I know ya'll are awaiting Kestrel builds, but we are not yet there. We do though have a few stability fixes in the pipeline for 9.22

Changelog

• A lot of improvements to Bittorrent. Downloading large files should now work a lot better.
  
• Bolding of fonts in toolbars and dialogs should now work
  
• The Silverlight plugin should now work
  
  
  UNIX
  
  
• Turned off shared memory by default. Manually enable it by setting the variable OPERA_NUM_XSHM to a suitable value.
  

Download:
Windows MSI
Macintosh
Unix

Back in January we added the ability to report usage of different features and preferences so we could learn more about how the browser is used in general. First we invited you, our weekly users to help us and in 9.2 we started asking one in 100 users if they want to participate. We would like to share some of our findings with you

The first conclusion was a bit surprising: Weekly users are in general less active users than the average user. What? Well, we suspect that many weekly users simply have both a weekly and a final installed, so they don't use as many features or change as many preferences.

There was one area where weekly users seemed more active: More of you have proxy servers set up. What we forgot to check was if the proxy goes to localhost or not (is it a central proxy or just an adblocker on your own computer?).

Not all of the data tell us much, but some are clear enough to draw conclusions:

• Quite a few people have installed widgets, but virtually noone arrange them in folders.
  
  
• A preference we added by popular request, the ability to turn on Fit to Width by default is used by 0.0%
  
  
• The option to "Open windows instead of tabs" (SDI if you like) is the *least* popular of all the tab options, which tells something about the popularity of tabs...
  
  
• You're not left-handed Well... the option to flip the buttons for mouse gestures is used by only 1% of those who enabled mouse gestures, which possibly indicates that many left-handed users prefer a right-handed mouse setup.
  
  
• The home page is more popular than we maybe thought, 51% actually change the home page address.
  
  
• The status bar is quite popular, so we consider turning it on by default again.
  
  
• When using the Master password, about half of our users want to be asked every time needed, the other half once per session. Only one in 5000 users set a fixed interval instead. It sounds like a useful choice, but in practice the two basic options are enough.
  
  
• JavaScript and Plugins are both used by more than 99% by default
  
  
• Only 1.8% ask Opera to confirm exit. Since most people only use a single window, this setting is very close to the warning in Firefox that you are about to close a window with more than one tab. The low number might indicate that asking by default (like we used to do and like Firefox still does) is annoying more people than it helps.
  
  
• A lot of people hardly use bookmarks at all (30 bookmarks and less). A lot of people use bookmarks a lot (300 bookmarks or more).
  
  
• Folders are actively used for bookmarks (the average number of folders is 17), while they are rarely used for contacts.
  

The last couple of months we've been working hard on the upcoming Opera 9.5 release, codename Kestrel. Opera 9.5 will contain many cool new features, improvement of existing features, and we fixed a lot of bugs. Within a few weeks we will publish 9.5 weeklies on this blog so everyone can start playing with it.

What's new!

After the release of Opera 9 last year, we continued the development of Opera's rendering engine for inclusion in the 9.5 release. As a result, Opera 9.5 contains more than a year of improvements on the rendering engine. This includes improved CSS3 support (text-shadow anyone ), superior SVG support and a brand new javascript engine with support for ECMAScript 4 'getters' and 'setters'. Apart from being the best standard compliant browser, Opera 9.5 will also display even more webpages with bad coding.

User Interface
Earlier we asked our users for feedback by enabling the usage statistics. Thanks to all the feedback that we got, we now know more about which features are most popular and which ones are used less. In the Opera 9.5 user interface we made several usability improvements that make the popular features easier to access, and more consistent with other browsers.

Accessibility
Opera's zoom function has always been a very popular accessibility feature. Opera 9.5 takes a big step forward in accessibility by introducing screen reader support , improved keyboard navigation and more consistent keyboard shortcuts.

Platform integration
To make sure that Opera remains the best choice on your platform, we spend a lot of time making Opera feel more integrated with your platform. Mac users can expect a nice new visual look and feel. Opera for Linux will add a QT4 build, so you can easily adjust the skin to match with desktop. There will also be 64-bit Linux/FreeBSD packages made available.

Performance
If you like speed, we've got good news for you! Opera 9.5 will be much faster, both in benchmarks (and we don't have to cheat ) and most important: on real web pages. The user interface will also feel snappier and more responsive, for example switching tabs is now a lot faster on UNIX.

