IceArdor's Blog

Kestrel isn't just an interim release to keep us hungry for Peregrine. It's the full-blown thing. There's a reason why the Opera Devs are saying "WIR"--because there is some serious changes from Merlin. It's going to be a totally new browser that it almost deserves to be called Opera 10. Nevertheless, here's my list.

1. Hundreds of wishlist items will be included in Kestrel. From manually checking RSS feeds to better CSS support.
   
2. Merlin has its bugs, and we are tired of them. We want new bugs instead. It'll be fun to hunt them down and see what quirky behaviors Opera can do.
   
3. Kestrel is going to be faster.
   
4. M2 is rewritten, and this means that Opera will be even better at handling your feeds, in all likelihood.
   
5. Apart from being a totally new rendering engine, Kestrel will have an improved JavaScript engine. This means faster and more support. Hopefully the SVG engine will be faster, too.
   

I want Opera just as bad as everyone else does, but I'm not about ready to rush the devs to get a release out. I don't want a radioactive build like Safari 3 beta. And I want lots of wishes to be implemented. With as much time as Opera's had, we can expect Kestrel to be amazing. Then again, it's Opera we're talking about. They make nothing but amazing.