First impressions are favourable
The first thing I noticed about Opera is how fast it is compared to IE6. I haven't timed it but it appears to load the main forum page on Pals about a second faster than IE6 does. Nt much - but it makes a difference
Opera looks better than IE too and has many downloadable "skins" that you can apply if you get bored with the default one.
Unfortunately the free version of Opera displays a banner advert which takes up part of the toolbar space at the top of the screen. Over time though, you learn to ignore it. You can even do something called "buy" Opera which apparently removes the banner advert. I didn't quite understand what this "buy" thing means though
By default Opera opens new pages in the main window. You can select which page to view by clicking on tabs along the top of the browser window. It is very handy to be able to keep several pages open at the same time and flick between them easily.
Opera seems to do everything that IE6 does and then some. I'll be using it some more over the coming week and I'll post more impressions as I find things out.