Opera 10 browser is here
(Credit:
Opera Software)
The Opera 10 browser is now ready to download for Windows, and Mac, and Linux, three months after the beta first emerged (hands-on Opera 10 beta review).
If you've been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn't surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser's much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.
The refreshed user interface is also noteworthy. Joining the new default skin (changed from version 9.6), are changes to tab bar behavior. The conventional tabs double as thumbnail images. Double-click the thin gray bar below the tabs (indicated by dots) or click and drag to expand open tabs into preview windows that you can navigate by clicking among them.
Other enhancements include an expanded Speed Dial (a feature that has later been adopted and adapted in Google's Chrome browser) that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. You're also able to customize it with a background picture. You'll see that spell check will be applicable to any text field (for 51 languages), and that Opera's incorporated e-mail client takes a page from Google's books by threading e-mail conversations.
Developers get access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the publisher's online development tools, but everyone can benefit from the speedier rendering engine that, according to Opera, makes version 10 up to 40 percent faster than version 9.6--before switching on Turbo's compression.
Despite all the additions that Opera hopes will keep Opera 10 competitive, there are still two notable omissions for this final release. The first is Opera Unite, which uses your browser as a Web server for sharing your content with others. The second is the Carakan JavaScript engine that promises to process JavaScript about 2.5 times as fast as the engine used in Opera 10 alpha.
Related story: Opera 10 browser to emerge Tuesday
Jessica Dolcourt reviews the latest and greatest smartphone apps, in addition to a healthy dose of Windows software. E-mail Jessica and follow her on Twitter. 
Unless you have a really simple mind....*shrug*
Opera is a fringe browser and there will be people who say it is the best and will use it forever. The fact is, Opera is irrelevant and if it dropped out of existence today it would not be a great loss.
http://operawiki.info/Opera
Thereby, you don't need to install third party add ons from those you don't know. Who knows what the firefox add ons may do that you don't know about. Lastly, notice every time a general browser security exploit arises that Opera is either not on the list, or it's an older version of Opera that is effected.
I'm not saying Opera is 100% the best, in the years I've used it I've found it to be the buggiest of the browsers, but it is certainly a force to be reckoned with. In my opinion, it should have greater market share for what it offers and does.
o Visual tabs on the side for max real-estate
o auto-Turbo for flaky wi-fi
o Opera Link for sync bookmarks, search engines, history, Opera Notes, and personal bar (between Win, Mac, Linux and your Blackberry or Android or other non-iPhone)
o rocket-fast rendering (optimized for the WHOLE web, not just google sites with javascript)
o beautiful UI (with millions of Opera skins one click away)
o spell-checker in 51 languages
o runs fast on old hardware and old OS'
o runs on phones, old & new
o tinker with Opera user-javascript for extensions
o ...and 100 other features OUT-OF-THE-BOX for the 70% of FF users (and 99% of the world) that don't install add-ons -- or don't want to bother with extensions.
o oh, and 100/100 on Acid3 to make millions of developers lives easier to minimize
Check out Opera v10 and see what the others will have in a few weeks or months...and how fast the whole web can be, not just google sites.
(Btw, I noticed FF 3.5 just came out with restore tabs/windows for their users...how nice.)
No, from 20-30 million users to 40-50 million users.
"Opera is a fringe browser"
Except it has 3% globally and is bigger than Safari and Chrome. In Europe it has nearly 10% and is bigger than Safari and Chrome combined.
But who cares if something is a "fringe whatever"? Are you nothing but a sheep who cannot make your own decisions, and therefore will only use what everyone else uses?
If Opera dropped out of existence today, who would other browsers steal all their features from? :D
e.g.
KEY FEATURES:
- tabbed browsing
- addon support (perhaps with a rough estimate of addons available)
- HTML5 support (audio, video, canvas, etc.)
- ...
TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE (using the same reference PC):
- startup time
- page load times (perhaps with low/med/high complexity reference pages)
- acid3 results: http://acid3.acidtests.org/
- SunSpider results: http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html
- ...
Agreed, but SunSpider in not a valid benchmark. It is made by webkit which is the rendering engine used in Safari and Chrome.
Plus - why on earth can't they get their rendering engine right? For a 'standards' compliant browser it's got a lot of issues in that department...
That's weird.
Opera is actually a fully integrated package. Unlike Firefox where third party software has to be bolted on awkwardly. Chrome doesn't even have any features so it doesn't really matter.
Opera's rendering engine works fine. Mask as Firefox if a site doesn't work, because 99% of the time the problems are caused by browser sniffing.
Also, "standards compliance" is irrelevant. Opera was built from scratch to work with actual real world web pages, and most of them are definitely NOT standards compliant.
Without extensions they don't stand a chance. I see Opera disappearing in the next couple of years.
People have been predicting Opera's demise for 15 years. They always turn out to be wrong. You are clearly as ignorant as the rest of them.
Also, Opera is actually a nicely integrated package, whereas Firefox relies on poorly integrated third party software that's bolted on randomly in order to get more functionality. Ew.
If Opera is this good, why Opera can't beat Firefox in market share?
There must be something wrong...
So If Firefox is this good, why Firefox can't beat Internet Explorer in market share?
