Opera 10.0 Browser Released With New Interface

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Opera 10.0 Browser Released With New Interface

The Norwegians at Opera Software have announced the final release of the Opera 10.0 web-browser. This closed-source web-browser that is available for Linux brings three key changes with the 10.0 release: Opera Turbo, a new user-interface, and better tabs support...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzQ5OQ

[Ant P.]

"Opera Turbo" was actually done a decade ago by AOL.

[BlackStar]

Warning: I really do love Opera, so the following might read as an advertisement. You've been warned!

I've been using Opera 10 since beta 1 and it really is awesome. A marked improvement in speed, interface and usability.

My favorite features:

Bookmark sync: I use several PCs and this is a real lifesaver.
Built-in mail, RSS and IRC clients (yes, even IRC comes in handy if you know what you are looking for).
Mouse gestures. Makes every other browser feel primitive.
Fit-to-width. Allows you to actually zoom-in on pages without destroying the layout. Try zooming Phoronix on Firefox by 30%. Now try in Opera with Fit-to-width. Which one is better?
Built-in adblocker.
Speed dial. Try Opera and go back to Firefox. It's one of the first things you'll miss (the relevant extensions suck).
Site preferences (disable/enable plugins, javascript or mask the browser with the click of a button).
Spell checker (finally!)
Speed. This browser is fast! Try opening a large HTML/CSS document in Firefox (try 5-10MB) and see it crawl. Opera (and Chrome) fare much better here.
Sleek and extremely customizable interface.
Just plain awesomeness. 'Cause Opera is awesome.


Other neat stuff in Opera 10: amd64 Qt4 builds, Opera Turbo (for slow or expensive connections) and a great distribution system that provides debs, rpms or plain tar.gz archives for any platform you can imagine. Good job!

Edit: download links (http://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/1000/final/en/).

[anbog]

Opera has been my number 1 candidate to replace Firefox for a long time, as it is (AFAIK) the only other with browser decent support for both Linux and Windows (maybe Chrome will see same-day releases on both platforms eventually?). Since I use three linux installs + two Windows, this is pretty important to me.

For your points, in Firefox I use:
1. add-on
2. Thunderbird for email, Firefox for RSS, no IRC client
3. add-on
4. don't really use/need zoom
5. add-on
6. missing - seems like a nice function
7. several add-ons!
8. already there
9. dearly missed (maybe also due to the many add-ons!)
10. Personas with a not-too-fancy skin
11. pretty awesome and open source

So, one thing that makes me stay with Firefox relates to Opera Link; will it also sync site permissions (cookies, JavaScript, ect) and cookies? I'm currently doing this by using Xmarks and NoScript (though this doesn't sync page cookie permissions - anyone know of a way to do that?). I don't think Opera can do this (natively/alternatively)?

Also, the adblocker doesn't seem as easy as Adblock Plus where a simple click on 'Subscribe' will kill most of your adds + get updated filters?

[BlackStar]

For your points, in Firefox I use:
[...]

So, one thing that makes me stay with Firefox relates to Opera Link; will it also sync site permissions (cookies, JavaScript, ect) and cookies? I'm currently doing this by using Xmarks and NoScript (though this doesn't sync page cookie permissions - anyone know of a way to do that?). I don't think Opera can do this (natively/alternatively)?

Also, the adblocker doesn't seem as easy as Adblock Plus where a simple click on 'Subscribe' will kill most of your adds + get updated filters?

Exactly the same situation, only I use Firefox as my second browser (and Chrome as my third, mainly for testing,)

Opera Link only syncs bookmarks, unfortunately. I'd love to see more extensive support in some future version (e.g. browser settings, site preferences, saved passwords, email accounts, RSS feeds to name a few). The mail account sync would be a killer feature and a very good reason to use the built-in mail client instead of evolution or thunderbird.

For adblock, just save fanboy's list (http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/opera/) into your ~/.opera directory. Problem solved!

The problem with Firefox is that you need way too many extensions to make it behave reasonably and it's a royal pain hunting them down whenever you do a new install. Opera has almost everything ready out of the box.

And a new awesome new feature in Opera 10: place the tabs to the side and they turn into thumbnails. Nice touch!

