Opera? Is a $40 Browser Worth It?

[FlashHarry]

I'm trying out the free (with ads) version on my Mac, and I must say, it combines my favorite elements of Safari and Firefox, and it seems to be faster than both. But I just don't know if I can bring myself to shell out $40 for a browser, when others are free!

Opinions? Comments? Reviews?

[da_chimperor]

1. Opera is cool, but not cool enough to pay $40 bucks for IMO.

I'm more than happy with firefox myself. If you really like Opera that much, go for it. Otherwise . . . just stick to firefox.

[rucky]

2. I switched from Opera to Firefox

and Firefox is better, IMO (except for the java bugs).

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Then don't spend the 40 bucks, and...

keep the ads.

On my 19" monitor, I hardly see the ads. I am thinking of sending them the money just to support another decent browser out there, and I do like it more than all the others for most things.

[Deja Q]

4. Good grief, no! Never spend more than you have to. OTOH,

you shelled out a lot of money for the Mac when a Linux-based PC of comparable power is rather less expensive. That $40 is nothing by comparison, and it'll keep Opera in business for the future. That's important to keep the competition going. And that's priceless.

Before Linux, I used OS/2 and spent, spent, spent to keep competition going. Then IBM betrayed we users of OS/2 by not supporting us anymore... As I can no longer spend, I love Linux and the foundation of which it stands.

[FlashHarry]

7. Actually, I bought the Mac for OSX, specifically.

Hell, GarageBand alone is worth the price of admission. That, and since I switched from my PC a year-and-a-half ago, I haven't had a single virus, spyware or adware program. No blue screens of death. Everything just works as advertised.

The malware thing is scary. I love it when I navigate to a Web page and an .exe file downloads to my desktop and just sits there forlornly, waiting to be deleted.

I guess it would've been nice to have waited for the $499 Mac Mini, but my iBook suits me just fine.

[sendero]

5. Opera...

... is miles ahead of Firefox and always will be. Forget the 40 bucks, just use the ad version - the ads take up only a small amount of real estate. Move the tabs (buttons) over to the right side and the ads don't hurt a bit.

I registered Opera long ago, and it was worth every cent - not because of the ads but simply to support innovation in the browser arena. Opera invented "tabbed browsing" and their implementation is much better than Firefox. Not to mention such features as mouse gestures and fully heirarchical bookmarks.

Opera takes a while to learn, it has so many features. If you play with it for an hour you really don't know it yet :)

[FlashHarry]

6. Sounds like a plan

If it's only the ads--I can take it. So far, I like it a lot. Is sure seems snappier. But that may just be wishful thinking.