Adventures with Technology

[andrewducker]

"You know," I thought, "I really should give Opera another go. Whenever someone discusses a new feature for Firefox/Chrome it turns out that Opera already has it."
So I download Opera. I try to use it.

No Xmarks support.

Different keyboard shortcuts.

Shift-click to open a link in a new tab???

Looks like 35 seconds was long enough for this time around.

Comments

[nmg.livejournal.com]

Pretty much mirrors my own experience.

[andrewducker]

If I could get my bookmarks onto it I'd be more tempted to give it a go, but things like the shift-click are going to retrain habits that I'm now very used to.

[matgb]

Not used the desktop, but doesn't it have botha sync facility and an import bookmarks facility?

The Sync isn't Xmarks, it's ont he Opera server, but I was sure you could import an HTML bookmarks file.

[andrewducker]

I don't want to have to keep synching bookmarks back and forth. I switch between my desktop and my laptop all the time, and the bookmarks are automatically kept in synch. I'm not switching to a new system that doesn't keep in synch with the existing one.

[matgb]

But if you're switching to Opera on both machines (and I'm not saying you should, I still use Fx), you can use their synching service instead, which you can then also synch with your phone(s) if you want to use Opera there as well (the only place I use it).

Xmarks not working is only a problem if you're using different software on different machines, surely?

I do keep meaning to retry Opera desktop, but never quite get around to it.

[andrewducker]

But I'm trying something out, not switching over wholesale. I'm not disrupting everything just to try out Opera.

I also use Firefox on my brother's PC, and I'd have to install Opera over there in order to get my bookmarks too.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Yup.

And a UI that looks about 10 years old on Windows.

[andrewducker]

It looks pretty polished to me. Possibly been updated recently?

Just discovered that ctrl-tab works, but ctrl-pg-up/dn doesn't. Sigh.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Can you not change the keyboard shortcuts?

It seems pretty silly in this day and age, when people are used to coming from various different programs, that we can't customise our shortcuts to match what we expect, or that we can't all just settle on a universal set of shortcuts that work the same way between different programs. It's one of the few good things Microsoft has managed (but emacs hasn't).

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Opera Mini was great on my old non-wifi phone, but like you, I'd like to like it and I keep trying Opera on the laptop every now and then but going back to Firefox almost immediately.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

It used to be awesome... about five years ago. Now every other browser's caught up with the stuff that made it great (speed, standards compliance) and it's USPs are pretty weak. Opera Widgets for example: I've got no idea why they're persevering with them.

[theweird1ne.livejournal.com]

I just use middle click on my mouse to open a link in a new tab...
I'm guessing the shortcut is if you're just using the touchpad on a laptop?
Not that I use Opera anymore. There are more user friendly plugins for firefox that I need.