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Posts tagged with "desktop"

which is which?

Thursday, 6. September 2007, 08:20:43

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Right - we have "UNIX" builds for desktop Opera.

And even though it isn't a really correct label for this family of builds, it means builds for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris, for the Intel, the PowerPC and the Sparc architecture, for 32-bit and for 64-bit architectures, each one in several builds, and each build in several packages. In short: a jungle.

Additionally, there have been some new builds in Kestrel Alpha 1.

So which exactly is the package you need to fetch? This depends on the operating system, the OS version, the architecture, etc. Let me provide you with a short summary on which build is exactly what.


Linux
intel-linux
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, gcc 2.95
  • .5 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 3
  • .6 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 4
  • .9 static - qt4 static build, gcc 4
There is an experimental .10 build at the moment, which is a qt3 static build, gcc 4.

ppc-linux
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, gcc 2.95
  • .3 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 3
  • .6 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 4

sparc-linux
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, gcc 2.95
  • .2 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 2.95

x86_64-linux
  • .2 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 4


FreeBSD
intel-freebsd
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, FreeBSD 4
  • .5 static - qt3 static build, FreeBSD 5
  • .3 shared - qt3 shared build, FreeBSD 5
  • .4 shared - qt3 shared build, FreeBSD 6
  • .7 shared - qt3 shared build, FreeBSD 7

amd64-freebsd
  • .1 shared - qt3 shared build, FreeBSD 6


Solaris
intel-solaris
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, Solaris 10

sparc-solaris
  • .1 static - qt3 static build, Solaris 8
  • .2 shared - qt3 shared build, Solaris 8
Note that the Solaris 8 builds will also work on higher versions of Solaris.


So what?

On Linux there is the additional complication to understand which build you'll need for which version of your distro. It would be far too long to give a full overview on that, but here are some hints for some major distros:

You'll need the Linux .6 build for:
  • Debian Etch, Sid and Lenny
  • Ubuntu Edgy and Feisty
  • Fedora Core 5, 6 and 7
  • openSUSE 10.x
  • Slackware 11.0 and 12.0


You'll need the Linux .5 build for:
  • Debian Sarge
  • Linspire 5.0 and 5.1
  • Skolelinux 2.0
  • Xandros


I'll assume that FreeBSD and Solaris users are smart enough to figure out which builds they need for their OS version :wink:

HtH :smile:

22 Comments

qt4

Wednesday, 5. September 2007, 12:31:22

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Opera 9.5 now offers also experimental static Qt4 builds on intel-linux - you do not need Qt4 to be installed in order to use them. Just fetch the intel-linux .9 package, select the Qt Native skin in Tools > appearance > skin and then try

$ opera -style plastique


to see Opera using the Qt plastique style. If you have more nostalgic inclinations, try either of

$ opera -style motif
$ opera -style cde
$ opera -style windows


Looking for GTK integration instead? Try

$ opera -style cleanlooks


But be warned - there are several known issues: cleanlooks for one takes ages to startup! there are a few crashers here and there, and the speeddial configuration dialog has some *cough* issues…

Have fun - and as always, feedback is welcome! :smile:

25 Comments

kestrel and plug-ins

Tuesday, 4. September 2007, 08:14:32

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Kestrel is finally out!

Among the many new features, there are huge improvements to plug-ins on UNIX: we implemented the GTK main loop, which will allow GTK-based plug-ins to work - like the new Flash 9 Beta 2, mplayerplug-in, and many more! No need anymore to recompile mplayerplug-in again, you should now be able to just use the one that comes with your distro.

There'll be more details following, but in the meantime feel free to give it a try - go download Kestrel!

6 Comments

top 5 things i would like to see in opera

Friday, 20. July 2007, 21:46:10

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Right - so they waited until I was back from vacation to start a new meme and tag me. But first of all and of little interest to anybody reading this - yes, I had great fun on vacation up north.

And now about the top 5 things I would like to see in Opera. There are many wishes I have, and every single thing I would like to see in my browser of choice I do always discuss internally at Opera - so this list will not be too new to people knowing me and working with me.

One more note: these are the top five things I would like to see - I am aware that these are not things everybody would like to see. And since I am working on UNIX, my wishes are extremely UNIX centric. You have been warned.

The wishes:
  1. a query interface
  2. better integration with the available UI "toolkits"
  3. true multi-window support
  4. tagging
  5. dynamic session management


And now with some more details:

1. a query interface
Today there is a gap between GUI and CLI that I simply do not understand: the two interaction methods do not exclude each other, and recently there are several attempts at rediscovering the powers of CLI in graphical UIs. Query interfaces are in use in several desktop environments and in specialized applications. Time to see them available in Opera too.

2. better integration with the available UI "toolkits"
I often think that besides the Qt UI we have today, I would like to see a GTK UI, "pure" X and… why not? ncurses and CLI… depending on the context you are using your browser in. (For those that have some doubt understanding a CLI for a browser, give a look at edbrowse).

3. true multi-window support
Today you can open windows of a session only on one display - but I might be wanting to check my mail at home without quitting the running session when I ssh into my machine, or I would like to quickly write a mail while working on another DISPLAY, just by opening a new compose window on :1 in the session running on :0, write, send - done, without needing to switch to the other DISPLAY, or worse even, without having to quit Opera on :0.

4. tagging
…of mails, of bookmarks, of pages, of tabs, of windows - I want to tag (and have Opera automatically tagging) everything, and I want to be able to access the information I'd thus be able to link together.

5. dynamic session management
Session management in Opera is extremely primitive. Kestrel sees some neat improvements, but a true dynamic management of open tabs and windows is still on my wishlist. I want to be able to access tabs, windows and groups thereof (tags) as simply as I am viewing access points in Opera Mail - and I want management of this as transparent and "automatic" as accesspoints work today.