Edit: you typically need to zoom in when you are using a 1080p TV and are sitting 5 meters away. The same with 'high' DPI monitors (my laptop is 129 DPI and phoronix is way too small to be comfortable at 100% zoom).

Edit 2: Opera 10 seems to be much faster than Firefox 3.5 when ran on a USB stick (I am running Linux on a 8GB stick, since I cannot install it on my work laptop). The difference is staggering, especially when changing tabs or loading a new page (both are set to not use disk cache).

[d2kx]

Built-in adblocker.

Is there a way to easily use the easylist adblock-list which is probably the best one imho? Saving it as urlfilter.ini never worked for me and I really don't want to block every single banner that changes daily anyway by myself. This always kept me from using Opera for a longer time.

If there wasn't Google Chrome, I would take a closer look at Opera again. But Chrome has the best user interface and is *by faaar* the fastest browser. Extension support is more or less finished.

[BlackStar]

Is there a way to easily use the easylist adblock-list which is probably the best one imho? Saving it as urlfilter.ini never worked for me and I really don't want to block every single banner that changes daily anyway by myself. This always kept me from using Opera for a longer time.

If there wasn't Google Chrome, I would take a closer look at Opera again. But Chrome has the best user interface and is *by faaar* the fastest browser. Extension support is more or less finished.

I think fanboy's list includes easylist. At least, that's the vibe I'm getting from a quick google search. Even if it misses something, Opera's adblocking interface is very slick (much better than Firefox's adblock plus), so it's not that big of a deal anyway.

However, isn't what you are saying a bit contradictory? Chrome doesn't have adblocking at all but this doesn't keep you from using it! Honestly, Chrome wins by far in the speed and interface departments (although the interface of Opera 10 is nearly as functional as Chrome and much prettier to boot), but it loses almost everywhere else. Its zoom support is the worst among all common browser - even worse than Internet Explorer's.

[Jimmy]

9. Speed. This browser is fast! Try opening a large HTML/CSS document in Firefox (try 5-10MB) and see it crawl. Opera (and Chrome) fare much better here.

Very true.

[d2kx]

However, isn't what you are saying a bit contradictory? Chrome doesn't have adblocking at all but this doesn't keep you from using it!

I should have been a bit more clear probably... I am still using Firefox primarily, but using Chrome too for fun and the extension support that will bring adblock etc. is pretty much done and will be introduced very soon.

[deanjo]

I should have been a bit more clear probably... I am still using Firefox primarily, but using Chrome too for fun and the extension support that will bring adblock etc. is pretty much done and will be introduced very soon.

I wonder how long before ad blocking programs are subject to a lawsuite from the advertisers as they are offering a product that directly hurts the advertisers revenue. Admittedly this will probably first happen in the States.

[krazy]

Built-in adblocker.

Is there a NoScript equivalent for Opera? That in combination with Adblock is essential for me.
amd64 Qt4 builds
Although having a "native" kde interface (especially the Save As dialog) would be awesome.. I'll have to check it out :D

[deanjo]

Is there a NoScript equivalent for Opera? That in combination with Adblock is essential for me.


You can modify script behavior with, F12 > Edit site preferences

[krazy]

I wonder how long before ad blocking programs are subject to a lawsuite from the advertisers as they are offering a product that directly hurts the advertisers revenue. Admittedly this will probably first happen in the States.
Hard to find a target with open source software. It's just a case of an outdated business model really. I'm surprised TiVo hasn't been targeted yet though.

[BlackStar]

Is there a NoScript equivalent for Opera? That in combination with Adblock is essential for me.

It's built-in. Disable Javascript globablly (Preferences -> Advanced -> Content) and enable it only for sites you wish (F12 -> enable Javascript).

[charlie]

From a cutting edge developer's perspective there is just a sigh indicating, 'Finally, SVG animation and SVG font embedding and XSLT are here (the most important features).'

As for the other features, I am reminded of the saying, "Beauty is only skin deep."

Opera still crashes with some xsl pages.

[Ant P.]

amd64 Qt4 builds

Really? If Opera finally has a native interface that isn't just a bad emulation like Firefox 2 was, instead of shipping with that joke "Windows Native" theme, then they've finally fixed the #1 thing I hate about it the most.

