Earlier today Opera Software released an alpha build of the long-awaited version 10 of their desktop browser. Opera 10 alpha promises to be faster at rendering, more standards compliant, and even sports a brand new in-line spell check.
Here’s a short list of things we should expect in this alpha:
- Presto 2.2 Engine
- Performance boost
- 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
- Auto-update
- Inline spelling checker
- Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
- Widget Improvements on Linux
For a more detailed list and downloads for Windows, Linux, and Mac please visit the developer blog.
When I first ran the Acid3 test, it only scored 97/100. I mentioned this to a few people, and Kyle Baker reminded me that UserJS can interfere with the test. I disabled UserJS for the Acid3 test, and my score was much better.
using
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
this is all fantastic, and a really wish opera the best, but I am concerned about the life and future development of Opera.
The market share numbers are very disheartening.
the developers who have basically become the R&D division of the browser world is still only a blip on the radar, when it’s far superior to other browsers. (firefox and chrome just dont feel right to me, and safari is ****).
i’d love to be using opera for as long as possible but opera need sto improve market share drastically..
or maybe i just worry too much?
using
Please replace the “spell checker” with a spelling checker, most of us are not into the black arts or magic and have no need for a spell checker. (or make this an option)
Thank you.
using
what are the icons down to the right in that screenshot? opera has a pacman feature now?
using
@k3m15a: remember that low market share is still 30 million people using the product. And that’s just the desktop version.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in percentages and forget that we’re dealing with huge numbers of people.
using
Those icons are part of my custom toolbar setups.
The Packman icon allows you to hide any element in a page by clicking on it. You can find it, and many more interesting things on the Unofficial Opera Wiki.
using
Great to hear that Opera is getting auto-update, as well as passing Acid3.
Myself, I’m all too hooked on Firefox’s addons to switch now, but these are great improvements for all Opera users out there!
using
Am I the only one out there that expected Opera 10 to be significant, and are currently truly underwhelmed?
The way Peregrine had been talked about made me think there were major changes coming. Obviously not.
using
David Naylor, I agree. It’s been so long that we’ve been asking for auto-update and spell check. It’s great to finally have it.
SuitCase, please try to remember that this is an alpha. Not all of the changes are apparent on the surface, and not all of the changes we will see in the final, or even the betas, are present in this build. This build looks more like it’s being released to give Opera users a few features and bug releases that they have been asking for for a long time, as well as a taste of what is to come. It is doubtful that Opera 10 will look like it does now when it goes final.
using
Back Button, RELOAD BUTTON, Forward Button?
First time I’ve seen that.
using
I’ll assume you’re being sarcastic.
Have you looked around to see if there are any new features in Opera 10 that you have not seen before?
using
Wooooow!
I just installed it and it runs great! The new spell checer is a nice addition…
using
what exactly means “Widget improvements on Linux”?
using
This is just Alpha release that is used to test the engine itself and polish some early bugs! New features are comming in 2009 and with Beta releases.
using
You can find more info here: http://www.opera.com/browser/next/
using
They’ve added support for true transparency in Linux/Unix versions of Opera.
using
I meant the order of which the buttons were positioned on your address bar.
using
I tried to mimic Firefox with that setup for users who are more used to that toolbar layout. I don’t actually use it, but it worked better for a screenshot than what I use.
using
GT500, I can’t conclusively win this argument, but I’ve followed Opera betas for years and you can tell when radical change is coming and when you’re just going to get moderate boring improvements. Of course there will be changes in Opera 10 final compared to this first alpha, but no revolutionary changes (as we saw in Opera 7’s first beta, or even Opera 7.5’s, for instance.) Instead, Opera 10 is going to be another point update to what is still essentially 7.5.
using
Firstly, are you referring to 7.5 or 7.6? 7.6 changed Opera so much that they incremented the version number to 8.0 in later betas. That was when 7.x died. So much changed that it could no longer be called Opera 7.
As far as Opera 10 being Opera 7, lets take a look at what keeps changing. The rendering engine is completely different (Opera 9.5 introduced a JavaScript engine that was built from scratch, and it has been built upon in Opera 10). The skin is different. The toolbar layout keeps changing. The mail engine has been upgraded a few times (I don’t think Opera 7 even had IMAP support). We have built-in ad blocking (I think that was added in Opera 8). And there is so much more that is different.
I don’t see any basis for comparison to Opera 7. It was different enough from 7.0 to 8.0 to make it difficult to say they were the same browser.
I have a feeling that you are looking at the toolbar layout and assuming that since it’s so similar to 7.x that it must be the same underneath as well. Trust me, as someone who has used weekly build after weekly build for at least a couple of years, and been an Opera user since late in 2000, the core of the browser is nowhere near the same as Opera 7. They are different pieces of software that share a similar look and the same name.
using
Amen. Besides what did you expect SuitCase? Some burning CDs module or graphic editor? Oh come on!
using
These are great updates!
