The comments on this post at Smashing Apps has me irritated. Firefox and Chrome Fanboys keep yelling with the utmost of ignorance. People keep yapping about tabs, about addons and about features which Opera has had for years and years.

Opera Browser Features

So just to get things straight.

1. Opera introduced tabs to the world.
2. Those thing called private Tabs, now in Opera, expect in chrome in future releases, probably in two years.
3. Opera introduced labels for emails instead of folders.
4. Opera introduced mouse gestures, you have them as an addon for other browsers because somebody saw the implementation in opera and thought it would be a cool thing for firefox. You have them there because somebody was smart enough to invent it.
5. Speed dial was invented by Opera
6. Userscripts were enabled in Opera long before Firefox thought about Greasemonkey
7. See if any other browsers implement ACID 3 test better than Opera yet. Just because the others began harping about them now has made Micorosoft lookup and notice and do something about it in IE9 previews.
8. Opera already has voice based browsing. Expect an implementation in firefox and chrome in about two years and in IE in about five.
9. M2 mail client is on of the best i have used, Gmail does not have a patch on it. Not yet anyway. One hindrance they do have lack of PGP support. I want to know how many people in percentage terms know what PGP means. Most just don’t care.
10. The idea that browsers could make the web better just by being faster was again introduced by Opera by claiming it was the fastest browser in the world. The other browsers didn’t gave up on speed wars against Opera until Google came up with Chrome! Iam glad they did, they woke up a ‘mildly drowsy’ browser Giant, Opera!
11. Try the content blocking feature in opera (you only have to right click!), you will never want to try ad blocking again!
12. ADDONS Screw up your browser, get over it! The code is almost always never reliable.
13. USE their developer tools, equivalent firefox tools still do not have live preview.
14. Memory Management – Firefox woke up now when it no longer is much of an issue with gigs of RAM cheaper and cheaper.
15. Smaller file size, tighter code. Feel the interface, firefox still does not have it. Try chrome in Linux, clunky and broke as hell!
16. One keystroke shortcuts. Opera is still the only browser will this one. Try fingering through your tabs with one key button. You will never want to open tabs in other browsers again.
17. BONUS POINT – Torrent integration
18. BONUS POINT – IRC chat integration
19. BONUS POINT – Complete interface reconfigurability – Wide Screen? – Place your tabs on the right/left for greater real estate. Don’t want the tabs? Remove them and use the windows panel instead. Or just keyboard shortcuts. Or right mouse button with scroll.



20. BONUS POINT – Opera Link is the best thing out there. Not just your bookmarks, but your history, your notes, your speed dial, your searches. It stores everything!!

For the record browsing experience involves a whole combination of factors like newer tabs, mouse gestures, shortcuts, amount of javascript, your internet connection, multiple tabs, customizable interface, themes etc etc. Every single feature i have stated was invented by Opera.

I wouldn’t claim that the Opera browser will give you the perfect experience, every user will have their own barometer. But if you want the latest innovations in a neat little package, opera is for you.If you use opera for a few days, am pretty sure you will hate going back!

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Forget what the critics and the “I only follow critics” people say.

Its a good movie; Watch it! You will be glad you did!

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Thank god i have Ubuntu on my home machine. I can’t use my copy of Windows if i buy a new Motherboard according to this guy. Why hasn’t anyone sued them for this? If i buy a car, am not “allowed” to turbo charge it, add radial wheels, convert to CNG and its illegal for me to resell it.

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These six sects of fanatical loyalists prove there is no end to passion in tech.

I have been around for atleast three of those, even if  i was only a curious bystander observing. Seems like a long time ago, I must have gotten old!

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One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now!

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There used to be simpler times. One name and one search box. Then we grew big. Then we grew bigger. Then we decided to do no evil. Later we began classifying world information. We helped hundreds and thousands of people get to what they  want.

Now we are still bigger, so some people hate us. They don’t just hate us because we are big, they hate us because we seem to have forgotten what simple meant. We made a great email client. We made the word “beta” cool. We made some really cool but useless stuff for the web.

We weren’t really thinking about business. We were more into making the web usable. Then we realised we can really make huge amounts of money if we can just grow still bigger. So we decided to offer more and more services to people. Most people who loved us grew a little uncomfortable with our growing clout. We did indeed control quite a bit of their lives on the Internet.

Who else will have social networking platform, email, a chat client, a web browser, an OS and still be the number one search engine on the internet? Ok i know there is Microsoft, but we are cooler and we have adwords and google earth. But do we have to be the next Microsoft?

Lately our focus seems to have shifted, we spend a lot of time fighting cases and co-operating with governments against the interests of our users. We also keep track of all our users and maintain a track record of what they do on the internet. Oh we now also love clutter. Our new homepage reflects that. It really does.

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Better late than never …

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Congress set to expand homebuyer tax credit .. It gives the people about $6000 to $8000 of extra money. Project to cost 10.4 Billion dollars.

Real Estate Home Appreciation – Last 12 Months – about $175000(Approximate assumption). [uspricemon.pdf]

U.S. mortgage applications up as rates drop below 5 percent .. About 4.97%; So you have a discount of 6000/175000 (3.4%) for a year. This costs about 10.4 billion dollars.

Total Bailout Cost Heads Towards $5 TRILLION .. in Oct 2008.

The estimated population of the United States is 307,232,546
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $39,012.32.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.87 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

Per Capita Income – 40,208 (2008 figure) + 6000 Tax credit. [us-pci.xls]

Another nail in the coffin?

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Nytimes has an interesting commentary titled Fool’s Gold.

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Productive mediocrity requires discipline of an ordinary kind. It is safe and threatens no one. Nothing will be changed by mediocrity; mediocrity is completely predictable. It doesn’t make the powerful and self-satisfied feel insecure. It doesn’t require freedom, because it doesn’t do anything unexpected.

Mediocrity is the opposite of what we call “genius”. Mediocrity gets perfectly mundane things done on time. But genius is uncontrolled and uncontrollable. You cannot produce a work of genius according to a schedule or an outline. As Leonardo knew, it happens through random insights resulting from unforeseen combinations. Genius is inherently outside the realm of known disciplines and linear career paths. Mediocrity does exactly what it’s told, like the docile factory workers envisioned by Frederick Winslow Taylor.

Reference

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