In an ideal world, good things would get the attention they deserve and crap would disappear.
For proof that this isn't an ideal world, check out NetApplications' browser market share stats.
Internet Explorer 6, the gurning half-wit of the browser world, has nearly 17 per cent of the market. Opera, a truly great browser, has 0.72 per cent.
That's lower than Netscape (0.74 per cent), which was shot and turned into glue months ago.
To say that Opera is better than Netscape or IE6 is like saying having sex with the love of your life is better than being boiled in oil while being stabbed with knives, or living in Doncaster.
Opera is fast, flexible and free, and more often than not its features end up being imitated by rivals. And yet the stats suggest that on the normal web, Opera's less popular than Hitler.
Even when Opera's doing well, nobody appears to notice. On mobile phones Opera has more market share than the iPhone (24.6 per cent compared to 22.3 per cent, according to StatCounter Global Stats). It's four times more popular than the Blackberry browser, significantly more popular than Nokia's browser and miles ahead of Android.
Those are serious numbers. Does anybody care?
We suspect not. Opera clearly has an image problem, and we think we know why: it's not that people have tried it and didn't like it - anybody who thinks IE6 is a better browser than Opera 9 should be banned from the internet - but that people simply haven't considered it.
Hands up, we're guilty, too: when we benchmark the big browsers, Opera tends to be absent. That's partly due to timing (we don't like comparing final versions against betas, or stable betas against experimental alphas) and partly because our stats show that people are more interested in Firefox, Chrome and IE.
That's unfair on Opera, so today's an excellent day to change things. Opera 10 has just been released as a stable beta for Windows, Mac and Linux, and you can download it right now.
Don't just download it, have a quick play with it and dump it, though. Use it as your main browser for a few days. Import all your bookmarks and try your favourite sites. Play with the zoom controls and the page width view.
See how it compares to Firefox when you're browsing dozens of pages simultaneously. Use the search shortcuts and mouse gestures. Experiment with the integrated email and feed reader. Try Turbo to see how it improves things on slow Wi-Fi connections. Experiment with the integrated content blocking.
If you're a designer or a developer, see how it renders your carefully crafted code. And once you've done that, ask yourself: do you still miss Firefox, IE or Chrome?
We suspect that for a lot of people, the answer will be a resounding no.
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Your comments (20) Click to add a new comment
abuyi
November 10th
20. I've been using opera from its version 5.xx or something.. i remember looking for serials to crack opera and i loved opera since then.. while firefox was still dealing with its tabs and bookmark and crashing problems... and i.e didnt even know tabs exsisted and was hub for hackers and viruses.
recently after linux got popular all the open source people started fixing firefox and now it quite a good browser to use. I like the firefox 3 cause it lil faster in surfing videos and facebook works in it just fine.. opera and facebook don't go well for me..but with latest 10 facebook works fine.. kinda moody sometimes.
I hope opera gets the recognition which it needs. I am keeping i.e just because Microsoft needs it.. my os needs it for its updates.. it's ****.. i would prefer a scorpion over it.
thanx such a wonderful review
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ncleasby
June 16th
19. I have recently started using Opera & think it is great. The best features are the built-in Email & torrent-download app.
N.
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lucideer
June 11th
18. @ripsnorter - LOL
@wikiterra, loius058 - Opera already has those adblock, noscript and a firebug-like dev tool built in. One thing I like about Opera, it doesn't need ADD-ONS!!
@gandharva81 - joke post? If not: http://files.myopera.com/Okra/blog/DSCF0127.jpg
@lovlid - "an idiot that clearly doesn't like IE in a big way." Noone likes IE in a big way, they''d be an idiot if they did
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kashif
June 9th
17. The very ignorance that keeps good software from being appreciated.....
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lovlid
June 7th
16. Written by an idiot that clearly doesn't like IE in a big way.
He says "give it a try"
I say "Its been around long enough, and its still a failure"
If it was any good, it would have caught on by now, but it hasn't. It needs to go the same as netscape and die already.
How much did they pay you to write this tat Mr Marshall?
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kashif
June 6th
15. I think one of the big reasons for Opera being this ignored is because they were late on the free browser band wagon.. Although its one of the oldest browsers, at first you had to pay for it, otherwise, they'de show obnoxious adds that was very distracting. Its either that or the Norwegians are really bad at marketing. Anyway, now it doesn't have these issues and its like all the other browsers out there.
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