Filed under: Internet, Security, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Search
Opera Desktop Browser 9.5 is Final - Take your stuff with you
by Drew Olanoff Jun 12th 2008 at 10:00AM
Opera is all over the place with their releases, and focuses as well. The company loves mobile devices, and at one point stated that Opera wanted to be on any device that you can plug in. We'd love to browse on our toaster. We lose an important few minutes of productivity in the kitchen every morning.
The latest version of Opera has some features that 9.2 didn't have though, so here goes nothing:
- Opera Link - Hardcore users of Opera use features like speed-dial, note taking, and of course bookmarks. Now you can sync them with your mobile if you use the very popular Opera Mini browser on your phone.
- Quick Find - search for anything on any page you've visited.
- Updated skin - This is the one that made us wonder if Opera is has re-invested themselves into the Desktop market. The buttons are sharper and it's more Firefox like now.
- Opera's Fraud Protection - This got an update. Opera likes to talk about how they guard you against phishing and spamming, and say they're the only browser with these features built in.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Henry said 11:03AM on 6-12-2008
I haven't tried it out yet, but so far the new look is great. It's a litle easier to see the buttons now.
Reply
Joe Barry said 11:04AM on 6-12-2008
Why did the chicken surf the web?
-Because it was using Opera!
I'm an Opera addict. I've used opera for the past 5 years and I can't possibly use any other browser. It’s ultra fast, responsive, and light. IE and Firefox are really sluggish compared to Opera. I even take it with me, on my flash, everywhere I go.
I recommend it to anyone, anywhere.
Reply
Paul Nicholson said 11:31AM on 6-12-2008
Never really tried it before, but just tried it this morning... feels very very slow, has trouble with my Proxy at work, and doesn't have a good ad-block feature at this point.
Going back to Firefox until something changes...
Reply
rangdo2003 said 1:01PM on 6-12-2008
"doesn't have a good ad-block feature at this point"
Right-click on a page, select "block content" then click offending items. Done.
Paul Nicholson said 3:40PM on 6-12-2008
"Right-click on a page, select "block content" then click offending items. Done."
Key here is "good" ad blocking feature.
Firefox Ad-Block plug-in supports a subscription of thousands of sites and i've never seen an ad.
With Opera i loaded a few pages on Opera and right to block content...after reloading 5 times and manually clicking 5 times per page to block the ads each time, there were still new ads popping up on another refresh.
Paul Nicholson said 3:44PM on 6-12-2008
I even found a downloadable .ini file for Opera that supposedly had a ton of ad filters pre-loaded. Didn't work worth squat. Still saw ads on Yahoo, MSN, etc
Thelomen Toblakai said 9:01PM on 6-13-2008
Paul, the filters you found were probably for a much older version of Opera, it's been a while since I saw them floating around.
Since Opera don't have third-party extensions, what it has that FF don't is an in-built ability to block content. This is purely a policy issue of any commercial company like Opera Software ASA or Mozilla Corporation - they get in trouble if they block the content of other legal businesses by default. Since Mozilla leaves it to third-party installations, those solutions can be as strong as the users wants, while Opera needs to have a weaker solution since it is turned on by default.
I'd love to see some sort of updatable filters for Opera, and certainly it's not hard to make one as a co-existing application (not extension), but the current situation is just how business goes - not much to be done about it.
James said 11:35AM on 6-12-2008
Gyah, gimme my Opera Mobile! My WinMo 6 TyTN is suffering!
Reply
Transcontinantal said 11:40AM on 6-12-2008
I'm engaged with Firefox, but we're not married so I thought I'd give it a try with this gorgeous soprano : Opera 9.5 is beautiful indeed, and sings marvelously well. She's thin though, and smiles like no one.
Unfortunately, or not, my girl-friend (with whom I'm engaged) does it better. Besides singing, she cooks RSS feeds without having to call the email cook, is somewhat less sophisticated but far more industrious, has an answer to all my doubts, runs even faster since she went on the V3.0 training, and, above all, adapts to my continuous appetite for innovative, hum, extensions.
I think, I know, we're quite a lot to love our Firefox!
Reply
Drew Olanoff said 11:47AM on 6-12-2008
Probably one of the best comments I've ever seen.
I wept.
Transcontinental said 11:58AM on 6-12-2008
You too, Drew Olanoff ?!
Reply
MDH1727 said 1:38PM on 6-12-2008
That was hands down the best comment ever!
Reply
Ernestas said 3:08PM on 6-12-2008
I've been using Firefox 2 for a very long time. But then I've tried Opera again and I was surprised. It was much more faster than Firefox.
I'm always examining all posibilitys. The same I did with Opera 9 and Firefox 2. Firefox 2 was very slow and non functional. To make this browser more functional I needed to install extensions, which were making the browser work more slowly. Opera was very fast (I don't say it was loading pages faster - I've been testing it and Opera 9.5 on my broadband connection worked the same speed as Firefox 3; the same was with Opera 9 and Firefox 2), stable and especially functional. There are many small functions, which you may not find in Opera when using it first time, but there are no analogs in Firefox. There are also other functions, which are good too: Speed Dial, mouse gestures (this one everybody must try!), Opera Link, full page zooming and etc. For me web browser has to be web browser and nothing else. Opera is not like a web browser which asks you do you want to use Opera mail and etc. These functions are there, but they are not in "must be enabled by default" list.Web browser for me has to be very easy to use while Firefox is not. I have to move my mouse all over my big screen to be capable of making browser stop downloading web page and etc. I can in to mouse clicks without moving mouse from any web page place go back and forward and etc. This is why I choose Opera now.
Sorry for errors made in this post - I've some problems with my eye so I can't write looking to keyboard or monitor very long time...
Reply
Dach said 5:59PM on 6-12-2008
Is speed really all that important? It took less than one second for Firefox 2 to render downloadsquad.com, even with the data coming over my mediocre work connection. If you told me Opera was twice as fast, I'd need a stopwatch and exceedingly quick reflexes to prove it. Even more complex pages like youtube take
Reply
Thelomen Toblakai said 9:07PM on 6-13-2008
Dach, speed is extremely important. But not neccessarily the speed of web page or javascript rendering - on modern computers there shouldn't be any huge differences between good browsers.
Speed as in "how fast can you get stuff done?" is very important though! And this is where Opera shines for me :) The nice keyboard shortcuts and customization, the fast in-built mouse gestures (and their customization), the speed of going back and forward in browsed pages, speed of changing tabs, responsivness of Opera Dragonfly (debugger tool), using . and , for in-page search of words and links, etc etc.
Opera for me :D
Josh said 9:52PM on 6-12-2008
Opera 9.5 is the fastest browser ever, though no one uses it :(
Reply
033054 said 9:15AM on 6-13-2008
I've been using Opera for the past 3 years now, and I just love it. But despite its big improvements, 9.5 crashes too frequently. It even crashes when i click on a tab. Must be an isolated case i guess, since I use Vista.
I reverted to 9.27. I'll wait for a more stable version.
Reply
Jane said 12:00AM on 6-18-2008
This is WAY better than firefox.
Reply
anacondon said 9:03PM on 8-06-2008
After vehemently refusing to stray from the IE browser after all these years, finally overcame my phobia(s) and sampled Firefox, which I loved, and then Opera, which is utterly phenomenal. EXCEPT, I just reformatted the HD, had to basically reinstall everything from scratch (the backed up files for some reason dysfunctional, all of them) and after reinstalling Opera a multitude of times now, it's still slow as grammaw on an icy sidewalk. I don't get it (java's in place, no other excessive CPU-draining processes, et al). Any tips/tricks/advice more than welcome!
Reply