How did you find out about (old) Opera?
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Nothing fancy here.
At the time Opera was just included on some shareware CDs, attached to some IT magazines here (in Italy).
BTW I started using it when I got my first cellular connection in '98.
Given the "speed" of mobile data at the time (9600 bps, then 14400 bps) the image toggle button, and the intelligent cache was a must have. Later the opera turbo function improved further the Opera superiority.
After 17 years my cellular connection speed is over 50Mbps, but Opera strengths are still applicable, given the unlimited data plans are rare (if not existent at all).
The above is just what make my start using opera, then I started to appreciate all other unique features at the point of making me addict
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I recall reading an article about Opera in 1999 - I believe it was 3.62. At that time it was shareware - run it for 30 days, to use it after that requires a license. At that time it would still fit on a 1.44 MB floppy, and would run in Windows 3.1. I saved a copy for possible use on my old 386 SX laptop (required a very large lap), but it wasn't very good otherwise. Never did use it on the laptop.
In about July of 2000, I decided to install Linux on my desktop system I'd gotten the previous Christmas, the version I bought came on 7 CDs which included 2 CDs of non-open source software and included a copy of Opera - probably version 5. The other browsers available for Linux at the time were the old Netscape (junk) and Konqueror (KDE web browser - interesting but somewhat buggy at times), so Opera was my default browser in Linux. (Technically, I suppose they must have also had the text-mode browser Links and its cousin Lynx, but who really wanted to use a text-mode browser?)
In 2003, I read about the Opera 7 Preview somewhere. Barring a few bugs (which I joined the forum in November of that year to report) I was really impressed with it, and it quickly became my primary browser in Windows. Not that it lasted too long - I inherited my brother's computer. He'd finally decided to get internet service but his antivirus was long expired and likewise he'd never updated his old Windows (since he didn't have internet service for about a year prior), so within a week he'd gotten every virus known and could no longer even boot Windows. So of course I wiped it and installed โฆ for about 4 years I only had Linux. But anyway, stayed with Opera as my primary - or even only - browser all those years ... just not all on Windows. :p
I joined Vivaldi when they closed down MyOpera. A couple of months ago they asked me to be a tester for their new browser. It's not quite at a point where I can consider it my primary browser yet, but it is close.
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At one time I perused shareware sites. That was before the current condition of the genre deteriorated. For some reason, Opera was referenced on one of those SW sites, even though it was a demo/purchase deal and not shareware. People should understand that shareware was a good thing many years ago! Anyway, I liked Opera, and forked over the mooolah for it. I used it exclusively on Windows for quite a while. When the FreeBSD and Solaris versions arrived with the new free Opera offering, I used them as well. Recently, security issues have caused me to re-evaluate the browsers I'm using. I'm still in that "re-evaluation" stage โฆ
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It's been so long now I don't remember clearly exactly where I finally stumbled on Opera, but I was never completely satisfied with IE or Netscape, and was sort of continually searching for something better on and off. I came across Opera 5 on some shareware or downloading site on the web and started messing with it, banner ad and all, and had finally become so smitten by the time Opera 6 came around that I caved in and bought a license.
You'd have had to pry it out of my cold, dead hands before 15 came along.
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I read about it in an old Wired magazine in 1998: web.archive.org/web/20000831171727/http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,10026,00.html
Was pretty active in the old-old Opera forums back in the early 3 series. When looking at Opera's website instructions (I think for plugin installation, though I'm not certain), I noticed some outdated sections and reported them. I have always thought it's not useful just to complain without a suggested solution, so I also wrote what I thought the updated text might look like. Shortly afterward I was invited to be a tester.
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in 1995 as BBs's were eneding their run, I came across a beta vesion 2.1a or something like that. I installed it on my PII 60hz black and white laptop. I have been using and being an Opera cheerleader ever since. Being in the internet support industry for the past 15 years, I would consider myself a power user. The ability to customize the broswer to make a functional tool for work has been my primary reason for using this. Welcome back to serving your loyal fans!
R3p0
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The ability to customize the broswer to make a functional tool for work has been my primary reason for using this. Welcome back to serving your loyal fans!
R3p0Hear, hear!
