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Comments on: Opera 10 alpha: Compliant and faster--but not fastest

Opera 10 is both Acid3 compliant and faster than previous versions of Opera. Get a hands-on look at the future of the Norwegian Web browser.

Add a Comment (Log in or register) (24 Comments)

by aswedc December 4, 2008 3:55 PM PST

Wow. SunScript Java? Um, do you mean SunSpider JavaScript? The web media continues to set new lows...

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by GhostAlph December 5, 2008 8:42 AM PST: Wow. The web media continues to set new lows? Um, do you mean you're just being anal-retentive? A simple typo does not a "new low" make...; Like this

by axebox3983 December 4, 2008 4:16 PM PST

I agree that this is the most stable of the entire group. I have been using opera for over 5 years now and I really like this browser becuase it does what it is supposed to do. The trouble with it is that many websites are not designed for opera, for example Live Mail, gives a warning when trying to login with Opera.
After about 10 hours on 10a, I am satisfied with the performance. It doesn't crash like IE8 and is not a memory hog like FF3. It has 'features' unlike the naked chrome and it is really fast.
I look forward to the release!

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by bagus382 December 5, 2008 10:20 PM PST: yes i definitely agree , not like theother browser (editor claim) the fastest , but i experienced very 2 unstable even i've updated to v . 3.04 it crash very2 often i've reported the problem but no responce at all , great name top ranked but no support at all; Like this


by srosenblatt December 4, 2008 4:55 PM PST: @aswedc: Thanks for the catch. Obviously, it's SunSpider. Although, I wouldn't consider a typo a "new low"...; Like this Reply to this comment


by nightsatan December 5, 2008 12:07 AM PST: The speed is definitely an improvement over so many version and changes. But however, the main problem for me to switch over to FF is basically the overall coverage of webpage processing. For example, try to use Opera to browse through Yahoo! Mail, you will find out that Opera doesn't really support the new interface in Yahoo! Mail. And when you scroll down the page to search for email, it is not smooth at all compare to FF. There are more than just speed that's matter to end user and for me, to be able to view the page i wanted is more important than speed.; Like this Reply to this comment


by silva_xxx December 5, 2008 8:21 AM PST: Opera alway best browser; Like this Reply to this comment


by mkoo December 5, 2008 8:53 AM PST: Opera's JS engine could be slower but its interface is much faster and functional.; Like this Reply to this comment


by cousin333 December 5, 2008 9:06 AM PST: "It's hard to believe that HTML support in Opera Mail was missing before now, but you'll now be able to see all those holiday e-cards within Opera."

Of course it's hard, because it's not true... You can VIEW HTML mails in Opera for ages (although not always by default for security reasons), as you can expect that from a browser. The new thing is, that you can actually MAKE a rich text mail (also with pictures) if you like. Until now, you were only able to send plain text messages (or forward HTML ones).

Inline spell check is great, but it doesn't seem to work with other languages (it's buggy)...

I don't really get all these hassles with auto-update. It's now there, it's great, we'll see, if it actually works, so far nothing to upgrade to :).

"Certainly in Firefox it would likely lead to the disabling of many extensions, although there's not much of a chance of that happening in Opera with its smaller developer community."

Well, that's Firefox's problem, but Opera is NOT Firefox, as you may noticed. Everything is packed in and that ensures consistency. And this thing has nothing to do about the size of Opera community... If the latter would be twice as big as FF's, it still won't be the same. But Oper has some kind of extensions, that could be affected, like widgets, user JavaScripts, skins and so on. I think, I can live with that.; Like this Reply to this comment


by incertoe December 5, 2008 9:59 AM PST: No other browser compares to the features that Opera has. I have two jobs, go to school and am able to access my notes and bookmarks seamlessly from all these computer and on my cell phone and at my house. I use Opera's mouse gestures and now this beautiful spell checker is checking everything I type.

At one work place it is not far fetched for me to open 60+ tabs, and if i close one by mistake I can re-open it from the trash and it will have all my previous pages visited on that tab available AND still have my form data. Its a beautiful piece of work - I would even pay for this software (it is that efficient).

I have no use for much other web apps as Opera in this release listened to its users and has html in outgoing emails support. Oh and the new develope tools, built in, are now suprassing firebug imo. I cant imagine what the full release will hold in it - goodies of some sort I presume.; Like this Reply to this comment


by wadah1111 December 5, 2008 10:20 AM PST: I keep trying new software especially browsers tried chrome and safari and now opera and I keep getting back to firefox because I IM and listen to music and keep tracking all my social websites from one program and one face firefox, believe me all are good and fast but still love extensions; Like this Reply to this comment


by pjk0 December 5, 2008 10:32 AM PST: Opera has been my default browser for years now. While Firefox has improved dramatically (not least because of implementing many of its "awesome features" after Opera invented them first), I still prefer Opera because it is an elegant workable product from the moment you install it, and I don't have to install a bunch of add-ons to get basic functionality like content-blocking and so on.

