Well, Opera doesn't work right anymore on my home computer (since the 9.01 update). I can't log in to netflix or Gmail. Others on the Opera forums are complaining as well, but the official response is "clear you cache and cookies and restart Opera" which doesn't work. I really liked Opera better when it was a commercial (as opposed to freeware) program because as a paying customer, I could file bugs and get a direct response from the company. Now, my options are to either pay for support (more expensive than the damn program used to be) or ask on the forums (which didn't help).

So, I'm going to move to Firefox until the next release of Opera. Maybe if I like it better until then, I won't bother getting the next opera.

Sucks because Opera is so much faster

Oh well. So far I got adblock and I'm going to get the mouse gestures.

Still works on mine.
0_o

Yeah, that's the problem. Since it only affects a small group of users, they don't seem to be taking it very seriously I was really hopeful when the 9.02 version came out, but they didn't address it.

I can get it to let me log in if I start a brand new profile. But then after closing the browser and reopening it, back to the same old problem (redirects to the login over and over again).

I actually downloaded the latest Opera a few days ago for the first time in ages. The default look and feel is superior to that of FireFox, but having to tweak it just to use Gmail & Gmail Chat was a bit irritating. I couldn't get it working with Google Calendar either.

I haven't had any problems with Opera since the upgrade.

As a matter of fact, Gmail seems to work better now (chat, calendar, and all).

Can you roll back to an older version until the issue gets worked out?

Also, a few more useful extensions:
Adblock Filterset.G Updater - An automatic updater of the Filterset.G filter for adblock
Tabbrowser Preferences - adds a bunch of options to tab handling. I never liked Firefox's default tab handling options. This extension makes it much better.
Sessionsaver - Like in Opera, will save your last session and restore it when you restart. You can also create and save custom sessions (useful when pulling up a whole bunch of tabs on reference for a programming project)
Linkification - Turns text web addresses to hyperlinks.
DownThemAll - A better download manager for Firefox. Allows for resumable and multi-part downloads.
Disable Targets for Downloads - Prevents downloads from opening an empty window/tab.
Ie Tab - Opens an Internet Explorer tab, for the few sites that still need it.

I also use StumbleUpon, FoxyTunes, and VideoDownloader, but those don't enhance the functionality of the browser per se, they're just nice toys to play with. Especially FoxyTunes.

Yeah, Opera is pretty blazing. Firefox takes a while to startup, but honestly there's never been a time when it can't keep up with me.

Check out the recommended and top extensions on the Firefox site. Oh, and get Adblock Plus instead of Adblock. Then get the Adblock Filterset.G updater. With those two, you're always up to date with the latest ad blacklists. I see virtually no ads on the internet anymore.

Oh, and you might try Firefox 2.0 RC3. I like it a whole lot more than 1.5.

When you say "faster", what do you mean exactly? I've never understood how a browser affects speed.

Opera is the fastest browser to load and respond to user interactions. Followed by IE and then Firefox.

Seconding this.

The interface speed is faster. Using the back/forward buttons are faster, it loads everything from cache quickly. Mouse gestures are more sensitive. Opening windows/tabs is instant with no delay (unlike firefox tabs). The interface is faster, everything from simply clicking the "File" menu and waiting for the menu to show up.

I don't think most people notice it as much as I do, but I definitely do. After using opera for years going to firefox seems like my processor lost half its clock speed

Yes, I third the 2.0RC3 suggestion.

Also I recommend Tab Mix Plus for tab features. I like it more than Tabbrowser Prefs.

However, you might want to disable TMP's Undo Tabs and Crash Recovery, since Firefox 2 already has them... BTW TMP also has a session manager included.

Greasemonkey and Stylish are good extensions if you like messing around with web page layouts... Greasemonkey injects JavaScript while Stylish injects CSS.

Web Developer Toolbar is excellent for ... web developers. TryAgain automatically will retry a site if the DNS fails or the connection times out. It also adds links to Google Cache and the Wayback Machine for that page.

Nightly Tester Tools is good if you want to force extensions to work with FF (although I find it slightly glitchy... better to just hack the extension's install.rdf)

FlashGot allows for integration with LOTS of download managers.

Console^2 adds some functionality to the Error Console. Most useful for web developers using CSS or JavaScript.

Plus I also recommend the previous recommended Adblock, Adblock Filterset G, and IETab.

The minimal speed improvement gained by opera is FAR outweighed by the fact that it doesn't display some very simple things correctly. Furthermore, it's the least customizable browser of them all.

But the issues with google pages aren't the fault of opera: Google Inc is the worst web design company... ever. NONE of their pages validate. NOTHING they make is coded very well. Opera tends to make a bigger deal out of these things than other browsers, but you have to blame Google for their inability to realize standards.

JediKirby: Actually there is a worse company. Remember when microsoft.com would serve broken pages to Opera User Agents?

You don't think that was intentional?

I don't consider the speed improvement minimal, and in fact, the kinds of customizations I like to do are much easier in Opera (and possibly impossible in firefox). Opera has a true MDI interface, not just tabs. I can resize and position windows inside the Opera window, they aren't forced to be full pages. I can also configure the toolbars on the the main window and subwindows independently.

Bah, doesn't matter now anyway since it's borked on gmail and netflix. More sucky, I have the same version at work and it logs in fine. Ugh.

I disagree about IE. Maybe IE6 is marginally faster because of its simplicity, but IE7's UI is really slow around tabs. I frequently have several tabs open, middle click away a few of them and it hangs until it sorts everything out. I also get weird things where it shows large tooltips when I hover over the tabs that, for some reason, slow everything down.

What specifically about Firefox is slow in terms of user response? I'm a very fast, click happy user and have never had any problems with it. Not that it couldn't be improved but still.

Also, doesn't Opera do more aggressive page caching? Forward and back are lightning fast, but I still have to hit refresh to get a true refresh, I think. Firefox's "memory leak" feature, the page caching, I find quite nice. On occasions Firefox's memory usage has climbed over 100 MB, and that's crazy. But 50 or 60 MB for a modern browser on a modern PC is not a big deal.

Also, Kirby, there is a lot more to web programming than validation. Why is it that you just hopped on the validation bandwagon four weeks ago and all of a sudden you're in an authoritative position to judge Google's code?

I'll never switch from Opera. I like everything about it.

Many people try to say "Well, you can just get an extension for Firefox and then you have everything Opera has." My counter-argument is that everything you need with Opera comes with Opera.

Anyway. But if things don't work, I guess you have to switch.

Sucks.

I'm not just talking about validation, but that's all I personally know about. And I'm not trying to be authoritative: The web design/programming circles I travel in agree. Google has lazy programmers.