I’ve tried Opera several times in the past, each time I used it for a short period, then returned to Firefox. The more recent tryout ended a week ago, when I used it for a few weeks loving it, but ultimately it came to and end, not all of the websites I frequent support it. One of these, most notably, is Google. Now, the main Google page, search, mail, etc work fine in Opera, it’s more of the smaller elements that are unsupported, such as Talk in Gmail (Gtalk) and Gcal. All of which I use regularly.

So I went back to FF and then I got to thinking, maybe I can match the awesomeness of Opera, in Firefox with extensions. That is when I came across this site. This guy had the same idea, but looks like he abandoned it, as it hasn’t been updated since 9/05 and most of the featured extensions are out-dated or defunct.

 I searched around and rounded up these extensions and came up with a list and added a few more. Here it is.

1. All in One Gesture - Allows the use of mouse gestures to control some functions. website download
2. Reload Every - A feature found in Opera that reloads a page/image at select intervals. website download
3. Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. website download
4. Tab Mix Plus - One of the best FF extensions I’ve seen. Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox’s tab browsing capabilities. website download
5. Download Manager Tweak - Allows FF’s download manager to be opened in a tab, like Opera. website download
6. PotoSideBar - It’s a sidebar. website download
7. MinimizeToTray - Allows you to minimize FF to systray (doesn’t work in Linux, but you can use alltray for this). website download
8. ImgLikeOpera - allows load only the images that you want in Firefox browser. website download
9. ExtendedStatusBar - Extended Statusbar adds an Opera-like statusbar for Firefox. website download
10. Google Notebook - Like Opera notes. website download
11. Menu Editor - With all of these extensions, your tools menu will get cluttered. I used Menu Editor to clear out some of the buttons I don’t use frequently. Most can be accessed using the extensions menu. website download

Now if you want to take it a step further, you can get the Opera Firefox theme website download. I love it, I think it looks great.

Conclusion: Opera is a browser that has held its own and continues to be unique with all of its great features, but until it is fully supported by websites I frequently visit, this will remain an alternative.

Cheers

Until then, here’s how to dupe a website into thinking you have flash 9 installed.
First update to the latest available flash for linux.

 Then,

FPS:
Tremulous
Nexuiz
Warsow
Legends
America’s Army
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Savage: The Battle For Newerth

RTS:
TASpring - Remember Total Annihilation?
Warzone2100
Widelands
Glest
Battle for Wesnoth

RPG:
Sloth
PlaneShift - (MMO)
Stendhal
ManaWorld (MMO)

 For more info visit the Kororaa Project page.

Photoshop: 

 Gimpshop:

Gimpshop is available to all major Operating Systems (Mac, PC Windows, Linux…). To get gimpshop, head over to the project’s page on freshmeat.net for the latest builds, or you can build it from source, get it from Scott’s page (linked above).

Gimpshop Review [PCMag.com] 

Gimpshop Review [About.com] 

How to Install the Linux port of GimpShop

I have [had] a two partition setup, one Ubuntu and one Kubuntu. The Kubuntu install was merely for evalution purposes and the Ubuntu, my primary. I decided the other night that I wanted to ditch Kubuntu and install a fresh copy of Ubuntu (a test run for XGL+Compiz) and later maybe replace the original with Windows XP. Well, one word sum it up: "Oops". I accidentally formated the entire disk. All of my documents, web pages, pictures (including family pictures), music, bookmarks; all of it is now gone. It really hasn’t sunken in yet, but in a strange way I feel sort of releaved. That might not be the best word to describe it, but I can’t think of a better one at this moment.