Back in 'the day', an internet browser was exciting. Maybe you were a standard computer user, and used Internet Explorer on your state of the art Windows XP machine. Or, you were a curious teenager and used Firefox (previously Mozilla), Opera Presto, or perhaps even Netscape. I don't think anyone legitimately used the MSN browser that came with the Get MSN Internet shortcut.

I was that curious teenager, with a low-security computer lab at my disposal. I looked at article after article containing 'lists of browsers' and bullied the poor Google to death trying to search up more possibilities.

The list of things I installed on those school computer lab PCs was immeasurable, but when it came to browsers I had tried what felt like all of them. Some of the star contenders were Maxthon, Netscape Navigator 9, Firefox, Opera Presto, Iron, Avant, Safari for Windows, Chrome, even Links when I was feeling geeky. There was even one called Dooble.

What I settled on was Opera Presto. Now long dead, the last mainstream version of Opera that used their Presto engine was Opera 12, in 2016. As of the time of writing this in 2024, they have version 106 available, making 12 a bit of a skeleton now. Back when I used it, this was modern and 12 wasn't even the version that was out at the time.

It featured things that modern browsers besides Edge still struggle with or lack entirely. Some things were collapsible tab groups, a simple Home Tab page, add-ons, and this toggle option called Opera Turbo. It was a feature where pages you request would be sent through their servers and compressed before being sent to you, theoretically saving you an arbitrary amount of total data received.

I used this browser for years after it stopped being supported, the Opera team having switched to Chromium like many other browsers now have. It was a nice trip through my memories to look at the Wikipedia "list of web browsers" and be able to say, "Hey, I used that in its prime.". I don't recommend using it, or any old browser, really. At least not until the Web 1.0 movement takes over and everyone's back to using marquee tags on their Neocities pages. I've relegated myself to using Firefox now.

Looking back on it, Opera has had its fingers in quite a few bowls. It was part of the Nintendo DS Browser, the Wii Internet channel, and was preinstalled on some Java based phones too. I wouldn't be surprised if its technologies were in the Nintendo DSi and 3DS browsers somewhere too.