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Opera 9 with Widgets and BitTorrent Now Available

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the new-shiny-toys dept.

ZarK writes "Technical Preview 2 of the upcoming Opera 9.0 browser is now available for download. In addition to the general bugfix and rendering improvements there's also new features, like x-platform type widgets, improved content blocking, bittorrent support, thumbnail preview of tabs and more. Improved functionality also comes in the fact that a good lot of the scripts from userscripts.org will now work, advanced settings have improved in opera:config, and more browser customization is available at the opera community. However, some clear indications that this is still an alpha release is the experimental support for NTLM which breaks the proxy functionality for some users, and the fact that widgets are always on top."

3 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. A browser with native BitTorrent by Brother+Dysk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finally! A browser with native support for BitTorrent downloading. This is certainly a positive thing, especially given the superb functioning of Opera's download system, at least compared to other browsers. Good move, Opera.

    --
    - Frans.
  2. Re:Your skepticism is understandable. by pherthyl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I went to Opera, I'd be doing it for... tab preview.

    And performance.. That's a biggie. But then you lose the warm fuzzies of using an open source program, as well as the guarantee that the program is absolutely not installing any spyware or compromising your privacy. It's always a tradeoff.

  3. Re:Hmmm...maybe I'll try it. by :jax: · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I've never understood web standards. If most browswers don't follow them, (as aparent that IE, Firefox, and Opera each failed to render the acid2 face test properly) then whose standards are they? Wouldn't the 'standards' be the most popular useage of code?

    The point of an acid test is that is should be hard, something to strive for. The idea is that if you have passed this test you likely have a good implementation of CSS. It is possible to fail the acid test and be good in other aspects of the standard, or pass it and still be deficient, but it should give a good indicator. It is worth noting that every modern browser passes the first acid test, but it was considered a challenge at the day. IE didn't pass it before version 6.

    The focus of the CSS Working Group in the W3C has the last five years changed focus from more features (CSS3) to more universally consistent presentation (CSS2.1). I believe this is a good move, and the Acid2 test should be viewed in that light. Opera intends to support CSS 2.1 and I presume that is the case with Firefox and Konqueror too, and we all change our implementations in tune with how CSS2.1 develops. IE is definitely far behind, but should be commended for moving in the right direction.

    At some point Opera, FF, and Konqueror/Safari should render CSS2.1 more similar to each other than they would do to their own older versions, and hopefully not differ in any meaningful way. Whether IE one day is going to turn this gang of three into a gang of four remains to be seen, it won't happen with IE7, but hopefully the development won't stop there.

    Jonny Axelsson, Opera Software