Praising Opera 9

[Loïc Martin]

Vincent Trouilliez a écrit :
> Hmmm, after reading that there weren't ads anymore in Opera, I gave it
> another try (last one was 2 years ago or more IIRC...)
>
> As much as I dislike commercial software for common desktop software, I
> have to admit it has at least one huge quality at first sight:
> performance/snappiness !
>
> No later than yesterday, I encountered a mega huge performance problem
> with Epiphany/Firefox, a real blocker: all I wanted to do was edit the
> ubuntu wiki, and add a package to the "Universe Candidates" list:
>
>  (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Packages/Candidates)
>
> Because I find Wiki editing very difficult (When will we have WYSIWYG
> for Wikis ??), I pressed the "Preview" button to see what my changes
> were doing exactly. Of course I added my package request at the end of
> the existing list. The list is very long, but for some reason (maybe has
> to do with the "Draft" background image that fills the preview area ?),
> the simple act of scrolling to the bottom of the list to see the effet
> of my changes, is EXTREMELY SLOW ! Be it by using the Page Up/Down keys,
> or grabbing the scroll bar with the mouse, the scrolling was so slow, I
> had to give up reaching the bottom of the list.
>
> So I just tried with Opera 2 minutes ago, out of curiosity, and to my
> delight it could scroll that page at the speed of light, just like
> Epiphany normally does with most pages but that one.
>
> So, I would like to give credit where its due, in all objectivity...
>
> Cosmetically, I find it quite good looking, very polished. It's visually
> more pleasant than FF.
>
> So thanks to whoever started that thread, Opera 9 is definitely worth a
> try !
> Obviously I would rather want to see the performance issues fixed in the
> Open Source browser in the first place, rather than having to evaluate
> proprietary alternatives...
>
>
> --
> Vince
>
>   
For Firefox unbereable slowness, see bug #32561 : Pango-enabled firefox 
is much slower
https://launchpad.net/products/firefox/+bug/32561

I don't know if it's the same problem with Epiphany, but Firefox is 
really fast too. Ubuntu Dapper's version is a shame, though.

I know that if I were a Firefox developper, having spent hours coding a 
great app like that, I'll be *quite* upset (to remain polite) to have my 
work spoilt like that and receive such a bad publicity. Fortunately, I'm 
not, which is good for my heart pressure.

A bit like producing a great movie, and having the theatres provide home 
cut version, with the speed of the movie decreased to 10 frames/sec and 
the whole image blurred, with Harvey Keitel's skin a yucky mustard green 
colour (and lill'pink bunnies floating everywhere on the screen).

That would be enough to get you sued. It's just a shame there's not much 
image respect with software, and the copyright is mostly seen as a GPL 
issue (going to court against someone for harming the brand's name only 
works if you're a big company with a lot of money). True, Ubuntu's 
version can't have the official logo because of the modification, but 
for everybody, it's still Firefox.

Now... we just have to wait till Microsoft understands they can just 
benchmark IE7 (or even 6) against Dapper's Firefox and have all the 
planet die laughing about the virtues of open source :(


If I were Bill, I'll know what I'll put next to Vista's IE7 when I'll do 
my blue screen of the death show on CNN. At least, Windows doesn't bore 
you to death before crashing.