14 DAY TRIAL // Opera 9.5 was released on June 12, 2008, sporting boosted performance, a brand new graphical user interface, an overhauled address bar, as well as bookmarks, Speed Dial, and Notes synchronization capabilities. Sadly, at the same time, Opera 9.5 brought to the table a series of functionality issues, which prompted critics that the browser had been released before it was ready. Opera acknowledged the problems of Build 9.5 RTM and is hard at work on version 9.51 to soften all the rough edges of the initial release.
"It's time for maintenance - we have been fixing several of the most reported issues in 9.50 - including a rather nasty crash on Yahoo Mail," stated Claudio Santambrogio, Opera QA Desktop Test Manager. But in addition to the resolved glitches with Yahoo mail, Opera 9.1 takes care of a variety of problems.
"Fixed crash on Yahoo! Mail. Fixed a crash when clicking the feeds button. Fixed a crash when installing Shockwave Player 11. Fixed some issues with the search engines when upgrading from 9.2x: it is now possible again to edit the Google search. Fixed a leak when printing or in print preview. Fixed a GDI handle leak in the transfers window on Windows. Fixed thread expanding in Mail when receiving new messages. Fixed some issues with subscription to IMAP folders. Fixed a too zealous reconnection of the IRC client. Fixed "reuse current tab" feature in speed dial on Mac. Finetuned some issues in the new skin," Santambrogio added.
On June 25, 2008, Opera 9.51 Build 10074 Release Candidate 1 was made available for download. Version 9.51 is to Opera 9.5 what Firefox 3.0.1 is to version 3.0 of Mozilla's open source browser, namely the first update. All the major problems reported with Build 9.5 RTM have been resolved at this point in time and Opera is testing the latest version for eventual regression issues that might follow.
Opera 9.51 Build 10074 RC1 is available for download here.