Opera 9
 

I didn't even notice, Opera 9 was released about a week ago. I've been using version 8.54 and that blows Firefox out of the water. Open-source has always been a selling-point for me, but there's such a clear cut difference, I prefer Opera.

Opera is faster, far more advanced, and yet simpler. This is my personal recommendation. In terms of web development, it is the most accurate W3C renderer, it now has a W3C validator in it's editor, you can toggle style sheets (which it's also the most accurate for CSS as well). It has better support for TLS 1.1 and 256-bit encryption than FF. It has integrated IRC, email, trash can, and BitTorrent. I feel it's a smarter browser.

Download Opera 9 here!

What got changed from the earlier version?

I immediately noticed keyboard shortcuts are similar to other browsers; also BitTorrent is integrated, it uses Widgets, web page thumbnails for different tabs, better history (including trash can).

Hum.. I wonder if I should give it a go. If one doesn't care for an extra bittorent client and trashcan, do you think that it's still a much faster and overall better browser?

I'm interested in the integrated bittorrent actually. I might check it out...

It's faster than any other browser, except possibly Fasterfox, but that depends on your connection. Fasterfox is bad for the Internet, though, caching is bad for data routing and causes congestion. It can be hard to get used to initially, but it's far more modular on an end-user level. Options and features are much more intuitive than those of it's competitors. It's also a clean installation, so you can get rid of it completely if you don't like it.

Ok! I forgot about it but came back here and remembered. Downloaded. checking it out tonight.

I think the integration of bit torrent is nice, but I am a firefox guy. I have played around with the new opera a bit, but won't be switching for the long haul. At least not now.

Personally, I think it's just a matter of getting used to each. Firefox finally made their tabs more controllable with drag-and-drop capability. That is their big upgrade for version 1.5.0.5. This has been part of Opera for the last 3 major versions (7 through 9).