I think that opera has become the third wheel when there is only enough space for 2. The opera browser is pretty good IMHO and it has some outstanding features

I think that opera has become the third wheel when there is only enough space for 2. The opera browser is pretty good IMHO and it has some outstanding features that people may enjoy but it just doesn't have firefox's plugin support or the wide acceptability and market share of IE. If everybody used opera, everybody would probably continue using opera just how if everybody used firefox, they would continue using firefox, and how now that ~80% use IE, about 80% continue to use IE. Browsers and pretty much anything on the internet run into a phenomena known as network externalities. It is a situation where switching costs are so high that once a user is committed to one choice, they stick to it. Opera is just in the wrong market at the wrong time. This is also why firefox's progress is so amazing. Fighting network externalities is very tough (see ipv4 vs. ipv6).