Many were not interested by M2 because it only supported plain text composition. The purists will argue, but this is a great decision to help Opera gain more marketshares.
More speed is welcome too! I have increasingly found myself using Chrome for its impressive rendering and JavaScript speeds, but I would rather see these in Opera and stick to it as my primary browser.
At least on Vista, Opera 9+ seems to crash quite a bit more (for me) than earlier versions – it could be just me though.
Anyway, great job Opera Team, I cannot wait to see Opera 10 go final!
using
GT500, I mean 7.5. Mainly because it refined the UI considerably, which was a major problem with Opera 7. Opera 7.6\8 was underwhelming, featuring the same sorts of minor tweaks we saw with 9 and 9.5. I judge these releases to be stop-gap ones, adding few useful features, fluff, and ongoing boring technical underpinnings. Opera 10 seems to be in the same vein. Of course, if you were wetting yourself when Opera 8 came out, 10 is a similarly interesting release – but I think the company can do better than just tweaking their renderer and tacking on catch-up features like rich email and spell check.
Also, I disagree with you. Obviously there are various changes between 7.0 and 10, but few are “major”. The rendering engine is very similar, essentially patches on top of 7’s Presto and not a radical rewrite like they engaged in with 7 (this is not necessarily a bad thing.) The skin and toolbar changes have been minor and irrelevant to actual usability, which has been stuck in the semi-revamped-but-still-awkward rut we got after the redesign in 7.5. Opera 7 did support IMAP, but poorly – this is one bit I will concede had a significant rewrite, I think in Opera 9. The content blocking was a poorly constructed feature that has barely improved or gone anywhere since it’s introduction – like its other gimmicky new “features”: speed dial, widgets, etc.
I’ve followed these betas and snapshots too, and I’ve used Opera since mid-2001 when it was Opera 6. Around the time of 7.5, Opera shifted focus to the mobile and embedded space, and used the marketing push of “version 8″ (which really deserved to be 7.6) to promote the new search-engine-supported model they now operate on. Is it really that absurd to think that after this point, Opera has been disinterested in putting much R&D into features that won’t translate to its other platforms? All we’ve got are Presto improvements and increased stability. Great, but what happened to the days where I could recommend Opera to my friends based on all the great unique things it did?
Skracanie, you ignore the past ingenuity of Opera! We can do better than this. Look at mouse gestures, the tab system, sessions, spatial navigation, even recent flashes of inspiration like the history search in the location bar. Opera used to regularly deliver great new useful improvements, and now they stopped. If you want ideas for Opera’s future developments, I’m currently writing a blog entry about it, but you could check out some of the things here: http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/concept-series/ Not all are great ideas, and unlikely to emerge from an unimaginative company like Mozilla, but they have some interesting concepts Opera could follow up on.
using
Suitcase is right when he mentions that the changes made in Opera aside from the rendering engine have been minor since 7.5: the UI toolkit is the same (and it’s clearly outdated – it really shows on Unix/Linux), they just changed the toolbar layout and added a new skin for 9.5; there have been new features but not big steps forward. Very important parts of what’s Opera (like mouse gestures, spatial navigation, internal actions, etc) have been left for dead, no real improvements, they are the same thing they were 4 years ago. It looks like they develop features and then they forget about them – the best example of this problem is M2.
The main problem is that development has been slow over the last 4 years. Keep in mind that Opera 8 was actually Opera 7.6 (the Beta versions were named just that: 7.6) renamed for marketing purposes and 8.5 was nothing but the announcement of free Opera; this brings us Opera 9 which could be considered a point-release (engine and features), it’s just that it was actually Opera 8 rather than 9, so 9.5=8.5. The whole release number thing is not very important but the fact that 4 years have past since 7.5 and we have only seen a true point-release (opera 9) speaks volumes about the development cycle.
Opera 10 is just in an alpha stage and they have told us that many features will come later, we will see if this is a true statement or a gimmick: for example we will see what happens with all the feedback the new UI guy received last month, is it for a new cross-platform efficient UI toolkit or just for another vista-like skin sold as “revolutionary”. With Opera, you never know…
using
Still
1. no rss folders..
2. address drop-down sucks atleast when compared to firefox.
3. Wand is still too ‘in-your-face’ , unlike firefox which shows a neat you-don’t-have-to-click-to-get-rid-of toolbar.
4. page titles are not searched when typing in the address-bar. Unlike firefox which not only searches, but also highlights them in bold.
using
Oh and I kind of agree with Suitcase.
