These days–in contrast to ten years ago–the world has plenty more Web browsers than it needs. And yet I can’t find one I’m happy with. My continuing search for a browser I get along with led me recently to try Opera, a seasoned but still largely obscure player on the browser scene. Here’s what I thought of it.

In recent months, I’ve gone through Chromium, Epiphany and multiple versions of Firefox in my attempt to find a browser that’s fast and bug-free.

Given my dissatisfaction with all of the above, I installed Opera 10.10 in hopes that it would prove to be the elusive browser I’ve been searching for all my life. Installation was simple; the application is not available from the Ubuntu repositories, but Debian packages can be downloaded from its website.

Opera, a closed-source, cross-platform browser emanating (like the Linux kernel) from Scandinavia, has been around since the 1990s. Its market share has always been negligible outside of certain niches, but it has a long tradition of innovation (or at least quick emulation) on the features front.

Here’s what Opera looks like: