Opera 8.5

Opera 8.5
HOME PAGE:	http://www.opera.com/
DOWNLOAD:	Opera 8.5 http://www.opera.com/download/
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	Windows - 3.6 MB Mac - 4.2MB
SYS REQ:	Windows - Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP Mac - Mac OS X 10.1 or later
LIMITATIONS:	No [page name]_files folder created when saving web pages to hard drive (see below).

In a surprise move following their tenth anniversary 'free for a day' promotion, Opera is now giving away the ad-free version of their browser on a permanent basis. Thank you very much and it's about time although maybe Google is the one to really thank as the decision by Opera to go the freeware route was reportedly the result of a renogiated contract with them. Opera will now get a bigger piece of the Adwords revenue pie dished up every time users click on ads in search engine results pages generated by the built-in Google search box.

And with Firefox looming large and Internet Explorer 7 just starting to peak its nose over the horizon, this is a brilliant (if somewhat belated) play on the part of Opera to redefine itself as a major contender in the web browser market. No doubt, everybody and their monkey's uncle will now be rushing to download —and as of this writing have been to the tune of 2.4 million and counting— one of the most fully featured out-of-the-box browsers on the face of the earth.

According to Opera, "Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be... Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser."

Looking back, there's no denying the indelible footprint that this quality browser has already made on server log files around the globe during the years that you actually had to pay for the ad-free version. Moreover, Opera has gained a leading role as a browser for Smartphones and PDAs which, according to some, will come to represent a formidable chunk of internet traffic some time in the near future. In other words, if you're a web author, the days of just ignoring Opera and hoping it will go away are definitely over.

Notwithstanding, what this Norwegian-based software company touts as the "fastest browser on earth" may also very well be —from a web designer's point of view— the fussiest browser on earth. Depending on your own dedication to the higher ground of well-formed HTML, CSS and Javascript, you may discover that bending over backwards to accomodate Gecko-based browsers like Firefox pales in comparison to the extra tweaking and preening you might have to do for Opera.

Features

On the plus side, web developers will find numerous features in Opera that can only be had in other "next generation" browsers by installing extensions. Things like toggling on and off images, small screen rendering, and disabling javascript are indispensable to those concerned with seeing how their web pages look subjected to different browsing configurations. On top of this comes the ability to apply a number of built-in style sheets that can be very informative by enabling you to see your web page appear as it would in a text-based browser, with tables disabled, structural elements highlighted or images and links shown exclusively.

Great stuff, no doubt, and for those who just want to browse, Opera comes packaged along with all the standard full-featured browser bells and whistles including an email client, IRC client, download manager and a fully customizable interface. The whole shebang is rendered in a Multiple Document Interface and adds on an RSS news feed, a fit-to-window view, voice-activated browser commands (look ma! no hands!...), browser sessions, mouse gestures and more.

Pet Peeve Dept.

Speaking of just wanting to browse, I have a little bone to pick with Opera with regards to how it saves web pages.

When saving a web page to the hard drive, a web browser will typically amass all the associated images, Javascript, CSS files and whatnot and store them in a [page_name]_files folder that it automatically creates when the user clicks on the Save button.

This function is of great convenience to those who save lots of web pages to their hard drive (like me) and would otherwise —i.e., with Opera— have to spend considerable extra time navigating around their hard drive in the Save As dialog to create a new folder for each and every web page to be saved. I must honestly say that if it weren't for this limitation, I would have long ago defined Opera as my default web browser. I might even have payed for it although in light of the recent turn of events, I'm glad I didn't...(*chuckle*)...

Hopefully this save-files-to-folder feature will be implemented in some future version of this otherwise excellent web application.