Defending Opera
From Joe Clark’s How very hard indeed it is to defend Opera:
Face it, fanboys: You are tinkerer-geeks who use Windows or Linux because you love it when shit goes wrong. That lets you get all ninja on your commodity chopshop Wintel box’s arse and fix it.
Hilarious.
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Roger Johansson is a Swedish web professional specialising in web standards, accessibility, and usability. More about me and this site.
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Comments
(I'm still laughing after I read Joe's comments)
Opera fans are a quite devoted type...but if Joe is uncovering problems - then he knows what he's talking about! I've read some people refer to Opera (at least the Win version at any rate) as the best of all the browsers currently available. I'm not quite so convinced...but that could always be changed I suppose! :)
I'm one one those people who couldn't go back to an other browser. I use Opera on Windows and Linux and I love it.
I resent anybody giving Opera a bad name by getting all fanatic about. It's hard enough these days to get anyone to pay for software.
Just try it at least. There is a free (of charge) version.
I found the article equally funny, I used to use Opera all the time but the latest versions have just gone downhill. Does a browser need support for Torrents? I think not.
He makes a lot of good points, but some of the things he complains about are simply changes from mozilla to opera, we can't expect everything to be the same can we. His points about the toolbar are correct, and definetly a problem. For such a customizable app that specific set of functions are really frustrating.
I'm amused at his outrage over bile-spitting Opera fanboys combined with his explosion of Mac fanboy bile spitting... all in the one post.
I serously think Joe has lost it. His first article about Opera (mind you, a technical preview of the first 8.x for Mac, not even a beta!) has been thoroughly debunked, and all he could say basicly came down to "I'm a guru, you're not, I know everything, you know f***ing shit". While I do agree that keyboard shortcuts were skewed to SOME extent in that version, most of the stuff he wrote were just plain lies and "I want it this way, so it HAS to be this way because I'm oh-so-great". BTW, he intentionally changed Opera's default layout just so he can trash it.
His latest Opera-related article is even worse; he says it's still hard to defend Opera because a browser that's NOT Opera has problems rendering his site on a mobile phone - I mean, is this guy on heavy drugs, or what?
Also, for a guy that's supposed to be an usability expert, he sure does invest major effort in his site looking extremely bad and using so many font faces with varying sizes that it's in many people's eyes as close to using Comic Sans as anything.
Hilarious? No.
Sad? Almost as sad as SAYING it's hilarious.
Matt, be a dear and actually read my posts before responding to them, will you?
Parenthetical note: Opera fanboy Matt, like his confreres, again accuses me of lying. (Apparently a discussion of how much customization Opera's defaults need in order to look halfway similar to a native Mac application constitutes lying, too. I guess we have to live with Opera's defaults.)
Does he also not know that I'm straightedge, hence could not possibly be on "heavy drugs"?
Lemme check my CSS to see how many "font faces in varying sizes" I use. [Wanders away for a while] Right. Yeah. I do that. It's called design, to whatever extent I'm capable of it.
I never said anything about being a usability expert. Or was I lying about that, too?
Free advice for Opera fanboys: If a Macintosh browser adept accuses you of extreme overreactions and namecalling, it might be a bad idea to do exactly that in the comment field of somebody else's site.
Is it not ironic that the rabid Mac fanboy Joe Clark complains about Opera fanboys? Joe Clark has obviously never been victim of the Mac community's common efforts to squelch any criticism of Apple and Mac. Indeed, he is one of those people, even going to the ridiculous step of calling Mac users "a higher form of life".
Joe Clark, we have seen fanboyism, and you are "fanboy" incarnated. Don't throw stones in that glass house of yours.
Well, guess what: I don't use Opera almost at all; a few minutes daily to check up my work, and even that's an if. I use Firefox to an extent (currently posting through it) and - shock, awe, utter astonishment - Safari!
You're a hypocrite and a liar, Joe. Every single bad thing you wrote about Opera has been disputed with cold, hard facts, and the only response you have is bitching, swearing and trolling.
God only knows what you meant by trashing Opera because a browser that's not Opera doesn't render your site properly - you're incoherent and uncapable of argumenting your thoughts and your actions.
I'm sorry for my wording, Roger. I know it violates your comment guidelines, but there's nothing else to write.
I offended an opera user once on sitepoint. I have to say, I will watch out to never do so again, they seem to be an unhappy and vindictive bunch. I had no idea a browser could be 'that' important to someones sensativity.
Of course, I guess I do step up to defend the prowess of firefox, but its blind too as I dont bother with other browsers now. But at least I dont cut heads over it :)
Pathetic.
Like discussion on gfx cards or processors from competing vendors being a 'higher form of life'.
I agree with the OP here, it is just that one should not be a hater, I know exactly how JC feels though, I had operamail once and all of a sudden they started popup hell, so I emailed them asking them if they thought people would sign up for their email if they knew popup hell was going to happen? The response I got from them was at first adminspeak aka idiotspeak, and then all of a sudden I was getting responses from way too many individuals, they must have passed my email around the office, it was very bad. They acted like perverted sale pitchers and ignored responding to my question. I just logged in and got a welcome back message saying I have to login every 60 days to keep my account active, I haven't been there for years. wwwDOTfreewebsDOTcom/gmn17/
Oh hey I googled to here: http://www.brianbehrend.com/archives/2004/09/redesignonits.php I am not a spammer, I also don't have google ads or am trying to sell a webdev book, I got class.
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