Widgets VS. Extensions

Hello, I am a long time Firefox user, but recently after hearing how secure Opera is, and how many more great features it has integrated in I have decided to make a switch and try it out. One of the main reasons I have not switched until recently is because Firefox has so many great extensions.

When mentioning this to an Opera user, most always come back with "Opera has extensions, they are called "Widgets". So keeping that in mind I decided to install Opera again and give a try. However, the "Widgets" I have managed to find mostly seem to be silly little games and minor amusements.

Firefox has extensions such as these too, but they also have very useful extensions such as "Noscript" (A security tool which blocks Java/Javascripting and provides a panel to give or take away scripting permissions instantly), "Ad Block" (A tool which allows you to filter any element in any page effectively and permanently blocking ads or anything for that matter), "Image Zoom" (A tool that allows you to resize any image on any page to any size), and "Web Developer" (A tool that provides you with a whole multitude of functions for web developing and otherwise including grabbing source codes, forcing backgrounds fonts text sizes, and much more).

Maybe Opera has these functions already, or I am just missing the widgets that provide these functions. I don't really know. Maybe someone here does. If Opera has no way of performing these functions, then someone really ought to design widgets or write these features into the main package. Although Opera may be more secure right out of the box, I am not so sure that it is more secure then Firefox running Noscript and Ad Block. Java scripts are really dangerous from untrusted sites, and I don't see why browser creators always assume that you either want to run all java/java scripting, or no java/java scripting at all. The truth is, I think most people would like to run the scripts only when they need them on specific trusted sites. Doing so is the ultimate adware/spyware/trojan/malware blocker.

If Opera could perform all the functions I listed above, then it truly would be the ultimate browser and have my full loyalty. But until I figure out how to do those things with Opera then Firefox is seemingly more useful to me.

"Widgets" is not a good answer to Firefox having extensions.

Much of what extensions do Opera has built-in. Opera also uses custom buttons to do many things. The best one-stop-shopping answer to your question is, Top 150 Popular Firefox Extensions and Opera.

A few specific answers:
You can modify script behavior with, F12 > Edit site preferences
Adblock, Right-click the page and select "Adblock".
Opera has full page zoom, on the toolbar and shortcuts.
WebDev tools, look in the menus, Tools > Advanced > Web developer tools you may have to install them, in which case instructions are provided.

Welcome to the wrong forum linguapura

Originally posted by linguapura:

Noscript

Tools - Quick Preferences (F12) > Uncheck Enable Javascript
Is there an equivalent of NoScript for Opera?

Originally posted by linguapura:

Ad Block

Tools > Advanced > Blocked Content
See http://operawiki.info/BlockAdvertisements
http://operawiki.info/OperaAdblock

Originally posted by linguapura:

Image Zoom

+/- and View - Zoom will also zoom in/out images but if you want a menu, see:
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=2102010

Originally posted by linguapura:

Web Developer

http://operawiki.info/WebDevToolbar
and View > Styles menu for stylesheets

Originally posted by linguapura:

I am just missing the widgets that provide these functions.

No Widgets run in separate window and they cannot interact with pages open in opera.

Originally posted by linguapura:

I think most people would like to run the scripts only when they need them on specific trusted sites

Block Javascripts/etc. globally then enable them on the sites you want using Right click > Edit site preferences.. Or Preferences-Advanced-Content-Manage Site Preferences..


Also see these links:
Opera Custom Buttons
Cool Opera Features
Opera Tips & Tricks
Opera Tutorial
Opera Performance Enhancements

UserJS
UserJS.org
User Javascripts - by Ayush
Opera 9 FAQ - by Tamil

Well those are at least somewhat solutions to the problems. I haven't tried the web developer tools yet, but the scripting and zoom works as advertised. Only thing is the noscript feature is still easier to use and control. The right click site preferences menu is a working solution but could use a little tweaking to make it more cut and dry like on Noscript. For instance if there were just an on/off button that controlled both java and java scripting that would be better. Also it would be good if all the domains running scripts on the page were listed individually so you could turn scripting off or on for each one as needed. Some sites run scripts across different domains. Noscript does all that and remembers which pages are allowed to run scripts and which aren't. But at least there IS a solution for the scripting besides everything on, or everything off.

