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Open Source


Operating with Opera on Ubuntu

  • Written by Christopher Tozzi
  • February 9, 2010

These days–in contrast to ten years ago–the world has plenty more Web browsers than it needs. And yet I can’t find one I’m happy with. My continuing search for a browser I get along with led me recently to try Opera, a seasoned but still largely obscure player on the browser scene. Here’s what I thought of it.

In recent months, I’ve gone through Chromium, Epiphany and multiple versions of Firefox in my attempt to find a browser that’s fast and bug-free.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, I liked Chromium at first and stuck with it for a while, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that its code remains too raw for production use. Since it’s still in development, it suffers from some seriously annoying bugs, one of which caused me some substantial data loss the other day. That was a deal-breaker for Chromium and me.

Epiphany, which is based on the excellent WebKit rendering engine and fits in well with Gnome, is not a bad browser. But I think it’s kind of ugly and could stand improvements to its interface design.  I’ve tried Epiphany in the past and it just didn’t work out.

As for Firefox, I have high hopes that the 4.0 version will be better (assuming the developers get to work on doing more than prettying the interface for that release). Until Firefox 4 appears, however, I have better things to do with my RAM.

Testing Opera

Given my dissatisfaction with all of the above, I installed Opera 10.10 in hopes that it would prove to be the elusive browser I’ve been searching for all my life.  Installation was simple; the application is not available from the Ubuntu repositories, but Debian packages can be downloaded from its website.

Opera, a closed-source, cross-platform browser emanating (like the Linux kernel) from Scandinavia, has been around since the 1990s. Its market share has always been negligible outside of certain niches, but it has a long tradition of innovation (or at least quick emulation) on the features front.

Here’s what Opera looks like:

Opera Screenshot

So what do I think of Opera? In short, it’s not bad. Its biggest strength is probably the number of options and tools it offers, if that’s what turns you on.  Opera provides many more customization choices than most browsers, which some people may appreciate more than others.

More notably, Opera comes with a suite of built-in tools that extend functionality far beyond what you expect from a basic browser. It has chat and email clients, and even offers a tool called Opera Unite, which is similar to Dropbox in most respects.

Certain other browsers rely on optional extensions to achieve extra functionality.  While I can’t imagine very many people choosing to use Opera for chat and email instead of separate applications, having these options built-in may be useful in certain situations, such as when you want to keep your application stack slim.

Opera is also solid on the performance front. I’ve had the same session running for several days and it’s remained stable and not too leaky on memory. It also renders pages quickly and accurately–which is important these days, when some browsers seem to be so focused on exotic features that they forget their main job is to parse HTML.

The bad

Unfortunately, despite its good points, Opera is not without some relatively serious flaws. In particular, I don’t like the following at all:

  • Vertical scrolling is not nearly as smooth as in Chromium, or even Firefox.  Sure, blame it on X11, but I don’t care; I just want smooth scrolling.
  • Text search is done in a pop-up box. My eye started twitching when I realized this, because it brought back painful memories of Internet Explorer.
  • Similarly annoying is the do-you-want-to-save-this-password feature, which also involves a pop-up box rather than a less intrusive panel à la Firefox or Chrome.
  • Opera’s interface is heavy on toolbars, which steal space away from Web content. On my netbook’s tiny screen, that’s problematic.

So what’s the verdict on Opera? Overall, it’s fine, but I’m not convinced it’s anything special.  However, it’s also currently installed and has yet to cause the loss of three hours’ worth of work, so I just might stick with it–at least till something better comes along.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Mobility Open Source

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15 comments

  1. Avatar max February 9, 2010 @ 4:53 pm
    Reply

    try pressing “/” for text search….

    The alpha version of 10.50 has a much less intrusive password manager a la Chrome – beta is due shortly

    and if you don’t like the tool bars then hide them – or customise one to show exactly what you need. Or choose a minimal skin – there are many many options out there. You can also download other folk’s toolbar set-up – try them out

    I’m a long time user of Opera and find that no other browser offers anything like the features – and speed

    And a word on the innovation – many of the ‘innovations’ claimed by other browsers were implemented by Opera first….. They say Plagiarism is the highest form of praise….

