Opera Web Browser 9.6 Released

Opera has released version 9.6 of their excellent web browser, for Windows, Linux and MacOS. As always, this very nice browser just keeps getting better. This version is noticeably faster loading pages, which is a pretty good trick because Opera was already very fast. It also has some improvements in web searching and synchronization.

I particularly like Opera because it is exactly the same on Windows and Linux - even Firefox has some differences in controls and icons between those two versions, so I sometimes have to stop and think about where I am.

I also like the "Speed Dial" feature, having nine of my most frequently visited web pages easily available and prominently displayed. When I think about it, I wonder why I like Speed Dial so much, when the first thing I do after installing Firefox is remove the Bookmarks Toolbar. Hmm. I suppose it has something to do with prominence and limited quantity.

The down side of Opera is that there are still a few web sites and utilities which refuse to work with it. The Citrix ICA web client is one example, which I use every day in my work, so I still use Firefox for that, and some e-banking sites and packages also check for specific browsers and won't work with Opera, although the number of these seems to be decreasing.

The bottom line, though, is that when it comes to everyday web browsing, I almost always go back to Opera.

jw 9/10/2008