Some
resources on the Internet suggest that the Work Offline feature in browser is rudiment and not useful nowadays.
There's no reason to turn it on if you have (and you usually you do) a broadband connection at home or on the go.
And the same goes for me. I do have a broadband Internet connection and a decent computer.
But still I’m fan of the feature because find it very useful.
The reason I see this feature to be helpful is that being a hardcore web-surfer I like to open a myriad of browser tabs and windows.
I
do value them very much and like them to be always opened. I use bookmarks as well, but with the different purposes.
I do not review all the tabs during the each browsing session, but still prefer them to stay opened.
When it happens that browser needs to be restarted all this tabs and windows (the amount can be about to 70) start to drain their contents from the Internet, thus making it slow and making PC slow also.
The memory usage goes up and the PC or browser can become not usable for a few minutes, while all those flashes, javascripts and animations are loading.
That's why I find the "Work Offline" solution plays a perfect role. It restricts the Internet connection for all those hungry tabs, and I refresh only those that I need during the current browsing session.
I'll repeat myself again: I need my current browsing state with all those opened tabs. The bookmarks are the solution for another problem but not this one.
The Work Offline mode works great in Opera 10.6 (and its previous versions). FireFox (currently 3.6) also has this feature, but has some "bugs".
If I switch on the Work Offline mode and then restart the browser - it will start again with this option set off and wouldn’t be helpful in this way. This is a known issue which is addressed here.
