What to expect with Opera 9.5 alpha?
48 CommentsPublished August 31st, 2007 5:05 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman
Here are some of the things waiting for you with Opera 9.5 alpha (coming out Tuesday, September 4th):
- New ECMAscript (i.e JavaScript) engine, which is faster and less-memory intensive. The new ECMAscript engine uses fewer resources than anything we’ve done previously.
- Fixed thousands of bugs in Opera’s rendering engine, thus improving Opera’s compatibility with many sites.
- Added support for the CSS3 overflow-x and overflow-y properties.
- Added support for JavaScript 1.5 Getters and Setters.
- Improved support for Rich Text Editing.
- Fixed problems seen in various Google’s sites.
- Added support for screenreaders such as Window-Eyes, Jaws, and VoiceOver on OS X.
- Improved spatial navigation and made keyboard shortcuts more accessible for new users.
- Set all single key shortcuts to be disabled by default.
- Improved support for Opera on Windows Vista.
- Opera integrates better with default program dialogs on Windows XP and Vista.
- On the Mac OS X, Opera looks and feels more like a native OS X application, with improved tabs, better default fonts, and pulsing buttons.
- Releasing Opera in 64-bit version.
- New indexing and storage back-ends for Opera Mail, which uses less memory, accesses the hard drive less often, and performs normal functions faster.
- New IMAP back-end.
- Freezing is largely gone when Opera checks for new mail or newsfeeds.
- Opera Mail is now more stable, faster, and less buggy.
- Mail checking and processing is faster and indexing and searching are more reliable.
This is just a small taste of what’s to come with Opera 9.5 alpha. Of course, I haven’t mentioned any of the big new features/functionality… 
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Fixed problems seen in various Google’s sites.
What about “Fixed problems seen in various Yahoo! sites.”?
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Nice
Can’t wait to see the “censored” feature 
What about an IE uninstaller? 
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Impressive! Finally real improvements to M2 (the mail client).
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By Operawatch
This is just a small taste of what’s to come with Opera 9.5 alpha. Of course, I haven’t mentioned any of the big new features/functionality…
Hmm, does that mean that this blog will be the first to announce it?
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Woohoo, the forgotten M2 finally gets updates. I am REALLY happy.
I wonder what the major features are?
I predict bookmark sharing between all your Opera installs (Desktop, Wii, Mobile, Whatever).
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there is no need for NEW and exciting features (that most probably will be as exciting as speeddial and widgets). there is huge demand for OLD plain and borring features like:
– autocomplete
– autoupdate
– inline-spellcheck
to just catch up with the firefox (that is AHEAD in terms of everyday-tech and usefullnes to average users, regardless of if it is slow or not. people can get used to slownes, they cant get used to features, that seem to be quite standard these days)
also it would be nice to
– allow right click on menus (to ’set all feed messages in this feed as read) – no, i dont use this pseudo-client to read any mail, no, panel wont do.
also, new (to opera) and exciting abilities:
– middle-click on javascript links that works
– close-tab and move to the right (i dont request it to be a default, but an option in most customisable browser would be nice)
– RTF copy/paste text from opera
im not even talking about html mail compose, because id be stabed in my back by numerous geeks saying that html mails are evil. it might be true, but majority of users use them, and couldnt care less, that it is evil.
these are the things people asked for when i was starting to use opera in version 7. and many of them left, when they realised, that most of these wont happen in their lifetime.
and about these shortcuts – why, oh why opera doesnt provide several keyboard layouts to choose? while 9 was launched i was amazed, that nobody at opera thought of it. but maybe this time. perfect ocassion – oldSetup, newSetup, one click away. no need for new interface, just one plain text file.
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64-bit versions? As far as I know they are only releasing 64-bit for Linux. Hopefully I missed some news and they are planning to release for Windows as well! I’ve been waiting for an x64 version for a long time now. I’ve got my fingers crossed, lol.
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What about better desktop integration on linux? Left out again?
Those dialogs are really poor.
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new javascript engine? after the old one just proved to be rock solid?
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not really excited to the new feature,just hope it is not something like speed dial~
the fix on the engine is the best news to me
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@sid: Opera should hire you, can’t agree more…
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Great tease, Daniel.
Turning OFF shortcuts by default is great. (We need Opera on my iPhone some way, some how!!)
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Sheesh. I’ve been asking for one feature for a long time — let me selectively download mail according to the total size of the mail. In other words, don’t download mail >500k, for example. I don’t see this here.
This is a feature of just about every other mail client on the planet. Please, please tell me this is in this release.
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How about a simple go button like that on Firefox?
Opera has surely set the fox and all its companions on fire with this release. Long live the (browser) King!
