Opera has released a beta version of their upcoming 7.5 browser. They have revamped the user interface considerably - replacing the persistent (and sometimes annoying) sidebar with a sleek Outlook-like icon bar. Some of the icons open a second sidebar, for bookmarks, history, email folder summaries and so forth. It even has adopted a popular extension for Firebird by introducing a new notes sidebar. I like the links sidebar which lets you capture links from blogs and link aggregators.

It now includes an IRC client, which works very well. Its tabs are revamped, and look more like Mozilla's tabs. The persistent toolbar on the top is also removed, and in the beta version, the Google text ads also remained hidden (perhaps a bug).

The email client seems to have been reorganized too, with SPAM and not-SPAM "training" buttons under the delete button drop-down.

The overall feeling I got was that this is a well designed, well tested and extremely intuitive product. The competition for Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird is heating up. Even if Mozilla surpassed Internet Explorer and Outlook Express long ago, one must not forget these talented Norwegian rivals.

I did find one bug - where the list of email accounts / IRC accounts disappeared periodically. Hopefully this and other bugs will be fixed before the final release.

This is a good product - one that makes the voice in your head that implores "buy it !" seem even louder.

Some screenshots to please you:

Category: Browser Landscape

Comment: Read 3 comment(s)

Link: Permanent Link