Opera Builds
Friday, 13. July 2007, 20:32:04
Opera's never really publicly released information on how they work within the company--nor do most companies. But I've been curious to visually see what Opera's releases look like on a timeline. I'm guessing Opera is using revision control tools to manage their code among several hundred developers. They probably have some kind of internal timeline release schedule that they try to follow, with listed features for each release so they know what needs done.
I've gotta say... there's a TON of repetition on the my.opera.com forum for feature suggestions. Among thousands of threads (5239 in the last 2 years), and hundreds of thousands of posts, it's gotta take several dozen Opera staff just to sort and organize the requests of its users. It's gotta be hard, and I'm sure the Opera devs are creative enough on their own to come up with new features without the need for several my.opera.com community members hollering at them in a cluttered information-overload forum. But the point is that even though Opera doesn't need to listen to their users, they try anyways. They devote at least a dozen staff to sit through the Opera forums and read everyone's requests, then organize it into a managable-sized list that can be used by the devs. Thanks for listening, Opera.
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else out there was interested in Opera's release schedule and the planned features for each release. At least ResearchWizard does. If anyone out there is skilled with Photoshop, it'd be nice if you could convert the attached Opera Builds.png file into a vector image, and make it to-scale according to the time that the builds were released. And if I'm not dreaming too big, it'd be nice to include a brief list of the new features rolled out in each release (using the changelogs). Then if I were to ask even further, to include build numbers and weeklies on the timeline, and possibly releases on the 8.x branch and 7.x branch.
Opera's nice enough to release a timeline for Opera Mobile
Public Opera Builds list
Opera 10 Development
Peregrine Branch
(10.00) - no public builds -
Opera 9 Development
Kestrel Branch
9523 (14 September 2007)
9500 Opera 9.50 Alpha 1 (07 September 2007) Changelog
8762 (29 March 2007) <video> experimental build
Merlin Branch
8805 (03 August 2007) (weekly 9.23 branch)
8801 Opera 9.22 (19 July 2007) Changelog
8800 (10 July 2007)
8796 (06 July 2007) (weekly 9.22 branch)
8776 Opera 9.21 (11 May 2007) Changelog
8771 Opera 9.20 (11 April 2007) Changelog
8769 (3 April 2007)
8767 (30 March 2007)
8762 Opera 9.20 Beta (28 March 2007) Changelog
8762 (23 March 2007)
8758 (22 March 2007)
8746 (16 March 2007)
8732 (28 February 2007)
8713* (02 February 2007) (weekly 9.20 branch)
8701* (19 January 2007) (weekly 9.12 branch)
8692 (12 January 2007)
8679 Opera 9.10 (18 December 2006)
8679 (14 December 2006)
8678 (13 December 2006)
8670 (05 December 2006)
8666 (01 December 2006)
8660 (24 November 2006)
8653 (17 November 2006)
8649 (11 November 2006)
8643 (03 November 2006)
8629 (20 October 2006)
8585 Opera 9.02 (21 September 2006)
8585 (19 September 2006)
8584 (18 September 2006)
8573 (8 September 2006)
8552 Opera 9.01 (2 August 2006)
8552 (28 July 2006)
8543 (24 July 2006)
8542 (21 July 2006)
8533 (14 July 2006)
8518 (7 July 2006)
8509 (30 June 2006)
8505 (23 June 2006)
8501 Opera 9.0 (20 June 2006)
8501 (18 June 2006)
8496 (16 June 2006)
8493 (15 June 2006)
8490 (14 June 2006)
8482 (12 June 2006)
8473 (9 June 2006)
8460 (7 June 2006)
8455 (2 June 2006)
8432 (26 May 2006)
8414 9.0 Beta 2 (23 May 2006)
8414 (18 May 2006)
8410 (12 May 2006)
8406 (11 May 2006)
