Internet Explorer > Netscape > Firefox > Opera

[Zorro]

So what's going on? It's all hitting at once, but the status quo has got to change.

* Opera is now my official default browser. I've got all my bookmarks and settings switched over. I'm at home now.
* Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE are just my secondary testing/development browsers.
* Yahoo is now my default search engine.
* I've disabled my Facebook account (I never used it anyways).

Internet Explorer > Netscape > Firefox > Opera

That's my history for my choices of a default browser. I've had Flock and Chrome on the sidelines since they've been released.

Why I Chose Opera

* Opera is on par with Firefox for W3C standards compliance.
* Firefox gets slower and more memory intensive with each release (Grooveshark is unusable on my Firefox setup).
* Firefox v4 beta does not have the performance improvements promised.
* Opera has a better interface.
* Opera is faster then Firefox in almost every aspect (Javascript as of v10.5 with the Carakan engine is said to be 100% faster than Firefox).
* I love the "closed tabs" trashcan.
* I did some testing, and Opera always used less memory than Chrome or Firefox when multiple tabs were open and I had my regular plugins installed.

I was also looking at Chrome or Safari as my new default browser (I've always used them for cross-browser testing). I've ultimately decided on Opera. There are many reasons for this, but a few noteworthy reasons are because I hate Safari's text rendering, and I simply don't trust Google when it comes to Chrome.

Why I'm Switching Search Engines

* This is an experiment.

Why I've Disabled My Facebook Account

* Because Facebook and Twitter are the most dangerous trends in our society. If you disagree, tough.

[Bullet Magnet]

How is the "skins" market for Opera?

Also, it'd better work with the plethora of crappy web sites I have to deal with for this university. The only good browsers are the ones that support crap.

Yahoo... I only use that for my personal life, such as Fantasy Basketball, Yahoo Answers, and a wee bit of secondary mail. The search engine is poopy.

[Zorro]

How is the "skins" market for Opera?

Pretty good, actually. There's a lot of skins available. http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/

Also, it'd better work with the plethora of crappy web sites I have to deal with for this university. The only good browsers are the ones that support crap.

It follows many W3C standards better than Firefox, Safari, or Chrome does. Sites will render virtually the same across Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, since they all follow W3C standards much better than they have in the past. (IE vs Netscape *cough* 1999 *cough*)

Yahoo... I only use that for my personal life, such as Fantasy Basketball, Yahoo Answers, and a wee bit of secondary mail. The search engine is poopy.

I've done about a dozen Yahoo! searches today for work related stuff, and so far the results are perfectly acceptable. The search results are a bit more cluttered than Google, but it works. I'll be experimenting with other search engine alternatives during the next couple of weeks. There's been a few new search engines hit the web in recent years, some by former Google developers (who are very critical of Google's privacy practices).

[Pause]

What goes on here!? I turn my head for 2 hours!!!

Agreed on opera, though I never could get it to cope with proxies.. @ work I can see why I don't use it, but home? hm... not sure what makes me stick to firefox, but you're right on the money about resource hog, same with chrome.. false advertising.. u add up all the processes its running in the background, ='s or > ie!

[Zorro]

Pause was complaining about the Opera system tray icon while we were chatting on IM. (Pause complaining? No way!)

To disable Opera's Tray Icon:

1. Type "opera:config" in the address bar
2. Do a quick-find search for "tray"
3. Uncheck "Show Tray Icon"
4. Save & restart browser
5. Look for tray icon. If found, repeat steps 1-4. If not found, reply to this post.

[Bullet Magnet]

5. Look for tray icon. If found, repeat steps 1-4. If not found, reply to this post.

I unchecked Show Tray and now I can't find the tray icon.

[Zorro]

I unchecked Show Tray and now I can't find the tray icon.

That sounds like an issue Pause would have. Maybe try enabling the tray icon again and it'll show up again. Ya think?

[Bullet Magnet]

Opera didn't do very well for me after the first few hours.

It's hanging on certain pages, sometimes chooses not to load a whole page's worth of photos, and makes some buttons (that I know exist) invisible.

EDIT: All problems have disappeared and Opera is running stable now. If it remains this inconsistent, I'll drop it like a kick ball. If those were just flukes, I'd like to keep it. It's not bad.

[Pause]

aight z.. if opera can do this, I'll admit to the awesomeness of opera.. can we do the opposite of the "disable tray icon".. have opera minimize ONLY to the tray icon? That would make it the single most awesome browser in the world. Also, I don't think it supports imacros, does it?

[Zorro]

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H to minimize to tray. Make sure tray icon is enabled again. Not the ideal key map for it, but you may be able to change it.