Opera 9.5 now available

[DAB Badboy]

Users of the Opera web browser should be aware that the full release of version 9.50 is now available @ www.opera.com

[Rik]

Thanks. 

[TheMonkey]

Hi,

is it any good? I keep going from FF to IE back to FF, gave safari a bash and it was awful, back to FF now i dabble a bit in IE.

How does it compare?

thanks

[Sebby]

I've tried it in the past and couldn't get on with it. It just felt a bit bloated. Plus, I think FF3 is fantastic.

[Inactive]

Also mentioned here;

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=1976.500

[dudwell]

I updated Opera and now it's become completely useless! Lots of black background and the absence of anything useful to click upon. I've had to use Internet Explorer to post this.

Any advice or tips welcome as I've been happy with Opera for several years. IE seems slow in comparison.

Maybe it's time to switch to Firefox? It'll mean retraining The Boss though

[Inactive]

Go to TOOLS

Appearance, change colour .. toolbar etc. from there.

[dudwell]

Thank you Inactive but TOOLS and the toolbar simply aren't there! I have a few scattered fragments of the usual startup page such as Amazon.com and Price comparison in the top line and then below Rewind, Back, Forward, Fast forward, Wand  and then opera.blank in a panel. Nothing that looks promising to click on.

When I'm allowed some time off from my domestic duties (!) I'll try uninstalling and re-installing from scratch.

[Inactive]

OK, do you have a spanner thingy at the top left, if yes click on that, go to the bottom + sign and tick them off from there.

Otherwise a re-install may do the trick.

[dudwell]

No spanner thingy either Inactive. The whole thing seems to have gone completely bananas. I'll be back eventually when I've had time to re-install and maybe System Restore too. Thanks.

[Inactive]

Certainly looks like your download has corrupted by the look of things, a fresh download looks to be on the cards.

[dudwell]

I uninstalled Opera, then re-installed and, touch wood, it's now working perfectly. I didn't even lose the Bookmarks!

On the basis of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" I think I'll stick with Opera after all. Haven't yet discovered any advantage from the update though!

[Inactive]

It seems faster to me...also the interface has changed a bit.

Glad you are sorted..

[dudwell]

Agreed, it really does seem faster than before.

[john]

I tried Opera a few weeks back, can't remember which version it was at the moment though. It worked okay but it was a bit different than IE and I couldn't see that there were any advantages. I've gone back to IE for no other reason that it's the one I'm most familiar with.

[TheMonkey]

got it last night. very smooth and quick 

[dlorde]

I've been using Maxthon 2 for some time now, but just switched to Firefox 3 as Maxthon 2 slowly leaks memory. FF3 is pretty good if you install the right add-ons/extensions (especially Tab Kit & FireGestures), but I'd still prefer Maxthon 2 if not for the leak...

[drummer]

Posting this from Opera 9.5 and it's the same as it ever was...

Mostly harmless.

[Sebby]

Only mostly?

[esh]

Upgraded yesterday, instantly downloaded the old classic theme, heh. Seems fine, possibly slightly faster. Other than that it seems the same.

Dropped off the Firefox boat around the 1.5'ish time. It had grown enormously since the "good old" v0.7-0.8 days, and was taking forever to start up. Opera looked punchy so I gave it a go and it kind of stuck. It had less memory usage than Firefox 2 in my experience as well. That said, I've heard good things about Firefox 3, but I really don't want to be fussed moving by bookmarks. Again. Not when this works just dandy for the time being.

[Rik]

It's strange, Esh, but I've never been quite comfortable with Opera. Something about it doesn't fit the way I work...

I can beat you, btw, I was first on CI$ at 9600.

[esh]

Haha, wow I wasn't really quite technically savvy enough back in the days of 9600 baud. The 28k modem was hundreds of pounds when I got it nonetheless, and promptly broke one day after the warranty expired (I kid you not).

I think most browsers are just fine these days. Even IE7 is not that bad. Really. I keep it around for use with Flash websites, as I abhor such for casual viewing. Opera does a few things differently, but I got used to it.

Of course, we could both go back to Netscape. Or even MOSAIC. What do you think?

[Rik]

I liked Netscape - back in the day when you bought your browser and got a handful of floppies in return.

[dlorde]

I tried Opera 9.5 and it's very nice - unfortunately it simply doesn't work with some of the websites I need to use - especially the online timesheet system at work, and our HR site for booking holidays and other time-off, etc. They're different sites with different web software, and although they may not be using standard HTML or whatever, it makes life difficult - I prefer not to use different browsers for different sites...

[Sebby]

Theoretically, every site should look the same in any browser, but there are two problems. Firstly, most sites do not use valid markup. Secondly, IE does not render properly, and webmasters are often forced to "hack" their code to make it do so, which means it doesn't display properly in other browsers that do render properly.

[Rik]

Or, we don't hack it, and the theme shows up wrongly in IE, but fine in other browsers.

[Sebby]

Or that.