Opera Web Browser: Faster Than A Potato
May 28, 2010 8:58 AM Subscribe
SLYT: Opera Web Browser. Faster than cooking a potato. And without all that ugly Chrome.
I'm trying to imagine an American version of this sort of self-deprecating humor and drawing a complete blank.
posted by Western Infidels at 9:50 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Western Infidels at 9:50 AM on May 28, 2010
I've used Opera for years. And Chrome on my Intel mac. Just tools as far as I'm concerned. At one point, it seemed like Opera wanted me to be part of some community (of course Chrome's parent wants that for me too). Of all the browsers I've used, I guess I hate Opera the least, with Chrome a close 2nd. The only quibble I've had with Chrome is when a page tells me I need to be using Safari or Firefox. I guess I don't understand why some folks get so het up about browsers.
posted by beelzbubba at 9:50 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by beelzbubba at 9:50 AM on May 28, 2010
Thanks for the context, TB. I just downloaded Chrome 5.0 yesterday, but this morning couldn't think of a good reason to open it (or Opera 10, to be fair) so just did my usual Firefox/Safari combo. But now I feel like I have a good reason to open Opera.
posted by davejay at 9:52 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by davejay at 9:52 AM on May 28, 2010
I posted this comment in Opera. FEEL THE BURN
posted by davejay at 9:53 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by davejay at 9:53 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
I posted this comment in Chrome. SCHMANCY FANCY
posted by davejay at 9:53 AM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by davejay at 9:53 AM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
I posted this comment from KDE running on Debian 2.2 (Potato). HOW YA LIKE ME NOW
posted by davejay at 9:54 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by davejay at 9:54 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
That some fine spoof-blue. I like it. I also like saying "spoof-blue".
posted by chairface at 9:58 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by chairface at 9:58 AM on May 28, 2010
note to self: WTFYTL. (OK, I get it now.)
posted by beelzbubba at 9:59 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by beelzbubba at 9:59 AM on May 28, 2010
I posted this comment from Netscape Navigator.
(I hit post about five minutes ago)
posted by shakespeherian at 10:11 AM on May 28, 2010 [4 favorites]
(I hit post about five minutes ago)
posted by shakespeherian at 10:11 AM on May 28, 2010 [4 favorites]
shakespeherian: "I posted this comment from Netscape Navigator.
(I hit post aboutfive minutes ten years ago)"
FTFY.
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:16 AM on May 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
(I hit post about
FTFY.
posted by specialagentwebb at 10:16 AM on May 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
I POSTED THIS COMMENT FROM AOL!!!
HEY WHATS A BROWSER?
posted by charred husk at 10:21 AM on May 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
HEY WHATS A BROWSER?
posted by charred husk at 10:21 AM on May 28, 2010 [3 favorites]
Part of me wants to open up lynx and give MeFi a whirl, now.
Also, POTATO!!!
posted by cavalier at 10:22 AM on May 28, 2010
Also, POTATO!!!
posted by cavalier at 10:22 AM on May 28, 2010
I had to punch this comment into a card.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:26 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 10:26 AM on May 28, 2010
Dangit, lynx won't keep track of my login properly.
I use firefox (still!) because it will let me open 70 or 80 tabs while doing all the greasemonkey and firebug stuff properly.
I bet it could be faster if it didn't take that use case into account.
posted by poe at 10:27 AM on May 28, 2010
I use firefox (still!) because it will let me open 70 or 80 tabs while doing all the greasemonkey and firebug stuff properly.
I bet it could be faster if it didn't take that use case into account.
posted by poe at 10:27 AM on May 28, 2010
I posted this from Internet Explorer.
Sent from my iPhone
posted by ardgedee at 10:27 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
Sent from my iPhone
posted by ardgedee at 10:27 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
I feel like Google was a bit more creative to come up with oddball speed tests in the first place. This is just kind of derivative "HURR THAT'S KINDA ARBITRARY!"
Also, why not choose an appropriate URL?
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:30 AM on May 28, 2010
Also, why not choose an appropriate URL?
posted by mccarty.tim at 10:30 AM on May 28, 2010
I had to punch this comment into a card.
I had to punch this comment in the face.
posted by davejay at 10:41 AM on May 28, 2010
I had to punch this comment in the face.
posted by davejay at 10:41 AM on May 28, 2010
Pfft. This test is unrealistic. Were there really no hardcore taters available?
posted by Brent Parker at 10:42 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Brent Parker at 10:42 AM on May 28, 2010
Also, I booted up BeOS, played a few mp3 files backwards, spun some videos around on a 3D cube, then shut down completely, all in the time it took me to write this comment on another computer.
posted by davejay at 10:42 AM on May 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by davejay at 10:42 AM on May 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
I posted this comment with the voice recognition of my google nexus 1 running froyo the mobile version metafilter is really awesome i was hoping for joking comment with terrible voice recognition mistakes but it's actually pretty good
posted by signalnine at 10:46 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by signalnine at 10:46 AM on May 28, 2010
All of my browsers are equally slow.
