Opera 10.5 for Unix, plus an update for Windows and Mac…
17 CommentsPublished January 1st, 2010 3:00 AM EST By GT500
On this first day of 2010, Opera Software has been kind enough to not only release a Unix version of Opera 10.5 for those Unix/Linux users who missed out, but they also updated the Windows and Mac versions. This has filled me with great joy, as I have been almost breathlessly waiting for the new Qt-less Unix release, and have been very much wanting an updated Windows release as well.
At first glance, the new Windows version still suffers from a few of the same issues, such as not be able to right-click and insert notes. Granted I didn’t expect them to fix many of the issues that fast, especially since they gave us some new features in this build…
What makes this new Unix build special?
The engine changes in the Windows version (Carakan) are in the Unix version as well, so one may be wondering why it merits it’s own announcement, and why it took so much longer to get it ready than the Windows and Mac versions. The answer to this is simple: It no longer relies on Qt. That’s right, it’s now completely graphical toolkit independent (as some of us have been dreaming for years).
On top of that, it will attempt to load your GTK+ theme for it’s user interface, allowing at least the appearance of being integrated into the platform. Sadly, loading KDE4/Qt4 themes is not yet stable enough, and will not be in the pre-alpha release. Also, not all of the UI elements conform to their GTK specifications in this pre-alpha, so don’t expect it to be perfect. Nevertheless, this is most certainly a step in the right direction. Not that I dislike Qt, but it never really worked will with Opera, even when you were using KDE.
Another new feature is support for the video HTML element. You will need to have some gstreamer plugins installed for this to work properly. On most Linux distros, they refer to these plugins as gstreamer ‘base’ plugins. Here are a a few links to working video element examples that some of you may remember – Example 1 – Example 2 – Example 3 – Example 4 – Example 5.
One important thing to bear in mind is that some features, such as printing and drag-and-drop, don’t work. Seriously, this is a pre-alpha. What did you expect? Perfectly polished chrome when it hasn’t made it off of the assembly line yet? Don’t even bother trying this pre-alpha if all you are going to do is throw a fit at the developers because some feature you like/need/want/whatever isn’t working as you expect. They spent a lot of time getting this thing working so that you would have a new toy to play with, so at least act like you appreciate it.
To wrap up the Unix explanation, I’ll just be lazy and quote the Desktop Team Blog:
Because this is a pre-alpha release, we don’t recommend you to install it over your existing Opera installation. This is why we are releasing only non-installable tarballs instead of installable packages. To run Opera, extract the tarball and run ‘./opera’ from the main directory.
You can download the Unix build here.
What changes are there in the Windows/Mac builds?
The developer blog post didn’t mention a lot of changes in this build for Windows and Mac. The main change on Windows is the addition of video element support, but this is not yet in the Mac version. They also mentioned that there were a small number of improvements that should help with stability, and less crashing is always good.
Check out the official blog post for the download links.
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using
Thanks for the info. Its great that now it support the default gtk for Ubuntu.
using
Like this new 10.5 build, fast as the previous one, but much more stable.
Performing incredibly in PeaceKeeper (only beatten by latest Iron 4).
using
Still out of luck.
I have folders containing most releases since 9.25 on an another machine. I was intending to add 10.5, but………..still not a version for Nexenta (OpenSolaris).
Happy New Year.
using
Wow. I wonder what happened to my example links. Oh well, they are fixed now.
using
Logically the Linux tarball should be usable in Nexenta (from website: “power of the Solaris kernel with the Ubuntu user-land and package management system”. Looked to unpack ok – alas it does not run.
Tried on my other halfs Ubuntu machine and its brilliant (Opera/9.80 (Linux i686; U; en) Presto/2.5.18 Version/10.50); although I am boring and had to put back the menu bar! I am very impressed with the speed, and it even worked a Java button in the on-line banking site of the Co-operative Bank which has never worked before.
using
I wonder what is the hold up with the Mac version and video??
using
Example 1 and 3 are missing the links
The new build is a little faster that the build released on Dec 22 2009
On the sunspider I got (for the current build)
454.6ms +/- 1.2%
using
Chas4, I already fixed the links in the blog post, but if your RSS reader already downloaded the post then it probably won’t reflect the changes. Not sure what happened to break the links like that in the first place, as I kept previewing it as I was writing it, and the links where there before I posted it.
using
When I viewed them here on the page there were not fixed about an hour ago
using
Weird. I fixed them at just about 12:45PM EDT… You should have seen the fixed links when you checked earlier…
using
One thing I noticed in 10.5 pre-alpha on Ubuntu is much better flash support. It seems just to work, which is not the case in my everyday 10.2 alpha, and I’ve always had the problems with flash in Opera (I’m using adobe flash, those gnashes, and other OpenSource implementations are a mistake IMHO).
Anyway now it just works. Thanks to Vega? Maybe?
using
“They spent a lot of time getting this thing working so that you would have a new toy to play with, so at least act like you appreciate it.”
Who the f*** are you?
I’m sorry — I forgot that Opera was God’s gift to web browsers.
You’ve just represented Opera very poorly.
using
I have been playing arround with Opera 10.5 on Ubuntu, and it seems to work very well. One crash, coped with opening 240 tabs at the same time (except in Turbo mode). Speed good, etc.
One problem I have spotted is that if you use “private tab” / “private window” mode cookies are not cleared. Hence, I stick with my original view that a Linux live CD is a safer option.
Posted using Opera 3.62 on Haiku (visit not reported by Sitemeter) just to see what your OS/browser recognition lists it as.
using
Wish List:
// UI
- Double clicking on word in page auto-highlights all matching words (akin to Notepad++). I’d pay for this feature!
- A search allowing open pages to be filtered to those which containword “abc” in a manner similar to other integrated opera searches
- Remember Google searches. Allow tab (or-similar) completion
- Integrated calendar thingy for planning Outlook style meetings
// NW
- Support for kerberos gssapi based authentication
// Engines
- Allow XSL v2.0 transformations
- Better SVG support
- Regex searches / Advanced search
- Support for MS Outlook meetings
I’m sure there’s more..
Steve
using
Finally
using
I’m the guy who wrote the blog entry. Duh.
I also work for a software company (which shall remain nameless on this blog), so I understand how frustrating it is when whiny little brats try out a preview release, and they just throw a fit about how it isn’t final-release quality.
No, but this build was a gift from the Opera Software development team. It sucks when you give a gift, and everyone just throws a fit about how it didn’t fit their expectations. Such an attitude is very depressing to the developers, and we are far less likely to get preview builds like this when everyone is whining about the build like a bunch of spoiled little children.
No, but you’ve just represented yourself as a whiny little brat, so bravo.
Please note that I treat people as they act, so since you are a whiny spoiled little kid, expect me to treat you like one.
using
Oh, and my apologies to everyone for not checking the list of comments awaiting approval. I shall endeavor to be more diligent about that.