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LOL That would be a very bad move by Opera, claiming that your personal wishes regarding features are what everyone else needs just to grab some attention is not really a good idea in a business enviroment. Zealotry, arrogance and self-righteousness is not what Opera needs.
One-key shortcuts have been disabled by default.
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That list alone is something to get excited about, but with new features/functionality….. I think I’m going to wet my pants in excitement. There’s not going to be much room left for improvement for Peregrine! Yet you guys always manage to do it. Congrats.
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Andrew, Opera have a simple “go” button, but it isn’t on by default.
Appearance -> Buttons -> Browser view -> [Go]
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Chuck Monroe wants Opera to hire someone because he agrees with him? LOL
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I’m very excited at the prospect of an Opera Mail update. And the 64-bits version sounds promising, too!
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A Spellchecker like the one used by Firefox is what I need.It is in fact, all I need.
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what about ev-certification? (not that i’m knowing any page… ^^)
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“what about ev-certification? (not that i’m knowing any page…”
i sure hope it ISNT the censored feature. we dont need another gizmo, that is so far ahead of the real world, that it will be obsolete before anyone else decides to use it.
something that is happening with SVG. it is a neat animated-gif replacement. all more advanced stuff are done, and will be done with flash. regardless of patents, closed standards etc. stuff, that bussines really couldnt care less.
SVG simply isnt supported by standard IE, and as such has no place in the web. just like transparent PNGs. they are much better than GIFs, but IE sux with them, and nobody really uses them (apart from geeks, that want to show, how ’standard’ they are, they sure dont earn money on pages they do if they cut out 60% users, just because they want to show how ahead they are)
there are many places, where opera is already behind the rest, and because browser is as old, as its oldest component, everybody will see that oldest part and completly ignore the newest gizmos.
just some random thoughts.
and i sure hope, that the new mail backend removes that MESS of milion of folders and files in mail folder. what exact part of database concept does not fit opera?
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Face it, IE will always be straggling behind. The whole point of standards to keep the web innovations moving. Otherwise, we’d all be using IE–100% of the world. The point of new browsers is to do what IE/MS can’t/won’t do, otherwise why even bother?
I hope you guys are really sarcastic, like some of those cell phone plans commercials on TV, where the son and father are arguing, saying positive things in sarcastic way.
Son: “Why do I get to a nice new phone when my old one works fine?”
Father: “Tough luck, you deserve a new and better phone, and you’re keeping it.”
Son: “Thanks a lot, dad. Hmph”
(Note the sarcastic tone.)
You guys: “Just what we need, another Opera browser that makes my web surfing much easier and more efficient without being a memory hog and stalling my system. When will I have time to use other browsers?”
That said, I think there is something wrong with their current engines. Version 9 doesn’t work well for me at all, so I’m sticking with 8.54. I hope this upgrade will fix everything.
Keep up the good work, Opera.
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All this sounds great! Really looking forward to it!
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Hmm… I don’t know why, but I also expect a support for the CSS3
border-radiusand/orbox-shadowproperties. The only screenshot of Kestrel (with the CSS3 selector test results) doesn’t show the top of the page, which uses these properties.By the way, the new ECMAscript engine sounds very exciting.
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@Romain Vigier:No border-radius yet see here
http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2007/08/31/focus-areas-during-kestrel-development#comment3499981
(And there was nothing above the selecter test results)
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Berend you appear to be using Opera 9.50,where did that come from please ? The best I can do is a 9.23.
Mike
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Tuesday mike, only a few days left.
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Well, if Berend is not a dev then he may have change his identification string, it’s pretty easy to do it, you just have to change a number in some ini file
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Hey Daniel,
Do you have any benchmark information available for the new JS engine?
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Erkko, I think it will be published right after 9.5 alpha comes
So what about Yahoo! sites?
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Erkko, we’re planning on releasing benchmarks, but I’m not sure yet when — either with the beta or the final release.
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Thanks Daniel! I am sure the results will be mind blowing.
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We now appear to have plethora of Opera 9.50s’ arriving.We also appear to have a single instance of Firefox,we know who you are Erkko.We will be checking all your future postings.Bet it’s because of the spellchecker, am I right ?
Mike.
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You got me there mike! Firefox today, Safari tomorrow, maybe Opera the day after that. To be candid, I am really waiting for the 9.5 release to come forward so I can once again make a new decision about my main browser. Let’s see how you guys perform but as a fellow scandinavian I trust that the delivery will be beautiful.
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talking of buttons. How about a simple Copy and Paste ??
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The hidden feature is synchronization.
http://cybernetnews.com/2007/09/03/cybernotes-exclusive-opera-95-features-video/
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I read the 9.5 preview at http://cybernetnews.com/2007/09/03/cybernotes-exclusive-opera-95-features-video/
I’m a little disappointed the “secret feature” was just bookmark sync (that I have no use for) and not something cool like docked widgets, but the history search within pages in the address bar seems like an absolutely fantastic idea.
