Random Thoughts

I’ve started to see this in various blogs now, that Opera is not free, and that you have to pay to remove the banner ad and unlock some more features. Huh? Where does that notion come from?

I won’t bother arguing if Opera is free or not if it shows a banner ad, but where does the idea come from that the ad-supported version of Opera is not the full version? Which features are supposed to be unlocked when you register? No one says – logically enough, as the truth has eluded them.

The fact is: The ad supported version of Opera is the full version! It just has the ad at the top. That’s the plain truth.

Since last, I’ve updated to Opera 8.01, and I’ve been more spoilt as a result. Inn addition to bug fixes and security fixes, a new feaure has been added to the browser: Browser javascript. Very similar to user javascript, but these are scripts that are added by Opera.com, updated automatically once a week. The purpose? To “fix” badly coded websites, so that they work.

It is an experimental feature, which you have to activate by editing the opera6.ini-file in your profile directory, adding the line Browser JavaScript=1 below [User Prefs].

There is one site, atomfilms.com, that I used to visit now and then earlier – but as it didn’t work with Opera I lost interest in it. Now, with the browser js in place, I can enjoy the site once again. Maybe I’m changing habits again? I’ve added the feed from their blog now, so it may happen.

In other words: Great work, Opera. You continue to make my experience better and better.

Well – maybe not a brat, but I’m spoilt. I was thinking about what it is about Opera that I enjoy so much; it has many features, it is responsive and fast, it is standards compliant and renders pages as they should (mostly – as all other browsers it has some bugs) can be installed on a usb pen, and it is developed constantly. It’s not alone though – I’ve used Firefox exclusively, too, and it shares much of the same good points. It doesn’t have the same features as standards, but it has plug-ins which gives the same. There is the whole Mozilla Suite too, Netscape 8 combines both Firefox and IE with both rendering engines – and still I prefer Opera.

So what is it about this browser that makes me prefer it? Am I able to explain it in other words than the three “I just do”? Well – I’m going to give it a try, at least.

Let me start by writing off Internet Explorer. It may be quick to start up – unsurprisingly when thinking about the integration with Windows – but that’s about it. It can be extended with toolbars, even shells (or whatever you want to call them) to give tabbed browsing and such – but underneath is IE with its weaknesses. The strength of IE is the installed userbase, and that many pages are built to make IE look good because of all its users.

That fact is by some thought of as the weakness of other browsers, which support the standards as they are defined, as opposed to how IE does it at the time. More and more however designers who know their trade are beginning to make web pages and solutions by the standards (and thus all the browsers that support them) and then a hack – if necessary – to make things work in IE. Not necessarily to work just as good, though; sometimes IE users are getting an inferior experience.

So to give me the best experience, a modern browser is needed.

Modern browsers mean browsers like the Mozilla Suite, Firefox and Opera. I never did enjoy Mozilla that much, but both Firefox and Opera are nice acquaintances. The latest Netscape I haven’t tried at all, but I’m not tempted by its double rendering engine, even if it means problem free use of problematic web sites. The real fight is between Firefox and Opera, when it comes to my use.

By itself Firefox isn’t much – it needs to be extended by various extensions. This is needed because I’ve come to expect additional features to make the time spent better and more useful. Excluding time spent to find the right extensions, how is the experience? It’s… Nice. Too often though, there are things in which way the extensions work – or doesn’t work – that can be a bit annoying. On the plus side, there are some really great extensions, though.

Opera can’t be extended in the same way as Firefox, but makes up for it by including many really nice features as standard. It includes these in a way that doesn’t make it feel bloated – instead, the total experience can be described be the word “smooth”. It really is a smooth experience, and the reason some extensions that gives Firefox the same functionality can be annoying, is that Opera does it all without a hiccup. For the features that both offer, Opera gives me personally the best experience – Opera just does it better!

Oh, and Opera is fast. A lean, mean, browsing machine. It’s just a pleasure to use when surfing. Troublesome web pages? Fewer and fewer – and with user javascript, much can be rectified. And the experience can be heightened, too. Firefox is close, but not quite there, in my experience.

So Opera has the overall edge. It’s not perfect, but it’s the one browser that comes closest – and it serves it all fast and with grace. Therefore, I’m spoilt.

Silly introduction: Opera is bloated because it have so many features, and is therefore bad, while Firefox is a great browser because through the use of extensions you an add features to make it even more bloated than Opera.

OK, with that over with, it’s the features I’d like to write a bit about here. It’s true that Opera does include many features, and maybe you don’t need many of them.But on the positive note, they don’t take up much space of the already small download, and won’t show up in the menu and make a clutter out of it if you want to avoid them completely.

Firefox on the other hand chose a different path; it is a featureless browser (well, not quite) that you can add the features you want to through extensions. This way, you can add features that you don’t (currently) find in Opera – and of course refrain from adding features you don’t want, so that you don’t clutter up the interface 😉

But what has any of this to do with time, which the title of this post implies plays a major part of the topic? Obviously, you need some time to actually learn to use the features you like. That’s the same no matter which browser you use, but there’s more!

In Opera you may spend some time to customise the interface to your tastes, if it’s not already so, but in all honesty that doesn’t take too much time. Second, you’re guaranteed that no matter which features you use and enable in Opera, they all works smooth together.

In Firefox the situation is a bit different, as you need to find the extensions that does what you want them to do. True, you do have some centralised pages which have collecti0ns of plugins or links to them. Alas, the job of finding which extension suits you, and which extensions are incompatible with each other, is mostly up to you. It may not be a straight forward task; there are several extensions that does the same thing, in slightly different ways. Which suits you best? Some extensions doesn’t work with other extensions, so there may be a trade off there. How smooth does the extensions work? Do some of them – or a combination of them – make the browser unstable? What about security? And what if one extension is updated – will it still work as expected, or will some incompatibilities have popped up? These are real problems Firefox users have experienced.

