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Messages
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Messages - Muzer
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Otter Browser Forum / Re: What would make Otter a Browser of Choice?
1) Vertical Tabs: This has to become the standard view in browsers. When introducing this feature please make it default. Read and heard from many people who miss this Opera 12 feature and don't understand how a horizontal tab bar could become default in every browser. Also, if you ask me, the tabs should preview the site (just like O12 did), thus allowing a quick navigation with the mouse without having to worry about selecting the wrong tab.
Not convinced it should be default. I can see how they would be useful, but I would expect most browser users are just so used to horizontal tabs it's too much of a pain to switch.
I didn't like most of the Opera defaults in later years - every time I reinstalled Opera I would spend a few minutes putting the menu bar back, etc. - you'll just have to live with the fact that there's never a browser that comes with the defaults you love
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Otter Browser Forum / Rewind back/rewind forward
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Otter Browser Forum / Re: What would make Otter a Browser of Choice?
1) The ability to have links in the sidebar that open as webpages within the panel (drag a link to the sidebar to see what I mean)
2) The ability to have the "new tab" screen just be a full-screen image (he currently does this by customising speed dial to remove all the foreground elements using opera:config, and having just speed dial's background wallpaper, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind doing it a saner way)
3) Right click + scroll wheel to cycle tabs
4) The ability for the browser to handle the insane number of tabs he usually has open (I've seen him with 200 previously... I don't quite know how he manages, but Opera certainly manages fine)
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Otter Browser Forum / Re: What would make Otter a Browser of Choice?
For me, the perfect browser would have:
* Customisability and most of the useful, innovative features of Opera 12. I'm talking the obvious ones, but also more unusual things like spatial navigation (shift+cursor keys) - invaluable when I'm feeling lazy and I'm sat on my bed using my desktop with a keyboard but no surface on which to use a mouse. Easily customisable keyboard shortcuts, as well as more advanced features that are noticeably missing from Opera (vim mode) would also be brilliant.
* Ability to turn off the more controversial features (BLOODY TAB GROUPS AAAAARGH)
* Be an active project with security updates and website compatibility (this will be the thing that gets me to switch away from Opera 12, I can almost guarantee it)
* The general ethos of assuming the user is not an idiot and allowing them to control their own browser. Almost every aspect of the browser should be customisable through an opera:config style page (or config files for things harder to express in this manner), but this should not be relied on for most even vaguely popular features - these should be usable through the GUI. This is what Firefox is currently lacking - see the deplorable checkboxes that kill idea. You should not have to rely on add-ons to be able to disable images.
* Unlimited extensibility. This can be through extensions, or simply through a good design and a team willing to accept any patches for well thought-out, useful, well-written and non-intrusive features (that can be disabled!). Preferably both. User Javascript is almost a must, though - just being able to do things within the confines of a webpage is pretty great.
For me, it does not need an email (except RSS) or IRC client, or a torrent client, because I have much better solutions for those - but others differ on this, and I respect their opinions. If you think you can make better ones of these than anything else out there, then by all means go ahead - but in my opinion, the main focus should be on the browser, and if these additional clients (IRC, mail, torrent) really get good enough to compete with the current big players they should also be available standalone for those who prefer a different browser. For me, it does not need skins or themes, only decent desktop integration (which it'll undoubtedly have as a Qt project, given I'm a KDE user).
I probably can't give you a list of ALL the Opera features I use, simply because I use a lot of them, every day, without thinking. It's most noticeable when I try to use another browser, but even then it's more of a subconscious feeling of being restricted or limited than a conscious "this, this and this are missing" type thing. Ones that I have found invaluable in the past are the F12 menu (how useful is that?), keyboard shortcut customisability, context menu customisability, Opera buttons, block content, fit to width, Link, address bar searches (I make HEAVY use of these), RSS feeds, "enable plugins only on demand", site preferences (through the F12 menu), good session management (along with being able to reopen closed tabs, as well as the browser, retaining full history), "Reload every", slash to find in page. This is probably a tiny subset of things I use, and I can't tell you which of these I'd be able to survive losing because I simply don't know.
I don't care about it being "Not Firefox" or "Not Chrome" or even "Not IE". The reason I don't use these browsers is because they are inferior for my needs (Firefox has always been too light on features and too reliant on extensions and is currently getting worse, Chrome/Chromium is even worse in this regard with the addition of privacy concerns, and IE doesn't run on my OS so it's completely off my radar at this stage), not because I have anything actively against the browsers themselves. I don't use Opera just to be different, which is the mistake Opera Software ASA seem to have made. They think that by continuing to produce a browser that is different (even if only in name), they'll retain most of their audience. I don't want different. I want a power user-friendly browser that meets as many of my needs as possible. And Opera 12 is still the best for this.