Curse you cheap ISP with your evening throttling, curse you to hell.
posted by djgh at 10:46 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
Curse you cheap ISP with your evening throttling, curse you to hell.
posted by djgh at 10:46 AM on May 28, 2010 [2 favorites]
I didn't post this comment.
posted by Babblesort at 10:47 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Babblesort at 10:47 AM on May 28, 2010
Apart from not knowing the word "jokey."
posted by signalnine at 10:47 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by signalnine at 10:47 AM on May 28, 2010
Opera browsers have built in bittorrent.
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:59 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:59 AM on May 28, 2010
Youtube just crashed Firefox for me. Take from that what you will.
posted by Think_Long at 11:19 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Think_Long at 11:19 AM on May 28, 2010
Dudes, what is with the keeping open of 70 or 80 tabs? I am a hoarder and a complete neurotic mess, and I don't keep that many open. What gives? Are you tracking many porn torrents at once or something?
posted by Mister_A at 11:29 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Mister_A at 11:29 AM on May 28, 2010
Opera is my default browser. I love it, but they did something to screw up the update before last. For a while there, nothing would load, and I had to flee to Chrome. Looks like everything is fixed now, but I haven't gone back quite yet. Guess it's only a matter of time, though. With the notes sidebar and a password manager that actually works (unlike Chrome, which still refuses to store passwords for sites like Blogger), Opera is hella-convenient.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:43 AM on May 28, 2010
posted by Kevin Street at 11:43 AM on May 28, 2010
I posted this comment by raising a collection of small butterflies and releasing them at carefully considered intervals. By a series of events caused by the flapping of their tiny wings, the magnetic bits of an old dissassembled hard drive were slightly altered. When the drive was connected to a computer the instructions in the boot sector caused this comment to be created.
posted by closetphilosopher at 12:09 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by closetphilosopher at 12:09 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Mister_A: Sometimes you just gotta search the shit out of google.
posted by tmt at 12:36 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by tmt at 12:36 PM on May 28, 2010
I just started using Chromium instead of Firefox on my netbook, and there aren't any huge differences. Mostly, I wanted to see if Flash would run faster (it doesn't). Anyway, I'm sticking with Chrom[e](ium), mainly because when it imported my history, bookmarks, and passwords from Firefox, it moved instead of copying them. Mainly I'm too lazy to type out URLs I visit a lot. Too much in the habit of typing M-E-T-(Down)-(Enter)!
posted by maus at 12:43 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by maus at 12:43 PM on May 28, 2010
If with a smart-ass response video, Opera is still a distant 4th.
posted by clvrmnky at 12:58 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by clvrmnky at 12:58 PM on May 28, 2010
I'M SENDING YOU THIS TELEGRAM COMMA IN THE HOPE THAT YOU WILL POST SOMETHING AMUSING FROM MY ACCOUNT THAT IS IN KEEPING WITH THIS POST STOP ANYTHING WILL DO STOP
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 1:15 PM on May 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
posted by sodium lights the horizon at 1:15 PM on May 28, 2010 [5 favorites]
im using an FTL browser and posted this comment in June. PS Everyone stay out of Mexico.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:22 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:22 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Opera is the browser I really want to love, as it includes just about everything I bolt onto Firefox. I even ran it off a flash drive for about three months. However, Google applications are still hostile to it, and I keep wondering why I need yet another non-Cocoa web browser.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 2:04 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by KirkJobSluder at 2:04 PM on May 28, 2010
An under-advertised feature of Opera is "Unite", which returns to me the ability to listen to my home music collection from work. I used to do this with SimplifyMedia, which is in the process of shutting down, then moved to Lala, which was then bought by Apple and is scheduled to shut down in a couple days.
Unity is also a cool framework for embedded networked applications, so there are a bunch of interesting free widgets, including chat, games, controlled file sharing, and the like.
posted by dylanjames at 2:21 PM on May 28, 2010
Unity is also a cool framework for embedded networked applications, so there are a bunch of interesting free widgets, including chat, games, controlled file sharing, and the like.
posted by dylanjames at 2:21 PM on May 28, 2010
Wow, that Opera browser is sitting on a very fast internet connection.
posted by HumanComplex at 2:38 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by HumanComplex at 2:38 PM on May 28, 2010
Too much in the habit of typing M-E-T-(Down)-(Enter)!
On Safari, I just do M-(enter). So, uh, nyah nyah.
posted by davejay at 2:42 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
On Safari, I just do M-(enter). So, uh, nyah nyah.
posted by davejay at 2:42 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is hilarious!
