Thread: Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4

Originally Posted by dsr

What do you prefer about Opera? As far as I can tell, it's proprietary software and offers nothing important that Firefox doesn't.

First of all, that it is proprietary software does not bother me. I can understand why it bothers others, but I don't care. So that's not a disadvantage to me - I'll never look at Firefox's source let alone modify it - I don't need that freedom.

I prefer Opera's GUI. The side panel where you can stick mini versions of websites and the like. The integrated IRC client (Chatzilla isn't integrated; it's a seperate window), e-mail client, refined tab system (true MDI (you can cascade windows, view two side-by-side very useful), the fact that you can maximise and restore tabs from seperate window back to tabs, the graphical preview when you hover over tabs, the bin where you can retrieve closed tabs for later (yes, you can do that in Firefox but it's well hidden)). The fact that you can search from within the address bar, without need for keywords (my address bar functions as one big YubNub command line), the integrated notepad, the excellent integrated download manager (not some crappy minimalist window (FF2)) with transparent BitTorrent support. The fact that this is "out of the box" without need to go trawling for extensions. The responsiveness. Speed dial. Mouse gestures out of the box. Session management (that predates and exceeds much functionality of FF3's offering).

Is that enough? Sure, you may be able to argue that some of those are doable in Firefox. But not all of them, at least without having a bucketful of extensions. I used Firefox for a long time, and thought it was good. I still use it - but only for smut. But Opera is so much better. Have you ever used Opera in any serious capacity, at all?