Opera Embraces Extensions For v.11

dkd903 writes "Opera is one of the most solid browsers around. It is very fast, extremely customizable, and has a lot of functionality that others do not have. Opera is also a very strong supporter of Web standards; it was one of the first browsers to pass the ACID 3 test. However, Opera has always been confined to a relatively small user-base because of one critical thing — lack of extensions. Well, that is about to change — at least the extensions part. Today, it has been announced that Opera 11 will support extensions."

Re:Flashblock

[Nichotin]

You can try out privoxy [privoxy.org]. It is an ad filtering proxy server, which will work with any browser. I don't surf the web without it. Just install it, set your browser to use proxy 127.0.0.1 on port 8118, and voilá, obnoxious ads be-gone.

Re:That's What's Holding It Down!

[Missing.Matter]

Like this? http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2010/08/05/tab-grouping [opera.com]

Re:Flashblock

[alvarogmj]

You can enable a setting that allows plugin content to be downloaded only after clicking on it. Very useful:
http://my.opera.com/dude09/blog/on-demand-plugin-opera-turbo [opera.com]

Opera is what it is. Either you like it (like me) or you don't. Its lack of popularity is not due to the lack of extensions (after all, chrome and safari had bigger market share before having extensions themselves).

I prefer it, over any of the others. But it seems there are a lot of bad misconceptions around and that's the biggest problem Opera Software needs to find a way to solve.

Re:That's What's Holding It Down!

[Anonymous Coward]

Preferences in unusual locations and weird interface are something you get used to after a little while, and after a week or so don't even notice. Lack of functionality, on the other hand, is absolutely critical. As of now I have the following extensions on my firefox installation:

adblock plus
all-in-one gestures
beef taco
better privacy
compact menu 2
context search
distrust
download manager tweak
exif viewer
fasterfox lite
firefox sync
forecastfox weather
gmail notifier
nuke anything enhanced
optimize google
remove it permanently
stop-or-reload button
stylish
taboo

I'll be happy to switch to Opera (or any other browser, for that matter) when it can offer the same level of functionality. Granted, some extensions are purely cosmetical, like compact menu (although i guess i can't live without it now, even running firefox in a 30" (i run a staggered dual setup, a 30" eizo and a 24" nec for photography editing/processing) screen i run it maximized and want all the screen real estate i can get), or stop-or-reload button, and things like all-in-one gestures are already natively in opera from what i remember way back when, and stuff like exif viewer are nice to have (since i'm a photographer), but some stuff like adblock plus, context search, optimize google, taboo, etc, make everyday browsing so much better to the point it is painful and displeasant for me to now use a browser without them.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera has a find bar. on any page just type a "." and continue typing the word you want to find.

I suppose getting extensions is kinda cool, but really, most of the extensions I hear FF ppl bragging about is something that Opera has had built in for a looong time.

Re:It's the advertisements

[satoshi1]

Opera hasn't had ads for nearly half a decade now. Where are you?

Re:It's the advertisements

[Rockoon]

Opinions differ, but the main arguments you see here today are "Opera doesnt have NoScript" and "Opera has a weird interface"

The later one is asinine since its also one of the most configurable browser in regards to the interface. You can move buttons and menus pretty much anywhere, and so forth.

The former one.. well.. there are multiple Opera alternatives to NoScript, some built in and some in the form of UserJS .. The UserJS BlockIt certainly isn't as polished as NoScript, but it does have an extensive feature set (even blocking images and so forth, with per-element whitelists .. the whole 9 yards..) Personally I dont have a desire to be sp paranoid that I need that granularity .. I have JavaScript and plugins disabled by default and whitelist an entire site for JavaScript when I need it (either I trust the site, or I don't.. I'm not going to actually look at the scripts), and run plugins only on-demand.

I love Opera, but...

[falken0905]

I'm using Opera as I write but unfortunately I'm stuck with v10.10. Opera has this habit of breaking stuff that used to work well when new versions are released. My current gripe is streaming/motion video from various types of webcams like the Panasonic network cams and pc cams streaming using Webcam32 (and some cam other software too). I have a bunch of these that monitor remote sites, watch spectrum analyzers that monitor satellite uplink gear, etc. If I upgrade to the latest Opera version it breaks the ability to view all of my cameras. I have filed bug reports and made Opera blog posts regarding the issue all to no avail. So, I keep using the last version known to work and hope for the best in future versions. Sure, I could use Firefox but I really do prefer Opera and there is a lot about Firefox that I do not like.

Re:Extensions are critical?

[Mantrid42]

...It does have ad block. Built in. Right click, block content. That take too long? http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/opera/ [fanboy.co.nz] That'll block damn near every ad on the internet. And use css to remove the whitespace. I'm amazed at how many ads clutter every web page whenever I use somebody else's computer.

Re:Extensions are critical?

[Anonymous Coward]

But it does have a built in equivalent to YesScript, which is far better than NoScript anyhow.

It also helps that JavaScript cannot crash Opera like it can crash Firefox.