Opera browser

[Hill, Holly K]

I have to put in a major caveat about Opera. It is NOT free. A seat is
$39.00. 'Free' Opera requires you to accept banner advertising on every
page, which really does slow performance. 

And having a built in IRC client is not necessarily something you want in a
library setting. 

And doesn't the mail client download to the client PC? Again, not something
you want out on the floor.

For personal use, Opera can be good. I wouldn't trade my Firebird for it,
though. I used Opera for several versions (and I paid for mine), and finally
gave up on it. Too many web sites didn't render properly -- I know, that's a
problem with the html, not Opera, but the user doesn't care where the
problem lies, they just want to be able to get where they want to go.

Pity me, who's forced to use Explorer here at work :-(

 
Holly Hill
Barr Memorial Library
Fort Knox, KY
www.knoxmwr.com


 Opera Show ( http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/operashow )lets you
create powerpoint like presentations with just CSS and HTML.  The previous
URL, when viewed in Opera, will show you a presentation when in Full Screen
mode and a regular WEB page when out of full screen mode because of the CSS
or CSS like tags, You can set background images even.

  RSS Reader support is built-in not a plug-in and it puts an icon in the
right side of the address bar if a rdf file is availble and lets you
subscribe.  Also built-in is email and chat.  The email client had spam
blocking built in a version or two ago.  And, kiosk mode is a command line
switch away.  You can even build your own distribution from their WEB site
with your settings and splash screens.


  A press release dated today announced "Students surf safely with
Opera: Opera site license free for educational institutions" .  See:
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2005/01/12/   Build your own
distribution with school or company color skins and send announcements on
the communication banner.  You can save a set of tabbed sites as a session
with your own notes included.

And much more.  With all of these features, bells, and whistles they still
advertise as the "Fastest Browser on Earth" and it is very fast. 
Its available for Linux, Mac, Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, QNX, and
mobil for PDAs and Cell phones.  Use shift-F11 to view a WAP version of a
WEB page to see how it is seen on PDAs and CellPhones.

Try it, its FREE.


Thomas





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