8393 (2 May 2006)
8372 (21 April 2006)
8367 9.0 Beta 1 (20 April 2006)
8371 (18 April 2006)
8367 (11 April 2006)
8359 (7 April 2006)
8348 (5 April 2006)
8333 (31 March 2006)
8326 (29 March 2006)
8321 (24 March 2006)
8303 (20 March 2006)
8265 (10 March 2006)
8246 (3 March 2006)
8238 (24 February 2006)
8225 (17 February 2006)
8219 (13 February 2006)
8212 Technical Preview 2 (7 February 2006)
8031 Technical Preview 1 (20 October 2005)
Merlin is born (April 2005)
Opera 8 Development
7730 Opera 8.54 (5 April 2006)
7722 8.53 (3 March 2006)
7721 8.52 (17 February 2006)
7712 8.51 (22 November 2005)
7700 8.50 (20 September 2005)
7685 8.10 BitTorrent Technical Preview 2 (29 July 2005)
7680 8.02 (28 July 2005)
7663 8.02 BitTorrent Technical Preview 1 (7 July 2005)
7642 8.01 (16 June 2005)
7583 8.01 Technical Preview 1 (6 May 2005)
7561 8.0 (19 April 2005)
7522 8.0 Beta 3 (16 March 2005)
7498 8.0 Technical Preview 5.1 (7 March 2005)
7483 8.0 Beta 2 (25 February 2005)
7401 8.0 Beta 1 (23 December 2004)
7364 7.60 Technical Preview 4 (3 December 2004)
7321 7.60 Technical Preview 3 (12 November 2004)
7263 7.60 Technical Preview 2 (26 October 2004)
7141 7.60 Technical Preview 1 (24 August 2004)
Opera 7 Development
3929 7.54u2 (4 February 2005)
3918 7.54u1 (10 December 2004)
3866 7.54 (5 August 2004)
3850 7.53 (20 July 2004)
3834 7.52 (7 July 2004)
3798 7.51 (3 June 2004)
3778 7.50 (12 May 2004)
3768 7.50 Technical Preview 6 (7 May 2004)
3748 7.50 Technical Preview 5 (30 April 2004)
3733 7.50 Beta 1 (21 April 2004)
3714 7.50 Technical Preview 4 (14 April 2004)
3658 7.50 Technical Preview 3 (9 March 2004)
3613 7.50 Technical Preview 2 (17 February 2004)
3494 7.50 Technical Preview 1 (19 December 2003)
7.23 changelog (22 November 2003)
7.22 changelog (12 November 2003)
7.21 changelog (14 October 2003)
7.20 changelog (23 September 2003)
7.20 beta 7 changelog (28 August 2003)
7.11 changelog (09 May 2003)
7.10 changelog (11 April 2003)
7.03 changelog (13 March 2003)
7.02 changelog (26 February 2003)
7.01 changelog (05 February 2003)
7.0 changelog (28 January 2003)
7.0 Beta 2 changelog (18 December 2002)
7.0 Beta 1 version 2 changelog (22 November 2002)
7.0 Beta 1 changelog (13 November 2002)
Opera 6 Development
6.06 changelog (18 March 2003)
6.05 changelog (13 August 2002)
6.04 changelog (01 June 2002)
6.03 changelog (27 May 2002)
6.02 changelog (15 May 2002)
6.01 changelog (12 February 2002)
6.0 changelog (18 December 2001)
6.0 Beta 1 changelog (13 November 2001)
Opera 5 Development
5.12 changelog (27 June 2001)
5.11 changelog (19 April 2001)
5.10 changelog (10 April 2001)
5.02b changelog (25 January 2001)
5.02 changelog (16 January 2001) build 856
5.01 changelog (16 December 2000)
5.0 changelog (06 December 2000)
Opera 4 Development
Opera 4.02 (02 August 2000)
Opera 4.01 (13 July 2000)
Opera 4.0 (28 June 2000)
Opera 3 Development
Opera 3.62 (10 March 2000)
Opera 3.61 (20 December 1999)
Opera 3.60 (12 May 1999)
Opera 3.51 (22 December 1998)
Opera 3.50 (16 November 1998)
Opera 3.21 (17 April 1998)
Opera 3.20 (16 March 1998)
Opera 3.10 (08 February 1998)
Opera 3.00 (31 December 1997)
Opera 2 Development
Opera 2.12 (12 February 1997)
Opera 2.10 (12 December 1996)
Opera 2.00 Demo (1 January 1996)
Opera 1 Development
- no public releases -
Opera 1.x (~ 01 November 1994)
* = Developer Feedback Edition ("Spyware" Edition) - Results
Link to Major Releases of 9.0 (not the weeklies)
Link to Rumored Opera 9 Release on Jun 20th
Link to Legacy Opera Version Mirror (unofficial)
Thanks to wupperbayer for making this timeline Opera Browser Releases on xtimeline. It filled in all of my missing dates for me (from Opera 5 and earlier).
