By Richard Clary, Tampa PC Users Group
jclary@ij.net

Opera is a browser that runs under Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and Solaris. Recently, Opera Release 6 has received favorable reviews from ZDNet. Being a "software junkie", I decided to try it. On Monday afternoon, I installed and registered Opera. Much to my surprise, on Wednesday morning, I realized that Opera was my browser of choice. I am writing this article with only one week of experience with Opera. I still have much to learn.

Opera installation was straightforward. I purchased the Opera CD ($15) and Opera registration codes ($39) from BMT Micro, Inc. Installation and registration took about 15 minutes, and I was on line with Opera. The advantage of registering Opera is that it removes advertising from Opera.

Opera has a tool to import the Favorites from Internet Explorer (IE) into the Opera Bookmarks. This took about one minute, and all of my IE Favorites were available from Opera.

Opera can operate in either of two modes, Windows on Opera, or Windows on Windows. Windows on Opera is more UNIX-like, while in Windows on Windows mode, Opera has the look and feel of Windows. I prefer the Windows on Windows mode because I can use the Windows Task Bar to manage multiple Opera windows.

The email facility in Opera is limited. There is no tool in Opera to import the Outlook Express (OE) Address Book into the Opera Contacts. Still it was not too difficult to copy and paste some of my OE Address Book to the Opera Contacts. All I ever expect to use Opera email for is to email a link to a page I am viewing.

My environment is as follows:

Windows 98 SE
Intel Celeron processor 400 MHz
RAM 128 MB
Modem 56 kb
Internet Junction, dial up connection.

Opera generally outperforms IE. The tests presented here are not sufficient to quantify the relative performance of Opera and IE, but they are representative of my experience. For this test, I browsed three web sites I visit almost every day with Opera and IE. The sites are Bay News 9, CNN Money, and Daily F1.

Bay News 9 was the simplest test. I simply loaded the first page. Opera took 42 sec. while IE took 51 sec. CNN Money was a little more complicated. I first loaded CNN and then navigated to the business page. Opera took 42 sec while IE took 88 sec.

Daily F1 was the most complicated test. I launched Daily F1, chose the English language version and navigated to four other pages from the main menu. Opera took 43 sec. While IE took 63 sec. This supports my intuition that Opera is a faster browser than IE in my environment.

Opera freely admits that their browser does not support all features of all web pages. They do plan to add support for more features. The only anomaly I have experienced with Opera is that it sometimes shifts columnar data to the left. Opera is not a replacement for IE. For example, McAfee Security Update requires IE.

Security is presented differently in Opera than in IE. Opera informs the user when a transmission is unsecured. By comparison, IE notifies you when you enter and leave a secure site. According to articles in the Support section of the Opera web site, Opera is a secure browser, and is suitable for commercial and financial transactions.

The zoom feature in Opera is the best I have ever seen. Opera will zoom in and out either from the keyboard (+, -, and *) or from a pop up menu on the Address Bar. This is great for me. I only have about six or seven percent of normal eyesight. Opera is the most low vision friendly program I have ever used.

Two other cute features of Opera are sounds and references. You can configure Opera to play WAV files when certain events occur. My Opera says "Hi", "Goodbye", and "You have mail". Also, if you double click a word on a web page, a pop up menu appears. Two options on this menu are Dictionary and Encyclopedia. If you click on either of these options, Opera takes you to an appropriate page on Information Please.

After one week of experience, I believe Opera is the right browser for me. Opera is faster than IE over a dial up connection. I really like the zoom feature of Opera. And Opera is fun. u