[StringCheesian]

It's built-in. Disable Javascript globablly (Preferences -> Advanced -> Content) and enable it only for sites you wish (F12 -> enable Javascript).

Does that mean if I enable javascript for a web 2.0 site, it also enables javascript for the third party stuff like obnoxious ads?

Noscript for Firefox is better than that. It lists the various servers that were downloaded from for this page and lets you enable/disable javascript for each.

[BlackStar]

Does that mean if I enable javascript for a web 2.0 site, it also enables javascript for the third party stuff like obnoxious ads?

Noscript for Firefox is better than that. It lists the various servers that were downloaded from for this page and lets you enable/disable javascript for each.

Opera has a Greaselike-compatible extension API. These (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=241208) two (http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=205858) scripts looks similar to what you describe.

Check out the forums, there are tons of other extensions worth looking into. Firefox is more flexible, true, but I've yet to find a (useful) extension that doesn't have a direct equivalent in Opera.

Edit: fixed links.

[Jimmy]

I wonder how long before ad blocking programs are subject to a lawsuite from the advertisers as they are offering a product that directly hurts the advertisers revenue. Admittedly this will probably first happen in the States.

Advertisers hurt their own revenue by being excessively intrusive, excessively annoying, and slowing load times by ridiculous proportions.

You'd think a business model that puts a lot of effort into "market research" would recognize that repeatedly showing adds that people hate is detrimental to their advertising business. Even if the ads aren't outright blocked they are more apt to be ignored with prejudice because of the frequency of bad experiences from [potential] customers.

Flashing high contrast colors, telling users they're infected, blasting users back 10 feet with unexpected audio, waiting excessively longer to view a page with ads, spyware... I could go on for days. Many people don't even trust ads enough to even click on them when something looks interesting to them.

Three most pushed buttons on your TV remote? ch-up, ch-down, and mute. Making your ads 10 times louder didn't get them heard. It got them muted. When I need to make a collect call? I hit 0. I hate those ads so fucking much.

Advertisers and content providers need to man up and say no. I won't run your ad because it gets us blocked (loss of revenue). Sorry you can't run that ad on EZFM 106... it is what makes people use mp3 players exclusively in their cars. Sorry we think this ad sucks so bad that it causes people to ch-up/down or mute at a commercial break. Sorry your ad suck so bad that even honest citizens are turning to torrents.

If advertisers didn't cross the line so frequently it wouldn't be so much of an issue. People wouldn't go out of their way to make a browser support blocking (I know Opera has it built in but most browsers don't). I used to add a firewall rule for the ad servers that were bad enough. I still saw many ads and mostly I was ok with that. Eventually it became more of a chore than I wanted to deal with. The result? All adds get blocked because I switched to ABP and NoScript. Effective advertising? I think not, it really is their own damned fault for not having standards that people can at least tolerate.

/rant

[deanjo]

Hard to find a target with open source software. It's just a case of an outdated business model really. I'm surprised TiVo hasn't been targeted yet though.

IIRC TiVO doesn't block the commercials it has the ability to 30 second jump and doesn't do it automatically. Much like a person would have to close a pop up window. ReplayTV however was in dir straights of loosing their battle with the media moguls on this and eventually went to a system that also needed continuous user intervention. There were also VCR's back the the 90's that had the capability of auto fast forwarding commercials but those as well fell back to a 30 second ff that required user intervention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replaytv

[krazy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replaytv
Wow, interesting link. Thanks!

[yogi_berra]

Spell checker (finally!)


Opera 9 had spell check it just wasn't automatic.

[BlackStar]

Opera 9 had spell check it just wasn't automatic.

Ok, changet that to Automatic spell checking (finally!)

Actually Opera 9 had a UserJS that added automatic spell checking, but the current solution is way superior.

Another nice touch in Opera. Minimum requirements: 20MB disk space. Recommended requirements: Pentium 2 and 64MB RAM.

On TechReport, someone tested Opera 9 in such a configuration (original Pentium 100MHz, 32MB RAM, Windows 95) and it actually worked! No other modern browser managed that. I don't know how its engineers managed that, but it's a pretty impressive feat of engineering.