As for the zooming, good, but could also use some tweeaking. Zooming in on a page is good, but blowing up a certain image or portion of text individually without effecting the rest of the page is even better. In firefox, this is precisely what the image zoom extension does. Again, there may still be a way to do that and I haven't figured it out yet. There is a lot to learn with Opera since it does have so many features and all.

I will still probably stick with Opera though since it does have solutions to those problems, and it runs a lot more smoothly then firefox and seemingly has fewer bugs. It is good that it is free now too. I like to support open source software. I don't know if Opera quite qualifies as open source yet, but it must be getting there since it is included in a few Linux distros now.

Thanks everyone...

Originally posted by linguapura:

if there were just an on/off button that controlled both java and java scripting that would be better.

To disable/enable globally, just press F12 and untick the options.
For site prefs, Drag this button to a toolbar :
button
This button will toggle Java and Javascript in site preferences of current page (it will open the dialog then click OK after toggling the options )
button
button

Originally posted by linguapura:

Zooming in on a page is good, but blowing up a certain image or portion of text individually without effecting the rest of the page is even better.

See the link in my last post.

Zooming in on a page is good, but blowing up a certain image or portion of text individually without effecting the rest of the page is even better.

There is a userjs that does that somewhere. Which reminds me, I wish user javascripts were easier to install. Please Opera, you've already got all that power, now just make it slightly easier for users to use it!

The only problem as far as I see and understand from the site preferences Java / Javascripting vs The firefox noscript extension is that unlike noscript you are either turning on Java/Javascript for the site your on or its off.

In noscript by default all are blocked, when you click the icon in the status bar you have a choice of temporaily allow <webaddress>script or perma allow it or block.

On may sites there are several scripts running ie. Ive noticed often on so say secure sites Where your entering credit card details theres a script that needs to be running for the main site but sometimes theres another script ie google running in the background, no doubt just monitoring what your buying,

Either way I like the ability and functionality of noscript in firefox over anything else Ive seen as
it lists what scripts are running and gives you the choice simply and easily. Makes me feel more secure so for now Ill stick with firefox for extra security when needed but use opera when security isnt such an issue ie general browsing as I find it faster and nicer to use than firefox.

Get the functionality of noscript or an extension of it written for opera and youd have a winner

Not having a NoScript extension or Widget for Opera is forcing me backto Firefox. Eve though Opera is faster and more stable I can't stand seeing all the CPU slices going to unecessary Flash adverts somewhere on the page. After a weeks worth of browsing and keeping my week of 11 tabs of browsing history open Opera is taking 95% CPU 24/7 and is holding 550MB of RAM due to Flash adverts. Firefox with Session Saver can hold open 50 tabs and with NoScript only takes 25% CPU and stays under 300MB RAM.
Please before dismissing this out of hand try Firefox with NoScript installed to see it's functionality. The typical webpage has several inlaid streams from other websites all trying to run scripts. Being able to block google-analytics and tribalfusion scripts while still allowing TV.com scripts to run is extrordinairlily useful. NoScript upscrolls a little dialogue window from the bottom of the screen whenever it blocks scripts. There is a button there to then choose which of all the sites it blocked to give permissions to. It's not possible to block the content by hand for some sites are using webbugs and can't be found so rightclick->block content option isn't available.

Of all extensions I've added to Firefox over the years it is the must-have-never-be-without extension of all time.


I'm also missing the spell-check feature of Firefox that is always on...

Post edited Tuesday, 29. April 2008, 18:14:20

I'm using Ubuntu with FF3.0 and Opera 9.5

Opera impresses me with it's rapid zooming while FF3 is just more comfy as I've been on it since 0.9

One thing escapes me for Opera is how the mouse gestures cannot somehow be displayed. As in, I cannot enable the trail for the mouse gestures. With FF, when I install any of the numerous gesture extensions, I can select the color, size etc of the gesture trails. I can see what I gestured. For opera, I'm gesturing blind and hoping my gesture is not misinterpreted as a close all tabs or windows.

On FF, if I change my mind for a gesture halfway through, or if I find my gesture detected wrongly, I just circle a few more times so that it is ignored as an invalid gesture. I can do so because I can see the gestures that the extension detected. For Opera, I don't know, until opera carries out the action, which may be too late to react.

So pray tell me, is there any hack or mod for opera that can display the egnimatic mouse trails? Thanks!

what about a reference manager such as zotero?