RSSOpera releases version 9.5
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published June 12, 2008, 6:15 PM
In its plan to gain back usage share it has steadily been losing to Firefox in recent months, Opera this morning released version 9.5 of its Web browsers for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Initial BetaNews tests show Opera 9.5 in Windows XP SP3 has some of the necessary polish to make it a respectable candidate for everyday use. Though its standard skin is perhaps better suited to Vista, we like the thick, black, responsive tab bar.
Still, we'd like to be able to make necessary adjustments like adding some width to the Search drop-down, which currently closely hugs the right-hand side next to the Address Bar. Let's face it, we don't search for one-word items on Google; we have long queries that extend into the stratosphere. But there doesn't appear to be an easy way to move the boundaries between toolbar components. We could add a "dynamic spacer," which created a gap between the address and search boxes -- precisely the opposite of what we wanted -- but in our initial tests, we couldn't resize one to make room for the other.
And since you can do that pretty easily in Firefox, we consider that a problem. Perhaps a more regular Opera user may tell us about some hidden method for this that we're just not seeing.
We do like the ability to put a handy toolbar along the left or right sides of the application window. Regular readers may know I'm usually a Firefox user, though one of my regular add-ons is the third-party All-in-One Toolbar. That device was reportedly inspired by Opera, which had the ability to customize toolbar locations early on, as well as to click an indicator to hide that toolbar in the margin when necessary. That feature's still present in Opera 9.5 without the need for any add-ons; and with the slick, stylish default skin, it looks quite attractive.
The File menu offers the Synchronize Opera command, which appears to enable storage of bookmarks and personal settings in the "cloud," for easy portability between different Opera installations. That same command was recently added to Opera Mini 4.1 for smartphones, so we'd like to get a chance soon to test that feature's effectiveness at exchanging personal settings between Windows and BlackBerry browsers.
Over the years, Opera has been adapting itself to better suit the tastes of the Internet user who cares a little more about the constitution and layout of her Web pages. We've noticed one way Opera 9.5 reports its progress in loading Web pages is by counting the number of elements it has yet to render, as opposed to showing a little progress bar -- what old-time developers used to call "band-aids." It may be more information than the typical user might need, but Opera isn't necessarily for the typical user.
But those atypical users are precisely the folks who will expect the new Opera to follow prescribed Web rendering standards to the letter, and who were excited by last March's news that betas of the new Opera were passing the Acid3 test with 100% scores. In BetaNews tests this morning, however, the final release of Opera 9.5 on Windows XP SP3 scored only an 83%. However, that's better than Firefox 3.0 RC3 on the same reference system, which today scored only a 71% in BetaNews tests.
Quit using Opera a couple years ago, but came back and use it almost exclusively again. (Was one of the paying Opera shareware users back in the day.)
So...tried 9.5 for a few days, had repeated major problems downloading large files, also some features on certain websites didn't work, so uninstalled and returned to 9.27.
Guess I'll wait for 9.54 or so before I try it again.
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Installed 9.5 couple days ago... been running it since.
No issues what so ever. Copied all my bookmarks from 9.2X, speed dial page, skins, etc, etc...
And I do find it faster.
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No real problems here. Like the new look. Still has a bug when signing into Gmail, but I can get around that easily enough.
Nice job Opera.
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If it doesn't constantly lose my history, bookmarks, and nag me about starting new or old sessions like FF does, I'll be using it from now on.
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If you lose history, bookmarks etc try a fresh install, and if it still doesnt help, try the new sync function.
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I've been using opera 9.50 "final" for a couple of days. Surely, this can't be a final. It won't even load my home page on startup. To get it going I have to click on another bookmark. I'm going back to 9.27 and will wait for FF3 on June 17th.
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Opera is really the best web browser...
It introducted tabs, pop up blocking, integrated search first, and still has them best!
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I like Opera 9.5 but I just wish it didn't crash everytime I access the new Yahoo Mail. :-(
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The main reason I even have Opera on my system is to access Yahoo email. 9.5 consistently crashes on opening Yahoo email. So, time to uninstall Opera. Too bad ...
