IceArdor's Blog

As FavBrowser said, "It's not enough to have all the greatest features." And I think that's definately true. If Opera wants to gain the marketshare it deserves, it's going to have be equally creative and innovative in coming up with advertising campaigns and ways to sell the browser as it is for coming up with new features like Widgets^9.0, Fraud Protection^9.1, Speed Dial^9.2, Full History Search^9.5, and Synchronization^9.5.

I was at school today using one of the computers which had Firefox and IE7 installed on it. I wanted to test to see how my SVG+JS Timeline of Opera Releases image displayed on other browsers. It's important to be accessible to both js-enabled and js-disabled browsers. I searched through the menus in Firefox and couldn't find a "Disable JavaScript" option. So then I had to plow through Firefox's confusing Options. To this day I still don't understand why Firefox's preferences are set up the way they are. After searching through the Options tabs, I finally found the "Enable JavaScript" checkbox on the Content tab. Disabling JavaScript seems like it could be an Advanced Option, or maybe a Security Option, or maybe a Privacy Option, or a General Option. So if the labels of the tabs don't help you find what you want, why even use labels? Why not just call them "Tab 1" and "Tab 2"? Might I also add that I went searching through Firefox's menus assuming that a browser that claims to be superior for web development would have this elementary option. Do I really need to install a third-party EXTENSION to easily disable JavaScript? I'm sick of using an extension-based browser that doesn't even have the basics.

Final result:

• 6 mouse clicks to disable JavaScript in Firefox. (Tools » Options » Tabs » » Content » uncheck "Enable JavaScript" » OK). 5 mouse clicks if you know where to look
  
• In Internet Explorer, it's it's 8 mouse clicks. (Tools » Internet Options » Security » Custom Level » Scroll through the long list » Disable Active Scripting » OK » OK)
  
• In Opera, it's only 2 mouse clicks. (Tools » uncheck "Enable JavaScript")
  

This is Opera's power. It doesn't just load pages fast, it lets you change settings fast.

Of course, for power users in Opera, they can hit F12 and spend only one mouse-click, or put the JS button in their toolbar, as I have.

For having so few features, you'd think every feature in Firefox would be easily accessible, but it seems that nearly none of them are. In contrast, Opera is filled with bucketloads of features that would require well over 150 Firefox extensions to equate. But it's not just features, it's how accessible they are. And I think that ought to be Opera's selling point. Somehow, nearly every feature in Opera is quickly and logically accessible.

Try finding your way around Firefox with 150+ seperately-developed extensions. Good Luck!

Web Interoperability is important. It means not having to code a website 3 or 4 times just so it can look the way you intend in every web browser. It means not having to learn the different DOMs for web browsers. It means not having to wait for W3 specs to be implemented by everybody. I recently made an SVG image, and I'm sad to say that Internet Exploder can't display it. With the Adobe SVG plugin, it's severely murdered. Firefox doesn't quite "murder" it, but it comes close. Opera does a great job, particularly Kestrel, which is faster and cleaner at displaying the image. Fyrd (ADeveria on Wikipedia) made a wonderful timeline of web browsers that sadly had many people asking "how do I view a higher resolution version of that image" because Wikipedia caches a scaled-down png of the svg image.

This is why it's important for people to know about Opera--so they can see how much potential the web has, and how much you can do with your projects if people have browsers that are interoperable and current with W3 recommendations.

Opera, Safari, Firefox, and Konqueror truly are Interoperable.

And with that, I leave you this wallpaper I made a couple months back. Scale it down to whatever resolution you're using. I would have loved to make this image SVG, but I didn't, so 4000x3200 pixels will have to do. I like Google, and I think they do a great job at tying the web together, so I featured them in the center of this, despite certain features being broken in Opera.

Kestrel isn't just an interim release to keep us hungry for Peregrine. It's the full-blown thing. There's a reason why the Opera Devs are saying "WIR"--because there is some serious changes from Merlin. It's going to be a totally new browser that it almost deserves to be called Opera 10. Nevertheless, here's my list.

1. Hundreds of wishlist items will be included in Kestrel. From manually checking RSS feeds to better CSS support.
   
2. Merlin has its bugs, and we are tired of them. We want new bugs instead. It'll be fun to hunt them down and see what quirky behaviors Opera can do.
   
3. Kestrel is going to be faster.
   
4. M2 is rewritten, and this means that Opera will be even better at handling your feeds, in all likelihood.
   
5. Apart from being a totally new rendering engine, Kestrel will have an improved JavaScript engine. This means faster and more support. Hopefully the SVG engine will be faster, too.
   

I want Opera just as bad as everyone else does, but I'm not about ready to rush the devs to get a release out. I don't want a radioactive build like Safari 3 beta. And I want lots of wishes to be implemented. With as much time as Opera's had, we can expect Kestrel to be amazing. Then again, it's Opera we're talking about. They make nothing but amazing.