Opera 9 has been released

http://opera.com/index.dml

A good browser just got better.

:)

I used to use Opera but switched to FF.

I'm using FF on AMD64 X2. I have some questions.

How good is Opera these days?
Does it work well with 64-bit kernel and libs?
How good is the support for things like 32bit codecs with 64-bit?

Right now my FF (compiled 32-bit binary) does everything fine. I have Flash (gotta have for Ava Lowery's videos!), Windows media, Quicktime, as well as the standard stuff that Linux does well.

BTW, I'm running Gentoo, which is the only Linux if you want to run AMD64 as 64-bit. Gentoo has really solved the 32-bit emulation problem for those things, like 32-bit video codecs, which absolutely will *not* work on 64-bits.

so I was feeling brave this morning and now am trying opera 9. where do I find my mail without going to outlet express? anyways some of the features I really like like the tabs the go all the way back button, the skins. I'll just have to try it a while to see how I like it. I will appreciate any comments or suggestions you or anyone might have. My whole internet experience has pretty much been with IE so you will know.

You can import all the mail from outlook express by using the information in the knowledge base. M2 is a lot better since it organizes the received mail in a data base and lets you search by keyword. Makes it conveinent to find something you are looking for.

.....I'm using "Firefox 1.5", which I love but have some questions.

How much better is Opera than Firefox?????

Also I don't like the invasive nature of the IE or Netscape homepages so I'm looking for a good, informative, non-invasive homepage for my Firefox. Suggestions anyone??

... since about 2001. I use Firefox for the pages Opera won't render properly, which would be about 1%-2% of the sites I visit.

Firefox gets points for being simple to use and understand. It get demerits for taking forever to fire up (first iteration only) and as far as "stability" (lack of crashes) it is about equal to Opera - it WILL crash from time to time.

Opera's version of the "tabbed browsing" concept is way better than Firefox's. You have a set of buttons, one for each URL/page and you can put them at the top, bottom, left or right. Putting them on the left or right frees up more precious vertical screen space. I typically have 30 or so windows open at a time. On Firefox, the tabs for this would take up a quarter of the screen.

Opera also has a cool feature, that once you get used to is hard to do without - called "mouse gestures". You can perform certain common browser navigations (like Back, Forward) by simply right-clicking and moving the mouse to the left (back) or right (forward).

Opera allows lots of configuration of the user interface. It takes a bit of time to get into it, and if you don't care you can accept the defaults and they are fine.

Sites using bleeding edge techniques occasionally won't render correctly in Opera. Of course, this is true with Firefox as well, but to a lesser extent.

....:applause:I may just have to give this a try. :pals:

When you highlite and right click. Search, Translate, Dictionary,Encyclopedia, lots of cool functions.

Opera Community
http://my.opera.com/community/

30 days to becoming an Opera Lover
http://operalover.tntluoma.com/

I set the Homepage setting on my browser to blank.

about:blank is my favourite. :)

Then I don't have to load ANYTHING by default just to open a browser window.

I've been using Opera since v3.x and prefer the way the "Wand" works for passwords, it's use of tabs and window management, the history and bookmark management, the personal bar and a few other things. A lot of stuff Fireox has finally caught up with, and some it does a little better, but it's a matter of personal preferences, I suppose.

I haven't loaded v9 yet, but the only two problems I have with Opera is the inability to add different search engines in "preferences" (I think you can by playing with the INI files, but I haven't looked too far that way) and its insistence that pages adhere to HTML and Java standards. Some asshole web designers insist on using IE "enhancements" (bugs?) and then I have to use Firefox, or even IE, to read the pages if they're important enough.

I didn't use its mail client in the past because it didn't have the editing, spell check, search, etc. I get with Eudora, but they've vastly improved it and it just might be a really good one now.

I still prefer Agent as a newsreader, though.

you can select news sources to appear on your homepage, and there are no ads or pop-ups.