mrtom

I cant seem to get this site to work with Opera It will open but thats about it
Any one else have the same problem

mrtom

BevB

I dont have that software so i cant help but im sure once Darren or Julie sees this thread thye will be able to advise you.

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Paddy

As Opera is part of the pre-installed software on the iMac, I thought I woud try this out. Have to admit, Opera isn't that good, it's a bit 'clunky' and slow. However, I did manage to navigate through the site and this reply is after signing in and adding a reply while still in Opera.

It doesn't appear to like the Photo Blogs though. I tried to view a few pictures but just got a grey box where the main picture should have been but the copyright protection message appeared when I tries right clicking it so the player appears to be working but not fully. Thumbnails below the main pictures view fine and clicking on them tried to load the image but still ended up with grey box.

Other site navigation appears to work fine, switching from the home page to forum sections worked ok.

I have never worked out where Opera stands in the browser market as it is one of the few that you need to purchase for full usage, although I don't know what is missing if you don't. It looks to me as if it has tried to be Jack of all trades but not quite master of any.

If you want a lightweight fast browser, Apple's Safari is good. I now use it all the time and I used to be Firefox's greatest fan but I do loke the clean simplicity of Safari. I know there is a PC version as I tried it out once on my old laptop but I have to say I stuck with Firefox on the pc and even on the Mac at first but for me it is Safari all the way now.

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Julianne

This is really unfortunate. A lot of sites tend to be optimized for certain browsers, or the big two (Firefox and IE). This is because 99% of the world is using those browsers. It's really difficult to optimize a site and its features for ALL browsers.

I have personally not had experience with Opera or any other Mac program, so I would be giving a blind opinion really. What I can say is that even (especially) on PCs that come with preinstalled software, I tend to dump it all and start fresh. Just because something came installed on your techo-critter doesn't mean it's in your best interest to leave it on there. The last computer I bought came with 4 different digital photo programs on it, all of which I uninstalled immediately. It also had internet explorer, which I uninstalled and replaced with Firefox.

I know that many people would like it if FX were compatible with Mac as well, and believe me, that is something we have on the board

Paddy

Although Opera does come as a pre install on the Mac Julianne, it isn't a 'Mac' program but is very much a cross platform browser and I am fairly certain that mrtom uses a PC. It is however a bit of an odd browser that has tried to emulate the old Netscape system by having mail, chat and other bits all built in, it just doesn't do it for me though. Not sure what its pedigree actually is but I doubt it will ever become a front runner. The issues with the photo blog images could simply be down to a plugin requirement for , I think, the java script.

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Julianne

That sounds like the aol software/browser meld issue to me. I know that my parents use AOL (because they know how) but they have had trouble viewing certain sites because of it. Even though I am having some issues with Firefox lately (which is probably not really firefox related), I continue to recommend Firefox overall.

Thanks for setting me straight on it not being a mac os program, Paddy. I should have researched it beforehand. I think I'm burning the candle on both ends right now, and my fingers are about to get burned.

Julianne

Perhaps Tom needs an upgrade in order to be able to have Opera work with the VIG site. This site is extremely complex with custom features that other sites typically do not have, and it is optimized for viewing in Firefox and IE. I guess you could say it's a bit on the fancy side of things because we tend to give the users what they ask for even if it takes the creation of something new programming-wise. Opera sounds great speedwise for your run of the mill simple site (and was introduced to run as a compact browser on handheld devices) but it's just not "intelligent" enough (prior to the 6.0 version) for the offerings of VIG. If anyone has Opera 6.0 and could test the site with it and let me know ihow it works I would appreciate it.

I took this off an Opera tutorial site:
Why Not Number One?

While the Opera browser has several advantages over Netscape and IE, there are reasons it is a distant third in the browser wars. First, it is not completely free. While a free version is available for download and use, it contains banner ads that are built into the browser itself. To remove them, it is necessary to purchase a registered version of the browser for $39 US.

Second, the Opera browser has lagged a step behind Netscape and IE in both features, such as searching from the address bar, and support for advanced standards such as XML, CSS, or Java. It is only within the last year that some of these have been well supported, in versions 5.x of Opera for Windows. Since most Web developers work with either IE or Netscape (often both), there were often compatibility problems between Opera and complex web pages--a problem excerbated by the often non-standard ways in which IE and Netscape treat such features. We found that Opera 5.11 did not fully implement the CSS or JavaScript on several Web pages, but that the new 6.0 beta version did. Opera and its supporters hope that this new version will close the feature and compatibility gap with IE and Netscape.

Paddy

The Mac version of Opra I have, as used in the description above is
Version 7.54
Build 2140

running on an Intel iMac using Leopard OSX

Platform MacOS X
System 10.5.2

I think the main issue is the Java. I have not looked into any updates or plugins simply because I cannot see any advantage in paying for a browser that comes no where near Firefox which is free, even though I use Safari as it integrates better with other Mac features like Keychain (Password storage and auto login system).

By the way Julianne, the only advantage of burning candles at both ends is that although you get through twice as many candles, it is brighter for a while. Apart from that, there isn't any point lol.

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mrtom

I use opera 99% of the time because its free, blazeingly fast on XP,makes IE7
& Firefox look like they are in first gear. Most web sites work fine in Opera but there are a few that still don't, not many but there are still a few which is a shame.
Most reviews rate opera as an amazeing browser & can not understand why is not more popular.
However if a site does not work with Opera I use Firefox

Cheers mrtom