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Web Developer Resource Index: Opera

Opera is a multi-platform Web browser popular in Europe. Although it isn’t open-source, and it initially generated revenue through ad banners which you could remove by paying a small license fee. In 2005, this business model was dropped and the browser is now free—and free of advertisements.

Chief among its benefits are blazing speed, and unmatched support for CSS standards. The stylesheet support should come as no surprise, unless you are unaware that the company’s CTO, none other than Håkon Wium Lie, is the man who conceived of and developed CSS while working for the W3C. That he is no big fan of Microsoft is also well known, and he enjoys publicly challanging Mr. Gates to clean-up his browser, and other infamous tactics with regard to Web software.

Opera Software is based out of Norway and the browser is quite popular in Europe, although it struggles to gain a foothold in the States. The company has versions that run under Windows, Mac OS X, OS/2, many flavors of Linux, FreeBSD, Sun Solaris, QNX and BeOS.

Nokia, based out of Finland, is one of the largest mobile phone companies in northern Europe, so it should come as no surprise that Opera was the first developer of mobile browsers that run on these devices. Since then they have rolled out a new product dubbed the Mini, which is also free and they claim is the most popular mobile phone browser in the world.

Some of Opera’s many features include tabbed browsing, enhanced security, pop-up blocking, mouse gestures, integrated search, and voice (one of the only mainstream browsers that has this feature built-in).

I personally do not use it very much, preferring open-source technology. But I certainly have a copy for testing, and when I do use it I can easily see that it is a superior browser to the current offering out of Redmond.

Opera consistently remains the fastest browser on the market, rendering pages at amazing speed with its Presto layout engine.

Updated: Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 @ 1:53 AM EDT

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Resources

• 1.Opera

  For blazing speed, unsurpassed CSS support, and a rich feature set, it's hard not to consider at least trying this browser. I have a copy, and there are a number of users that swear by it. Check it out, you have nothing to lose. [1190]

  ★★★★★
  URI:http://my.opera.com/dwclifton/affiliate/
  Author:
  Opera Software
  [5]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 9:23 PM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera browsercssoperaperformanceweb
   

• 2.Opera Mobile

  Shipped on millions of devices from the major mobile phone manufacturers and operators worldwide, Opera Mobile lets you surf the Web with your phone. For users with WAP-enabled devices and limited bandwidth, the server-based Opera Mini is another option. [1669]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://opera.com/products/mobile/
  Author:
  Opera Software
  [5]
  Reviewed:Saturday, March 18th, 2006 @ 4:14 PM EST
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera Mobile browsermobileoperawapweb
   

• 3.Opera Labs

  The second technical preview release of Opera 9 also heralds the opening of Opera Labs to the public, a place to learn about and download new products from Opera Software. It's also a place to learn more about their long-standing commitment to standards. [1636]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://labs.opera.com/
  Author:
  Opera Software
  [5]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 @ 3:39 PM EST
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera Labs browsernewsoperastandards
   

• 4.Opera Watch

  Yet another "Unofficial" Blog? This one closely following the Opera browser of course. Lots of fresh news, most of it related to the several maintenance and security releases since the last major upgrade at version 8.0. Send in your scoop and join in! [1442]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://operawatch.blogspot.com/
  Author:
  Daniel Goldman
  [1]
  Reviewed:Friday, July 29th, 2005 @ 12:30 AM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera Watch blogbrowsernewsopera
   

• 5.Opera and Firefox: A side-by-side Review

  Eponymous? Check out the big words on Kris! (is the browser named for Operamosis the Great? I'm not sure) Anyway, enough joking around. This is a side by side comparison of the two browsers, and like me, Kris is a supporter of open-source. [1198]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://internet.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=05/05/10/1626233
  Author:
  Kris Shaffer
  [1]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 10:08 PM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera and Firefox: A side-by-side Review firefoxopen-sourceoperareviews
   

• 6.Web Specifications Supported in Opera 8

  This is an impressive list, and few browser manufacturers can match it. Missing are, and I personally wish they would get on this, XSL-FO and in particular native XSLT transformations. When it comes to CSS support, well, that's another document. [1197]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://opera.com/docs/specs/
  Author:
  Opera Software
  [5]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 9:40 PM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Web Specifications Supported in Opera 8 operaspecstandardsxslt
   

• 7.CSS support in Opera 8

  Here it is, the complete table of CSS level 1, 2, 2.1 and 3 support from the W3C recommendations. Very impressive. The tables are very nicely designed, with each property being a hyperlink directly to the relevent specification section at the W3C. [1196]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://opera.com/docs/specs/css/
  Author:
  Opera Software
  [5]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 9:36 PM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  CSS support in Opera 8 cssoperaspecstandardsw3c
   

• 8.Get real about Interoperability, Mr. Gates

  "Hakon Lie, CTO of long-standing Microsoft competitor Opera Software, welcomes Gates' new-found enthusiasm for interoperability, but in the following response to Gates, has just a few suggestions about what Microsoft might do to actually achieve it" [1195]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/hakon_on_ms_interroperability...
  Author:
  Håkon Wium Lie
  [1]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 9:05 PM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Get real about Interoperability, Mr. Gates opera
   

• 9.Opera Browser Wiki

  Tips, tutorials, and customizations for Opera and related tools. Includes performance, searching, skins, blocking ads, CSS, Javascript, and more. It's a Wiki, so if you're an Opera power-user go add a tip of your own. [1194]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://nontroppo.org/wiki/Opera
  Author:
  Non Troppo
  [1]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 8:19 AM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera Browser Wiki cssjavascriptoperaperformancesearchskinswiki
   

• 10.Opera Resources

  No, not tidbits for the fat lady, no horns or really bad music. Just lots of links to resources for this popular browser. The guy works for Opera ASA so I can see why he's a little pro-Opera. And Mark: I'm no fanboy, I just happen to like FF. [1192]

  ★★★★☆
  URI:http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/operaStuff/
  Author:
  Mark Wilton-Jones
  [2]
  Reviewed:Wednesday, May 18th, 2005 @ 7:29 AM EDT
  by:
  Douglas Clifton
  
  Opera Resources directoryoperaresources
   

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Last updated: Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 @ 1:53 AM EDT [2008-10-29T05:53:45Z]