My parents live a couple hundred metres from Opera's main offices in Oslo. And I could see their building from my High School.
posted by MaiaMadness at 3:12 PM on May 28, 2010
My parents live a couple hundred metres from Opera's main offices in Oslo. And I could see their building from my High School.
posted by MaiaMadness at 3:12 PM on May 28, 2010
and a password manager that actually works
Passwords are the main thing I could never get to work properly in Opera - I mosatly used it to keep the work Analytics/Webmaster Tools/Yahoo Site Explorer logons separate from my personal ones. Endless cycles of looping back to the login page after logging in, but if I went and manually typed the URL I wanted to access into the address bar I was logged in.
posted by robertc at 3:15 PM on May 28, 2010
Passwords are the main thing I could never get to work properly in Opera - I mosatly used it to keep the work Analytics/Webmaster Tools/Yahoo Site Explorer logons separate from my personal ones. Endless cycles of looping back to the login page after logging in, but if I went and manually typed the URL I wanted to access into the address bar I was logged in.
posted by robertc at 3:15 PM on May 28, 2010
People overlook the fact that Opera has a built-in mail client. I overlooked it for ages. Now I've been using it for a couple of years and it's probably the best mail-client I've ever used.
posted by Hogshead at 3:55 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by Hogshead at 3:55 PM on May 28, 2010
I posted online access form. Voice recognition doesn't seem as good as people say. Nexus 1. Fro yo works better.
posted by seanyboy at 4:48 PM on May 28, 2010
posted by seanyboy at 4:48 PM on May 28, 2010
the mail part never worked for me, must be my isp that could not understand it.
Chrome is now my default, but i am a longtime opera fan.
The best parts of chrome, like the top 10 choices on opening a new tab, still works way better in opera. where they stole it from!
Have been a huge fan for many years, the most intuitive browser, tab management has always been superior!
And snappy, scrolls smoother, it used to have problems with some flickr buttons, but that is all fixed now too.
posted by daveeza at 4:49 PM on May 28, 2010
Chrome is now my default, but i am a longtime opera fan.
The best parts of chrome, like the top 10 choices on opening a new tab, still works way better in opera. where they stole it from!
Have been a huge fan for many years, the most intuitive browser, tab management has always been superior!
And snappy, scrolls smoother, it used to have problems with some flickr buttons, but that is all fixed now too.
posted by daveeza at 4:49 PM on May 28, 2010
Too much in the habit of typing M-E-T-(Down)-(Enter)!
Ctrl + 1 = MetaFilter on Opera for me.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 5:45 PM on May 28, 2010
Ctrl + 1 = MetaFilter on Opera for me.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 5:45 PM on May 28, 2010
Youtube just crashed Firefox for me. Take from that what you will.
Flash sucks and Firefox doesn't isolate it adequately.
posted by blockhead at 8:11 PM on May 28, 2010
Flash sucks and Firefox doesn't isolate it adequately.
posted by blockhead at 8:11 PM on May 28, 2010
I guess I don't understand why some folks get so het up about browsers.
Agreed, ideally it should be about what you prefer and those of us in development have only to worry about using standards. I find speed currently doesn't matter to many folk whatsoever though of course with web base applications it will become a factor. Fortunately, thanks to Google and the ease of updating HTML via a CMS, the argument against using Flash is a lot easier these days, the argument against supporting IE 6 far less so.
I can't stand Opera personally. Try it everytime a new version comes out and put it in the trash along with Safari. Firefox I likes, but Chrome is a close second.
posted by juiceCake at 9:26 PM on May 28, 2010
Agreed, ideally it should be about what you prefer and those of us in development have only to worry about using standards. I find speed currently doesn't matter to many folk whatsoever though of course with web base applications it will become a factor. Fortunately, thanks to Google and the ease of updating HTML via a CMS, the argument against using Flash is a lot easier these days, the argument against supporting IE 6 far less so.
I can't stand Opera personally. Try it everytime a new version comes out and put it in the trash along with Safari. Firefox I likes, but Chrome is a close second.
posted by juiceCake at 9:26 PM on May 28, 2010
swift: "I posted this comment from Metafilter."
"The poster is commenting from INSIDE THE SERVER"
posted by idiopath at 9:58 PM on May 28, 2010
"The poster is commenting from INSIDE THE SERVER"
posted by idiopath at 9:58 PM on May 28, 2010
Aww, Opera. You're so cute. Someone will care about you someday! Yes they will! Yes - they - will! (gives Opera a noogie)
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:24 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by DecemberBoy at 11:24 PM on May 28, 2010 [1 favorite]
Opera Mini was pretty nifty on my (deceased - sob sob sob) PalmTX.
Once I, ummmm, got a JVM on it...
posted by Samizdata at 12:03 PM on May 29, 2010
Once I, ummmm, got a JVM on it...
posted by Samizdata at 12:03 PM on May 29, 2010
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