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Opera 8 Released
bonch writes "After a series of beta releases, Opera 8 final has now been released. Read the announcement complete with download links. The new Opera sports a streamlined interface and several rendering improvements."
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release date on the dmg download for the Mac is April 18.
Two comments:
1. It is very fast.
2. Keychain integration, so all the web site passwords from your other keychain-enabled browsers (firefox, safari, etc.) on your Mac will be remembered.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Here are the links to the Opera web site and downloads.
screen shots here
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
I use mouse gestures all the time... in Firefox.
The linky got me a proxy error, so here are some others.
...and what is up with OperaMan?
Product page with download links etc.
The Register
The Google
This Like That - fun with words!
This is actually the first Opera version to work on my machine since i tried Opera 5 or something, and i'm all in love now... It's fast, safe and the rendering is nice... Great release..
Bits of News Giving you the latest bits.
What are you on? The first time you start it up it asks if you want google ads or generic ads. That's the only time you're ever nagged about the ads, you're certainly never "assaulted". I also have yet to even be asked about registration. Only "nagging" could be that under the help menu there's a "Register Opera". Apart from that, nothing.
If you want adblocking, use a custom style sheet, not as good as adblock, but it can be done.
(This is a partial repost from my own blog entry on Opera 8
Opera is giving away free licenses to people who help spread Opera. That's right, you can get a free license for an ad-free Opera, provided you do the following:
[1] It's actually getting them to visit my.opera.com, but: People should really, really try Opera 8. It's quite brilliant, and in many ways sets the standard for what a web browser should and should not do.
http://virtuelvis.com/
Can't you do all of that with firefox? I have the deverloper toolbar and the first dropdown menu is "disable" on it is "cache, cookies, image animations, images, java, javascript, page colors, popup blockers, referral logging, and styles (which is another submenu consisting of all styles, embedded styles, inline styles, linked style sheets, and an individual style sheet selector).e nsions/morei nfo.php?application=firefox&category=Developer%20T ools&numpg=10&id=60
e nsions/morei nfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows &category=Navigation&numpg=10&id=39
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/ext
you can also use mouse gestures with a FF extension:
https://addons.update.mozilla.org/ext
and finally, I don't get your drift on the broswer has to get the ads somewhere. What do you mean?
My favorite feature of Opera is the preview in a mobile device option. Now that is handy (to me as a web developer).
Mmmm, that's a steaming pile of Opera...
/.! :-/
Seriously, I can't get anything more than a headline or two. What an excellent release, thanks
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(^v^)
(")")
This is the cute vorpal bunny virus, copy to your sig or runaway, runaway in fear!
And yes, it is different from a popup blocker. Popups take over the UI and cause problems. Normal ads are embedded in the web page.
You're referring to developers who are working on the Firefox user interface. Most of Firefox is the Gecko core that's shared with Thunderbird, the Suite, Camino, etc. There are more than ten full-time active developers who work on various parts of Firefox (several of whom work at other companies such as Red Hat), plus hundreds of part-time volunteer developers.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
I use mouse gestures all the time... in Firefox.
Yes, and so do I. However, I suggest trying them in Opera, the whole feeling and responsiveness is like from another planet. On firefox they're sluggish and lag, Opera responds now.
There's also bunch of other little things that matter. Like going back/forward in history with Z/X, fast tab-switching with 1/2. The whole F12 menu with possibility to turn plug-ins off.
And then there's 'space' which is 'smart-forward' and is a real life-saver with those image-dumps.
Unfortunately not everything is good, adblock is completely missing, and is sofar opera's biggest failure.
fucktard is a tenderhearted description
No browsers pass Acid2. So far, the development version of Safari comes closest.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Opera 8 is supported by gmail now, too.
It supports SVG 1.1 Tiny, yes.
Back/forward performance?
Opera's press release. Google cache.
For adblocking, you should try Proxomitron. I've found this to be a god-send for browsing - blocks ads, popups, etc, etc. Plus, the blocklists are constantly being updated by dedicated users, and can be found at CastleCops. For Linux, try Privoxy.
