Andrew
06-20-2006, 08:16 PM
Opera releases version 9, plans marketing campaign (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060620-7093.html) -- Ars Technica, 2006-06-20
According to the latest stats (http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2006/June/browser.php) from TheCounter.com, the market for web browsers has not changed much in the past few months. Internet Explorer still rules the roost with 86 percent share. Firefox seems to have leveled off at 10 percent after a slow climb, and the Macintosh platform makes its appearance with Safari registering a 2 percent share. The browser that everyone forgets about, Opera, winds up in fourth place with a single percentage point.
Opera is determined to do something about that statistic. Starting with version 8.5, the company made the formerly paid-for (or ad-supported) browser a completely free download. Now, they have just released (http://www.opera.com/download/) version 9 of its venerable browser, after a two-month public beta (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060420-6644.html) period. Version 9 contains many new features integrated into the browser, yet still manages to be a fairly light download (6.2MB) and doesn't seem to use any more memory than other browsers with fewer features.
I've used and enjoyed Opera since somewhere in the 5.x series. I haven't downloaded version 9 yet but I will within the next couple of days. The changelog for Opera 9 (http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/900/) shows the new features, improvements, and fixed bugs from previous versions.
It's a small (4.6MB) download, a quick install, and a painless uninstall should you (however unlikely that may be) find you prefer your current Web browser.
According to the latest stats (http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2006/June/browser.php) from TheCounter.com, the market for web browsers has not changed much in the past few months. Internet Explorer still rules the roost with 86 percent share. Firefox seems to have leveled off at 10 percent after a slow climb, and the Macintosh platform makes its appearance with Safari registering a 2 percent share. The browser that everyone forgets about, Opera, winds up in fourth place with a single percentage point.
Opera is determined to do something about that statistic. Starting with version 8.5, the company made the formerly paid-for (or ad-supported) browser a completely free download. Now, they have just released (http://www.opera.com/download/) version 9 of its venerable browser, after a two-month public beta (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060420-6644.html) period. Version 9 contains many new features integrated into the browser, yet still manages to be a fairly light download (6.2MB) and doesn't seem to use any more memory than other browsers with fewer features.
I've used and enjoyed Opera since somewhere in the 5.x series. I haven't downloaded version 9 yet but I will within the next couple of days. The changelog for Opera 9 (http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/900/) shows the new features, improvements, and fixed bugs from previous versions.
It's a small (4.6MB) download, a quick install, and a painless uninstall should you (however unlikely that may be) find you prefer your current Web browser.