Opera suffers from a marketplace chicken/egg problem: they were committed to web standards for years before it became fashionable, but web designers today still stubbornly code to browser idiosyncracies instead of web standards. (Despite all the good work of the W3C and Tim Berners-Lee to convince them otherwise)

Most of the people who gripe about their abbreviated experience with Opera simply never spent a trivial amount of time learning about it's flexibility and power. For example, the vast majority of sites that don't work with Opera these days fail not because Opera is incapable of rendering the page, but because the site designer is using some stupid canned script that fails anything that doesn't report itself as IE or maybe 1 or 2 other alternatives. That's easily fixed in most cases by pressing "F12" and selecting another user-agent string - takes about 3 seconds. (another default capability that Firefox doesn't have without going deep into arcane config menus or installing another add-on); Like this Reply to this comment


by kd_zh December 5, 2008 2:08 PM PST: this is not true that it is fast browser in case video download or open youtube , opera 10 is still very slow and it is also not true, that it is 50% faster that old opera 9; Like this Reply to this comment


by ibelieve01 December 5, 2008 3:25 PM PST: I can only speak for myself and my own experience. Today I tested Opera 10 alpha against 9.62, against Chrome, and against Firefox 3.1 beta. I tested 6 or 7 sites I go to frequently and counted the seconds to load the pages. In about half the instances, the time to load was comparable among all 4. Where there was a noticeable difference, it was always Opera 10alpha that had the speed edge....sometimes a significant difference. For instance, TV Guide's local listings took 8 seconds longer to load in Firefox! Furthermore, I use Zoho Mail as my primary email. And the time it takes from when I clicked "compose" to when the page actually comes up and lets me begin writing was 3 seconds in the new alpha of Opera....compared to EIGHT.....YES, EIGHT seconds before Firefox would even release my cursor so I could start writing the email.

Another thing: Why does nobody ever comment on start-up speed? On my older laptop, Firefox sometimes takes a full minute to start up! Opera, never more than 20. And by the way, in this test, CHROME always wins.....but it's not fast enough in actual usage for me to switch to it.

Finally, with Firefox, if I install all the extensions I need to get the same things I can get already installed in Opera, inevitably something will conflict with something else and make Firefox unstable. So for a perfect blend of speed and stability, Opera is, I believe, the world's best browser.; Like this Reply to this comment

by vgames December 5, 2008 6:41 PM PST

I agree that opera is the best browzer to use, but one bad thing is that its not as safe to use as IE. I still like to use it though.

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by Chocobito December 5, 2008 8:15 PM PST: IE more safe that Opera? Are you mad? Anythings is more that IE especially in security, Opera security always is very high with less vulnerabilities in Secunia that any other Browser.; Like this


by bagus382 December 5, 2008 10:31 PM PST: yes i definitely agree , not like theother browser (editor claim) the fastest , but i experienced very 2 unstable even i've updated to v . 3.04 it crash very2 often i've reported the problem but no responce at all , great name top ranked but no support at all
The ___fastest___ but very2 unstable 'n no support at all , what forrrr,,,,,,,,,,,; Like this Reply to this comment

by nightsatan December 5, 2008 11:17 PM PST

speed does matters in information ages, but with speed alone cannot really satisfy thousands of different user. For myself, i'm more rely on stability and of course as i mentioned before, the support to view in many different web site with many different web language support. Opera have never improve themselves for Yahoo mail or maybe Yahoo mail just never write in any code for Opera users. Therefore no matter how fast Opera can render the page, it is still useless because it doesn't support the only website that i used frequently.

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by operaman777 December 20, 2008 4:58 PM PST: i`ve just CREATED yahoo mail account in order to find out if really opera 10.00 doesn't support it and IT DOES. i even signed in to this forum using it, witch means that i had to log in that account, read e-mail and click on included link to confirm... and i`m identifying as opera. check one again:); Like this


by tortureincident December 5, 2008 11:23 PM PST: i`m use opera, i love it . must be clear a cache to run opera more faster. if not my PC get a little slowly...; Like this Reply to this comment


by gafhptva December 6, 2008 12:53 AM PST: Hey, I'll be honest that don't know but if the claim is for better, I'm waiting for the alpha to be gone. Not knocking or anything of that nature. I'm alphaed out. Still open minded and noted however.; Like this Reply to this comment


by pd83 December 6, 2008 10:26 AM PST: tried to log on to yahoo mail - says it wasnt' supported....was able to log in to hotmail but it wouldnt let me check my mail. doesn't work on simple on simple websites like that . i think i'll stick to FF; Like this Reply to this comment

by nirvan5a December 6, 2008 10:44 AM PST

Opera is good but in my taste opera is kinda not yet food. Firefox is number 1 still. Addons and themes are big weapon firefox.

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by operaman777 December 20, 2008 5:04 PM PST: . themes?? opera has numerous skins, and great number of ways to personalize it. and all of that "weapons" doesn't mean SLOWING DOWN your browser as adding add-ones does to FF. only some add-ones i find valuable most of them are trash.; Like this