It's been a while since I mentioned Opera in a post. The browser has a mere 1.50% of marketshare according to Wikipedia, coming in behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome. Considering Opera's quality as a browser and how many features it has pioneered before other browsers, it is surprising how little marketshare Opera has.
Opera has some unique and interesting features rarely found in other browsers (and often requiring plug-in extensions). The browser has a built-in BitTorrent client for downloading files via torrent (which, contrary to what some may believe, has legitimate uses; I will be covering this in an upcoming article). It also features an IRC client, a feed reader, and an email client.
Opera, while not open source, is free for PCs and cellular phones. On the PC side of things, it supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and even FreeBSD and Sun Microsystem's Solaris. Opera is also available for Nintendo's Wii (free) and DS gaming systems (free for the DSi), as well as a number of smartphone platforms.
It has all of the features you would expect from a typical web browser today such as tabbed browsing, a download manager, and zooming. In addition, it supports mouse gestures (an innovative feature that can make navigation easier for some users) and excellent built-in security features to make browsing safer.
The latest release of Opera also includes an innovative new feature called "Opera Unite". This allows the user to run a web server that can stream media, share files such as videos and pictures, and even host a website. While there are plenty of other frameworks out there for doing the same things, Opera Unite is unique in that it aims to bring it to the average user and make it relevant for them.
To download the Opera browser, or to see all that Opera has to offer, visit the Opera website at http://www.opera.com/.