After wasting an hour optimizing Firefox to no avail - for some reason it is reluctant to show Central European characters, I surrendered and downloaded the new Opera browser 9.50 beta, codenamed ‘Kestrel’. Being a productivity freak, I need my browser to be completely synchronized at all times. I’ve heard of the new bookmark syncing feature in Opera, which is coming with the new release, although it’s still in beta. What the heck, I tested it - and it looks very good. I encountered a few problems with site rendering (especially phpBB2 forums), and the browser crashed a few times in Leopard, but otherwise it works great, it is still the same, good ol’ Opera.
The bookmark sync option is a huge web productivity booster. Since I use 4 different operating systems (I dual-boot a PC and a MacBook), reconfiguring browsers is a real pain-in-the-[insert body part here]. I used to install Foxmarks on each Firefox browser, but I always had problems with at least one installation, if of course the Foxmarks server was up at the time.
Bookmark Synchronizing with Opera 9.50b works through the my.Opera account server storage space, which you can get for free when you sign up . The syncing feature is very cool: it syncs with all of your installed and linked browsers, even on your freaking mobile phone. It is called Opera Link.
Staying with Opera for now. We will see if the stable Firefox 3 with Weave will have a chance at converting me back.
Still looking for a good Pagerank checking tool though…
January 19th, 2008 at 23:52
I’m a looooooong time Opera user (early users will probably remember buddy icon ads popping up on the free version back in 2003), and also a newbie Operamini user, but since I actively started to use Linux Ubuntu i switched to Firefox, just because of the fugly* looks of the linux version.
*fugly = f*ing + ugly
January 20th, 2008 at 15:29
Welcome to the club. I use Opera on PC and Opera Mini on phone.
January 21st, 2008 at 23:43
Nice little write up!
I’ve been waiting for Firefox 3 also, but may give this Opera release a whirl in the meantime.
January 22nd, 2008 at 03:02
Greg, here’s a Pagerank button for Opera for you:
http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/opera/panels/pagerank/
@Tomaz: downloading the Ubuntu skin for Opera helps a lot in the looks department
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/?search=ubuntu&x=0&y=0
January 22nd, 2008 at 20:02
@Rijk: thanks! Works fine for now, although I already solved the problem using a Netvibes widget
Was very nice to see an actual Opera developer comment.
@Joff: you won’t be dissapointed, it’s fantastic.
January 22nd, 2008 at 20:58
[...] The ‘front page’ features a tabbed interface, where you may add, delete and rearrange widgets of your own choice: a clock, a calendar, an rss news feed, upcoming events agenda - by being opensource I expect Spicebird to have gazillions of widgets by the end of this year, if it gains enough popularity. And that’s what I’m waiting for. Don’t forget why people still use Firefox 2. [...]
January 31st, 2008 at 13:53
back to firefox, google for google sync - its a great extension to FF that syncs not only your favorites, but also passwords and a lot more of options - and im yet to see google server go down ;P
January 31st, 2008 at 14:13
Try emailing them or search Mashable and Techcrunch
February 22nd, 2008 at 19:44
[...] Opera 9.50b [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 17:12
[...] with FireFox 3, Internet Explorer or Opera 9.26, you will se a static PNG file. But if you use the Opera beta, or a beta of the new FireFox 3, you will be able to see an actual PNG [...]
July 2nd, 2008 at 20:15
Works nicely on Windows, but as far as I can tell, the Macintosh version does not have the bookmarks synching feature yet.