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Passes the Acid3 test but not the "Any program that isnt stupid" test.
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Hey Scott,
no hidden method of searching for "long queries that extend into the stratosphere".
There are keywords and keyletters (that you can fully customize of course) designated to work as shortcuts in the URL bar. In case of google, just type g and then the search term and it redirects to google search results and voila you can use your long queries that extend into the stratosphere.
By the way... no offense, but this most basic feature, that has been around for years, just kind of shows how unfamiliar you are with the program you are writing about...
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It is impossible to reach some websites, i.e. this:
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php?
It belongs to world statistics and works perfect in all others.
Apart of this, an excellent browser: fast and reliable.
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I'm not having any problems viewing the site. (Vista, 32bit, Opera 9.5)
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Yes it does; I just tried it. Try removing the ? at the end of the URL.
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Works perfectly for me.
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It was an install problem (*w3 was included in the ads filtering list that I had imported). Now it works perfect. Thank you three for your help!.
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> Let's face it, we don't search for one-word items on Google
If you want to enter long search terms, just enter:
g very long search term
into the place where you normally type the URL. Opera sends that search term to google. I don't even use the search area in Opera or Firefox.
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@Aires why should they give up?? they HAVE loyal users! and they EARN SOME MONEY with the opera desktop browser ... so i see no reason to give up ... without this ff hype, and media interest in ff, its marketshare would be at least 10% less than it is at the moment ... and compared to opera, ff is total crap!
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*Laughing*
without this ff hype, and media interest in ff, its marketshare would be at least 10% less than it is
Uh...that'd still be at least 5% more than Opera globally, ~15% in the US. :)
compared to opera, ff is total crap!
*still laughing*
Mmm.... Who needs reality, right?
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I dont think that ff is total crap. It has come a long way the last few years and if I was going to switch browser, FF is the only real good alternative to Opera which I have been coming back to over and over.
But you do have some points when it comes to media hype and the "cool" factor that firefox is spending a lot of resources and money on achieving while Opera is spending more on developing their software. But oh well :) You cant make everyone happy...
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"Why should they give up??"
My reasons are already posted below, as you no doubt read (but didn't absorb).
"they HAVE loyal users!"
I never said the didn't...
"and they EARN SOME MONEY with the opera desktop browser ... so i see no reason to give up ..."
but having existing loyal users won't increase their market share or profits. They need new users or new markets, hence my suggestion to break into the mobile browser market.
"without this ff hype, and media interest in ff, its marketshare would be at least 10% less than it is at the moment ..."
Maybe, maybe not - I don't know. Who knows?
"and compared to opera, ff is total crap!"
It doesn't matter, you're missing the point. Like I say say, whether Opera's better than Firefox or not no longer matters. Firefox is simply more popular and it's as simple as that.
I still say that Opera should call it a day with this version of the browser and set a market strategy to get Opera on as many mobile phones as is possible.
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Doesn't even properly add the extension when saving as a single file web archive and people wonder why this browser has so less marketshare.
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Exactly.
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Opera should do away with their main browser and concentrate soley on Opera Mini and Opera Mobile. They should be looking to be THE browser on mobiles (cellphones) and displace Safari. There is no longer any value in trying to compete with Firefox - whether Opera is 'better' than Firefox or not no longer matters. Opera will never be able to compete with either Internet Exporer or Firefox and they should be expending their energies in dominating the mobile browser market.
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I don't know - that's what they said about IE and yet FireFox continues to try and gain a foothold.
And it looks like FireFox still only holds about 6% of the market share - that hasn't changed in quite a bit of time, so maybe FireFox has peaked and Opera has a chance at gaining at least some of the pie....?
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Im actually really happy all this competition on the browser market... But the reason I like Opera the most is that us users won't benefit from the competition unless all the browsers follows standards - which has improved over the last few years but is still far from tolerable and is something that Opera consequently has done - followed standards.
