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I guess the problems I had with Opera 6.0b2 (see Odyssey 215) were widely experienced, because Opera 6 .0b3 three was released aday later with the following bugfixes.
• Bugs fixed in tabbed browsing and drag & drop. Beta 3 also works on OS 8.6, it had problems displaying text prior to Beta 3. Unicode is working much better now, both in the display and the user interface.
I decided to take another crack at it, and downloaded the 6.0 b 3 installer. Once again, I got the "cannot connect to server" dialog and a program freeze when I attempted to start up the browser while offline. I Force Quit, dialed up, and finally got Opera 6 to work for me for more than a minute or two without freezing or unexpectedly quitting. However, it up in the first hour's use, I had three unexpected quits, so there are still serious stability issues. On a brighter note, there are lots of things to like about Opera 6. It is quite fast on some Web pages, although definitely not as speedy or consistent in that department as Chimera 0.6. The "fastest browser in the world" slogan may be true for the PC version of Opera, but is not for the Mac at this stage of development. 
Opera steps outside the usual the browser interface conventions more than most. This gives the area at the top of the window and more cluttered appearance at the default settings, but it is highly customizable in the Preferences, so you can get rid of the clutter if you prefer, and features like the Google search field and zoom magnifications slider are cool and convenient. Speaking of the Preferences, they are excellent, and you can tailor Opera to fit your needs in many different areas. There is also an option to block popup ads, and a handy "Quick Preferences" submenu in the Opera Menu for easy access to frequently used settings. 
Opera is also gratifyingly small, although iCab still gets top honors in that category. Another area where Opera 6 shrines comparison to the Mozilla/Netscape/Chimera trio is in scrolling speed, which is satisfyingly zippy, proving that OS X applications really can scroll well and responsively on G3 machines like my Pismo. Back on the downside, I don't like the way Opera handles Bookmarks. I was able to import my bookmarks from Mozilla my HotList from iCab, but they live in separate windows, (as does Opera's own Bookmark list), and the links require a double-click. The conventional Bookmark configuration is better, and I like iCab's the best. Opera 6 also has no provision to save a Web page content as plain text, a major shortcoming for my purposes. Those issues, plus the shaky stability, would rule out my using Opera for everyday browsing at this stage of the game, although Opera is a interesting application, and I'm glad that the developers are apparently firmly committed to supporting the Mac platform. Indeed, yesterday, MacWorld U.K. reported that Opera Software's chief executive officer Jon von Tetzchner contends that Opera should be the default browser in all new Macs, and noting that:
Well, if they can get the stability problems licked, which I fully expect will happen, I would be much happier with Opera as the default Mac OS browser than I am with Internet Explorer, which I use only in emergencies. Along with new with language support for German and Japanese, some of the other product improvements in Opera 6 for Mac Beta 3 include improved rendering performance, improved font switching for better support of international Web pages, some UI tweaks and "a great deal of fixes since Beta 2," which included a series of other fixes related to the cookie manager, quick preferences, keychain in forms, and link bar. Further improvements in all of these areas will appear in the final Opera 6 for Mac version. Opera 6.0 for Mac is the first Opera desktop browser that has the Opera core as shared library. Inclusion of shared library support offers Mac application developers the ability to make use of Opera's superior rendering engine in their products. The shared library was co-developed with Macromedia and the result of an agreement to embed the Opera browser in Macromedia's Web authoring products from July 2, 2002. In the future, Web developers using Macromedia's tools on the Macintosh will be able to preview the pages they have created using Opera's rendering engine. Other interested developers can contact Opera to use the shared library in their applications and preview HTML pages in the Opera browser.
System requirements:
For more information, visit:
Follow-up to mouse misfires From Michael Snider Hi Charles-- Going back to Odyssey 213, I see you wrote "In the Classic OS you get a very positive and reliable response to mouse clicking. Not so in OS X in my experience, which I can only describe as ragged in this regard." So Krishna M. Sadasivam may very well have been referring mouse-clicks with his remark about ragged performance. (BTW--why isn't 213 in the Odyssey archives? I looked yesterday to check for the context, and didn't think until today of looking in recent news." So maybe the two of you should explore what your systems have in common--I still can't find other references to the problem, which I do not doubt you experience.
Best,
Hi Michael
Krishna has now discovered the genesis of his mouse clicking "raggedness." See below. Definitely not the same problem I'm having, as all of my pointing devices work flawlessly in OS 9. Since I experience "misfires" with both keystrokes (TypeIt4Me) and mouse clicks in OS X, that do not occur in OS 9 using the same hardware and equivalent software with the same computer, I continue to maintain that this is some sort of OS X issue. It may be at least partly idiosyncratic to my particular OS X installation, but it has been consistent from the time I first installed zero S X 10.0 and the 10.1 upgrade in November, 2001, and through all the subsequent version upgrades.
For example, often when I click on a menu title to bring it down, I get no response on the first click. A double-pump gets it, but this never happens in OS 9. It's the same as the behavior with keystroke triggers for TypeIt4Me macros. Nothing on the first attempt. Works with the second. Not an issue in OS 9.
Odyssey 213 should be showing up in the archive now. CGI input error. (mine)
Charles From Krishna M. Sadasivam Hi Charles, Last night, on a whim, I decided to try an experiment, to determine why my OSX clicking misfires were occurring. I replaced my Kensington Turbo Mouse Optical Pro with the stock Apple USB Pro Mouse I received when I first purchased my system. Instantly, I noticed that the Apple mouse was much more responsive on clicking. Granted, I'm sure a graphics card would speed the responsiveness a bit better, but at least the click was 'registered' properly each time. Upon further investigation and testing, I came to the conclusion that my Kensington mouse had a defective button. A call to Kensington's Customer Support confirmed it -- many people have already reported a similar problem with the Optical Pro, and the company is planning to send me a fresh new replacement (the Optical Elite) which should remedy things a bit. Kudos to Kensington! :) I don't think this will solve your OSX responsiveness problem, but it is something worth mentioning. Also, thanks for the tip on the 7500. The price seems reasonable for a PCI based card. Should I also consider AGP cards, in terms of getting better 2D performance? Or is the difference marginal? Thanks!
-Krishna
Hi Krishna;
I am glad to hear the you have found the problem, and that it is easily fixable. Apparently not the same issue on experiencing.
I would suggest trying the Radeon 7500 first. I think you will find a substantial improvement in Finder performance with Quartz Extreme supported, and QE also shunts some load off the main processor, so other functions should speed up a bit.
Charles
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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