Opera 9.5 Final Released

By | June 12, 2008 | 29 Comments

Opera 9.5 FinalOpera 9.5 Final was just released by Opera Software. Kind of a surprise I guess. Now who expected it to be released so fast after their 1st Release Candidate?

Opera 9.5 has a lot of new features and various improvements such as:

Quick Find – When using Opera the browser remembers not only the titles and addresses, but the actual content of the Web pages you visit. As a result, you can quickly find previous visited pages more easily.
Opera Link – Access your favorite Web sites everywhere. Opera Link syncs your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your computers and mobile phone.
A preview version of Opera Dragonfly (upcoming developer tools).
New Fraud Protection and EV.
Fit to width.
New Skin
and much more…

Most important, Opera 9.5 introduced new browser engine which is:

More than 2x faster than Opera 9.2 in rendering JavaScript and HTML
Faster handling of third party plug-ins
Much faster start up time
Superior support for Web standards

Learn more and see video tutorials
Download Opera 9.5

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About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Sorry guys but this is an awful and rushed release.

    Most or all of the bugs mentioned here:

    http://www.favbrowser.com/opera-95-release-candidate-rc-released/

    exists, also no more icons for search engines?

    When loading Opera.com it says:

    Proxy Error
    The document has moved here.

    my transfers gone after upgrade, etc… I’m still shocked

  • BarkTwiggs

    Vygantas,
    The main opera url was down so they could change the placeholder graphics (they have the cool rainbow colored theme up now.

    As for the rushed release, my guess is that they want to get 9.5 out the door so they can work on 10 more. It’s kind of a cut and bait scenario. They should be able to implement and perfect many of their new ideas with the upcoming release.

    Acid3 got no higher than 83 despite getting 100 on internal software. Benchmarks are lagging behind Safari and Firefox (though admitedly less so with this release). 9.5 isn’t going to get much better.

    That said, it’s still pretty nice. :)

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    I can’t even write news via WordPress on Opera anymore (visual mode) :-)

  • o_O

    I respect opera very much but you made biggest mistakes in your lives by releasing unfinished build.

    What were you thinking? -_-

    Regards

  • amazed

    biggest mistake EVER

  • TLZ

    Release candidate for two days?

    Despite me being *very* impressed by the RC, I’m very sceptical to this.

    Still going to download this and see though.

  • TLZ

    Urugh….

    The RC was really stable.

    This one is not. There must of been a mistake…?

    I’ve had it crash on my twice now. Quite possibly because of Flash, but still.. Flash didn’t crash it that easily on the RC.

    This reminds me of the Beta 1 of 9.50. That one was just barelely usable, and not high quality enough for a beta(should rather be a weekly build).

    I surelely hope they fix this mess soon.

    This *must* be a mistake! I mean… they can’t be serious, can they?

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    That’s what happens on rush.

    I have to kill opera after 1h of usage or so cause it just shows nothing, no buttons, no tabs, all grey. Something with video accelerator maybe, don’t know, other browsers works fine. Ain’t using this one anymore.

  • Peace_Destroyer

    It’s strange, but… I just updated my Opera installation this morning and I had almost no problem at all with it. The first time, it asked me permission to update the mail and news database, and to restat it so the change would take effect.

    Other than that, no major problems have presented to the moment, my other skins still works, the items on transfer window are where they are supposed to be and GMail opens faster than before (and in my job’s workstation, that says a lot taking into account that it’s just an Intel Pentium III @ 650 MHz). I had an issue when trying to create a custom search on a drivers download site, so I send a report.

    To this moment, it’s working fine for me. :-)

  • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

    Looks like that grey “video” problem is somehow related with transfers, happens after transfering a lot.

  • http://kildor.mirandaim.ru Kildor

    Yes, Opera 9.5 has huge GDI-leak, at open-close page — +4 leaked objects. In transfer-page — leak is even fast.

    I can`t update from 9613 build, other are bugger and «strange».