I've gotta say... there's a TON of repetition on the my.opera.com forum for feature suggestions. Among thousands of threads (5239 in the last 2 years), and hundreds of thousands of posts, it's gotta take several dozen Opera staff just to sort and organize the requests of its users. It's gotta be hard, and I'm sure the Opera devs are creative enough on their own to come up with new features without the need for several my.opera.com community members hollering at them in a cluttered information-overload forum. But the point is that even though Opera doesn't need to listen to their users, they try anyways. They devote at least a dozen staff to sit through the Opera forums and read everyone's requests, then organize it into a managable-sized list that can be used by the devs. Thanks for listening, Opera.
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else out there was interested in Opera's release schedule and the planned features for each release. At least ResearchWizard does. If anyone out there is skilled with Photoshop, it'd be nice if you could convert the attached Opera Builds.png file into a vector image, and make it to-scale according to the time that the builds were released. And if I'm not dreaming too big, it'd be nice to include a brief list of the new features rolled out in each release (using the changelogs). Then if I were to ask even further, to include build numbers and weeklies on the timeline, and possibly releases on the 8.x branch and 7.x branch.
Opera's nice enough to release a timeline for Opera Mobile
Public Opera Builds list
Opera 10 Development
Peregrine Branch
(10.00) - no public builds -
Opera 9 Development
Kestrel Branch
9523 (14 September 2007)
9500 Opera 9.50 Alpha 1 (07 September 2007) Changelog
8762 (29 March 2007) <video> experimental build
Merlin Branch
8805 (03 August 2007) (weekly 9.23 branch)
8801 Opera 9.22 (19 July 2007) Changelog
8800 (10 July 2007)
8796 (06 July 2007) (weekly 9.22 branch)
8776 Opera 9.21 (11 May 2007) Changelog
8771 Opera 9.20 (11 April 2007) Changelog
8769 (3 April 2007)
8767 (30 March 2007)
8762 Opera 9.20 Beta (28 March 2007) Changelog
8762 (23 March 2007)
8758 (22 March 2007)
8746 (16 March 2007)
8732 (28 February 2007)
8713* (02 February 2007) (weekly 9.20 branch)
8701* (19 January 2007) (weekly 9.12 branch)
8692 (12 January 2007)
8679 Opera 9.10 (18 December 2006)
8679 (14 December 2006)
8678 (13 December 2006)
8670 (05 December 2006)
8666 (01 December 2006)
8660 (24 November 2006)
8653 (17 November 2006)
8649 (11 November 2006)
8643 (03 November 2006)
8629 (20 October 2006)
8585 Opera 9.02 (21 September 2006)
8585 (19 September 2006)
8584 (18 September 2006)
8573 (8 September 2006)
8552 Opera 9.01 (2 August 2006)
8552 (28 July 2006)
8543 (24 July 2006)
8542 (21 July 2006)
8533 (14 July 2006)
8518 (7 July 2006)
8509 (30 June 2006)
8505 (23 June 2006)
8501 Opera 9.0 (20 June 2006)
8501 (18 June 2006)
8496 (16 June 2006)
8493 (15 June 2006)
8490 (14 June 2006)
8482 (12 June 2006)
8473 (9 June 2006)
8460 (7 June 2006)
8455 (2 June 2006)
8432 (26 May 2006)
8414 9.0 Beta 2 (23 May 2006)
8414 (18 May 2006)
8410 (12 May 2006)
8406 (11 May 2006)
8393 (2 May 2006)
8372 (21 April 2006)
8367 9.0 Beta 1 (20 April 2006)
8371 (18 April 2006)
8367 (11 April 2006)
8359 (7 April 2006)
8348 (5 April 2006)
8333 (31 March 2006)
8326 (29 March 2006)
8321 (24 March 2006)
8303 (20 March 2006)
8265 (10 March 2006)