Personally I dont really care how many % marketshare whatever browser has - I am actually happy so few are using Opera because that means hackers and malware producers concentrate on targeting IE and FF, while letting Opera slipping by.
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6%?! Where did you get that number? :P
More like 15%... worldwide numbers, but with peaks like almost 30% in regions like Europe.
On the other hand, in a year, Opera lost half it's market share. That's too much and I agree they might be better specializing in the mobile market. They have an advantage there as Firefox didn't try yet to enter such market and they have a good alternative to most mobile browsers out there.
http://www.e-janco.com/browser.htm
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Yes, they should. While FF is copying everything from Opera, it seems very interesting for Opera to go to the mobile browser market.
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Been using it since yesterday. I like it a lot, as fast on my machine as Firefox 3 and it uses less memory.Not yet crashed and as I am now using Yahoo to do my searching I also have the benefit of SiteAdvisor, which is nice. The email however is giving me problems, sometimes it works and sometimes is does not work, strange as it used to work all the time. So I've dumped the email and am just enjoying the browser. If it keeps going for the next day as it is going now it will be my default, so it will good night Foxy and hello Oprey. But when IE8 beta arrives I may yet change my mind who knows ?
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Regarding the size of the search box, right click on it and choose remove from toolbar. Now use the address bar as a search box. Just type the letter g infront of any search querie and click enter.
The 'g' is google, but you can add more. I have 'w' for wikipedia, 'y' for yahoo, 't' for torrent and 'map' for google maps.
To add more, just right click in any search box on any website, and choose 'add to search'. Then you choose a "code word" for that search. Do it here on BetaNews search box and type 'beta' as the keyword.
Then just type 'beta opera' in the address bar.
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(Adding to the knowledge pool)
This works in Firefox too, just right click a search box and click "Add a keyword for this search"
As with Opera, you can just use a letter for the keyword like g for google, or a word like beta for betanews.
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I loved that feature in Opera when I was a die-hard Opera user. Then switched to Firefox and realized how much I relied on it. I was incredibly happy to find out that I could have that functionality in Firefox as well.
I used to simply change the 'google' keyword to simply a 'g' in the Google Quick Search bookmark that used to come with Firefox.
For others benefit, and to add to your contribution:
http://www.mozilla.org/p...fox/smart-keywords.html
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Very cool. Thank you both for that info.
Heh..
It's like having a new toy...
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WTF!!! I don't remember Opera ever being so bad. What the hell happened? I'm very disappointed with Opera this time around.
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For some reason Opera 9.5 setup didn't install the new skins for me so I was stuck with 9.27 skins... weird. Uninstalling and deleting the Opera folder and reinstalling fixed it.
Also if you want OS theme integration in Opera there's a "Windows Native" theme but it doesn't seem like it actually uses the current theme (it looks like Windows Classic with my third-party theme). It probably uses hard-coded assets for Luna and Aero.
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Now I understand why Opera only has less than a 1% market share. Opera use to be a good browser about a year ago. This new interface has been designed to fit into the Vista environment. The native theme for the Mac is still too Window-ish.
I could live with that I suppose but Opera is no longer the fastest browser by far. That was something Opera use to be a able to boast. After installing it and using it, the speed differences between Firefox 3 and Safari was very obvious. Opera was slow and rendering some pages poorly.
What a far cry from what Opera use to be like. I guess the developers took this browser as far as they could. And if you think this is just my exclusive opinion, just visit the Opera labs blog and take a look at the comments by Opera fans. Many are not pleased with this new release.
Anyway I'm quite happy with the nightly builds of Webkit, Saft and Inquisitor plugins along with NightShift. Unlike Opera the nightly builds of Webkit are incredibly fast, stable and very polished.
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internetworld7, I agree on all points. I used to be a long time fan of Opera, but gave up on it.
Opera puts too much effort into the wrong areas for the right reasons. Also I did take a browse on the forum and it seems there are still many bugs and rendering issues. Things are fixed and in turn more features break. Opera and regression seem to go hand in hand.
