Opera 9.5 Web Browser Released
The Opera team released the 9.5 edition of their multiplatform web browser today. Opera, which debuted in 1996 as a pay browser that virtually disappeared from public perception when FireFox (then called Phoenix/Firebird) hit the scene only to find new life on portable devices, is back to make another serious play for the desktop. Better malware protection, a suite of new features, and robust customizability are on offer, as well as a new look.
There's a lot of features you'd probably expect, such as speed improvments, mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, and popup blocking, plus some neat additions such as page zoom, Bittorrent support, and a much-needed visual refresh that blends in well with Windows. Opera is available for most desktop OSes, including all versions of Windows, MacOS, and many flavors of Linux.
However, you may be (justifiably) asking yourself, "does it really matter, since the release of FireFox 3 is just around the corner?" While FireFox probably won't face a serious threat to its throne from Opera 9.5, there are some features worth taking a look at here--particularly if you have a portable device such as a mobile phone that also uses Opera. Here's a few reasons you should consider giving it a look:
- Opera Link--Opera 9.5 lets you sync your bookmarks and your Speed Dial (see below) to your Opera-enabled mobile devices. Bookmark a site on your PC and pull it up on your phone later.
- Speed Dial--Most browsers these days offer tabbed browsing, but Opera offers the option to have each new blank tab show a "speed dial" list of visual bookmarks to your favorite sites. To add a site you simply click on an empty slot and type the address in, and it will show a thumbnail with a preview of that site. You can even set it to reload the thumbnails for live previewing.
- Download manager with Bittorrent support--The download manager includes pause and resume support similar to the new FireFox, but unlike FireFox Opera supports Bittorrent files natively, saving you the need to open a separate application.
- Widgets--Widgets and extensions are a cinch to install on Opera and look great. This is something Opera demonstrably handles better than FireFox in my opinion. While FireFox has a ton of really great extensions, I wouldn't call installation painless, especially since you frequently have to restart your browser. Opera's extensions are one-click installs with "live previews" that load the widget, letting you see what it does, then asks if you want to keep it. If you don't, it immediately disappears--no muss, no fuss. And while Opera's widget library isn't as extensive as FireFox's, it's surprisingly robust.
--Aric A.
Nilay Khandelwal on June 15, 2008 at 01:25 PM
I would like to correct your statement regarding Opera being a Windows only browser. Opera in fact supports most of the major OS's out there in the market. A list of the OS's it supports:
Windows
Solaris Sparc
Solaris Intel
QNX
OS/2
MacOS
Linux x86_64
Linux Sparc
Linux PowerPC
Linux i386
FreeBSD i386
FreeBSD amd64
BeOS
http://www.opera.com/download/index.dml?custom=yes
Aric A. on June 15, 2008 at 03:46 PM
Ah, you're right--I didn't see the "show other versions" link on the download page. I've edited the post to reflect this.