And there is so much more! While we're preparing the first weekly build for you, we will introduce you to more new features and changes in 9.5. Keep yourself updated!

Altijd al eens kennis willen maken met de halfgoden van het Desktop Team ? Brandende vragen? Of gewoon een brandende dorst? Dit is je kans!

Op maandag 28 mei (tweede pinksterdag) zal bijna het voltallige Desktop Team aanwezig zijn bij een Opera User Meeting in Utrecht, waar wij hopen een drankje te nuttigen met eenieder die daar zin in heeft. Als dat je nog niet overtuigd heeft, is er als klap op de vuurpijl een kans om eigenaar te worden van een van de felbegeerde Opera t-shirts! Niet te missen dus.

De meeting zal plaatsvinden rond 13:00 in Cafe De Flater, Oudegracht 140, Utrecht. Als je van plan bent om te komen, reply dan even in deze thread, zodat we een idee hebben over het aantal mensen dat we kunnen verwachten. Meer informatie is te vinden in de forumpost van Mark Schenk.

Tot dan!

So you didn't get that?

In case there are people reading this blog that can't read Dutch, let me rephrase that.

The Desktop Team is getting ready for a full out invasion of the Netherlands, and we're taking no prisoners! However, if you happen to be in or around the city of Utrecht on the 28th of May, then this will be a perfect opportunity to have a friendly chat with the people behind Opera while enjoying a beverage of your choice. And if that's not enough, there's also a chance that you'll go home with one of the famous Opera t-shirts!

The meeting will take place at 13:00 in Cafe De Flater, Oudegracht 140, Utrecht. If you plan on attending, please leave a reply in this thread, so that we have some idea of the amount of people that might turn up.

See you there!

And by the way...
Opera 9.21 was just released! Go and update your browsers!

Hi
I know you all are awaiting 9.50 to play with, but in the meanwhile we will have a update on Merlin.
We have kept the fix rate at a minimal here so the few fixes we have here are the high pri ones

Changelog

• Setting weight for UI fonts now works again
  
• Larger search field in speed dial, looked a bit chunky on smaller resolutions
  
• Added Yahoo Answers to built in search
  
• A number of crashes fixed and memory leaks plugged
  
• Proxy PAC files now read from system on Windows and Mac
  
• Windows media player 11 NP version now works without crashing. Get it here
  

Mac specific

• Added support for Smart Crash Reports. (Note: For Opera to use Smart Crash Reports, it has to be installed on the system by the user; Opera will not install Smart Crash Reports automatically. Of course.)
  

Download:
Windows MSI
Windows Classic
Macintosh
Unix

Hi guys
We are currently working on Kestrel. There will be some cool new features, but also a lot of bug fixing. We won't have a weekly here for a little while, but when we have something to present you guys will be the first to know ;-)

Finally! 9.2 is launched today. Thank you all for valuable help in making this happen!

9.2 is not only an important update with bug fixes and the new Speed Dial functionality, it's also a milestone in spreading Opera to new users around the world: Opera 9.2 for Windows ships with 31 languages

The latest addition is Macedonian, so if you know the language, feel free to post a small celebration message in the comments section Remember that we also have a number of forums where you can discuss Opera in your own language.

If you haven't done so already, please go to opera.com/download and get your brand new Opera.

Changelog

• Since Beta: http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/920/sincebeta.dml
  
• Since 9.1: http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/920/
  
• Linux: http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/linux/920/
  
• Mac: http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/mac/920/
  

…come by three, they say

The new UNIX build should now fix the crashers several people were still seeing after updating libX11 and running the last hotfix.

Hope this is it, for this busy Easter "vacation" - and thanks again for all the feedback!

Download:

• Unix
  

It's Easter time - but we are busy…

Yesterday we issued a hotfix for a crash on startup caused by a recent update on several Linux distros of libX11, to patch CVE-2007-1667. A few users reported some sideeffects - we have a better fix for you now.

Thanks for all the quick feedback - enjoy the new build, and Happy Easter!

Download:

• Unix
  

After updating to new X libs on some Linux distros, Opera stopped working. We are looking into the issue, and in the meantime we have a hotfix ready for you.

Happy Easter!

If you do not want to install a weekly release but continue running version 9.1, you can change the "DefaultDepth" option to 16 in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, as this will also work around the problem.

Download:

• Unix