  2. Avatar kolslorr February 9, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
    Reply

    long time Opera users since my windows days. Tried my best to fall in love with Chromium or Firefox by following the hype machine on the internet, but I just cant find anything thats better there.

    Like what max said, all your complaints can be easily solved.

    The only problem I keep one other browser on my system is, some remote banking site that I had to use still does not play nice with Opera.

  3. Avatar umi February 10, 2010 @ 2:59 am
    Reply

    Try adding “Find on this page” field to e.g. the bottom panel. It’s the first thing I do after I have installed Opera.

  4. Avatar Andreas February 10, 2010 @ 10:20 am
    Reply

    Text search: Simply hit the “.” or “/” keys (without quotations). This brings up a pop-up menu (which disappears if you don’t take further action) where you can type your search term. Opera finds as you type. F3 will focus on the next item matching to your search term.

  5. Avatar Alastair February 10, 2010 @ 11:21 am
    Reply

    I’ve been using Opera on and off since its initial release, I drift off to other browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Flock, etc) but always return to Opera.

    I like the bookmark, notes and password sync which is a real boon when I am working on three different machines and OSes at work and two different at home.

    Being able to save a set of tabs as different sessions is also handy.

    There are a couple of sites it has problems rendering but otherwise I can’t fault it.

  6. Avatar Links 10/2/2010: Linux 2.6.32.8 and MINIX 3.1.6 | Boycott No February 10, 2010 @ 4:46 pm
    Reply

    […] Operating with Opera on Ubuntu by Christopher Tozzi These days–in contrast to ten years ago–the world has plenty more Web browsers than it needs. And yet I can’t find one I’m happy with. My continuing search for a browser I get along with led me recently to try Opera, a seasoned but still largely obscure player on the browser scene. Here’s what I thought of it. […]

  7. Avatar tjokkis_ii February 10, 2010 @ 6:08 pm
    Reply

    You can make Opera as minimalistic as you want, and with Opera’s abundance of keyboard short cuts and mouse gestures you never need many toolbars enabled if that’s your preference.

  8. Avatar dRewsus February 10, 2010 @ 11:11 pm
    Reply

    Yeah Im surprised he didn’t mention mouse gestures.
    Thats been a great part of Opera for like 10 years.
    The reason I don’t use Opera (or Chrome) is that neither have decent StumbleUpon support….

  9. Avatar Eli February 11, 2010 @ 5:48 pm
    Reply

    I use Opera almost exclusively. With the only exceptions being my banking site, which requires FF, or IE.

    I’ve found Opera to be the most efficient browser BY FAR. There are some features that Opera has that other browsers don’t do without and extension (if at all), or don’t do as well.

    -Mouse gestures — I can’t say enough about the simple process of going Back or Forward a page while keeping my hand on the mouse. NOTHING IS QUICKER, NOTHING. I even find myself trying to use a mouse gesture in nautilus I’m so used to it.

    -Password manager — I actually love the way that Opera handles the remembering of passwords. I also love the Wand feature. For certain sites, I don’t type usernames and passwords anymore, I just click, or hit [CTRL]+ENTER.

    -Use of space. — With just a tiny bit of tuning, as was previously mentioned, Opera’s interface can become very scant, giving you more real estate for web content, while at the same time delivering as much, or more functionality than other browsers.

    Then there’s speed dial, and the ability of the browser to handle many things by default, like rss, torrents, email, etc. That makes things so much simpler, needing only one app for so many things.

    I have tried Chrome, and while it’s still in beta, I don’t really see it beating out Opera on my machine. If Opera incorporated the way that Chrome handles tabs, then it would be the closest thing to perfect that a browser can be. I really can’t say enough good about Opera so I’ll stop there.

  10. Avatar Pat February 12, 2010 @ 3:39 am
    Reply

    I’m not married to any browser but Opera has best suited my needs/wants 80-90% of the time since mid-1990s, and 100% of the time for the past few months. I think Opera on Ubuntu now has a much nicer interface than Opera for Mac or Windows. Here are a few of my favourite features not covered by Chris or previous posts:

    –“Fit to window width.” If your eyesight is imperfect (or you just like to slouch back in your chair), you can make the text as big as you want and it won’t scroll off the right edge of the page.

    –Text editor. You don’t have to leave the browser for a word processor every time you want to copy some text from a web page, or jot down a to-do list or whatever.

