Just read my bro’s blog and saw this.
All I can say is muahahahaha =p
But really I like Opera and I have liked it since version 3.21 =D
Yes its not perfect, yes it has ads (well only if you dont register/ crack it =P) but for me its all that I want from a browser and possibly even more I have yet to find out =D
To answer my bro’s question of him not seeing much difference is that Firefox is a more plain simple browser for those people looking for just an IE replacement. Opera on the other hand is more of a power browser offering more features (integrated mail client, IRC, PIM, notes) without having to install extensions. Speaking of extensions my friend installed a compatible extension for FF 1.0 and it caused his comp to crash and lose all his FF bookmarks.
Both are great browsers I admit. Opera isnt perfect either, it has some problems here and there. The most daunting ‘problem’ for new users I would guess is the ads; I bet there are people who believe that the ads are spyware but that is not true (Refer here). If you dont like the ads perhaps you could ask your university / school to get FREE licenses thats what I’m doing now :P
Firefox does support somethings that Opera doesnt. For some reason I cant access some https sites on Opera because Opera says it requests a login authentication method that is not supported but it works in FF *shrug*. MathML works better in FF the last time I checked.
Anyway I recommend trying both but for me Opera works the best and the way I like it. Customizable, feature rich, totaly a different and refreshing way to broswe the web and I wouldn’t have it any other way =D