Daily energy news and discussion: theWatt.com
Opera 8 is even faster than previous versions as well. I have no idea how you can be talking about "bloat" and "more buggy", when clearly, they are fixing stuff like mad, and with three betas and countless previews in addition to that, Opera 8.0 is an extremely solid release.
Instead of fixing bugs? What are you talking about? Loads of bugs have been fixed during the beta tests. It is nothing but a blatant lie to claim that Opera has been fixing bugs instead of adding new features.But so what if they add new features? It's a good thing! Opera is expanding. They can afford to hire more devs, both to add new features, and to fix bugs.
Opera has always had a built-in e-mail client, so the point is moot. Except Firefox has lots of bugs of its own. Just recently, 1.0.3 was released with critical security fixes, whereas Opera is the only browser of the "big three" with no unpatched vulnerabilities.Clever signature text goes here.
The license key you recieve when you do that is not valid for Opera 8 .
That is a limited offer for Opera 7.x that ran in a german computer magazine.
http://virtuelvis.com/
I do not think FireFox's approach of all or nothing to pop-up blocking is feasible everywhere; a lot of corporate Intranet applications use/spawn pop-ups windows.
One of the nifty features of Opera is that they force pop-ups to stay only within the tab that loaded/created them. Your other tabs are uncluttered. That allows me to use a tab for the applications that actually need pop-ups while leaving my other tabs free of such pop ups.
Beat that Firefox!!
Here's a link to the Swedish University Network (SUNet), who mirrors the files from Opera.com.
There are lots of more compelling features. That was just one
I could go on a lot longer, but these are some of the features that Firefox doesn't do properly, even with extensions that attempt to do (some of) the same.
http://virtuelvis.com/
I think he means for Opera. Before v8, Opera had different licenses for different operating systems. Basically, if you bought it for windows, you used to have to then buy it for Linux if you wanted to change.
The terms have since changed, likely due to the changing market conditions. One license is now good for an entire household's computers, on any OS.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
If you fuck up and close a tab you wanted, you can undo. In fact, as long as you haven't closed opera, you can open any closed tabs that you had in the session.
You also miss the new features like User js, ERA, SVG Tiny support, and on windows 2k+ (and I assume soon on phones) the voice control and reading.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
That's not the case anymore, recently Opera switched to a single license system. You can use the license on all your household computers, whatever the OS you are using.
If you don't like having choices made for you, you should start making your own. - Neal Stephenson
That's because Opera caches the DOM (rendered page) while Gecko does not. Yet.
Use the proxomitron or some other ad blocker and keep using Opera.
I find proxomitron works much better than Adblock even though it looks like it`s not being developed anymore sadly.There are plenty of alternatives though.
Now the only feature I would like to see in Opera is the Flash click to play thingy like firefox has.
http://ftp.tiscali.nl/opera/ -- if you can't download it from www.opera.com... I can't... Only I do know we have a mirror.. ;)
[]
Edward TLS
No, it doesn't. It's definitely different though. That long stripe coming from the graphic's eye is now rendered as a text box with scroll bars.
Take it with a grain of salt, though. The acid test has valid HTML, but the CSS does not validate. Anybody who knows more than I do (admittedly very little) care to comment on the validity of the HTML and CSS of the acid test?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
While I tend to install Firefox on end users computers because it's free I myself use Opera.
As has been noted by others in this thread once you have Opera installed your pretty much done save for configuring it the way you like it. With Firefox you have to install a number of plugins to get that same level of functionality and hope that they will run with the current version of Firefox.
But the real point I want to make here is that while Opera does not have a native ad blocker in place I have always simply used my hosts file as a universal ad blocking mechanism. Dan Pollock maintains a great one on his site and I've yet to find a false positive in it.
The best part about going this route is that all programs on your machine get the benefit of blocking these ad servers or whatever else you care to put in the file. So if you ever have to, , use IE on a website that refuses to work with anything else you are still protected.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Have they fixed the defective saving of web pages? No they still continue to make ridiculous excuses.
At first Opera annoyed me, but over time I've really come to depend on it. It can do a few things the other browsers can only dream of.
;- )
- It renders Slashdot fast and correctly!