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It was 2007 and I was in Europe with a dead laptop, an iPod, and a flash drive. I had managed to save the data from my laptop on the iPod, but otherwise felt a bit adrift. The flash drive was a U3 flash drive which had some software installed that gave it a pseudo-Start Menu in the taskbar, from which you could run portable apps. Opera was one of their most prominent browsers, so I decided to give it a shot, and was utterly amazed at its functionality. Coming from IE, it was like jumping from the stone age straight to the space age. After I got back home and got my laptop repaired, I kept using Opera, and used it for the next eight years, even as its current owners ran it into the ground.
No more, though - I've already switched my desktop to using Vivaldi as the default and totally replaced it on my tablet. I'm already so impressed with what I've seen and eager to see what's to come I'm going all in.
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I seem to remember I got started somewhere around 3.6. I've been playing around with BeOS a bit, I think my first contact with Opera was because of BeOS.
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My older brother introduced me to the Opera 7.
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It was probably the mid '90sโฆ I just purchased an IBM desktop (386, refurbished) that had been a PoS machine and had a good modem in it. Upgraded to Windows 3.1.1 and was never satisfied with either IE or Netscape (though it was my primary browser).
Later I found Opera on a disc (floppy) with some computer magazine. There was no going back after that and until ver. 15 I always promoted it to both friends and colleagues.
I still use it for certain things (the bookmark manager, download manager, torrent client, ability to use dozens of tabs, customization...) as it is installed. Am now playing with multiple browsers (not ideal as all my bookmarks are a mess) to see what can replace it. So far Vivaldi is a front runner. -
Fravia
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Got introduced to Opera by a the IT guy at my school, back in 1999, back then the alternative was either Mozilla which was becoming a bloated monster by that time, or IE (shudder).
I was really impressed with the speed and customization options and started learning all the tricks to become a power-user.
From 2001-2002 studying abroad, living on a tight budget, my internet connection was limited to a 56k dial-up, and being able to turn off images in Opera saved me a lot of time. Who needs images when you have proper alt-text right?!
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Included in Puppy Linux Retro edition
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After one of the many IE security bugs my whole family was moved onto Opera xD - So I just was told don't use IE use Opera! xD And did until chrome came along.
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I knew Opera as a company since I was little, but I only used the browser about 5-6 years ago back in college.
FireFox was the browser alternative back then. But eventually, aside from a few add-ons I use till now, it's not really cutting it for me anymore. Then I tried Opera starting with version 9 and never looked back.
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I first started using Opera sometime in the mid 90's before or near the time I believe Microsoft came out with their first browser. I used Opera as my main browser until they switched from ver 12.1?. I now use several browsers with no favorites. Vivaldi looks promising I believe they deserve a round of applause for the hard work and time they put into this project so far.
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As a student I had a part-time job for a while with a quaint little Internet provider (twenty or so employees, most of them Apple fans (long before that became the norm), working out of a converted high-street bakery, trying to stand out from the Internet big boys, personal house calls to help people set up their mail or whatever, pizza for everyone on Fridays, etc.).
One of my colleagues, just before handing off the helpdesk for me to take over, showed me this interesting beta version of a browser made by a similarly quirky bunch of guys in Norway. Since half of the "work" on the helpdesk was killing time between calls, I played around with it a bit - although I remember I thought it was a bit of a mess with it's side-panel and multiple windows. This would have been the one of the first public betas - 2.10 or 3.0 I think (back in 1996 or 1997).
Then when I was doing work experience at a science/engineering lab in the middle of nowhere I was getting very frustrated trying to do my research and mail on the ancient PC they'd lumbered me with (an old 80286 or something, I think). Everything was so damned slow to load and run. Then I remembered that weird little browser which fitted on a floppy but ran very light. Downloaded it (3.21, probably) and was immediately hooked on the difference it made on that slow old machine.
Several keycracks later, and it was the browser of choice wherever I was working. Tried the first integrated mail client so I could drop Eudora. Was initially sceptical of but later in love with M2 - after that was a total Opera bore to anyone and everyone. :woohoo:
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dont remeber how i came over opera, but started using it at v3 and been using opera since then but now im starting to get more and more fond of vivaldi. So i will delete opera when vivaldi has some more features ++
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I think I read about it in a magazine column, and immediately liked it when I tried it. It replaced Netscape 4.7 as my primary browser I do remember I paid for a licence almost immediately to get rid of the banner advert. I also remember thinking that it was a bad sign when it went free; and ended up being proved right
I tried the the new "Opera" but it was so different to the old one that it was a waste of time. Have been using a mixture of Opera 12 and IE since then. So I hope Vivaldi will give me back the features I lost when real Opera died, and that it is successful.