    Nice grave, Opera!! Excellent victim to altar of idiotical race with FF3 released date.

  • nobody

    Opera management lives probably somewhere otherplace.

    this release effectively kills opera desktop

    you need to really work hard not to laugh to death reading ‘kestrel guidelines’ written year ago and they comparing them with reality

    – opera is no faster than ff3 and safari (browser that replaced Opera as the ‘third browser’)
    – opera is no way lighter than ff3 and safari
    – it is absolutely ugly
    – it is not more compatible with webapplications than opera 9.27. sure, some sites work better, but most newly designed websites are not even tested vs opera
    – Dragonfly was meant to change that, giving webdevelopers their tools that they wanted for years. but dragonfly is sh.. and cant do anything other than list css styles in fancy way
    – there are still unsolved mayor problems with opera+flash. many/most videos do not work, new youtube embed does not work. playing wmv embeded is easiest way to crash opera instantly etc etc

    and ignoring all that they create that stupid banner with ‘most beautifull, most powerfull, fastest browser’? all three are lies.

  • http://www.pallab.net Pallab De

    I agree.. that this appears to be a bit rushed (6/11 search engine icons are wrong over here). Expect v9.51 within a week or so.
    I remember Opera rushing ahead with v9 release also as they had a public event pre-planned. Soon after that we had two or three builds in quick succession.

  • Alex K

    So its like they never learn from their mistakes?

  • Ex Fan

    Hello Sirs,

    I am not happy with Opera 9.5 Final release. It made me very sad and angry. I was a big fan of Opera, always wrote everywhere how great it is, told bad things about other browsers and much more. Now I am just user.

    I just don’t have words to express my feelings, you just don’t care about us anymore. Release? Why? ANSWER ME! I remember TV Series Jerciho Season 2 was introduced in a bad time and then it was cancelled because it had “bad ratings”. Why bad ratings? Well, because they released that in bad time.

    I am sorry but can’t write anymore because it makes me angry very much and really don’t want to use bad words or offend anyone.

    Wth best regards,
    Opera fan no more.

  • http://http.//www.xhbml.com hb

    So far, I don’t think this release is any less stable than 9.2. I have a hard time understanding the loud-mouthed complaints here. There is however a strange hanging problem with one skin I have been trying (theta-2). Flash certainly works better now than it used to, with the older flash plugin. The current flash does not work in Opera 9.2 on Linux (bad bad Adobe) so it’s hard to say if the improvement is in Opera or Flash.
    It’s also a lot faster, interesting to see the sudden speed improvements across browsers with Firefox 3 supposedly being a lot faster than v2 and Safari/Konqueror constantly improving.

    Some quick testing reveals that the visual editor in WordPress 2.5 mostly works. I prefer html code to visual editors anyway.

    With that said, I was very surprised to see the final release today, just one day after the also surprising release candidate.

  • pook52mb

    Opera 9.5 Final for Mac still does not recognize ALL plugins,
    as noted below in the comments for the February 1st release.
    This to me, would seem to be a MAJOR problem.

    Opera 9.5, February 1st Release

    February 1, 2008

    Opera Desktop Team just released a first weekly build this month. Please note that this is not a final release, those builds still contains lots of bugs and various issues.

    Known issues

    Some plugins on Mac don’t work at all

  • Ian

    9.5 works just great here, and *much* better than 9.2x. Some pet bugs aren’t fixed, but waiting till all bugs are fixed is just lunacy. The comments here are high on hyperbole and short on substance, give clear cases where you think such critical bugs are remaining.

  • effzee

    I agree with 9.5 release being rushed, but understand the strategic implications.