I'll also keep the game going and tag in turn
jax
ResearchWizard
Rijk
Moose
howcome

12 Comments

what about flash?

Friday, 15. June 2007, 14:51:34

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People are starting to wonder about the newest Flash Player plug-in not working in Opera. Just a quick update to this:

The new Flash plug-in is not implementing XEmbed, but the XEmbed Mozilla extension "spec" (well, it isn't really a spec) - it is actually a GTK plug-in trying to run its GTK main loop in the Opera (Xt) pluginwrapper: obviously this will not work :wink: The new Flash plug-in is not backwards compatible - it is not working in current versions of Konqueror and Opera, but only in Firefox.

We are looking into it. Stay tuned :smile:

6 Comments

falling into place

Saturday, 2. June 2007, 07:07:50

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Things are now slowly falling into place - into the right place - and Kestrel is really getting closer.

A while ago Chaals blogged about the work on accessibility and the regained screen reader support in the upcoming 9.5 release, David has mentioned SVG improvements and upcoming CSS3 support, I myself have posted about improvements to the default handlers for MIME types on UNIX…

…and now Tarquin updated his Javascript tutorial: there will be some significant changes both in how Kestrel will handle window size and capture DOM events. Please take your time to review your web application - while you patiently wait for a public build (yes, it will come, don't worry) - the upcoming changes are important. Oh, and what has been already mentioned is but a small part of what is coming up :wink:

1 Comment

defaults

Thursday, 31. May 2007, 16:58:43

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I have been asked more than once how Opera on UNIX systems decides which applications are handling which MIME types, and which one of these is chosen as the default handler. Let me start off by saying that this is a jungle: each system, each desktop environment, and possibly each version of the environment handle it in some more or less subtly different way. Freedesktop.org has made some attempts at unifying the system of defaults, and has come some way to deciding how to allow applications to declare which MIME types they can handle - but when it came to define the defaults, unfortunately they could not yet agree. It is work in progress, and managing to have a spec for this will make things much more easy. For the time being we are parsing MIME type handlers, not protocols.


Default handlers

Opera checks the following files to find the default handlers. The XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable tells us where to find most of those files. Typically in /usr/share/mime/ are

aliases
specifies MIME type strings that are aliases to each other;
globs
aid file for guessing MIME type based on the filename;
subclasses
defines a MIME type to be a subtype of another one, so that any handler of the supertype is also a handler for this type;
application/*.xml
XML file to describe a MIME type;

and we also parse:

mimeinfo.cache
maps MIME types to applications with no specific preference;
defaults.list
GNOME file to specify defaults;
*.desktop
desktop files are available for both applications and MIME types;
mailcap
a configuration file to map MIME types to handlers.

The upcoming kestrel version has improved handling of above resources, and will also handle:

gnome-vfs.applications
lists applications and the MIME types each one supports
kderc
provides among other things the path where to find the KDE settings (typically /etc/kderc)
~/.kde/share/config/profilerc
User specific KDE mapping of MIME types to application (and defaults)

We also parse the index.theme file to make everything look much more pretty :smile:

1 Comment

multi-window

Sunday, 13. May 2007, 20:36:24

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I work in multiple client frames on several virtual desktops. My main Opera instance is running in one frame, but often I do have URLs in other frames that I want to see in Opera, as for exmaple in the frame irssi is running in, or in any other terminal I might be reading some documentation in. It is tedious to switch back and forth the various virtual desktops to reach the main Opera instance and Paste and go to the new URL. I have rather Opera coming to me - but starting Opera each time I quickly just want to look at something is no fun… (Opera's startup time isn't know to be the fastest, if you have mail and feeds in your Opera as well)

So I always only deal with opera -newwindow and have that opening a new window of the currently running instance on my virtual desktop: applications that need a browser to view documentation or help get that command, irssi has an alias that allows me to open it directly from within the irssi session, bash has an appropriate alias…

My emacs keyboard bindings for Opera also have the Ctrl-x k binding to easily close the current window.

…et voilà, I have an Opera window readily available wherever I am working, without having to give up my huge sessions, and without having to wait for Opera to start up.


Note: make sure not to close a window with several tabs in it if you want to have them part of your session: currently there is unfortunately no way of restoring an accidentally closed window (accidentally closed tabs are easily re-opened), but, pssst, this is fixed in Kestrel.

Yet another note: Emacs will have multi-tty support in the next-but-one version (23). The multi-tty branch has just been merged to the Savannah CVS repository.

8 Comments

opera 9.2

Wednesday, 11. April 2007, 19:14:40

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The obligatory Opera 9.20 is out posting from me too. A few highlights:



…and many more improvements! Go get Opera 9.2! :cheers:

3 Comments

opera, flash, ps3…

Friday, 30. March 2007, 21:41:48

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This week's weekly addresses some of the bigger issues still open on Opera for Linux:

  • we've fixed some issues with Flash 9 on Linux. This means that you can now watch YouTube video fullscreen! (And close annyoing Flash ads.)
  • Fixed issue with transparent areas in some widgets on UNIX;
  • we have now ppc-linux .6 packages: that means that they work (okay, should work) on your PS3! — if you installed Linux on it.



Yes, you saw that right: we fixed some of the major issues with Flash 9 in Opera on Linux (there is still more to do): finally you can view YouTube videos in fullscreen, close annoying Flash ads, etc…

And we finally are happy to ship gcc4 ppc-linux builds: this means you can run them out-of-the-box on your latest PPC Ubuntu, or run them on your PS3 - after installing Linux on it! Go try it! :smile:

2 Comments

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