    –Ability to open new tabs “in background”. The page you’re reading remains the active page. By right-clicking a link and clicking “Open in background tab,” you can continue viewing the page you’re already reading; the selected link opens in an inactive tab.

    –A simple, clean, efficient news reader

    Chris: To remove toolbars, right-click a toolbar, choose Appearance, select the Toolbars tab and uncheck any toolbars you don’t want. (Or from the main menu choose Tools/Appearance and select the Toolbars tab.)

    –Regarding inline search, Umi wrote: “Try adding “Find on this page” field to e.g. the bottom panel.” Anyone know how to do this?

  11. Avatar Christopher Tozzi February 12, 2010 @ 3:49 am
    Reply

    Pat and everyone else: many thanks for your tips. I knew Opera’s biggest asset is customizability but you’ve all pointed out some important points that I missed. I’ll plan on writing another post as I get to know the browser and its advanced functionality better.

  12. Avatar Eli February 12, 2010 @ 11:59 am
    Reply

    Pat, I think you can add a “Find in Page” search to the bottom panel with the following.

    1. Right-click on the panel amp; select Customize gt; Appearance.

    2. Go to the “Buttons” tab, amp; then select the “Search” category on the left.

    3. Drag the “Find in Page” search box onto your panel, hit OK, and that should do it.

  13. Avatar Pat February 13, 2010 @ 4:17 am
    Reply

    Christopher: Thanks to you, my Opera inline search is restored after all these years! (Thanks and full credit to bpm of the My Opera Community Forums!)

    After following Eli’s instructions (Post No. 12) to put the find box on one of your Opera toolbars, here’s how to make it inline:

    (1) Copy and paste the following into the address bar and press Enter:
    Opera:config#use integrated search

    (2) Check the checkbox under “Use Integrated Search”

    (3) Click Save and click OK when the Javascript box pops up.

    In doing this you’re using Opera’s hidden preferences editor. To find other hidden preferences, type opera:config into the Opera address bar and press enter. (Unusual browser.)

    And, yes, this reminds me of what I don’t like about Opera. Some of its preferences are so well hidden I’d never find them on my own.

    Here’s another feature I like: Control-T (for tab), followed by control-1 (control-2, etc., up to control-9) will open speed dials (1 to 9). (I use it before breakfast to rapidly open Yahoo Mail, certain news sites, Google Docs, the local weather page, etc., in separate tabs without ever releasing the control key.)

  14. Avatar kyleabaker February 25, 2010 @ 10:57 am
    Reply

    1. “Vertical scrolling is not nearly as smooth as in Chromium, or even Firefox. Sure, blame it on X11, but I don’t care; I just want smooth scrolling.”

    Go to Preferences -gt; Advanced -gt; Browsing -gt; Smooth scrolling = Checked

    2. “Text search is done in a pop-up box. My eye started twitching when I realized this, because it brought back painful memories of Internet Explorer.”

    In Opera 10.5, the Find dialog is removed and replaced with a toolbar version more like Firefox or Chrome. This annoyance will be gone as soon as 10.5 is released.

    3. “Similarly annoying is the do-you-want-to-save-this-password feature, which also involves a pop-up box rather than a less intrusive panel à la Firefox or Chrome.”

    Save as the Find dialog, this has been replaced and will no longer annoy you with a pop-up dialog. The new implementation is like Firefox.

    4. “Opera’s interface is heavy on toolbars, which steal space away from Web content. On my netbook’s tiny screen, that’s problematic.”

    On a clean install, I see more toolbars in Firefox than I do in Opera. However, if you’re looking for screen space…Opera 10.5 is moving towards pulling the tabs up into the title bar area like Chrome introduced. Currently, this has been implemented for Win XP/Vista/7. I’m assuming and hoping that it will also be implemented for Linux, but only time will tell. If so, then you can test drive Opera again with a much improved interface and a ton of new features and support!

    Keep an eye out for it in the near future. 😉

  15. Avatar GhostLyrics October 6, 2010 @ 10:49 am
    Reply

    Smooth vertical scrolling in Chromium is not bad, it’s simply non-existent. How do you tell Opera is not nearly as smooth as something that’s not there at all?

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