Opera 9.5: more compatible with Windows Live Hotmail than Firefox 3!

Friday, 13. June 2008, 14:31:57

Firefox 3.0 RC3:

Opera 9.50 final:

See how Opera 9.5 gets the rich, AJAX-ish experience, and Firefox 3 doesn't? Hmm...

It is pretty common for reviewers to say that Opera has compatibility problems with websites, and is thus not a suitable browser for day-to-day use...but that argument is not as valid as it used to be. Opera's behavior has become much more similar to that of Firefox and Safari lately, and technologies like browser.js help to bridge the remaining gap.

In Firefox's defense, it is more compatible with the banner ad than Opera

Freaking awesome.Opera 9.5: More compatible with Windows Live Hotmail than Firefox 3, Safari 3.1, or Internet Explorer 8!

Comments

Sorry, but that's not what I see here. I still get the "classic" version.

By Luchio, # 13. June 2008, 15:22:04

Luchio: is there a link at the bottom to switch to the "Full" version?

By dbloom, # 13. June 2008, 15:33:27

Nope, here's what I see (sorry if it's french). Full version would be "version complète" in french, and I don't see such a link.

hotmail.png

I tried logging out and deleting all cookies, then returning to hotmail, but I get the same result. Note that my OS is Linux Ubuntu, it might have something to do with that.

By Luchio, # 13. June 2008, 17:26:31

Luchio: how strange. Try http://bl117w.blu117.mail.live.com/mail/FirstRunExperience.aspx ?

By dbloom, # 13. June 2008, 18:01:35

I get immediately redirected to http://by119w.bay119.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx ... Which is the non-full version.

I'm starting to think that the OS really should be masked, it is Microsoft after all...

By Luchio, # 13. June 2008, 18:15:22

All of yesterday live.com told me to turn on cookies. I couldn't even get in. Today I can see the "turn on full version" link. But that's about it. It stalls on the loading screen

Is this taking too long?
Try the classic version
If Windows Live Hotmail doesn't load, refresh the page, or try deleting the temporary Internet files in your browser's cache.

Not that it matters. I like the classic version better for some reason. Same with Gmail.

- ØØ -

By NoteMe, # 13. June 2008, 20:32:05

http://www.opera.com/docs/browserjs/
What version of browser JS do you have? (that page will tell you...it's in bold above "Patches applied by Browser Javascript")

If you have a version older than "Opera 9.50 Desktop, June 10, 2008", go to Help->Check for Updates, then restart Opera and try Hotmail again.

By dbloom, # 13. June 2008, 20:42:06

Ah interesting, I had done Help->Check for Updates, but didn't know that I had to restart the browser for it to be applied. I restarted and it works.

Well, you always learn something new around here. Didn't know about that page that shows the current browser.js version!

Thanks & take care!

By Luchio, # 13. June 2008, 20:56:04

It's odd that the browserjs page says "Any updates will be [...] applied the next time a page is loaded in Opera.". That definitely was not the case here!

By Luchio, # 13. June 2008, 21:08:10

Hmmm...is it possible to disable the use of browser.js? I didn't know that, and I can't remember doing that. I started over with a clean profile when 9.5 was released too :/ At least it says it is disabled. And the browser.js file contains just errors

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
500 Internal Server Error
</head><body>
Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.

Please contact the server administrator,
webmaster@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have
caused the error.

More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.

Apache/2.0.54 (Debian GNU/Linux) mod_perl/2.0.2 Perl/v5.8.4 Server at xml.opera.com Port 80

</body></html>

Maybe it is just the stress on the opera servers lately that gave a 500 error, and then it has not updated it self after that?

[Edit]
It looks like it is enable:
opera:config#UserPrefs|BrowserJavaScript == 1
opera:config#UserPrefs|CheckForNewOpera == 1213899844

Clicking Help->Update did the trick. Should I maybe make a bug report on this. Terrible if the browser.js can end up as a 500 error page. Then it would be better to leave the old version there maybe instead of overwriting it with an error message.

- ØØ -

By NoteMe, # 13. June 2008, 21:50:52

Originally posted by NoteMe:

Should I maybe make a bug report on this. Terrible if the browser.js can end up as a 500 error page. Then it would be better to leave the old version there maybe instead of overwriting it with an error message.

!!! That sure doesn't sound good! Maybe that's what happened to me too, as Opera servers are being hammered right now by all the people downloading 9.5. I think it would be worthwhile to report that.

By Luchio, # 14. June 2008, 01:45:01

It's *not* possible for Opera to get an "invalid" browser.js file. The first line of browser.js is a verification signature. If that doesn't match, then the browser.js is not updated. (This also is to prevent tampering with browser.js - becasue it is not distributed over HTTPS, a hacker could intercept browser.js using a man-in-the-middle attack and add code that affects SSL sites. To prevent this, the file must pass the signature check.)

By dbloom, # 14. June 2008, 01:59:40

That's true, because "invalid" browser.js, means NO browser.js for Opera. What I meant is that if I have version 1 of browser.js, and then a version 2. is available. But when trying to fetch it, Opera's servers are hammered, so What I get in return is a 500 error. Then I guess I would much rather have version 1 there in stead of version 1 overwritten by a 500 error witch means I have no valid browser.js at all.

- ØØ -

By NoteMe, # 14. June 2008, 13:26:45

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