is the purpose of writing anything beyond that point? Some self-serving over-intellectualization perhaps?