So you see, you may potentially spend a lot of time to get it right – that’s the negative side of the situation. The positive side is that there actually are some really great extensions out there.

Opera can’t be extended in the same way, but is it really that far behind? Ad blockers exist, useful side panels, a developer toolbar – or rather developer menu – exists. Truth to be told, you can edit the menus and add entries and features by editing ini-files. You can save the different setups and load specific ones depending on what you want to do. Opera users share the setups they’ve made, many through my.opera.com and some centralised web sites. Just like Firefox users, Opera users have to find the setup they like best – unless they edit the ini-files needed themselves. It may be easier than writing an extension. Unlike Firefox though, you don’t add external code that can make the browser unstable, the different setups aren’t really incompatible with each other, but can’t be used at the same time. You can however edit and combine the different ini-files to achieve that effect, though.

Now, it may seem like no matter which browser you choose, you have to spend time to get the browser like you want it. But of course: That depends. If you want features that neither browser offer by default you have to spend some time to achieve the desired result. How much time depends on which features it is and which browser it is.

However, the situations I hear most of, is when Firefox users is searching for extensions that achieve just the same as Opera offer by default, plus the Adblock. And the problem I hear most of, is that these extensions doesn’t offer quite the same quality and options as Opera, and that some popular extensions weren’t compatible with each other – the combination made Firefox unstable and even crash. It could be solved by using particular versions of the extensions, or alternative extensions, but it took more time than expected.

So the question I’m left with now is the one in the title: If you want the features that Opera offer, without the ad and without paying for it – how much is your time worth?

You may have seen in various reviews of Opera 8 that it is a great browser, but that it has a price tag attached. Here’s how to get the browser and use it – completely legal – for free:

First go to opera.com and download Opera 8, then install it. When you set it up, chose to show the relevant text ads (google ads) instead of the generic banner ads. If you don’t like how the interface looks, now it’s also a great time to change it: Just right click on any toolbar and choose “customize…” Remove buttons you don’t like, add the ones you want, place them on the toolbar you want, change the position of the different toolbars. Change the appearance by downloading a different skin. The text ads will be on the top toolbar, but ignore them for now.

OK, you’ve got the browser to look like you want it. Now, some features are still hidden, such as mail and rss feeds. If you set up a mail (and/or a chat) account, you’ll get another menu option – unsurprisingly called “Mail”. If you subscribe to an RSS/Atom feed, a menu option called “Feeds” appear. But if you don’t care for these extra bits in Opera, Opera won’t bother you with them.

Right, you’re ready for the next step. Start using Opera 8 exclusively for a week (or more.) Don’t worry about the text ads for now, just actively use Opera for everything. Try the different options you have in Opera; the notes, the download manager, maybe you’ll find the user javascripts useful. Just really explore Opera, and try Opera.

Now, at the end of the week (or longer) the ads will still be there, but ask yourself the following two questions: 1) Have the ads really bothered you? and 2) Have you paid anything for Opera, or did you get it for free, with all options available?

I know the answer to the last question is, that you’ve got Opera for free. As for the first question only you know the answer, but if you are one of the few that not only notice the ads but are bothered by them, you can choose to pay the price (half price for students) to remove that feature. If you think the browser’s worth it.

No matter how we choose, however, it can’t change the fact that Opera is free!

Microsoft makes a browser going by the name Internet Explorer. You may have heard of it. Now, many of us will never use IE (maybe except for testing or some such) but what Microsoft does with the browser still matters to us all. We know this is so because IE is the browser most people use due to being the one included by default in Windows.

So we know why the development of IE7 matters, but what should we hope for, first and foremost? Looking at the IE Blog, it seems like it’s a situation of “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” there – if they write about how they’re implementing features like tabs they get criticised for doing that and not the standards. If they write about how they finally support transparent png images they’re swamped with comments about wanting more features. Can’t remember right now what they’ve written about bugfixes in their standards support, but there has been some. And comments from non-satisfied readers. Not easy being an IE developer, eh?

But roughly speaking, there are three options: Implement features that users want, implement more standards support (that is, at least to the same level as the alternative browsers) and combining these two options, doing both.

Focusing on the features will give the users who won’t switch to other browsers a nicer browsing experience, but… Other browser makers won’t be resting on their laurels, but continue to make their browsers better, with both more support for standards and more and better functionality in the interface, making the browsing experience better and better for their users. In the browser or as plugins, IE will be playing catch up in this field no matter what.

Focusing on the standards will also be a catch up game, but to a lesser degree; while there may be suggestions for new features here, standard definitions doesn’t add up that quickly. The problem by focusing on standards is of course, that using the browser doesn’t really get any nicer by it. Combining both would be the best – if the resources are there. But Microsoft too has limited resources, so what should be done by them? Where shuld the focus be?

The main focus should – IMHO – be on standards support, with some implementation of the “must have”-features, such as tabs. The browser features to make it nicer to use the browser itself, of course, but not spending too much time on it, because there are more important matters. This being the implementation of (bug free) standards support, of course. This will help everyone; IE users will start experience what users of alternative browsers already experience, and more importantly, it will be easier for web developers to make web sites that takes advantage of what is possible, without leaving IE users out in the cold. A win-win-situation. What the IE team actually will do remains to be seen – we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best. And maybe they write something in their blog…