Opera is a fast, compact browser, much in the same vein as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. It supports many of the features of the two main browsers, although will display pages faster than either, more often than not.

However, unlike the other two browsers, Opera is not freely available - it is supported by adverts within the main window, or you can pay a nominal fee to license the software. This is true of versions 5 and 6, while versions 1 through 4 work on a 30-day trial period.

Opera also features the ability to masquerade itself as another browser, so sites which work by checking the browser type can often be manipulated using Opera.

It can be downloaded, both with or without Java support, from www.opera.com.