Since about 7.5/8 I was always a tad disapponted with each new Opera release..
The features introduced are good no doubt.. but there was nothing truly ‘opera’ innovation that we all love.
Same with this release. auto-update, spell checker , html email are all wonderfull additions, but nothing ‘opera’ innovative.. Think shift+f2 , single keyboar shortcuts, gestuers, something that would truly make browsing faster.
Or may be I am disappointed nothing on my wish-list was covered..
using
Will M2 be standards compliant? Could I import outside formatted HTML+CSS page as an e-mail letter, not as an attachment?
using
Revolutionary Street HTML in Opera M2? Why not to implement Textile — a clear, semantically structured human Web text generator — instead of this messy WYSIWYG toolbar?
using
SuitCase, I find it quite humorous that you look at the UI and assume that since it doesn’t look different and doesn’t have all sorts of shiny new buttons that it must be the same thing with only minor improvements.
I can tell that you are not a programmer. I can also tell that you don’t use the weekly builds. The changes throughout the years have been many, and the code base for the browser is nothing like it was even in version 9.0.
My recomendation is, if you really feel that only minor changes are being made, then use each weekly build as they become available. Don’t just ‘follow’ the betas, actually test them out and see what has changed. I guarantee you that if you were to install Opera 7.5 that you would find that, aside from the interface, it really is not the same browser.
using
I’m not a programmer, but I have used weekly builds since the desktop team blog arrived. If you doubt it, go check the history of my posts here (the cute little user agent recorder would have probably picked up on the various versions I’ve used.)
Anyway, look. Obviously you’re satisfied with the speed of progression with Opera. I’m not. I wish I could point to another browser, but I think the market has been pretty much stagnant for years now, with only the recent appearance of Chrome (cool, but still a blip of browser history right now) and some tweaks to Safari standing out as interesting. Instead, all I can say is that Opera has done and should be progressing at a faster pace. I think I made my case above, and opera6 bolstered it.
Obviously they are not the same browser, and Opera 10 has a lot of new features compared to 7.5. But they’re not on the order of what has been accomplished in other innovative software products in the past few years, and nowhere near the phenomenal run Opera had from its introduction to around 7.5 (which I identify as the point where things wound down, and continue to associate with Opera’s decision to find revenue sources elsewhere.) You might be okay with that, but I personally find the opportunity for innovation in the desktop browser space incredible. I’m writing a really long blog post about ideas for it – I will be sure to send it to you when it’s done.
using
Lots of shallow people here who only look at the UI layout and ignore the multiple major rewrites of the engine (including M2). Oh well.
using
k3m15a:
This is nonsense. The market share is impossible to measure anyway. And Opera has doubled its user base in two years (55% increase since last November). The numbers are going UP for Opera.
using
SuitCase:
Whoa! Apparently you don’t even know about the several engine rewrites since Opera 7.
Did you even read the changelogs?
opera6:
The ignorance is astounding. M2 has had several complete rewrites! The storage alone is at version 3 or 4 by now.
Complete and utter nonsense. Where on earth are you getting this from?
There have been several major changes between 7.0 (WTF are you talking about 7.5 for?) and 9. 9.5 alone is really Opera 10, with lots of huge changes.
using
Huge changes like what? Speed dial? Content block? Widgets? Seriously. Can you comprehend the idea that we are coming from the perspective “Opera has not changed enough” rather than “Opera has not changed at all”?
Regarding the engine, apparently you were not aware Opera 6 operated on a fundamentally different engine, and Opera 7 brought a phenomenal performance and compatibility leap (way beyond the ones introduced since) with the new engine “Presto”? This is what I refer to. The renderer has definitely improved gradually since then, but hey – so has Gecko, IE and WebKit.
using
SuitCase, I find your comments quite amusing.
You obviously do not understand the type of work that goes into adding a feature as simple as spell check. The multitude of changes that had to happen to the code that handled text areas in web pages, and in the user interface. All this while making Opera faster instead of turning it into bloat.
Each of these features that you consider minor caused huge changes to the code base.
Also, while Opera Software has not designed a new rendering engine from the ground up since Opera 7, they have done major changes in the rendering engine since then. They also put a new JavaScript engine into 9.5, one that had been rewritten from scratch to be more efficient, and more compatible. Just because the changes do not pop up in the user interface of the browser does not mean that they are not there.
SuitCase, do you have Opera 7.5 installed?
using
Suitcase: “Can you comprehend the idea that we are coming from the perspective “Opera has not changed enough” rather than “Opera has not changed at all”?”
