I like Firefox. But I love Opera. I hereby compare the new version of Firefox with my experiences using Opera. Let’s have a look at the statements published on the Firefox-site for their new version and see what Opera has to offer in comparison…
Popup Blocking
Stop annoying popup ads in their tracks with Firefox’s built in popup blocker.
Opera got that, too. Easily customizable by hitting F12:
- Open all pop-ups
- Open pop-ups in background
- Block unwanted pop-ups
- Block all pop-ups
Tabbed Browsing
View more than one web page in a single window with this time saving feature. Open links in the background so that they’re ready for viewing when you’re ready to read them.
Opera got that, too. Just right-click and drag your mouse a little bit down and a little bit up again to open the page behind that link in a new tab. (Using another great feature of Opera: Mouse Gestures) Or – even simpler – by hitting the third mouse-button (or the wheel).
Privacy and Security
Built with your security in mind, Firefox keeps your computer safe from malicious spyware by not loading harmful ActiveX controls. A comprehensive set of privacy tools keep your online activity your business.
Opera does that, too. Hit F12 to change these settings (enable/disable JavaScript, Plugins, Java, Cookies, Referrer) on the fly or hit ALT + p to open the configuration-dialog and change to the network-settings to customize these in depth.
Smarter Search
Google Search is built right into the toolbar, and there are a plethora of other search tools including Smart Keywords (type “dict <word>” in the Location bar), and the new Find bar (which finds text as you type without covering up anything).
Surely, Opera got that too. And lots of other search engines besides Google. Use Opsed to customize this in depth (e opens leo.dict.org, w opens wikipedia.org, g opens google, and i opens image search on my installation.) For FastFind simply hit . and type the text you are searching for. The searched text is highlighted as you type. Hit , to narrow the search to links in the current page. Hit F3 to jump to the next occurrence found.
Live Bookmarks
RSS integration lets you read the latest news headlines and read updates to your favorite sites that are syndicated.
Opera also has an RSS-aggregator build in. Nice feature to have.
Hassle-Free Downloading
Files you download are automatically saved to your Desktop so they’re easy to find. Fewer prompts mean files download quicker.
Well, Opera starts downloading as soon as you hit a download-link. The more time you waste by prompts the earlier you’ll find your download finished. 
No, really. Opera starts downloading and prompts for a destination afterwards. So you can specify a custom download-dir. This setting will be remembered for the next download. How convenient!
Fits Like a Glove
Simple and intuitive, yet fully featured, Firefox has all the functions you’re used to – Bookmarks, History, Full Screen, Text Zooming to make pages with small text easier to read, etc.
Opera got all this and fits much better. Like a thin leather-glove. Yummy.
S, M, L or XL – It’s Your Choice
Firefox is the most customizable browser on the planet. Customize your toolbars to add additional buttons, install new Extensions that add new features, add new Themes to browse with style, and use the adaptive search system to allow you to search an infinite number of engines. Firefox is as big or small as you want.
Clearly, the first sentence is a lie. The rest is just a commonplace with opera. Have a look at the Customize Opera-page to get a glimpse. There is much more to customize and a lot of pages by individuals that deal with these customizations.
Setup’s a Snap
At only 4.5MB (Windows), Firefox takes just a few minutes to download over a slow connection and seconds over a fast connection. The installer gets you set up quickly, and the new Easy Transition system imports all of your settings – Favorites, passwords and other data from Internet Explorer and other browsers – so you can start surfing right away.
Opera is only 3.5MB (Windows) withouth Java, though. But I’d guess Firefox does not deliver that either. The rest of that statement – well… sure.
A Developer’s Best Friend
Firefox comes with a standard set of developer tools including a powerful JavaScript and CSS error/warning console, and an optional Document Inspector that gives detailed insight about your pages.
Uh, how nice it is to debug JavaScript with Opera (drop opera.postError(string); in your JavaScript to not have to use alert-boxes to display debugging-information. And there are very interesting tools that help html- and css-development. Have a look at Web Development Toolbar and web BM’s for very convenient add-ons. Note that on web BM’s these JavaScript-extensions are added to Opera simply by drag’n'drop which creates a button. How nice!
You can switch to user-mode in order to overwrite the stylesheets of a page. That way it’s possible to display all the structural elements of a page. Or display the page in highly contrasting colors. Or disabling tables. So this feature is interesting when examining foreign pages, too.
Read Mail – Not Spam
Thunderbird is the perfect complement to Firefox.
Oh, I forgot. The 3.5 MB download of Opera includes M2. The most comfortable and fastest mail-client I’ve ever used. It has filters that learn. I hardly get any spam before my eyes. M2 takes good care of rubbish.
I can easily set up filters that sort my mail into different categories. Some mails are referenced in several categories at once (without dublicating them). Beautiful!
Conclusion
Why not have a look at Opera. Sure, it’s sponsored by ads that are displayed at the top right of the application-window by default. And I understand that many people are into that ‘free for all’-thing. You still can with Opera. Sometimes there are even ads up there that link to interesting sites. If you are bugged with the ads you could still give money to the developers of Opera. That’s 25 bucks. And do 25 bucks really matter? Is 25 bucks too much for a nice piece of software? Who dares to say yes
?
Get Opera – the best internet experience!
Please note also that this entry is just about comparing the features that are stressed in Firefox’s release note to what Opera has to offer in that regard. I’ll surely write an entry on Opera’s other/additional features soon.
{ 22 } Comments
Amen!