    Barktwigs: actually benchmarking in 9.5 is ahead of FF3rc2 in most benchmarks. FF3 does take some rendering, DOM and positioning shortcuts at 100% zoom that Opera doesnt take (Opera sees 100% zoom as all zooms and makes the same layout calculations regardless), which means odd benchmarks (like the faux JS raytracer) appear much faster than O9.5 in FF3rc2, but then at 120% zoom the same bench is much slower in FF. The original 9.5 alpha test suite, a bunch of benchmark links and results made by an Opera user, allows you to see and try all these benchmarks for yourself. In all tests bar 1, Opera is still outperforming FF3 by a reasonable margin, and with Safari all tests bar 2. In both cases this is the JS faux renderer. Safari’s webkit JS is faster, but theres much more to speed than JS.

    Though this will sound flame-ish, I cannot help but feel that the majority of users whining about how terrible 9.5 is are just FF3 fanboys desperate to rubbish everything else in support of their zeal. Some of the comments in here are just crap. Yes, there are bugs. Yes, FF2 has bugs, so does Safari. 9.5x will progressively fix things in priority but in the meantime the browser is out in the field and reaching a wide user base. “Betas” tend to attract only hardcore users and fans and Opera wants to reach a wider base than that, so the question becomes is it stable enough to release for most users? The answer, notwithstanding things like “my search engine favicon is wrong” style bugs, is yes.

    Moaning about skin related issues is a real indication of the above because we all know that skins can be changed and adjusted to taste.

    @nobody (j/k):
    - Opera is faster than other browsers in most all situations. Fact. Go do the benchmarks for yourself.
    - Opera is much lighter considering the features available out of the box. Go kit out FF3 with all the extensions to get all the stuff you use in Opera (incl. Thunderbird for mail lol), then see how light it is. Safari just has no features. Great renderer, but no features. Oh, apart from webclips on the mac.
    - Suggesting that you (or anybody) really knows what the “third” browser is is laughable. Everybody knows that Opera has to mask itself as other browsers in order to not be code-excluded by the bad sites that send browser specific code based on UA strings like “mozilla” or “Internet explorer”, so that Opera can give users the same webpage experience. This has the unfortunate side effect that most people using Opera go completely unnoticed by stats gathering refers. In terms of downloads, Opera usage stats are far more healthy than sitetracking sites suggest.
    - Ugly? that’s your opinion. lots of ppl like the new skin. This is a dumb criticism. Change the skin. I think FF is ugly (looks dated) but thats no criticism as it’s skinnable too.
    - Site compatible? Hell yes, much more than 9.2x as you rightly point out. You’re right, most site developers dont test with Opera, a greater testament to Opera’s ability to make a solid rendering engine that has to deal with other browser’s standards avoiding quirks. The weird thing is, sites written to work in Opera nearly always work perfect in all other browsers but not so the other way round. This is why it’s the developer’s best kept secret.
    - Dragonfly is new and work is ongoing. it is not a part of Opera, even though menus link to it. Expect lots more dragonfly features in the coming months.
    - Actually Opera works very well with flash, especially the beta of flash 10. There are a few issues under linux, but i see the same issues with FF (heavy CPU, poort video framerates and a tendency to crash now and then).

    Honestly, I routinely use all the main alternative browsers in my work, and IE when I absolutely must. I think it’s great that we have 2 or 3 really great browsers out there and that each has things that appeals to different users, and at last that the web is slowly standardising so it’s not monopolised by 1 browser. Opera has alot to do with that, because Opera guys tend to be on the standards committees and in some cases inventing them (CSS). So even if you prefer another browser trashing it for your own pleasure is childish and stupid.

  • effzee

    one last little word, remember that alot of the browser features you like in , like tabs for instance, and instant back/forward RAM page caching, and page zoom, and CSS, and and and were in Opera first. You had your way, you wouldn’t have half of that stuff now.

  • nobody

    so what? invented it, others capitalised on it. if you think that it makes Opera ‘better’ then you are clueless. if you legaly can use somebodys else ideas and make money on them, it is the stupid that does not do it.

  • effzee

    I agree, it doesn’t make opera ‘better’ than anything, it just deserves a little more respect than you’re giving, not least due to the indirect benefits you are see in firefox.

