I was first introduced to this browser a number of years ago, by a friend who always likes to test software like this out. I instantly took to it because of the way it manages the internet pages and the features that it possesses.

It's easy to grasp and simple to understand. It's downloadable from operas website and the installation process is basic and straightforward. Once you've downloaded, that's pretty much all you'll ever need to do as it self manages itself and looks for the latest updates and keeps itself to the latest version. The space required on the hard drive is minimal and the amount of processing power and memory it takes up while it's running is the same.

One of the benefits is that it does tabbed browsing. Not so unusual now that every internet browser possesses this capability but I do remember it having it years ahead of any other one which can only mean they are more experienced in this field. It is however more advanced in two areas where I haven't seen this really enacted on any other competitor. The first is with downloads: All of your downloads are managed from one tab, and not in any kind of separate window so you can just click on it and see what process your file is on and then navigate away from it. The other is images. Say, for example you click on a set of ten images, to save you going back to the page and clicking the next; Opera seems to recognise this and lets you scroll through each one. This is fantastic and is in no other browser I've used. You can also manage your tabs and move them across to the order that you want.

In terms of reliability, I can't fault it. I think it's seldom crashed on me and when it has, it's usually been the fault of another program. Even when it has crashed and I've reopened it, it's given me the option of starting off where it left so it reloads all of the pages and it's as if it was never closed anyway. When you close routinely though, you can also start when you left off.

It also has its own start page whereby you can put all of your favourite sites on this, allowing you quick access to where you want to go. Effectively, you have a dozen start pages instead of one.

There is one fault I've experienced with it though and is not something I've able to overcome, which is that it really doesn't handle streaming tube videos (YouTube, for example) very well at all. I often find getting it into full screen is a real hassle and it's at that point when I seriously contemplate using a rival browser.

That said though, It's free and it's an incredibly powerful piece of software. It also works across a range of other platforms such as a version for your mobile phone and the Nintendo Wii, and with these you can really see where it keeps its consistency. It's also free so the worst thing that happens is, you give it a go and you don't like it and then revert back to your old browser.

My advice is, give it a try, you really have nothing to loose and everything to gain.