E-Musings Mon Immorata

Views From the Trenches: Opera Versus Firefox Comparing Opera and Firefox to see which one's the winner. Plus competition to Adobe Photoshop. And tabbed browsing with Internet Explorer 5.5 and later. I'm very cheery this weekend having just returned from 3+ days in cool 'n wet Bangalore. Which was a small slice of heaven when compared to the searing heat wave conditions prevalent in Hyderabad where I live and work. I also had an opportunity to sit back and really use the Opera Web browser (installed on my borrowed laptop). Even as Firefox (which I also used) is still missing support for SVG images in its public (v1.0.4) release, Opera 8 supports SVG. There's a great collection of images at CrocZilla. I find the detailing of the cubic spline tiger absolutely amazing. But first a regression. If you followed last week's download link to Opera 8.01 (Build 7624), do note that the Windows version has been officially withdrawn after several new critical bugs were discovered shortly after release. However, the Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris and Mac OS versions are still available for download. It fixes several bugs in the Presto rendering engine that could cause a browser crash when clicking links. Also improved is handling of HTTP 204 status code. As a memory leak related to XMLHttpRequest has been plugged even though I'm still unable to access my GMail account while using the (now-withdrawn) Windows version or the Linux or Mac versions. SVG animations are disabled along with GIF animations. And a UTF-8 BOM character issue that caused setup conflicts was resolved. A key new Opera 8.x feature is User JavaScript. These script can override any pre-set variables or functions defined by scripts embedded within the web page. While in principle the scripts function somewhat like Mozilla Firefox's Extension. They differ in being plain ASCII text files editable by anyone as compared to Extensions which are compressed objects requiring an advanced geek degree. Where changes made don't always work as supposed to (I write from experience). There's an ever-growing collection of scripts at UserJS. But use them with care as they can overwrite Opera's default script settings and cause your browser to stop working. Meanwhile Asa Dotzler, who's accepted the dual-mantle of Product Manager for Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbirdtook issue with media reports that Opera outperforms Firefox and is the better browser. Yet I think Asa's overlooking several key issues and is being unfair in his criticism. Even as I chanced across a rather tongue-in-cheek side-by-side feature comparison pitting Opera against the two 'other' browsers identified by blue and orange. I remember Opera introducing MDI (multi-document interface) as long ago as 1997-98 when Mozilla was still the buggy and bloated Netscape! The MDI feature included in all subsequent Opera versions lets you to open multiple web sites within a single browser session. Opera was also the first browser to save open documents at shutdown by default. And Opera's web cache handling is still aeons advanced when compared to any other mainstream Web browser. Included in default Opera versions is the M2 email client as well as a news reader with RSS support, a basic IRC chat client and a single-thread file download manager. In comparison Firefox's a plain vanilla web browser that includes a very basic RSS feed reader (Live Bookmarks) and requires an add-in Extension to save sessions. There's also the incomparable Paste-n-Go feature where you can paste a URL into the Address Bar and open the web site in one-step instead of two. There is a Firefox Extension (as usual) but it just add bloat to the browser. And finally, in spite of all the advanced features included Opera's download footprint remains more compact that those of Mozilla (with which it should be compared) and Firefox. I use both Firefox and Opera. Because each browser has its own relative strengths and weaknesses. For example, on my computer I'm unable to open GMail using Opera. And I love Firefox's keyboard shortcuts that add a "http://www" prefix and ".com/.net/.org" suffix to a name typed in the browser address bar. In Opera you need to enable mouse gestures to open a link in a new tab or window. In Firefox all you do is use the mouse's middle click function or click the mouse wheel while hovering over a link to open it in a new tab. But what I really like about Opera is its keyboard centric-ness that puts most browsing controls (reverse and forward, stop and refresh) at hand instead of requiring the on-screen toolbar. And keeping potential carpal-tunnel syndrome at bay. As well as its really easy to search (using abbreviated 'engine codes) from within the Address Bar. In contrast I can never get this feature to work in Firefox and always land at the strangest page. For example using 'g opera' in the Firefox Address Bar search string got me directed to a Japanese-language web site Complete Stereophonic Discography on Wiener Philharmonikerfor Rossini,Gioachino (http://www2.tokai.or.jp/s.fuji/composer/Rossini.html)! Yet from Firefox's integrated Google feature the string 'opera' redirected to a Google search page that displayed Opera Software as the first entry! The Japanese web site isn't even in the Google's Top Ten for 'opera'! Firefox is touted as 'a browser your mom could use' as its supposedly that simple. Well Mom (or in this instance Dad) tried looking and found something completely unexpected. In contrast Opera is safer and takes you to the search page with no fuss. The reason for the inconsistent search results is because by default Firefox Address Bar searches still use Google's (now-discarded?) 'I Could Get Lucky' feature. To modify the default you need to edit your user.js file and change

// Normal Google search:
user_pref("keyword.URL", "http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&q=");
to
user_pref("keyword.URL", "http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q=");

While I'm not sure Mom would be courageous enough to make the change there are also more Firefox power-user tips available for her and anyone else. But enough about Opera and Firefox. Let's do a bit of Internet Explorer (IE). Or rather IE with the new MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search. This build adds rather limited tabbed browsing support to the web browser. And the much-expected IE7 too will include tabbed browsing along with a pop-up blocker and other now-deemed web browsing essentials. However, IE7 won't work with Windows versions older than Windows XP SP2/Windows 2003 Server SP1. If you want continuity in your IE-powered web browsing experience I highly recommend an immediate upgrade to Maxthon 1.3.1 which is actually an IE-add-in; not a complete browser in itself but includes almost all the power features found in Opera and Firefox. Did you know Adobe spend years looking over their shoulder for big bad Microsoft to play catch-up? Then just as Adobe completes its Macromedia buy-out in April 2005 their worst fears are realized. Microsoft announces Windows Longhorn will include an Acrobat-type PDF feature. And now there the first public Beta of Microsoft Acrylic for Windows XP SP2 or better. An updated version of Creature House Expression, Acrylic combines the richness of pixel-based painting with the flexibility of editable vector graphics. Another great desktop graphics program is Paint.Net 2.1 originally meant to become a replacement for the Paint program included with all Windows versions. It's however outgrown that and now offers advanced features including levels adjustment, cross-layer cloning, anti-aliased tools, motion blur, and red eye removal. This image and photo manipulation software requires .Net framework 1.1 or later. That's all for this week. More next time. Click Here To Send Feedback