I honestly do like the new skin. But that dosent balance the functionality issues.
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Much agreed. I recognize your name from when I used to frequent the Opera Forums in the past. I always hope that the bugs will be dealt with but there are always a couple of deal breakers (some pages failing to fully load and other odd behaviors e.g. yahoo mail and so forth) and I go back to firefox. Once again I give up.
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I think 9.5 is a great browser all the way around and it has come a very long way to get to where it is with today's release. I love that these guys are constantly working to improve and revise this application. I can't wait to see where they take it over the coming years. I personally love all the competition that exists in this space. With Opera constantly having to compete with the likes of Maxthon, Avant, Firefox, Safari and IE, only good things for users will surely result. I would say to the Opera developers and coders: Well done, keep up the great work. Keep innovating and keep pushing the envelope. Oh, and watch closely the moves that your comptitors are making. Maxthon has integrated a screen capture tool/utility right into their browser that is very slick and very useful. This is the type of thing that adds signigicant value, and ease of use to the overall experience.
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as other comments have hinted, the acid3 passing builds are builds of Opera's further-improved rendering engine which we will be seeing in Opera 10. Anyway I think Opera 9.5 is a nice upgrade.
One problem I should note is there are still a lot of sites sending crippled versions of their layout to Opera users, one that immediately comes to mind is Amazon. Even if you 'mask as firefox' it sends a layout that Opera 9.5 can't correctly render (note the left-hand side navigation panel which, when you hover over the links, the sub-menus disappear if you try to move your mouse onto them. and other small problems)
I do a lot of testing in various browsers so I always keep the latest release installed of all the major ones, but nothing can tear me away from Firefox for my regular browsing. Maybe Opera 10 will change that! Good show, Opera.
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Why the **** does it use 78MB with 5 tabs open now, though.
This was RC1 two days ago and today it's released.
They've done this before, and frankly it ridiculous. This product isn't ready for market.
And this is from a hardcore Opera fanboy.
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I'm very disappointed (to put it midly) with this release. Not only is rushed, buggy and not that much stable, but:
1.- Along the way, we have lose the posibility of accessing the shell from the Transfers Window.
2.- The long-time users have to relearn a lot of Keyboard shorcuts (let's not talk about the ones that we had lost).
3.- The now default theme has generated a lot controversy.
4.- Gmail 2.0 doesn't work...
I think that I will stay on Opera 9.27 for a while. After that, it's probably that I will switch to Safari for my secondary browser.
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Hey, about it being rushed, buggy and not much stable: I used to say so too before i tried it out... Now I have, and i am pleasantly surprised...
1- not accessing the shell? What are u talking about?
2- keyboard shortcuts: you can configure EVERYTHING when it comes to that yourself. 100% customizeable.
3 - you can change the skin if you are not happy with it, there are thousands of possibilities and I doubt you are gonna hate ALL of them
4 - Gmail 2.0 works fine if you use http://gmail.google.com/gmail?nocheckbrowser something that just proves the problem lies with Google and not with Opera...
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Ooh wow, 78MB! You got a problem with your teeny tiny PC not being able to cope with 78MB?
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Yes, I will tell the users who's machines I have put opera on that it is Google's fault when they tell me to remove opera. Yes, that will convince them to stick with opera. Maybe they can just ignore the fact that it doesn't work. Sorry
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Umm, I dont care what system it is, 78MB for 5 tabs is ridiculous
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No. But compared to Opera 9.27 it takes the piss.
There is never a reason for sloppy coding, and 78MB for what is basically a web browser and a mail client is too bloody much.
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Congrats Opera team. Im very happy user of this and actually prefer it over the FF3 builds i have tried so far. The speed and feel of it has really improved over 9.27 version, and so has rendering difficult problem pages. Besides, I feel that opera cares more about security than any other web browser out there.
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Actually that is an experimental build as noted @ http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/03/28/
There is work yet to be done to reach the performance needed to run that for every day desktop use. However you can follow progress on it via the Desktop Team.
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