8246 (3 March 2006)
8238 (24 February 2006)
8225 (17 February 2006)
8219 (13 February 2006)
8212 Technical Preview 2 (7 February 2006)
8031 Technical Preview 1 (20 October 2005)
Merlin is born (April 2005)
Opera 8 Development
7730 Opera 8.54 (5 April 2006)
7722 8.53 (3 March 2006)
7721 8.52 (17 February 2006)
7712 8.51 (22 November 2005)
7700 8.50 (20 September 2005)
7685 8.10 BitTorrent Technical Preview 2 (29 July 2005)
7680 8.02 (28 July 2005)
7663 8.02 BitTorrent Technical Preview 1 (7 July 2005)
7642 8.01 (16 June 2005)
7583 8.01 Technical Preview 1 (6 May 2005)
7561 8.0 (19 April 2005)
7522 8.0 Beta 3 (16 March 2005)
7498 8.0 Technical Preview 5.1 (7 March 2005)
7483 8.0 Beta 2 (25 February 2005)
7401 8.0 Beta 1 (23 December 2004)
7364 7.60 Technical Preview 4 (3 December 2004)
7321 7.60 Technical Preview 3 (12 November 2004)
7263 7.60 Technical Preview 2 (26 October 2004)
7141 7.60 Technical Preview 1 (24 August 2004)
Opera 7 Development
3929 7.54u2 (4 February 2005)
3918 7.54u1 (10 December 2004)
3866 7.54 (5 August 2004)
3850 7.53 (20 July 2004)
3834 7.52 (7 July 2004)
3798 7.51 (3 June 2004)
3778 7.50 (12 May 2004)
3768 7.50 Technical Preview 6 (7 May 2004)
3748 7.50 Technical Preview 5 (30 April 2004)
3733 7.50 Beta 1 (21 April 2004)
3714 7.50 Technical Preview 4 (14 April 2004)
3658 7.50 Technical Preview 3 (9 March 2004)
3613 7.50 Technical Preview 2 (17 February 2004)
3494 7.50 Technical Preview 1 (19 December 2003)
7.23 changelog (22 November 2003)
7.22 changelog (12 November 2003)
7.21 changelog (14 October 2003)
7.20 changelog (23 September 2003)
7.20 beta 7 changelog (28 August 2003)
7.11 changelog (09 May 2003)
7.10 changelog (11 April 2003)
7.03 changelog (13 March 2003)
7.02 changelog (26 February 2003)
7.01 changelog (05 February 2003)
7.0 changelog (28 January 2003)
7.0 Beta 2 changelog (18 December 2002)
7.0 Beta 1 version 2 changelog (22 November 2002)
7.0 Beta 1 changelog (13 November 2002)
Opera 6 Development
6.06 changelog (18 March 2003)
6.05 changelog (13 August 2002)
6.04 changelog (01 June 2002)
6.03 changelog (27 May 2002)
6.02 changelog (15 May 2002)
6.01 changelog (12 February 2002)
6.0 changelog (18 December 2001)
6.0 Beta 1 changelog (13 November 2001)
Opera 5 Development
5.12 changelog (27 June 2001)
5.11 changelog (19 April 2001)
5.10 changelog (10 April 2001)
5.02b changelog (25 January 2001)
5.02 changelog (16 January 2001) build 856
5.01 changelog (16 December 2000)
5.0 changelog (06 December 2000)
Opera 4 Development
Opera 4.02 (02 August 2000)
Opera 4.01 (13 July 2000)
Opera 4.0 (28 June 2000)
Opera 3 Development
Opera 3.62 (10 March 2000)
Opera 3.61 (20 December 1999)
Opera 3.60 (12 May 1999)
Opera 3.51 (22 December 1998)
Opera 3.50 (16 November 1998)
Opera 3.21 (17 April 1998)
Opera 3.20 (16 March 1998)
Opera 3.10 (08 February 1998)
Opera 3.00 (31 December 1997)
Opera 2 Development
Opera 2.12 (12 February 1997)
Opera 2.10 (12 December 1996)
Opera 2.00 Demo (1 January 1996)
Opera 1 Development
- no public releases -
Opera 1.x (~ 01 November 1994)
* = Developer Feedback Edition ("Spyware" Edition) - Results
Link to Major Releases of 9.0 (not the weeklies)
Link to Rumored Opera 9 Release on Jun 20th
Link to Legacy Opera Version Mirror (unofficial)
Thanks to wupperbayer for making this timeline Opera Browser Releases on xtimeline. It filled in all of my missing dates for me (from Opera 5 and earlier).
