One week with Opera

In the past I've preached a lot about trying different programs for different functions, or at least being aware that there are choices out there. Well I've decided that it's time to put my money where my mouth is. I switched from using IE to Firefox about a couple years ago, because back then IE really sucked hardcore. At the time, Opera wasn't free yet, so Firefox was the main other contender. I switched. I liked it. I got way too used to it. Then Opera started giving away their desktop browsers for free in hopes of drawing more people to pay for their mobile phone ones. Naturally I downloaded it to check it out. I definitely liked it, but I was too used to firefox. I had all my settings just how I wanted them. I had a bunch of neato plugins, some of which added functionality that opera couldn't match. There were certain things I didn't like about firefox, though. Primarily, it is a memory hog, especially with each additional plugin you have. Also, there are some things I just can't quite customize just exactly how I want them, and sometimes those things are quite bothersome. Also, in the intervening time, I've changed some of my browsing habbits, such that I can easily do without some of my precious plugins anymore.

So finally I've decided to give Opera a real try. I will be using it for one week, as much as possible. I will post again after the week is up, or whenever I decide that I've given Opera a fair shot and it blew it, whichever comes first, to let y'all know how I think it stacks up. I may post some updates before then as well, if I feel like it.

If you're using firefox, and have an old slow computer with not enough memory, I encourage you to partake in this experiment with me. IE actually got a lot better with 7.0, so it's worth checking out too (I tried it for a bit and decided to stick with FF). For now, my initial reaction is positive. I took a little time to learn all the keyboard shortcuts that I'm fond of using, which didn't take nearly as much effort as I've made it out to take in the past. It is a bit slower at loading pages, which is the common complaint about it, but we'll see if that gets to me. I'll let you know in a week or sooner how it's going.