Wandering electrons... but not too far

Since we’re here at the Opera community, I think I can safely ask this question!

For me it’s the amazing things you can do with the user interface. I work on my computer all day and I’m very demanding on having what I need available, what I might need close by and what I don’t need out of sight. Furthermore, when I’m on the web, I want as much screen space as I can have but still be able to work comfortably.

In these images I’ve aligned horizontally (as best I could) Internet Explorer 7(IE7) Firefox 2.0 (FF) and Opera 9.21 (Opera) in their ‘out of the box’ (as best I could recover) configurations:

With one tab:


With multiple tabs:


In their out of the box configuration, Opera is the clear winner in the category ‘save screen space’ with only one window open, but uses slightly more space than IE7 with multiply tabs open.

However we’re not really comparing apples with apples here: FF has its bookmarks toolbar (a bit like the Opera personal bar) open by default and IE7 hides its menu bar by default, and, that I know of, doesn’t have an equivalent of a personal bar (you’ll correct me if I’m wrong). Also the IE7 tab bar is always on. So let’s try to even things up as much as we can anyway. In the next two images I’ve activated the personal bar in Opera and activated the menu bar in IE7.

With one tab:


With multiple tabs:


Let’s say it’s a tie for FF and Opera with one window open and IE7 wins with multiple tabs open.
But this is where things start to become much more interesting…

The only menu that is obligatory in Opera and FF is the menu bar (EDIT: see Opera: You CAN hide that menu bar after all!). If I was a REAL minimalist, here’s the maximum that I could do in each:

With one tab:


With multiple tabs:


There’s no error in this last image; Opera does indeed have multiple tabs open, and they can be navigated with the ctrl-tab combo.

So, it’s a tie again for FF and Opera with one window open, but Opera is far and away the winner in the category “no, when I say I’m a minimalist, I really mean it, even with multiple tabs open”. The ferocious minimalist will be disappointed with IE7.

And now we’re really sliding into the beauty of the Opera interface, because if I want, I can make Opera behave like FF:



Yep, it’s as easy as checking the “show only when needed” box for the tab bar in this configuration. Opera even seems to have a couple extra pixels of screen space compared to FF! However, you can’t do the opposite in FF; the tab bar opens and you don’t have a choice (oh, I’m sure someone out there is going to make a FF add-on now that I’ve pointed it out ).

But the word is now out there: “choice”.

Nobody, but nobody comes close to Opera concerning the choices that you have for the interface, and that’s was ‘the thing’ for me.

In Opera, menus can be displayed, or not, or only when needed. They can be on top, on the bottom, to the left or to the right. Buttons can be added and removed to and from virtually anywhere. You can remove the words on the tool buttons and change their size, bigger or smaller according to what your needs are.

Wow, I think, is the word.

So you’re probably wondering, “so Wandering, with all this flexibility, what’s your setup look like?"

Like this:


Or like this with multiple tabs and the panel bar open (my “maxed out” version):


What I need is available, what I might need is close by, what I don’t need is out of sight and screen space is at its maximum. No other browser that I know of can do this and that’s my main (but far from the only) reason for choosing Opera.

What’s yours?