Also from the article: The “Save your password” dialog box does not stop the page from loading behind it. That way you can verify that the username and password you entered works before actually saving it. What a great feature!
It really is a great feature.
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To those for whom it wasn’t clear, Opera would benefit from hiring someone like Sid as User Advocate. His suggestions, unlike many I’ve seen, are insightfully centered on the “average user” – ultimately the group that would propell Opera beyond its small marketshare percentage (our common hope I imagine).
Only a handful of techies really understand users; from his suggestions, Sid seems one of them. Opera has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to deliver great software, but work remains on the usability front.
Hope it clarified…
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it is here. and it is hopeless..
why, WHY youve added getElementsByClass? all js libraries use this very same name to do the very same thing. conflicts will arise, and it is opera to blame. js lib writers will not remove their functions just because .5%marketshare opera decided to blow things up. these things will not work ok in opera
they’ve added an INTERFACE option, to manage single key shortcuts.. instead of providing one small text file, another keyboard setup.. it is hopeless. it an example of using very, very big hammer to nail a very very smal nail. whoever decided to do it that way simply wasted lots and lots of manhours to achieve something that 5yo wouldve done in 5 minutes.
and btw no, clicking that ‘enable one key shortcuts’ does not back to an old set of keys. and new key layout is simply sh..
there is still no oncontextmenu support, but instead some quite useless things from css3 were thrown in, that nobody will use. but oncontextmenu is USED now and on these pages opera is a complete no go.
no, thanks, ff3 will do
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Hey just posting with 9.5
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theyve removed the view bar?!?!?
and they are telling us, that opera is for developers?
how we are suposed to use only tools that work – http://operawiki.info/WebDevToolbar ?
somebody wasnt thinking at ALL
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Why can’t we have different preloaded Keyboard Configuration Files? One for each of the other browsers? So if you come from one of those, just change your settings and be done?
The old shortcuts are too hardwired on my brain to have to learn them all over again. I changed my conf back to use Ctrl+N to open a new tab. THAT hardwired. I understand that interbrowser compatibility is important for people to make the jump to this ship, but I don’t think that should be acomplished by ******** the faithful.
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I agree with Sebastian.
This option could be in the installation setup or first run setup.
Thx
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I agree with Sid. Everything he listed are the main reasons I don’t take Opera seriously as a browser to Firefox and IE 7.
Really, the programmers and engineers at Opera should get their acts together and focus on some low and boring stuff. These guys remind me of my American politicians, talking about flag burning amendment while bridges collapse.
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WOA! I think Kwerboom is going a little too far. I choose Opera over any other browser hands down. If it has any faults it is trying to be over pleasing. Lets remember this is just an alpha and many of this problems and ‘features’ may not make it to the final release. I hope they fix the shorcuts-gate and so we can all be happy Opera users.
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Ok Just loaded 9.5.
Problems .
1. “Server Certificate Expired” popup. No icon labels and when I click either button it does not access the site and eventually says “Could not connect to remote server”
2. This site looks **** now http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/index.html
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@Sebastian: I did go a little overboard and for that I apologize. What you must understand is that I want Opera to succeed. Opera is a great product with a lot of great features. It frustrates me to no end that Opera doesn’t seem willing to listen to both current customers and prospective customers to become as successful or more successful than Firefox or IE.
Opera does come off to me as a bad door-to-door salesman or politician would, coming around regularly with something ‘new and improved’ that has the same old glaring problems in it. And the lack of out-of-the-box autoupdate, autocomplete, and inline-spellchecking is a MAJOR problem for me.
Autoupdate alone, for example, is the main reason I don’t and won’t recommend Opera as an alternative to Firefox and IE 7. A product that can self-update is really a bare minimum these days for most all products. An autoupdate feature makes it easy for anyone using a program with that feature to be as up-to-date and secure as possible.
I have a family member who I got to use Firefox after the security scare with IE 6 (one of the few Homeland Security scares worth using). I was talking about the world of alternative browsers and Opera came up, so they wanted to try that out. Firefox autoupdates so they have no problems with that. Opera, on the other hand, first came down to talking about why it doesn’t update ‘like Firefox’, ‘like Adobe Reader’, or ‘like Microsoft update’ and now when will I update it being as they won’t. I already cringe at updating their computer from 9.23 to 9.5.
Opera has a great product. Opera on Wii is a smash success and Opera Mini will be a success in its own right (especially going up against the bloated and flawed iPhone). Opera on desktop is within a hair’s breath of making that same sale, but without following what Sid has said, it won’t bridge that gap completely with me and others like me who would give it that chance.