    If you read my post, I’m just pointing out that if you had your way you wouldn’t be enjoying half the browser you take for granted.

  • nobody

    agreed, opera always was strong at inventing – no denying

    but where they fail miserably are areas called ‘implementation’ and ‘improvements’

    how many opera features were invented, introduced and then left to rust for YEARS without any maintenance? cookie manager hasnt seen ANY changes since version 7. and it requires these BADLY. adblocker, userjs implementation, tab management, site-preferences etc etc etc there are tons of things opera invented and then let it die. others took the idea and improoved it. mainly ff, but avant browser also did its share of improvements it must be said

  • toblakai

    Nice, everything working perfect for me. Love the new features, and ofc love all the old Opera features too that kills any alternatives.

    lol how can so many of you get it wrong? I bet half of you updated from snapshot/beta/rc versions. But that must be the shortest lifespan of a RC ever :) A bit strange, I guess they just wanted a quick check for very major showstoppers, and the term RC was for once actually used correctly.

    Oh, and 25% of you seem to be known opera trolls from eastern european countries whom will keep complaining forever until opera goes open source and adds extensions.

  • effzee

    @nobody:

    Actually I agree that some features have been left to “rust” as you put it (mail UI and userJS being 2 good examples), but I wouldn’t agree that there are that many and that no effort has gone in. Operas priorities are just different to yours, and resources are limited – in the end they have to decide where to prioritise the work.

    Opera could spend all their time improving, refining and bugfixing existing features – i’d really like that. The only downer is then we get a bunch of other moaners complaining that its just the same as before after a year of work.

    The other wrinkle is that some improvements need a lot of work under the hood, like eg. keeping up with the latest standards in CSS, JS and ECMA, so they couldn’t just focus on bugfixing and refining.

    I think in reality opera have tried to strike a balance. Some nice new features (link, quick addressbar search, tab-closing ala FF), some big engine improvements (site performance, memory, site compatibility, better threading, acid3), some reworking of old stuff (mail back-end, content blocker), some security (EV and malware detection). Although the balance is not to everyone’s taste, a lot has been done to please a lot of users.

    Although, eg, Mail has not seen much on the UI side the backend has been completely revamped and some big frontend changes are promised for 10. 9.5 does deliver on its original promises, even tho the release has been rushed, and I hope and expect some .01 versions over the next month to refine any remaining stability issues and shore up compatibility. A wide user base is needed to get the necessary feedback to prioritise that work.

    9.5 was always about evolution not revolution, mainly backend work. In terms of frontend UI featurising, opera 10 focuses on that.

    nb:
    - favicons for bookmarks is a skin issue. choose a different skin if you want to see them (shame the option to have them isnt in the new skin, but you could always roll one up)
    - favicons for search engines is an issue for upgraders, mainly from the betas/weeklies. its fixable if you copy all *redir* files from a blank profile/images dir to your profile/images dir.

    peace :)

  • Tim

    What is wrong with everybody here? Are you installing this final over your beta or RC install? You shouldn’t install a Final over a beta. I have been using the Final for over 24 hours now, and it has not crashed or even slowed down on me once. I have 7 tabs open, and am only using 40mb of ram. I think everybody that is having these problems need to do a clean install.

  • nobody

    @effzee – thanks for keeping it civil

    i still support my initial thesis about opera not supporting its features over time (it is general observation, there are some exceptions). it is because doing it is a non-trivial task, that they dont have manpower for. withfew features you can manage to support all of them, with lots – and opera insists on having lots of stuff, and doing it all by itself, you either let most of them to rust, or dont spend any time on general improvements

    mozilla knew that, and delegated lots of small and niche functionalities to extension makers, giving itself lots of manpower to improve browser itself.

