As a web developer, I’ve been a full time Firefox user for several years. Internet Explorer 6.0 has been reserved for tested and a few other odd browsers for accessibility standards. But today, I decided to try something “new” and welcomed Opera into my digital toolbox.
An interesting experience of mine as a developer has been my limitation to dial-up Internet access for just about a year now. My family and I have a nice little home out in the country and although our neighbors have been graced by DSL’s presence, our little home was ignored.
As such, I haven’t been all that big on downloading new programs. Internet Explorer 7.0 is still on my “to download” list along with a few other updates.
But, yesterday morning, I made an exception and downloaded a copy of Opera 9.2, weighing in at a relatively light 4.6
megabytes.
And so here I am, writing and (in a few more minutes) working a way on a new browser. So far, I’m impressed. Here are a few
things I like:
- “Speed Dial” – Typing Ctrl + T in Opera now opens the “Speed Dial” tab. In my short experience with it, I already see it as an improvement on Firefox simply opening a new empty tab.
- Mouse Gestures – My good friend Mr. Mitchener has informed me that this isn’t something new to Firefox. What impressed me, though, was the very thorough explanation given and the fact that Opera made it a point to make me aware of the features
- “Faster” – While speed is subjective, especially for those of us web developers on dialup, and though I may be just imagining things, I get the sense that Opera has a bit of a snappier response time than Firefox and certainly more so than IE.
That said, there are a few things that would take some getting used too. It appears that Opera doesn’t work so well with WordPress’s built-in WYSIWYG editor which quickly became a reason for me to dump the WYISWYG altogether.
Other than that, I’m impressed and will continue to experiment.
I’m still a big fan of Firefox and am even looking forward to playing with Internet Explorer 7 when I finally get a chance to download it (Maybe 8 will be out by then?). A primary reason for getting Opera is to add another level of testing for client projects. But the other big reason after that is “the bottom line.” How can using this browser make my life as a web developer easier? I will continue to experiment with Opera and see if I can find a solid answer for that. If I can, I’ll be hooked.
Cheers to the Opera development team. You guys have done excellently.
For the Opera users out there, web developers especially, any tips or suggestions you have to share from your experience are all greatly appreciated.
Alrighty, back to work! :)
-Jonathan