WIDGETIZE
Christian # 18. July 2007, 22:04
nice list.
Opera 9.22 will probably not be the last build - I'd suppose there will be more fixes until the expected release of Opera - Kestrel in maybe October/November this year (developed as Opera 9.5 and maybe released as Opera 10). I suppose you know that but it looks a bit misleading with the line "End of Merlin Branch".
There are some more browser timelines, of course not as detailed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_timeline
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/history/browsers5.htm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Timeline_of_web_browsers.svg
(linked from http://digg.com/software/Timeline_of_Web_Browsers_from_Mosaic_to_IE_Firefox_Opera and http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/06/timeline-shows-.html and another link I just don't find)
The svg is what you like - a scalable vector grafic. You can use free and powerful Inkscape to produce them yourself.
Actually my roadmap prediction got some attention and I'm about to write another one for Kestrel + Peregrine. I suppose you also know the list by Alastor: The Next Wave: Opera 9.5 (Kestrel) and Opera 10 (Peregrine).
Ice Ardor # 18. July 2007, 23:02
I've updated the "End of Merlin Branch". You're right, it was a bit misleading. 9.22 Final will be released in all likelihood. I wonder if Opera has a 9.3 planned, or if there's just going to be 9.2x releases from here on out (bug fixes and security patches) until Kestrel.\
I was thinking a couple days ago about downloading Inkscape, but I opted on just using MS Paint for the job. I think I'll download it and try it out. Thanks for the nudge.
Christian # 19. July 2007, 03:02
For scalable images you can also use OpenOffice-Impress or Microsoft PowerPoint - they have lot's of capabilities. At least with Impress you can export the drawings to svg (select all parts that should be exported).
I finally found the blog I read first about the svg: http://blog.codedread.com/archives/2007/06/22/timeline-of-web-browsers/
I think there will be no Opera9.3 as Kestrel is pretty close and a major upgrade with lot's of work. I expect only (smaller) fixes for Merlin within 9.2x. As far as I remember it was about what the devs tell on the DesktopTeam blog.
Ice Ardor # 19. July 2007, 09:45
I use Paint Shop Pro when I care about the quality of the final product--and I have made some pretty nice graphics using that program. Unfortunately, it takes more time to create an image in Paint Shop Pro than it does in Paint. My sister's computer has Photoshop on it, but, like PSP, I am also slower at making graphics on it.
Unfortunately, neither Photoshop nor PSP can natively save as SVG, so that's why I used MS Paint--since with the programs I had at the time, I wouldn't be able to make an SVG image anyways.
wupperbayer # 1. August 2007, 21:50
I'm working on a timeline with all Opera releases since 2.10 (so far only the official final releases) here: http://www.xtimeline.com/
Since I'm still worling on it it's not shown to the public. For new release that are not only bugfix releases (like from x.02 to x.03) I also try to sum up some of the new introduced features, which was quite hard for version 3.xx, for example.
Since this timeline isn't really some kind of tree view of the Opera trunk with its branches, it is possibly not exactly what you want. I could try to make a tree view, but that needs even more time
Ice Ardor # 3. August 2007, 06:31
http://www.xtimeline.com/technology/Web-browser-history
Sergio Uribe # 15. August 2007, 23:05
Ice Ardor # 16. August 2007, 02:08
Ice Ardor # 17. September 2007, 17:43