Hey Folks,

As a very long member of the Internet community I discovered so many things how to enjoy the web in its best way. Beginning with Internet Explorer (well, maybe most of us did), I moved on to Avant and finally Firefox. But Firefox seems to get older, having several crashes and stuff. As a result of the impossibility to use Firefox still, I tried out Opera.

Luckily I did. Just after some time of experience with Opera I figered out the very advantages of this fine browser. Listed below, I'll show you which advantages in detail there are.

1.  Tabs in Opera differ a bit from the Firefox ones. First, all tabs in a window are visible. This means you don't have those Firefox'ish scroll through tabs. Instead, tabs will be scaled to a very min if many are opened. At first, this seams a bit confusing. But after some time you'll realise this is better, having an overview of all opened tabs at once.
2. Gestures... What the h is this? Well, mouse gesturing in Opera is the thing. I didn't realise them from the start using opera, but now I don't want to miss them anymore. All you need to do is hold the right mouse button and then move the cursor in a specific gesture. Example features are scrolling through opened tabs, window actions, such as closing the current tab, move to the next tab, reload page, and many many more.
3. Opera is so much faster then firefox and it crashes less. Nothing more to add, it simply is like that. Looking at your CPU usage will proof that.
4. Firefox users will love Firefox Sync. Did you know Opera has exactly the same since years? Firefox simply copied this features, called "Opera Link". With that you can sync between any opera you use, such as Opera Mini on mobiles, and opera browsers on several computers.
5. Now a point of different opinions. Once using Firefox I loved the costumizability with add ons. Opera doesn't have add ons. First I was dissapointed, then realised Do you really need add ons for simple browsing? The answer is no (I believe). Instead, you can set several "sidebar" features having functions like addons, there called "Panels". Soon you realise this method need very less CPU and RAM, which definitly is a win for Opera.
6. Another point of view, but in my opinion Opera's skin is so much better and cleaner then the one of other browsers.
7. Opera is costumizable to the max. You won't need addons, just drag and drop buttons where you want them to be etc.
8. Next, Opera has all functions loaded in tabs. Your history, your mail, downloads etc. are all unique tabs, so you don't have hundreds of windows opened for those features.
9. Now some little but also great things: Opera has one buttons for "intelligence". Once you're on a login site, you click this button and Opera automatically logs you in (if you have the password saved before). When you're not on a login page, you can use the button for use as "Next page". You're in a forum and don't want to click on the very tiny ">" link? Use your intelligent button instead! Apart from that, fullscreen mode workds very smooth and fast, such as zooming in and out of a page.
10. Last, the best thing is integration with Opera's really awesome Mail client. It is costumizable and has a very clever way to organize your mails.
11. The so called Panels before can also be used as bookmarks, better said Bookmarklets. Pages like delicious or ReadItLater support this, so it's easy to add the current opened site to one of those by just clicking a bookmark buttons, which can be placed right after the adress bar or anywhere else you want.

For my last point, let me show you how to use Opera in a specific situation:

You have many tabs opened, so you just see the iccons and not the title behind it any more. To close a tab, use a mouse gestures. In this case hold the right button and draw a line down, then to the right. Then tab is now closed and dependent on the behaviour after closing a tab, the next tab appears (can be the last activated, next in list, etc.). The scroll through the tabs, don't be silly to try to click the small tab buttons. Use your mouse wheel instead while you hold the right mouse button. If you have set the behaviour not the show a current opened tabs-list, then you scroll through the tabs in "realtime", it's so easy.

Your decision now which browser to use, but I hardly recommend Opera. Try it for a week, and see how it's working. After all, good look and much fun with this clever and easy way of browser :)

Cheers, Daniel