Opera web browser - so close, yet so far!

[motulist]

I'm a big Safari fan, but it doesn't do a couple of things I really want it to do. Basically, I'm a very distractible person and I can't stand animated graphics blinking around the text I'm trying to read. Safari doesn't give you the option to turn off image animations and also it doesn't let you easily toggle plug ins on and off to stop flash animation ads. So I tried out Opera since it does those things, and it does indeed result in animation-free browsing, which is awesome.

However, Opera also has some major usability problems which makes it a complete no go. For instance, in every other Mac application on the planet if you click the cursor at a location in a line of text and then pull downward slightly it completely selects the entirety of the rest of the line. Opera doesn't do this. And that's just one example, there are a zillion of these usability things that Opera completely fails at.

I just want a browser like Safari in terms of it being clean and Mac-like software, but with the ability to disable animations. Why is this so difficult?

 

[BobZune]

Have you tried out Safari Adblock for Leopard from http://safariadblock.sourceforge.net/

You can also click on Help fro that page and read about flash blocking -- this is what I use when I use Safari (Firefox is my default and there are extensions for it that give more fine grained control of what to block/remove).

Also check out PithHelmet from
http://culater.net/software/PithHelmet/PithHelmet.php

 

[motulist]

I tried PithHelmet before and it blocked everything, but the SIMBL hack it requires for installation wound up causing problems and the developer offers no uninstall utility (which is required for a hack like this, you can't just trash the application files). So PithHelmet is a dangerous program that I'll never infect my Mac with again. And believe I tried ad block in an earlier incarnation and it didn't really block many things, so I abandoned it. But I just tried AdBlock again right now, and it now seems to work perfectly! Thanks BobZune!

I have no issue with ads in general, I think they're a legitimate way for web content creators to get paid for their effort, but I can't abide by animations flashing away while I try to read text. In the advertisers' quest to grab our attention with increasingly annoying ads, they have now permanently lost yet another person for them to market to at all.

 

[PlaceofDis]

have you given Camino a try? i can do both of the things that you're asking.

 

[motulist]

have you given Camino a try? i can do both of the things that you're asking.

Thanks for the tip, and I may try it later, but for now it seems like I have the best solution. This way I get to keep using my preferred browser and also get to eliminate those annoying animations.

 

[BobZune]

But I just tried AdBlock again right now, and it now seems to work perfectly! Thanks BobZune!

I have no issue with ads in general, I think they're a legitimate way for web content creators to get paid for their effort, but I can't abide by animations flashing away while I try to read text. In the advertisers' quest to grab our attention with increasingly annoying ads, they have now permanently lost yet another person for them to market to at all.

You are welcome. I hear you, about moving and blinking things that tend to distract.