Opera is a lesser-known web-browser, available for various platforms

(beta4 for LinuxPPC was unavailable at the time of this writing).

I took the statically linked RPM for simplicity, but it's 2.27 megs. The

dynamically linked version is of course, smaller -- around 1.2 megs. The

difference? Dynamic linking requires you to already have the Qt 2.2

library.

It's simple enough to install the RPM -- there's nothing to do but ``rpm

-i opera*''. Run it from the command line with `opera'. The license

agreement, which pops up right after the rpm installation, gives a 30 day

evaluation period, after which the software must be bought and registered.

Running Opera results in a standard browser window, with three panes:

bookmarks (useful ones) on the left, and a browse window on the right.

Tooltips don't seem to be in evidence, making the default behavior of

buttons without text difficult. A lot of desk space is taken up by various

toolbars and status bars, which can be turned off if required.

The Preferences option is, for some reason, under File instead of Edit.

There is some indication of customizable buttons -- buttons.ini was found

lurking in an appropriate directory. The Preferences pop up a new window

with a twisted maze of sections, all different.

Positives