    strategic decision opera made years ago to close itself, and not deliver extensions api is now backfiring. opera is very slow to introduce new features, it is very slow to improve rendering engine, it is also very slow to improve existing stuff – and they still insist on doing it all. effects? ff3 already surpased opera in everything, and their product is VERY polished. yes, opera out of the box claims to have more functionalities, but most of these are outdated, nonfunctional or simply badly designed

    solution isnt going open source, solution is allowing opera users to write extensions for it. bringing security here isnt an answer. ff somehow did that.

    if not, all future releases of opera will be like 9.5 – two years of work but no real progress. you can list new opera stuff in a very short list, and most of it is really only a sketch (dragonfly and link – both semi functional, dragonfly isnt functional at all to be honest – their old ‘developer console’ can do things that this stuff cant)

  • effzee

    @nobody

    Imo, the strategic decision is bigger than the question of “open source” or not. Opera are a business and the desktop browser is a platform with which they develop other products/modules which they sell to companies. Eg. adobe and nintendo both pay for operas engine to be used in their products. there are many such companies that buy and use opera tech. The mobile side of things is also a big part of the strategy, and opera are also at the core of setting standards for the “open web” platform. Having the dominant desktop browser is not their main business, but obviously it serves as their main development platform, and it is true that some areas take longer to develop than others.

    Personally i dont really buy the extensions thing, although i see lots of ppl are fanatical about it. i use ff with roboform and lots of other extensions but i didnt find anything that is really any better, just different. Sometimes, ff extensions are nicer than operas implementation, sometimes the other way. the problem for me with extensions is they dont integrate together very well, they are not secure, and it takes a long time to set up ff with everything the way you want. operas mail, irc, gestures etc etc all integrate nicely together so you work in one environment.

    i disagree that 9.5 has been no real progress. the big backends have had a major reworking and the time taken has not been so far behind FF. look at how long FF3 has been in development, and out of the box, it doesnt really look any different either.

    dragonfly is new and in early development, ur right that the old dev console does more right now but there is a lot of focus there atm, and it shows a lot of potential if the promised developmen happens. i dont see dragonfly as part of the core of opera, its like an extension, time will tell how good it is.

    i also dont agree that FF3 is much more polished. FF3rc3 is still crashing for me a more than opera, takes much longer to start up, and feels slower even under linux where profiling is not yet in Opera and it is in firefox. Features in opera are more accessible to most users since normal users dont want to spend lots of time finding the right extensions for this and that.

    Also, opera still feels faster all round, to me. This is not just the engine but the UI – the whole package. Factoring in nicknames, mouse gestures, spatial nav, search shortcuts and the best keyboard interface i can fly around the web. The instant back/forward still feels much quicker in O than in FF. The zoom feels much faster (esp. on older kit) and is essential for me. Ctrl+mousewheel roll feels horrible on FF and suddenly everything gets much slower since FF engine takes many shortcuts at 100% zoom. Although sunspider JS tests are faster in FF3, at default settings, try them at another zoom than 100% ;) I can also show you a number of other independent JS tests that are faster in O. Other speed tests like loading and rendering complex pages always win in O and I dont see browser speed as just coming down to some JS functions.

    FF is certainly a great browser and its clear that some users like the leaning of FF while some prefer the leaning of O; in the end the web itself is becoming more open and standards compliant which is the real victory here. For me, security and performance are a big deal, followed by power user features and O seems to have the right balance. And its all there, out of the box.

    Clever customisation of O with UserJS and UserCSS needs nicer UI’s for sure, but for power users, these are the great dark secrets of O that make it extensible and customisable without compromising security, and in an open, standards compliant way. Even the widgets are all built on open technology which means nothing that extends opera is locked to the platform.

    in the end, we all win the argument because these browsers are excellent and driving the internet platform forward as a whole. i need to use all the browsers a lot and for development i find that things that work in opera work in everything else, but not the reverse. That’s a good testament to the open web ideology and the fact that O are supporting it.

  • FF3

    LOL @ Opera 9.5 Final.

    I got same problem as Kildor said. LOOLOLO

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