After all the betas and weekly builds, Opera 9.0 has been released! If you've never tried Opera before, this is really the time to do it.

I still recommend much the same settings and configuration changes as I did for Opera 8. Some aren't needed any more - eg. it now identifies as Opera by default. Some are more powerful now, too :)

Key points about Opera 9:

  • First Windows browser (and first multi-platform browser) to pass Acid2. Actually they achieved that with a build back in March, but now it really counts :)
  • Native BitTorrent support
  • Site-specific settings (eg. allow popups for just one site) and content blocking
  • Tab/window terminology (and keyboard shortcuts) now match other tabbed browsers
  • Rendering and scripting changes mean sites which didn't work in Opera 8 work just fine in Opera 9. This includes Gmail and Blogger, along with some major corporate applications I won't bother naming. Really the sites are still at fault, but users never cared - now things just work :)
  • MSI installer for Windows version - corporate admins be happy!
  • Widgets (although to be honest I'm not wild about them, sorry Chaals :))
  • ...and much more. See the Opera features overview for more.

If you already use Opera (or you want to know the specific rendering/scripting/security/etc updates), you might be interested to see the Opera 9.0 for Windows Changelog (or your relevant platform's changelog, obviously).

Enough talk! Go check it out :)

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