Everyone has used the Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer at some point in their life, and many have ended up trying/using Mozilla Firefox as a good alternative, but very few have used any other, except maby for Apple Safari which they accidently downloaded whilst updating Itunes.

Opera is a wonderful internet browser that at one time you used to have to pay to use. It has since been made available for free.

It's main version is for desktop/laptop computers, although they have recently made a version for mobile phones, but in this article we will just be covering the PC version.

Right From The Word Go

For a start Opera is very easy to download and install, going to the Opera homepage will point you towards the download section, or simply googling "Opera" will take you direct to the download page. From here you just click to download it and run it. Setup takes a few minutes and doesn't require a restart after it is finished.

After installing it, you can boot it straight up. The default homepage is a page about getting started with Opera, but it can easily be changed by going onto "Tools" then "Preferences" to change the homepage to whatever you want.

The Features

Tabs

Opera has tabs, much like Firefox and the latest Internet Explorer 7 (IE were really behind the times before Vista). This means that you can open up preety much as many pages as you want without having hundreds of windows cluttering your taskbar.

Mouse Gestures

Another great feature that seems to be very Opera specific (although once again add-ons for IE and Firefox will allow this), are mouse gestures. By holding down the right mouse button you can then move it in different directions to do cause different effects. Moving the mouse left with go back a page. Moving right will go forward to the next page on your browser. Moving down will open a new tab, etc. etc.

Although seemingly complecated at first, they are very simple and once mastered can save great amount of time and effort, and once you have started using them, there really is no way back. If you choose to start using Firefox, the first thing you will automatically do is download the mouse gestures add-on, purely due it's ease of use, and win over clicking the back button at the top of your browser.

Skins

These are available right from the start on both Opera and Firefox (but not available on IE), and both are very similar. Basically if you don't like the look of the browser when you first install it (the black is a little dull), you can apply a new "skin" which are created by other users, which will completly change the look of the browser. There are hundreds of skins, with something to suit everyone. Want everything bright blue? Done. Want a subtle vista matching colour scheme? Done. With a little searching you will find a skin that suits your taste.

Widgets

Widgets, despite their amusing name, can actually be very useful, and can be used for many different purposes. Widgets can do just about anything. There are widgets that show you maps of the world, widgets that allow you to play fun little games such as sim aquarium whilst browsing, some widgets can show you real time webcams from all over the world, others allow you to play radio stations or check the news, and some just tell you the time, or show weather forcasts.

Overall widgets are handy little extras that add that extra bit of entertainment or information whilst your surfing the web.

Torrent Downloader

Opera, unlike Firefox, IE, or any other browser I can find, has a built in torrent downloader. For the average person looking to have a nice looking browser that they can happily surf the net on, this won't effect them; but for those who know about downloading files through a torrent, this could be handy.

Rather than having to download a dedicated torrent program such as utorrent, all torrentsbei can be handled easily inside a seperate tab in Opera, which allows you to see all the usual information such as seeders and peers, aswell as being able to do all the standard tasks such as setting download limits etc.

This is probibly one of Opera's greatest achievements, as by having a built in torrent program, whilst it's competitors do not, it means it can appeal to a wider audience.

Easy To Navigate History

Ever looked at a really good news article, then crossed it down, then wanted to look at it but not been able to find it? Well Opera has it covered. All you have to do is type in whatever you want to find into the adress bar, and it will show you the websites/pages you have visited lately where the specific phrase has been used. A good example would be where I was looking at some motherboard upgrades earlier. If (for example) I couldn't remember the website that I was looking at that had them cheap, then I can just type "motherboard" into the address bar, and it will show that earlier I was looking at *whatever motherboard* on whichever page of ebuyer I was looking at it on. Overall this excellent way of browsing your history is just genious, and is great when you can't remember the exact thing you were looking at.

Conclusion

Many things included here are including in add-ons for firefox, or by downloading the popular IE Pro for Internet Explorer users, but the fact that they come built in, means that the creaters of the browser really are in touch with their users, and that is always a major thing when it comes to creating any sort of program, be it a game, an application, or a browser.

Opera really does set a new standard for web browsers, and i'm sure when IE finally gets an update, or when the next generation of Firefox comes out, things Opera has already done, such as including a torrent downloader, or having mouse gestures, will become the new standard for browsers.