There must be something wrong...Yeah, your logic.
Because most people are sheep who like what they are told to like.
Compared to Firefox, Opera is faster, smaller, and uses a lot less memory for a lot more features (including the almighty Fast Forward). Also, Opera's tabs are smart enough to let me cycle through them in most recently used order; a feature I can't find in any other browser.
I've been using Opera for more than a decade and my wife and I have slowly been converting our friends. Most of those friends were Firefox users until they discovered that Opera was smaller, faster, and uses significantly less memory.
There must be something wrong...
Just saying...
And extensions? PLEASE. I depend too much on Opera's built-in email client to risk it STOPPING WORKING EVERY TIME THE BROWSER IS SLIGHTLY UPGRADED the way almost every single Firefox extension stops working when there's the slightest upgrade.
And not having extensions is a deal breaker.
Not having extensions is the deal breaker.
Because of extensions, I used Firefox right up until version 3 released. I had used a bunch of plug-ins and extensions to try and make FF as good as Opera, but when I upgraded to FF3 most of them stopped working. Fortunately I now have Chrome as my backup browser so I just uninstalled FF and freed up a bunch of harddrive space.
If you don't know what speed dial is...I will try my best to explain. When you 'open a new tab' a bunch of little boxes show (that is fully customizable in Opera beta 10) Anyway in these boxes are a preview of the pages YOU want to add. You will put in the pages you visit most frequently. Example, Facebook, CNET, Opera Community etc.
I feel safer using Opera...I don't get the popups that I get in FF and other browsers. FF ESPECIALLY gives my computer viruses!
I love Opera :)
Opera 10 is much more customizable ( if thats a word ) hehe ... And we all know that innovative features always come from Opera and then are added on to the other browsers.
If Firefox is that good, why can't Firefox beat Internet Explorer in market share?
There must be something wrong...
Opera does several things that no other browser does that helped cement it as my browser of choice:
* Fully customizable: I can drag toolbars and other components around wherever I want them, and the micro skins mean that get to see a lot more webpage and a lot less browser.
* Smart Tabs: Every other tabbed program I've tried (not just browsers; pdf readers, text editors, etc) forces you to cycle through the tabs either in created order or in the order they are on the tab bar. Opera, on the other hand, gives you option to cycle your tabs in recently used order the way Windows does.
* Fast Forward. With a flick of the wrist (thanks to mouse gestures) I can automatically log in to a website, or move the next page in a forum or Google search. Basically, when FF is activated, Opera tries to determine what is the most likely thing on the page to do to proceed and does it if it can. It's the one browser feature I absolutely can't live without anymore.
And I can't count the number of times I've tried to use a mouse gesture in FF or IE, only to be greeted with a right-click menu...
"Speed Dial that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. "
Speed Dial shows pages YOU put there. Kind of a bookmarks.
As for Unite and Carakan: they were never planed for this release, but after final (Opera 10.10) release.
And the whole article sounds like "Opera took this and that from Google" while the list of Opera innovations that got implemented into other browsers later is much longer :)
If there weren't so many great Firefox extensions, I'd be using Opera.
I'll stick with my bloatware.
So the extensions are there, but the implementation varies.
Not that I'm anti-firefox - it obviously has a wide range of extensions, and many you can't get in Opera. So I have it as my secondary browser.
I love the notes, link and unite features which are WAY AHEAD of all the rest.
SAVED PAGES allows me to have certain important data on my phone - in offline mode (a webpage snapshot-like feature)
Go on... you've gotta try it...
that single event where a virus got its way though my mac through a browser and an OPERA for that matter makes me so mad!!!
I swear never to use opera again...
i dont know about this Oper 10 im still shivering from that experiene...im temeted though but still something tells me not to try it...
i guess thats the reason why OPERA was never even considered as alternative browser by apple except for Firefox...just check apples website and go to downloads sections and you wont even find Opera there for you to download but Firefox is even promoted by apple...
I guess Opera is good if your computer or laptop is a windows based but for a mac sorry..
This is the joke of the day for me! LOL Opera a malicious browser, and Macs with viruses! I love the oxymoron comments! ;-)
These days you might as well pick a browser to use based on whether you like the name - they all do the job pretty well. Those with specialist needs, however, will probably do well to do a spot of research.
Some people honestly don't care what they drive. Others will always buy huge trucks, even if the only thing they haul is a**. IE has a big market share because it comes with Windows; Firefox has another big chunk because geeks everywhere fought to use anything but IE, and it was what was there. Opera may not have a huge part of the (desktop) market, but it's still there. Personally, I use Opera because of specific time-saving features, like mouse gestures, and not needing to reinstall all my current plugins or find new ones, every time I update.
My only gripe is that so many people will beat down anyone not using "their" browser. I don't care if you use Opera, FF, Safari, Chrome, even Lynx. As long as it's not the standards-smashing IE, feel free to use anything you want!
- by Zenstrive69 September 1, 2009 5:38 AM PDT
- Opera is simply the best browser bar none! Firefox relies on PLUGINS and MASS BRAINWASH to tackle Opera, but no, it will survive and grow, no matte what!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 4 pages (161 Comments)Long Live OPERA, THE KING OF BROWSER!