[nanonyme]

I don't know how its engineers managed that, but it's a pretty impressive feat of engineering.It really shouldn't be imo... That's how it's supposed to work. :p A good reminder of how sorry state modern software has ended up being in because people stop caring about yesterday's hardware and instead have today's hardware minimum requiremetns and rely on that tomorrow's hardware will be able to run it fluidly.

[RealNC]

I just tried it and it totally sucks. It doesn't even look like a native application. It totally ignores GUI integration.

No, thanks.

[BlackStar]

I just tried it and it totally sucks. It doesn't even look like a native application. It totally ignores GUI integration.

Press Shift-F12 (Tools->Appearance) and pick one of the native skins. Problem solved.

Besides, this non-native but uniform appearance is a strength for those of us that use many operating systems. There was a poll last year about what people wanted for a new skin and that was the first result.

Or do you consider Firefox as a 'native-looking' application? :p

[RealNC]

Press Shift-F12 (Tools->Appearance) and pick one of the native skins. Problem solved.

There's no such thing.

Or do you consider Firefox as a 'native-looking' application? :p

At least it obeys my Gtk style selection.

[BlackStar]

There's no such thing.

ORLY?

http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=6711
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=3465
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=7946
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8630
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8141
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=3336

At least it obeys my Gtk style selection.

Use the Qt4 build.

[poofyyoda]

It would be nicer if the menu strip would obey appearance changes.

[BlackStar]

It would be nicer if the menu strip would obey appearance changes.

Agreed, that's been bugging me since forever. At least Opera 10 allows you to hide the menu strip into a button out of the box (File -> show menu strip) - I used to hunt down custom buttons to do this in older versions.

[Ștefan]

On TechReport, someone tested Opera 9 in such a configuration (original Pentium 100MHz, 32MB RAM, Windows 95) and it actually worked! No other modern browser managed that. I don't know how its engineers managed that, but it's a pretty impressive feat of engineering.

Looks like Opera Engineers took a look at how linux kernel manages the memory.This means that linux is becoming more and more important.

[RealNC]

ORLY?

http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=6711
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=3465
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=7946
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8630
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=8141
http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/info/?id=3336

YARLY!

Those are just themes. Opera doesn't use my Qt style. Who said anything about Oxygen? It's stupid to have Opera look like Oxygen while I'm using QtCurve (which Firefox uses without problems; the Gtk version of QtCurve.)


Use the Qt4 build.

I do (did). opera-10.00.gcc4-qt4.x86_64.tar.bz2.

[Ant P.]

YARLY!

Those are just themes. Opera doesn't use my Qt style. Who said anything about Oxygen? It's stupid to have Opera look like Oxygen while I'm using QtCurve (which Firefox uses without problems; the Gtk version of QtCurve.)




I do (did). opera-10.00.gcc4-qt4.x86_64.tar.bz2.

Guess I still have good reason to hate Opera then.

[skolapper]

I thought I had been identified as a tester, but I have not received any information about a link or a private section which each of you will be able to access. Has this already happened and I was left out of testing?

[deanjo]

Well, thought I'd pop this in here. Just ran the browser benchmark, Peacekeeper, over at futuremark. Guess what browser came up dead last in linux?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/deanjo/BrowserBenchmark.jpg

Before anybody asks, no plug-ins were installed on FF.

[vince]

I think Opera initially took step into wrong direction. Right now, Opera tries to be a Jack of all trades. There's a browser, Bittorrent client, Email client, IRC client, Opera Unity, widgets and whatnot. I cannot say anything about the quality and the feature set of these parts because I haven't used Opera much, but it must be a hell to maintain all of them.

Implementing a good support for extensions would be awesome. This way Opera can lure much more people and give a good competition for that train wreck that is Firefox.

[Jimmy]

Deanjo, you forgot to add a FF under Wine benchmark :D

[Zhick]

@deanjo: On what architecture did you run this tests? Firefoxs' new JavaScript VM doesn't work on x86_64 yet (but hopefully soon), so if you're running a 64bit Firefox that explains your result.
The official results on the peacekeeper website (as displayed when you finish benchmarking your browser) also seem to indicate that Firefox 3.5 is actually slightly faster than Opera when the new VM is used (I guess they ran their tests on x86 Windows).