First Look video: Opera 9.5

Long considered a cult favorite, Opera 9.5 for Windows and Mac has introduced some compelling features that make it the first salvo in the 2008 browser wars. With improvements to security, speed, and synchronization--yes, syncing in a browser!--is there enough here to make you a convert?

Check out this First Look video and let us know.

Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter.

Topics:: Browsers and extensions,; Mac Software,; Windows Software

Tags:: Opera,; freeware,; browser

Share:: Digg; Del.icio.us; Reddit; Facebook

Recent posts from The Download Blog: Tell the time and destroy the Death Star: iPhone Apps of the week; Windows Starter Kit refreshed for 2010; Big changes in Security Starter Kit 2010; Why to embrace Firefox 3.6's new-tab ethos; Sale: CoPilot Live GPS for iPhone, $19.99; Three apps we're thankful for; Mozilla issues near-final Thunderbird 3; eBay opens auction app for BlackBerry

Add a Comment (Log in or register) (17 Comments)

by gamirabal June 13, 2008 8:03 PM PDT

It's very nice. As a matter of fact firefox stole all the ideas from Opera, like tab browsing, wand(secure login), side bar, tab preview, etc. But i still use firefox as my default browser. The downside of opera is that is not supported by a lot of websites.

Like this Reply to this comment


by mamu.ji June 14, 2008 9:57 AM PDT: True.. Googlepages, orgoo are not supported... Many indian bank sites...; Like this


by Iwantone June 13, 2008 8:50 PM PDT: True enough that some websites arent supported by Opera, but they are few and far between. Also when I found that Opera hadproblems last year with Wall Street Journal Online- I put in a "service request" to the Opera team and it took them 48 hours and now the WSJ online works perfectly. They are very responsive at least in this case, but it is an excellent browser and this upgrade only makes it better.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Shaeinizer June 14, 2008 12:19 AM PDT: Actually Opera is Norwegian, not Swedish :).; Like this Reply to this comment

by ptzkiler June 14, 2008 2:29 AM PDT

I don't like opera it slow down my system I love FireFox

Like this Reply to this comment


by mamu.ji June 14, 2008 9:56 AM PDT: Not possible.... Opera requires less ram than firefox....!; Like this


by psdn2006 June 14, 2008 5:35 AM PDT: thanks; Like this Reply to this comment


by rjvol June 14, 2008 6:27 AM PDT: fabolous; Like this Reply to this comment


by mamu.ji June 14, 2008 10:00 AM PDT: The look & feel is just awesome.. Added features, speed, of course safety is well upgraded... Only browser with in-built mail client, making it way ahead of others.. And the sync with mini makes ease of use even better.. My personal fav. from the part 3 years... Way to go....; Like this Reply to this comment


by reedjaguar June 14, 2008 3:52 PM PDT: good software. Still Firefox is my default browser.; Like this Reply to this comment


by rrtopaz June 15, 2008 7:58 AM PDT: this was AWFUL, the worst: i downloaded this latest version (9.5) to use over the previous one i've been using and it completely stalled my pc...it opens but nothing shows up...error messages kept coming up, saying the websites are either busy and/or to check my connection (dsl? i've never had a problem)...lost all the widgets, the skins, the bookmarks, everything i had put into the previous version...forget this opera, stick with firefox and/or browzar (ultra fast browser); Like this Reply to this comment


by chrislyon08 June 15, 2008 8:43 AM PDT: Its the same speed as FF2 on my PC. Good? Yes but FF3 is coming out on tuesday and thats faster so I dont think ill be using it.; Like this Reply to this comment


by hotdog123 June 15, 2008 4:59 PM PDT: I am finding opera9.5 to be the absolute best browser. I also used the previous version and liked it, even if there were some sites I could not run videos off of, however with this version I can now get videos from these sites, mostly news sites. I would not use any other browser.; Like this Reply to this comment


by kanagarajan June 15, 2008 5:34 PM PDT: this opera is very nice. early i was using it. then i switched over to firefox. now i find it is fine.; Like this Reply to this comment


by machfront June 16, 2008 2:43 AM PDT: Well, there do seem to be some widely varying experiences.
For my part, I switched from FF to Opera 9.23 some months back. With every update things have been fine, usually better. This update is no different. It's slighly faster and looks better. I've never had a problem on any page with Opera. I've heard plenty of folks mention that they can't access a certain site(s) or they can't view this or that, but in all this time I've not run across one site or even one thing on one site that was problematic in the slightest. I really dig Opera, and it would take FF3 being 20x faster to make me even think for a moment about switching.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Backspace23 June 16, 2008 9:02 AM PDT: Opera actually meets web standards like w3c better than other browsers. So the problem is actually on the developer's end. Opera was the first on market with many features now standard in other browsers, and includes a lot of standard functions that are only available as plug ins for other browsers. It also includes a nice mail client. According to lifehacker Opera 9.5 is faster than Firefox 3: http://lifehacker.com/396048/speed-testing-the-latest-web-browsers; Like this Reply to this comment


by 0zSpit July 7, 2008 3:46 PM PDT: this update to opera will really put it up where it should be. the new look is better than any of the add-on skins i've ever seen; Like this Reply to this comment