Once again I was checking StatCounter – it’s my source for knowing which browsers I must test in. On that note, Woo hoo! Internet Explorer 6 is about 1% in the UK! RIP, please. The point however, is Opera.

There are a few trends on the statistics and popular sites such as ZDNet: It’s all about Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. Safari gets a look-in from time to time, but largely because it’s the forced browser on the iPad and iPhone which inflates it’s popularity (say, anyone remember the Microsoft anti-trust case surrounding Internet Explorer a while back?). What about Opera?

Let me tell you a few things about Opera, from a guy who uses every rendering engine, and a number of their UI shells*:

Opera has average performance for all tests in cutting edge browsers. “Only average?!” I hear you cry: The tests I refer to have all the browsers swapping places because they’re all optimised for certain types of work. The browsers optimise for certain types of work too, so some excel at some tests. Opera sits in the middle every time. This tells us that Opera is a mature and capable browser that beats every other browser in at least some performance related way. It’s very fast and capable of beating Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 in some areas.

Opera displays websites flawlessly as much as any browser does. Infact, I’ve had less issues with Opera than I have with Chrome, and I’m sure that’s partly due to Opera’s diligence in ensuring this – they’ve gone to the extraordinary step of including fixes for some badly written popular websites. It’s as accurate as any browser.

It’s secure. If you read my blog, you’ll remember the Diginotar certificate issue, and that Opera was the only one who didn’t actually need updating. I’m never going to pull the security through obscurity card with proprietary software because I believe the opposite to be true, but one truth is exposure: Hackers target whatever will give it them the best results. Opera at 1% usage in the UK is not the target of anyone serious. Every application has weaknesses, Opera isn’t even being targeted.

I would pitch the developer tools against Firebug and Chrome any day. Have you ever included a script via jQuery’s .append() function? Opera is the only browser at the time of writing that’ll handle it correctly AND give you a hint to which file was included.

Opera:

• It’s fast
• It displays websites properly
• It’s secure
• It has arguably the best developer tools

http://www.opera.com/

As a sidenote, Opera also comes with a mail reader, a news reader, an IRC client, an interesting social-esque server and works on almost everything: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and probably that old phone you have shoved in a drawer somewhere.

* A rendering engine is what does the work. Internet Explorer is Trident. Firefox and Fennec (mobile) are Gecko. Chrome and Safari are Webkit**. Opera is Presto.

** Webkit is a KDE project for their browser Konqueror. Apple liked it, and repackaged it. Google liked Apple’s work and continued it. Chrome is Safari. Safari is Konqueror. It all started with the Linux KDE project. Remember that when you next load your iPad, iPhone, Safari, Chrome or any number of the plethora of Webkit derivatives. The respect is due for Linux’s KDE.