Drefox may be the alternative browser of r choice, but it was Opera that started the tabbed browsing revolution. Now, it features an inbuilt e-mail client, IRC client and RSS reader. It's also renders Web pages faster than any other browser. The latest version-9.5-also features Opera Link, which lets you send bookmarks and other settings online, and synchronise them with other copies of Opera you might use-including Opera Mini on your mobile.

One of Opera's best features is its support for mouse gestures-you can perform a multitude of tasks by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse a
certain way. Holding down right-elick, moving the mouse downwards and releasing, for exam¬ple, opens a new tab. Other neat features include Fast Forward, which automatically detects "Next Page" links so you can navigate forward using a mouse gesture instead of hunt¬ing for the link yourself. You can also set Opera to masquerade as IE or Firefox for sites that call it an "unsupported browser".

Google doesn't love Opera, though, so you'll find that Google's online applications revert to their older versions with Opera. However, by using Mask as Firefox, everything sets itself right. Keyboard w~rrior's Tip Another important part of Opera's awesome¬ness is that you can go through an entire session of browsing without ever touching the mouse. To cycle through all the links on a page, hold down [ Shi ft] and use the arrows to move from one link to the next. The program's also smart enough to start highlighting only links in the visible portions of the Web page. Hit [Enter] to visit a link, [Shift] + [Enter] to open it in a new tab, and [ Ctr1] + [Shift] + [Enter] to open it in a new tab without shifting focus from your current tab. You can also use [1] and [2] to navigate between tabs.

The Alternative
Firefox is the world's second most popular browser, and is catching up fast. While it doesn't have all of Opera's features when you install it, you can extend its func¬tionality using some of the many extensions that enthusiasts are developing for it.