Opera 9 with Widgets and BitTorrent Now Available

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."

Comments

A browser with native BitTorrent

[Brother Dysk]

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.

Re:A browser with native BitTorrent

[aussie_a]

I predict that Firefox's numbers will soar even further once it's made illegal for us to download Opera in Australia.

Re:A browser with native BitTorrent

[saskboy]

I agree, I've thought for over a year that the first browser to incorporate native BT downloading into itself, so that someone could just click a link and start downloading a torrent without having to download the client/server program first, would make it big on the web very soon.
Now if only websites had a way to offer a BT version of their download files, so that they'll never get Slashdotted again...

Re:A browser with native BitTorrent

[Jozer99]

I have been using this all day. This was my first experience with Opera, but I figured it was time to give it a try. Here is what I thought: Ease of use: Still not up to Firefox standards, but about as good as IE7 (I'm not a huge fan of that interface). You can easily change the theme, but some things are frustratingly un-customizable (in Firefox you can drag just about anything anyplace and expect it to do something). Speed: WOW! Even on my dual core 2.8 with 2GB RAM, Opera still renders pages noticably faster than IE or Firefox. Plus, no (or fewer) pesky memory leaks. Also, Opera tended to use about 2/3 of the RAM as Firefox with as many tabs open. How do they do that?!?! Downsides: Opera has a couple downsides. For one, it still doesn't have IE's universal exceptance, I still had to open IE to get to Yahoo! sites (shudder). Plus, I found that Opera had mysterious and quite common rendering errors on CSS heavy pages (as in navigation bars would not show up). This maybe because of the beta status, but it was frustrating. Opera also has much fewer plugins and add-ons available to enhance functionality. This is probably due to the smaller user base and closed source nature of the program. After a day with Opera, I am sad to say that I switched back to Firefox for my main browser. However, Opera will remain on my machine, and I will continue to download new versions to see how things improve.

Re:A browser with native BitTorrent

[AKA Panama Jack]

I have the latest Quicktime and Flash 8 along with Shockwave installed under Opera 9 TP2 without any problems. They work like a charm. So you might want to see what you did wrong during the install. If you use their installers they will automatically install into Opera. If you copy the plugin files from anotehr directory make sure you place them in the program/plugin directory in Opera.

And I thank GOD that Opera doesn't support ActiveX. ActiveX is one of the most insecure pieces of programming I have ever come across. Using ActiveX is akin to browsing the web and opening email attachments without a firewall or antivirus package installed. An open invitation to disaster.

Re:A browser with native BitTorrent

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

My own disgust at IE led me to Mozilla years ago. I was reluctant to try Firefox at first, but that switch was pleasant. I never really tried Opera though, until recently.

You see, I'm working on a website that will never be usable in IE. IE is too primitive, and broken. It can't handle xml mime types, and won't even in IE7. It can't do SVG natively, and I don't feel like wrapping all my many SVG widgets in object tags and writing code for a bad Adobe plugin. And besides, people should just plain be discouraged from ever using IE.

SVG though is important to the website, I suppose I could use something gay like flash or java, but I really wanted this to be a pure site. I thought that it would mean that it was Firefox only. Some friends chided me into trying to make it work with Opera and Konq though...

And I was shocked. Opera 8 gets alot of the non-interactive SVG right. Better yet, the Opera 9 beta gets alot of it right, period. And the places where it's screwed up? Bad syntax on my part, that Firefox ignores but that Opera is (rightfully) bitchy about. I won't start using Opera 9, but there's no reason why others shouldn't. It kicks ass.

(And as for Konq, things are looking good. It did the non-interactive SVG really well, and Konqueror 4 looks like it will do just as well as the other two. Still waiting on Safari, but I think it will soon be pretty good itself)

But for IE, we might never need browser specific hackery at all.

Little benefit to Firefox these days.

[CyricZ]

Now that Opera has removed the ads from their browser, and added these other features, it has become a real competitor to Firefox.

The Firefox developers will really have to step up to the plate with the upcoming Firefox 2.0 release if they want to retain the marketshare they currently have. Firefox will have to show some pretty serious speed improvements, and far better memory management. It can't leak memory at the rate which the current 1.5 releases do.

Re:Little benefit to Firefox these days.

[prichardson]

Your argument of pragmatism is exactly what keeps millions and millions using Internet Exploder.

Of course

[Ctrl Alt De1337]

"However, some clear indications that this is still an alpha release is..."

Nightmarish grammar aside, the biggest clear indication that this is not final is the "Opera 9 Technology Preview 2" title on the linked page. Also, there is the fact that it is Opera labs, not the main site. Contrary to what the title would lead you to believe, this is just an open beta.

The big splash is the widgets. I am of the opinion though that the widget concept is being overdone completely. Now, you can have start.com widgets running in your Opera browser with widgets on your OS with widgets (either OS X Tiger's dashboard/Windows Vista Beta Sidebar or via third-party stuff a la Konfabulator/Superkaramba/Object Desktop). Enough alreay. How many different ways do I need to get my local weather forecast?

I give it an A+.

[CyricZ]

I've been using the FreeBSD release today, and my gosh, does it ever fly! It doesn't feel as responsive as Konqueror, but it still is a fantastic browser.

The email client is vastly improved, and it feels much quicker than in previous releases. It was quite quick at listing my 1800 MB mailbox, and it's now possible to scroll through the entries at a rapid pace without delay.

The opera:config feature is quite nice, and presented very well. It's far nicer to view than the comparable about:config capabilities of Firefox, yet just as easy to locate and modify preferences.

