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Opera Releases Opera 8 for Mac

by , 5:00 AM EDT, June 16th, 2005

Opera Software released Thursday Opera 8 for Macintosh, playing up its improved speed and security.

Opera touts its latest Mac release as "the most Macintosh-like version ever." The browser has improved its support for Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and added full keyboard access functionality.

Opera 8 for Macintosh includes the same functionality as Opera 8 for Windows and Linux, which was released April 19, 2005. Opera 8 has improved security solutions, such as the new security field that indicates the level of security and the certificate-owner of a secure site. Native Scalable Vector Graphic support (SVG 1.1 Tiny), introduced in Opera 8, is also included in the Mac version. Other features offered in Opera 8 include a "delete private data" option, a "trash can" that saves closed pages and blocked pop-ups during a session, and Opera's Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA) which automatically re-adjusts page content to fit the window width.

"With Opera, Mac users can surf fast, comfortably and efficiently using a full-featured browser that is not tied to the operating system (OS)," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "Rather than incurring costly upgrades to your OS to get the newest features, Opera allows Mac users to browse, e-mail, download and chat using one program, requiring minimal system resources due to Opera's small size."

The browser is available for download in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, as well as simplified and traditional Chinese. Opera will automatically provide a user interface in the language the computer is configured to use.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Willmark Posts: 73 Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:39 am Subject: WTF are they thinking?

Just why, O why would I want to pay for a browser? Let alone one that has ads and popups built into it? Add to this the Opera inface has been terrible for the last three versions. I'mtempted to download this one, but I have the feeling it will be disappointing all over again.


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Close Name:luomat Posts: 15 Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:42 pm Subject: Corrections

FYI this is 8.01 not just 8.0, released the same day as the other platforms (Windows and Linux) with some security fixes.

Also, Opera DOES NOT have pop-ups "built into it". The free version has an ad-supported mode which will allow you to have a thin bar across the top with Google ads in similar to those seen on many websites.

You ignore them on the web, you can ignore them on your browser.

Why would you pay for a browser? For the same reason you'd pay for Photoshop rather than using GIMP - the UI is much better than Safari or Firefox or OmniWeb (which is really the only other serious contender on the Mac platform, but has some speed issues).

And one Opera license lets you use Opera on all your computers - Mac, Windows, FreeBSD, Linux, whatever.

For the amount of time I spend with my browser, having all the power Opera has to offer is well worth $40. It saves me time.

Opera8 has a brand new interface, responding to those who felt that the previous version was too complicated.

You can learn more about Opera's power features at (full-disclosure, it's my site

30 days to becoming an Opera Lover
http://operalover.tntluoma.com/8/


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Close Name:Willmark Posts: 73 Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:37 am Subject:

Why would you pay for a browser? For the same reason you'd pay for Photoshop rather than using GIMP - the UI is much better than Safari or Firefox or OmniWeb (which is really the only other serious contender on the Mac platform, but has some speed issues).

This is entirely subjective. Otherwise Firefox wouldn't have reached 10% of the browser market share in less than a year. Photoshop vs. GIMP is not even a close comparison.

And one Opera license lets you use Opera on all your computers - Mac, Windows, FreeBSD, Linux, whatever.

I can install Firefox for free on as many machines as I want.

For the amount of time I spend with my browser, having all the power Opera has to offer is well worth $40. It saves me time.

Firefox is more powerful and for the price ($0) I'd say its saves me tons of time. Plus Firefox is a broswer I'd pay for.

While I can appreciate your efforts (good job BTW it looks a lot better tahn it used to) I just don't see how this is going to succeed with a ten year-old business model. No one pays for browsers anymore, and why would they?

Mark


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