Opera is the best. Firefox is clunky and awkward for me and its popup blocking is not as good and its integration of functionality is not nearly as good as Opera’s — finally, 3rd-party extensions (Firefox relies on these very heavily for functionality) are not always updated and compatible and pose somewhat of a security risk.
Opera is the best even if the masses have not recognized it, yet.
When i used opera i found it was slow and crashed a lot i prefer the Mozilla Firefox, though opera is better than IE
Well the slow and crashy thing surely is a problem with your setup, not with Opera (or most of the times any other software).
At least that’s my experience: On some systems a piece of software crashes all the time, on other systems never (or almost never).
But I really don’t understand the ‘slow’-part.
I plan to do a short entry on that one, though.
Till then.
Then again, Firefox is completely free and open-source. Their extremely active development community means that if there’s something missing from Firefox, odds are there’s an extension that drops in that new functionality. I think Opera is fighting a losing battle here, unfortunately.
Sure, Opera is not Open Source, Opera’s developers are very active, though. There are a lot preview-versions before a final version comes out. The traffic in Opera’s support-forums is quite high. Lot of discussions on new and better features that the developers really do ponder.
For what I’ve read the number of extensions for firefox is huge. Right. You’d need quite some of these extensions to get the same functionality as Opera has built-in, though. The drawback to this approach – obviously – is that some extensions do not harmonize very well, sometimes causing firefox to behave strangely or even crash.
Since Opera is ‘monolithic’ in this respect it is most likely that the different features harmonize well. Actually, not only harmonizing, but collaborating.
As for this ‘It’s open source and therefore better’-debate. I don’t buy it. I really don’t see the advantage (if the community and the developers of a compared commercial product – here Opera – are as active) over software where the source is hidden. I mean I really don’t see the advantage for people who cannot read the open source. Let alone change it.
I see the advantage of open source for software I’d like to customize (like WordPress, e.g.). I usually don’t do that with compiled packages, though. Do you? How many of the guys talking about Open Source really do benefit from the fact that it’s open?
If you say that software that is open source is more secure since more people can check the source, there’s quite some trust on your side involved. You’d have to trust the people that can read the code to actually do this. And do it good. So, the trust will have to be there either (open source or not) way.
No, Open Source is no argument for me, here.
As a guy that cannot produce code you are as dependent from the community as I am from the developers of Opera.
Opera has it’s price. Sure. I already mentioned it in the article. I don’t have a problem to give my money for well done products. And I actually think that no one should have a problem with that.
I’d rather have a problem seeing that my money spent for the purpose of promoting firefox is given away like this.
To come back to the relation between Firefox and Opera. I (and many other supporters of Opera) spent their money so that Opera can invent nifty things that firefox will sooner or later copy.
Hell, how dumb I had been using the IE till I finally bought a laptop with a preinstalled Opera. It flew like a bird and it really mesmerized me. Then I began experimenting with various browsers and for sure now i know there are just two real rivals on the market – FireFox and Opera. All other progs are crap! Netscape is awful. IE is just a nessesity I have to use to check design of my sites. To my mind, Opera is still better than Firefox. There are many features which are included in Opera and are not present in FireFox unless you download some extensions. As for me, I like the author mode and images on/off feature in Opera, realized as small buttons on the panel, so you don’t have to look for them in the menu like in the FireFox.
Anyway, I’ve got them both on my laptop and neither of them on my desktop PC yet *** LOL ***.
Guess what I will install there first?
I go for Opera!
Opera is the best.
one thing: i dare to say “Yes”:
Yes, 25$ is too much for this soft.
I like Opera and I think it is as good as Firefox, but:
- 25$ is too much for this soft. (Firefox is for free.)
- Opera is to complex. I opened the options-menue and I knew, I better
take Firefox.
Yes, Opera does cost money. But why not just get the free download? That one is free and exactly the same, execpt with ads.
Opera is the best by far… Firefox is a junior product in comparison.
100 MHz box.
Firefox fizzles.
Opera rocks.
Mozilla roll over.
…
Rock on!
your english is atrocious and the way you handled this review was stunningly horrid. i hope your spit never lands on my sidewalk as i’d be ashamed to carry you around on the bottom of my shoe.
Firefox is better for developers. It has the Venkman debugger, a better developer toolbar and a color picker, amongst other things.
Opera is now totally free!!!
Opera is the best Browser
You are rigth. Opera no longer has ads in it’s free for download-version.
I tried Opera but the interface really bothered me. Is there anyway to make it as lean as Firefox’s? I’d switch if it is able to look like Firefox.
I am not exactly sure what you mean but you can skin Opera to look like firefox.
And you can remove GUI-components by right-clicking on them and select “remove…” from the pop-up menu that appears then. There are even ready-to-go GUI-setups out there that minimize Opera’s interface, e.g. KISS.
Thanks Steffen. What was bothering me was the Page bar being on top of the Address bar, but I now know how to move the icons from the Address bar to the Main bar which is on top of the Page bar.
I had assumed we would be able to move the bars itself, but all is good. I use Opera now.
Thanks.
Firefox is made for people to people (?)
a few years, i use opera. But when go out firefox, i use them…
i dont know, someone can use both. (i try to use both)
and i use ie for test my web pages…
i love firefox 1.0
Another disadvantage of the firefox browser: after installation, it tries to call back home. Also annoying are the add-ons. Especially the yahoo-plugin which comes along with the standard installer: it also tries to call home to the yahoo base! Why these internet spamming waste of back-home-calls?!
wel i use both bt i prefer opera its ten times faster than firefox bt i use firefox coz i use smiley central n crawler toolbar n i cant installed it on opera can smeone help me plz,fanks…
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