Don’t bother, some people think that rewriting the whole flawed storage system of M2 2 times in 2 years is a huge improvement for M2 despite the fact that the 2nd rewrite (9.5) was made because the first one (9) was such a train wreck that M2 was losing mails (the infamous “message body not downloaded”), filters and searching didn’t work properly, etc. Meanwhile the other “improvement” was: implementing a pseudo-decent IMAP backend (meaning that it worked as opposed to Opera 7/8). In other words, they needed 4 years to make M2 work as intended (i.e actually working).
And yes, I agree with the guy who said that Opera 9 was actually Opera 8, that’s cristal clear: for **** sake, opera8 was named 7.6 during the whole beta testing period and the main features were ERA, XmlHttpRequest for Gmail, UserJavaScript and the freaking start bar.
I find it amusing how long-time Opera users who express their perfectly legit concerns backed up with facts get bashed by the “real” Opera users.
using
As shallow as ever, SuitCase completely ignores the browser engine. Never mind the fact that it has been rewritten up to several times after 7.0. 9.5 alone brought MASSIVE performance improvements:
http://nontroppo.org/timer/kestrel_tests/
But hey, who cares about facts when you choose to ignore everything but the UI you can see?
using
GT500, I’m glad I amuse you! I fear you’re missing my gist, though, and just being defensive.
Again, I am saying that Opera is not changing radically enough given its history and environment. Every other major browser, including IE, has accomplished similar achievements to the ones you cite in the past few years, in most cases doing them faster and better (for spell-check and rendering\JS speed improvements, at least.)
For that reason, the difficulty of implementing inline spell check does not impress me. Opera should be at the head of the pack, innovating with great unique ideas and features. It’s not, it fell behind, and being an apologist for it only allows Opera to remain complacent.
using
There is another issue with two digit version number of a browser: bad script detection… Are masking browser and browser.js fixes appropriate solutions?
—
Maybe it’s not time for “revolution” in browsers UI yet, so Opera 10 doesn’t provide one. What i think is more important in given situation is increased compatibility in (let’s say) top hundred most popular / visited pages on the Web. Those pages became very complex lately and Opera with its unique engine followed slowly, some of those pages are partially not working as user is expecting! Only if Opera 10 will bring flawlessly working those top sites (in which complexity will increase even more rapidly in future), we will see increase of Opera marketshare IMHO. Of course this to happen we also need global agreement among web developers to build sites according to known standards… but that’s another story.
using
Weird, this thing didn’t notify me of new comments. I guess I need to pay more attention. Sorry about that guys.
Anyway, I will read and respond to some more comments when I have time. Until then, have a great day.
using
@SuitCase, Opera has changed radically, last with 9.5 which had a completely new engine, and now with Opera 10 which has a new engine again. You are apparently too shallow to care about deeper changes, though. All you care about is probably pretty skin colors.
@Groovy_M
How are you going to get those 100 sites to stop blocking Opera?
You are assuming that it’s Opera that isn’t working rather than some browser sniffing **** or something like that.
using
yeye, no, 9.5 didn’t have a “completely new engine”. For anything. I don’t think you’ve understood the changelogs\marketing.
using
You are the one who doesn’t understand the changelogs. There are HUGE changes in 9.5. It was in development for, what, 2 or 3 years?
using
yeye, I guess I’ll have to take your word for it, then?
using
You don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. See the development time and read the chancelog.
using
@yeye: I’m sure all of those 100 sites are not just blocking Opera. That is not the only problem. And the end user topically doesn’t care why some site is not working, it’s just that s/he needs to open it in other browser. It goes the same way with complicated plugins install. That’s why market share of Opera is constant or rising so slowly over time.
using
Groovy_M, Opera’s market share is growing. The user base had 55% growth in a year. But never mind that.
Most sites that don’t work aren’t because of bugs or lacking abilities in Opera. You wanted more compatibility, but that’s assuming that it’s all something Opera can do something about.
Considering the fact that some major sites like Google’s can change weekly or monthly and they don’t test in Opera, your request is totally missing the mark. Even if Opera fixes stuff all the time, sites will change and stuff will have to be fixed all over again.
How is Opera supposed to do something about that? Hire people who can look into the future?
using
2Groovy_M: Yeah, It’s terrible how hard it is to isntall a plugin in Opera compared to soem of the other browsers. It isn’t a problem for me, but it definitely is difficult to new users.
using
@GT500: Can you please delete my first two comments here, it’s already all in my third comment that i reposted when messages weren’t seen.
@Sniff: Yes, Opera should “see in the future”
Opera’s engine is unique and rare among users, that’s why there is problem of compatibility. Opera needs to know how developers are building sites if users are expected to see and use (top 100) sites normally without delay and through fixes in browser.js (which is working pretty good for now but i guess that’s not the ultimate solution).