Overall, this release is an improvement over the last, while still retaining the small size and high responsiveness that Opera is known for. I give it an A+.

Already there

[Nichotin]

Opera has been a worthy competitor for a long time, but what keeps amusing me is that they pack 10032894208492 features, and a pony, into the browser, and it still does not feel bloated (not compared to some apps, that have two features and a eye candy interface which makes your eyes fall out).
Don't like using one program for browsing, mail, and bittorrent? Then don't. Just use the browsing capabilities, and the rest of the features will be sufficiently hid away.

Re:Already there

[CyricZ]

Indeed. The download for FreeBSD was 6 MB, with a statically-linked version of Qt. It's quite fantastic how much they manage to pack into such a small package.

We often hear how Firefox's greatest strength is its extensions. Well, to be honest, when you're using Opera you don't need to delve into extensions. Opera includes all the functionality you want by default.

Not needed yet...

[Afecks]

This really won't matter until all BT clients support web-seeding, that is, seeding peers via HTTP without the need for a dedicated client doing the seeding. Then every website, even those hosted on shared servers, will be able to easily provide torrents to their vistors and in turn their vistors will already support BT without extra software to install. AFAIK only BitTornado supports it and I really dislike that client. This is a crucial step for BT to really prove itself to be useful for more legitimate purposes.

What next? CEO to swim Atlantic again?

[deunan_k]

Heh..

In reference to the previous ver 8, the CEO promises to swim from Norway to USA, with a brief stopover for mom's hot coffee in Iceland. That is, if the download reaches 1,000,000 in 4 days..

Apparently it did! I remembered downloading a copy, in a bid to see such sport, but alas..

Press Release

Previously, it was reported that the attempt failed due to various reasons, including physical condition. Let's hope he's is fitter this time around.

Yeah, no malfunctioning support raft.

Swim Attempt Report


Sincere regards to Opera Team..

-PS Crazy stunts like these are really fun!

P2P v2.0

[DonZorro]

This could change the perception and add a new twist to the RIAA lawsuits against P2P users...simply because P2P would now be given credit for helping all kinds of content providers overcome their bandwidth problems.

Think...seeding/leeching CNN homepage

Re:Hmmm...maybe I'll try it.

[piper-noiter]

For the most part if your code is up to standards it looks fine in opera. 90% of the time it renders like Mozilla. Opera is not making the designers job harder. It's closer than most to passing the Acid 2 test.

I'm already trying it out. Full of more great stuff, as one expects. They smoothed out a lot of the features they added in Preview 1 and added so much more.

I heard reports of problems with upgrading so I did a clean install and spent the afternoon adding my custom buttons and changing my search options. (I no longer have to use 3rd party tools to change them)

Between custom buttons, panels, and widgets I think Opera can now easily do anything a Firefox extension can do.

Bittorrent and Firefox

[citizenc]

Question: why has Opera managed to incorporate Bittorrent support into their browser, yet the only torrent plugins for Firefox are in a horrendous state of pre-development? WTF is going on here?

Bye Firefox ... its been fun

[arrrrg]

I tried this out today, and I'm sold. After seeing stats on how Opera is significantly faster than Firefox in almost every category, I finally decided to check it out. While I miss one or two extensions (Bugmenot and Forecast Firefox), I can do without these. Other than that, the built-in mouse gestures, keyboard + location bar shortcuts, ad block, torrents, better download manager, fast forward (hit the button or press ctrl-x and automatically go to the next page of google search results, next part of any article, ...), and so on means that out of the box it is a firefox killer, and much faster to boot.

Re:Your skepticism is understandable.

[pherthyl]

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.

Additional links

[zxSpectrum]

Here are some additional links with more information and screenshots, so you won't have to wade through all of the Opera forums to find them:

• The Slashdot Widget
• Pictorial walkthrough of Opera 9
• UserJS.org -- Granted, Opera can run many Greasemonkey scripts, the userjs.org feature of Opera allows some additional capabilities. These scripts are all compatible with Opera, and have undergone QA to verify that scripts are non-malicious, and as efficient as possible
• Widget developer tutorial - If you want to get started writing widgets, here's where to go
• Screenshots and explanations around the tab (and ctrl-tab) thumbnails
• Opera Search engine customization
• In-depth information about the content blocker
• Opera User stylesheet information

Tips & Tricks after a days use

[Anonymous Coward]

Been using this now and tried to find all the hidden goodies, and here's my few tips. Note that all shortcuts mentioned are only tested on Windows:

• Right-click in a search field and select "Create search" to define a new search with a shortcut. The shortcut can now be used at the address bar just like "g define:slashdotted" can.
• You can press "F2" and type "slashdot" and you will go to http://slashdot.org/
• CTRL-B is a keyboard shortuct for Paste & go
• F12 gives you a Quick Preferences menu
• Tools-> Preferences-> Advanced-> Shortcuts-> Mouse setup-> Edit-> Application will give you the mouse gestures. I changed "GestureUp" to this: "Enter fullscreen & view address bar, 2 | leave fullscreen & Go" , changed "GestureDown, GestureUp" to "Wand" and added "GestureLeft, GestureRigth" to be "Stop"
• On any page, hit "." (dot) to get a non-intrusive search on the page
• Right-click on the page and try the "Block Content.." function, it's very nicely implemented
• You can create your own buttons
• Create your own Widgets using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and AJAX, and they _should_ work on all platforms the TP2 is available on.
• I like Tools-> Preferences-> General-> '[ ]Show close button on each tab' to make the interface less cluttered, and rather use my middle-button to close tabs.

Hm.. well that's what I've found so far :)

Re:Hmmm...maybe I'll try it.

[:jax:]

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