Monday, July 23, 2007

Opera 9.22 not for Vista either

So Opera Software released a new version of Opera last week after a short beta test period. You would think that they would take this opportunity to make their browser work better in Vista, particularly considering that this may be the last released version of Opera for several months in advance of the testing period for "Kestrel" (Opera 9.5), the final version of which is due late in the year.

But other than a vague "Fix for accessing certain Web sites using Windows Vista" note in the the 9.22 release notes, there were no documented fixes for Vista at all. This is despite the glaring issues Opera has in Vista, as documented in my last post.

Given that Opera Software only bothers to list the highlights in its revision notes (something they've admitted to), I moved to 9.22 full-time in Vista and can now confirm that both problems are still there, which makes sense since A) Opera is still in radio-silence about the issues and B) The issues seem to have the same root cause.

So where does this leave us?  Vista was released in November 2006; the problems were reported in February 2007 (including formal bug reports by at least the first poster in the problem thread); there have been four releases of Opera since Vista's release; and Opera Software has barely said two words about the issues in any venue in all that time.

Disinterest or incompetence, I ask again.