- The popup blocker *really* *works*!! Seriously. Firefox has been letting extra-evil ones through lately. Visit drudgereport.com for examples.
- I has something called "spatial browsing" that makes keyboard surfing possible. I hold down shift, and the arrow keys navigate through links based on their location on the screen. Firefox can't do this at all.
- Mouse gestures let me surf faster and with less effort. Firefox has a plugin, but Opera actually invented it.
- The rewind button doesn't just go back a page, it goes back the last significantly different place I was.The fast-forward button works even when you haven't gone back yet. It reads the page and detects where to go. Firefox has nothing like this. I'm not sure how I lived without it. If I press fast forward while I'm looking at an image, it goes to the next image in the directory! Weird.
- It lets you turn http referers off. Slashdot has absolutely no idea what page sent me here...
- It has IRC built in. That's cool, but I don't use it much.
- The mail client is the best I've ever seen. It's checks and sends from all 5 of my accounts, with Mailbox Oneness never before achieved by mortals.
- The download manager is excellent. Quick-download is handy.
- Literally every single part of the interface can be customized by editing the INI files. I've made mine look almost exactly like the KDE browser, Konqueror.
- Pressing F12 lets me change my settings rapidly. You have to see this one to really like it. No more messy settings boxes. Sometimes you just want to turn javascript off for a few seconds.
- Deleting cookies isn't a big deal. I click "Tools->Delete Private Data" and click okay. That clears history, cookies, etc all at once. Why can't Firefox do that?
- It uses a *huge* amount of RAM. Right now it's using 51MB! This sounds bad until you try it; the speed is amazing. Firefox worrys too much about memory and runs slower as a result. Firefox isn't slow, it just isn't this fast.
- I've tried lots of password-remembering thingies, but the Wand is the only one that's really appealed to me. I just press ctrl-enter and it fills forms in and submits them. It's great for things like forums, where I couldn't care less if my password is stored on my disk.
- It can do cool tricks, like let you move tabs between windows. I hate tabs anyway, though, so I never use this. ; )
- If you accidentally close a window, it keeps a list of recently closed windows, so you can reopen it! Very nice. What are the Firefox developers waiting for?
- If Opera or Windows crashes, when you reload Opera, it can restore all your windows just the way they were. This is unspeakably cool.
- One of my favorites is that it lets you associate letters with search engines. I type "g whatever I want" into the address bar, and it automatically searches Google. If I type "e something"' it searches eBay! Cool, eh? Who needs the Google bar? Actually, it has that too. It has search bars for 14 different engines.
- It has support for user stylesheets. This is very impressive. I can't do it justice trying to explain it here. It's cool.
- You can save "sessions" and open them up later...windows, settings, everything...perfectly intact.
- Loading PDFs doesn't lock up Opera. Firefox literally becomes unresponsive.
I could go on all day, but I won't. I just love really love this browser!
That said, it takes some effort to get it configured so it doesn't suck, and is probably way beyond the masses. Firefox is halfway decent (but buggy...), and most people (read: "lusers") should be using that.
Oh, and don't whine about gmail support. Opera supports Ajax fully, and there is no reason why gmail shouldn't work, and it used to. Blame google for forcing Opera users to use the crappy basic HTML interface. That's not Opera's fault.
The invalid CSS is deliberate; browsers are expected to skip the broken sections, since that's how CSS handles forward compatibility (i.e. a CSS 2 client can handle CSS 3 by skipping the bits it can't parse).
It's supposed to trip up browsers that don't follow the spec by giving them invalid but potentially parsable rules which they shouldn't apply.
Doesn't Opera nail you with a godaweful banner ad at the top of the browser unless you pay for it? IMO that automatically makes it inferior to all the competition out ther.
I haven't paid for Opera for Linux (bought version 7 for Windows before their 2 for 1 deal, or whatever they have been running recently). There is a small bar accross the top that displays Google ads, and the occasional plug for Opera software (all text only). I find it non-intrusive, and don't notice it most of the time. Older versions of Opera had an embedded banner ad on the top, which was pretty annoying, especially on a low resolution monitor.
Quite frankly though, paying for Opera is worth every penny (IMHO).