Why Opera is my new browser for Kubuntu 12.04

[sixonetonoffun]

Yeah envy is the word. I pay $40 a month for 3g (5GB-throttled 50% after that) get about half of the advertised speeds lol! But it still beats the dial n drink a pot of coffee I previously used. Right now using Kppp to connect 1.17Mbps down and 0.31 up Ouch! NetworkManager usually gets a little better score but it was acting up and I didn't feel like waiting for it to work out who was the boss tonight.

[rms]

It's $99/mo. It recently dropped from $150. Previously, I was paying $65/mo for 33 Mb/s down, 6 Mb/s up.

No envy here, it looks great, both the speed and the buck.

[rms]

Um, on the other hand, I could get cable 100Mb/s down - 4Mb/s up for 59€/mo(~74USD) but the salaries are lower here so it's not to be envied.

[GreyGeek]

It's $99/mo. It recently dropped from $150. Previously, I was paying $65/mo for 33 Mb/s down, 6 Mb/s up.

You did it.




(I'm still green!)

[guv999]

Like many, I've been frustrated by the lack of integration of Firefox with KDE. I know this is not Kubuntu's fault, but it is still frustrating. I have been using rekonq and it works, for the most part, but still crashes occasionally and for many sites I visit, I have to change the browser id. So then I decided to try Opera, again. It had been a few years since I used Opera.

I must say I am impressed with how well it works under Kubuntu. It uses the KDE dialogs and looks like a KDE app. It performs as well, if not better than Firefox, but probably a little slower than chromium. However, the number one feature which is making switch to Opera is that I can set individual browser ids for individual sites. For instance, Google sites don't really recognize anything but IE, Safari and FIrefox. So for Google sites, Opera identifies itself as Firefox and it works flawlessly. My banking site requires IE, so I run XP in virtualbox just to access it. Guess what? I told Opera to report itself as IE for my bank and it works flawlessly. There are a few others that I could go on about, but you get the point.

I haven't given up on rekonq or the others, but for now, Opera seems to be the best fit for me and Kubuntu.

Thanks for this thread. I too have not tried Opera for a while. But now it is my number one choice in Kubuntu. Thanks for the heads up about the individual browser IDs - helped with my bank too and my I can now access some of my college course material, previously only available through Windows and IE

[Xplorer4x4]

Curious article. I don't understand the following statement:


How does a browser lower or raise the cost of Internet access?

I was thinking the same thing. The only explanation I could come up with is if bandwidth is very expensive for very little bandwidth. So if Opera's desktop browser uses Opera servers to compress web sites like Opera Mini does for Android, then I could see how it could atleast help in reducing Internet costs.

[SteveRiley]

The only explanation I could come up with is if bandwidth is very expensive... if Opera's desktop browser uses Opera servers to compress web sites... it could atleast help in reducing Internet costs.

Ah, good catch. I do believe Turbo is a feature of the desktop versions.

[oshunluvr]

For whatever reason, I'm getting 25/15 Mb/s from Verizon Fios for $35. Usually I see 30 down and 22 up. I had a two-year full package deal (tv, phone, internet) but cancelled tv (now strickly OTA and streaming) and phone (now Ooma) when the contract expired. They let me keep the discounted internet (usually $69 for that speed) and I'm not asking them why. In the first year I estimate I saved about 3 times the cost of the necessary equipment to make the switch. More actually, because of the perpetuating discount on the ADSL line.

Only downside is I now have only 44 chanels that I never watch instead of 500ish.

[SteveRiley]

Sigh. If I lived on the east side of Lake Washington -- where Bellevue and Redmond and Kirkland are -- then I'd have a choice between Xfinity and FIOS. But in Seattle proper, we have no such choice: Comcast is the only high speed option. Verizion never built out their fiber network on the west side of the lake.

[Teunis]

The atrocious bandwidth our company is providing is the reason I sometimes use the Opera browser.
On websites where Firefox regularly times out and Rekonq customarily crashes Opera with it's Turbo Mode mostly works.

But on a regular connection only Firefox gives me what I want.

[perspectoff]

Minimalist needs require minimalist solutions. Opera doesn't satisfy me. I need everything Firefox (with plugins) has to offer.

Oh, and I don't like to be tracked (i.e. RLZ), so Chrome is out.

I haven't played with Chromium enough, yet, to know if it scratches the itch...