You then go to your nice new, shiney computer (or mates, or girlfriend ect), plug, slide or shuve your drive or CD into the USB port or whatever the drive goes into (I'm not getting hung up with “technical words”) then open iTunes on the new computer then a window with the music in it should have opened, if not, look in windows explorer for PC and HD for mac (I think, I use PC for this…), click, hold and slid the files from the folder to iTunes it's really that simple. 

Web Browsing

Many people use either Internet Explorer, Safari, or Netscape as their web browser. Even more people are switching to the browser called Firefox. Firefox is the best browser I have ever used. Everything is better about it from the speed of going to a website to the quality of the interface. Also the icon just looks darn cool. Unlike Internet Explorer, Firefox doesn't suffer the terrible fate of drowning in toolbars. All of what you will ever need on Firefox will fit onto one or maybe two toolbars depending on how much stuff you really need. The next thing that makes Firefox better than most web browsers is that it can have plug-ins installed. These don't necessarily have to have toolbars so you still avoid the terrible clogging of space. Overall Firefox is a great quality browser that looks really pretty as well. As for the price of this browser, it is free! All you have to do is go to Mozilla Firefox and you can download it there.

Instant Messaging

This is an easy one. The program you must get is Windows Live Messenger (I think this use to be known as MSN Messenger). This program is perfect. The layout of everything is so much better than AIM or Yahoo. Windows Live Messenger is also good for sharing files. If you want to get something sent you a friend or family member Windows Live Messenger is the key to getting the job done. One of the best parts is that with this instant messaging program you can also add Yahoo members and chat with them. This way if you have a friend who uses Yahoo, neither of you have to switch programs. With Windows Live Messenger you can also talk through voice chat and web cam, but there is a better program for that. I will get to that program later.  Go to Windows Live Messenger. The program is free.

Voice Chat and Web Cam

As I promised, here is the best program for voice chatting and using a web cam. This program is called Skype. Skype has the best quality for voice chatting. It is also a pretty program. The interface is nicer that Windows Live Messenger. You can also do many of the things Windows Live Messenger does like send files and chat by typing. The downfall is you can't send massive amounts of files like Windows Live Messenger and you can't add Yahoo users. You can only add Skype members. One cool thing about Skype is that there are giant chat room like places online with voice chatting. You can actually look for a room of you interest such as music or gaming. Many of them also can help you with things like computer problems. Skype also allows you to call other people's telephone numbers. The downfall with this is that you have to pay in order to obtain this function. Also you can buy a number for you Skype account so that people can call you from their phones while you are on your computer. Skype also allows you to have an answering machine so people can leave you messages. While Skype is the best program for calling other people and other people calling you in a computer to phone way, I will talk about another program later that can do this but for free. 

Computer To Phone

While Skype is the best for this, there is another program that can call phones from the computer for free. This program is called Free Call. I am unsure of the limits that this program has, but I do know if you live in the United States you can call anyone in the United States for free. 

Painting Program

While Photoshop and Corel Draw are some of the best program for painting and fixing up photos, there is a free program that does the same sort of things pretty darn well. This program is called Paint.net. Paint.net is a program that is very similar to Photoshop. The layout is even similar. Paint.net has the clone tool like Photoshop. It even has a lot of Photoshop's filters. This program is a must have if you don't want to spend a lot of money for a drawing program. 

Word Processor

I am sorry to say that for this program you will have to pay, but it is worth it. This program is around the same price as Microsoft Word, but it is better. The program is called Word Perfect. The interface of Word Perfect is nice, and it has more features that Microsoft Word. Word Perfect makes it simple to save to other formats, which was one of the flaws of Microsoft Word. I remember having to type something and going to print it off somewhere else, but because my version of Microsoft Word was higher than the computer I was trying to print from, I couldn't even open the file. Now this isn't to say you can't save it as a different format in Microsoft Word, but Word Perfect makes it easier. Corel also contains some other nice programs as well.

Music

There is one program that stands above all others for listening to music. This program is called iTunes. iTunes is a very popular program and for good reasons. First of all it has a great interface and is easy to use. Next you can buy songs and even movies from the iTunes store which is already in the program. Finally you will never have a problem with using the program. Other programs can sometime lock up or have other weird errors, iTunes is nice, simple, and well organized. iTunes is also a free program. 

Final Words

I hope that these program will help your life on the computer be a better one. All of these programs are good quality and have great interfaces. These cover the most basic needs you will have with a computer such as browsing the internet, communicating, typing, and entertaining. I hope you enjoy and have fun!