My Opera
From all of us to all of you
By Huib Kleinhouthuibk. Tuesday, December 22, 2009 7:38:46 AM
A few weeks ago when we released Opera 10.20 alpha, many of you were asking for a test version of Opera 10.5. The desktop and core team have been working on 10.5, codename Evenes, for more than 18 months now. As a Christmas present, we're happy to share all the goodies of Opera 10.5 with Presto 2.5 with you in an early pre-alpha release.
Presto 2.5
Presto 2.5 includes several new features like CSS transformations, HTML5 local storage (and soon video). But most important of all, support for Carakan. Carakan is the new JavaScript engine that is completely written from scratch. Using a JIT compiler it is many times faster than Futhark, the javascript engine in 10.10.
Operas caching system has also undergone a major rewrite. A nice feature in the new cache system is opera:cache, which allows you to browse through everything that Opera has stored on memory or disk. But the new cache system is most importantly much faster. You should definitely notice shorter startup and shutdown times. M2 users with a lot of mail will in addition benefit from the mail database reading optimizations that have been done to speed up startup.
Another big technological change is happening in graphics rendering. In Opera 10.10, VEGA (Opera's vector graphics library) is only used for rendering SVG. In Opera 10.5 VEGA is used for rendering all graphics in Opera, including content on webpages and the user interface. Currently VEGA is a pure software rendering engine, with the possibility to add hardware accelerated back-ends in future releases. But the software rendering is incredibly optimized, which means that Opera 10.5 has very fast painting performance even without using hardware acceleration.
Platform Integration
If you're using Mac OS, you will notice that Opera looks a lot more Mac-ish. This is the result of some big changes under the hood. Opera 10.5 for Mac has moved to using the Cocoa framework, which makes it possible to introduce the Unified Toolbar, more native user interface widgets and support for Growl. Note that not all functionality has been ported to Cocoa yet, so some features (like printing) won't work and the performance isn't optimal yet.Windows users will see some major visual updates too. Aero Glass support makes Opera 10.5 look nicely integrated on Windows 7 and Vista. And off course 10.5 support Jumplists and Aero Peek. To maximize the space available for webpages Opera does not show the menu bar by default anymore. All the menus are still accessible trough the Opera button
New and improved features
If you share a computer with other people, you might be interested in Private Mode. Contrary to other browsers, Opera make it possible to have both Private Windows and Private Tabs. You can also quickly close all private tabs and windows with a shortcut.
One of the biggest usability improvements in Opera 10 is the handling of dialogs. Most interactive dialogs will no longer block tabs or disturb your work flow. Tab specific dialogs (like javascript popups) are displayed as part of the tab in an overlay, so you can easily switch tabs without have to move or close the dialogs. Other dialogs, like find in page, are now displayed as toolbars on top of the webpage so they don't overlap the webpage anymore. Find in page also has improved highlighting of search results and finds results as you type.
No Unix … yet!
Don't worry, Unix users will not be forgotten. Like Opera for Mac, the Unix version will have some big changes under the platform hood: it will no longer be necessary to have Qt installed. This makes Opera for Unix much faster, smaller and easier to install. Naturally Opera will still integrate well with your desktop environment by supporting KDE/GTK skinning and show open/save dialogs that match your desktop. The Unix version of this labs release will be made available later.
10.2 and widgets
In 10.2 alpha we showed the next generation of our Widget implementation. This will soon be part of Opera 10.5 too. And with full focus on 10.5, there will not be new releases of 10.2.
Warning
This build is pre-alpha quality. It's intended as an early showcase for new technologies. It might freeze your computer, corrupt your data, embarrass you in front of your friends or worse. Don't upgrade your existing Opera installation with it.
Known issues: JIT doesn't work on CPU's without SSE2, printing and PowerPC are not supported on Mac, Memory usage can be high, Opera will regularly quit unexpectedly. Some features, like Opera Unite are disabled.
Download the build from Opera Labs
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kaikaixi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:20:11 PM
Opera 10.50 pre-alpha: 672.8ms
Chrome 4 Dev: 760.4ms
IusedtobeOOlli91 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:20:50 PM
Whis all of you meery christmas and a progressive 2010 with a great 10.5 release in it!
PunchyRascalSvoboda # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:23:04 PM
Krishnankrishnan # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:23:21 PM
Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
MetalRaise # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:23:53 PM
Originally posted by Ichann:
You mean in general or just on certain websites?
The default setting is "Identify as Opera" (Spoof UserAgent ID = 1), I just checked it.
TanselTanshaydar # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:26:44 PM
archive1 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:28:16 PM
Purdi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:30:22 PM
Originally posted by Filip007:
Does anyone understand what this means? What is he trying to say?
Purdi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:33:10 PM
Originally posted by archive1:
What's slow?
Bugs? It's a pre-alpha! Didn't you even bother to read the anouncement before complaining??
kozzi11 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:36:42 PM
Old-Nick # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:38:28 PM
In this build I miss arrow in address bar to choose from already typed urls. Line between address bar and bottom of tabs is to thick IMHO. And I have Opera Link icon white instead of green(though status - running).
Option of deleting misstyped urls is awesome.
Thanks again for new Opera.
Rijk # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:40:14 PM
Originally posted by tomica:
Opinions are good to hear, but giving some reasons with them helps in taking them seriously.Originally posted by stainless:
Originally posted by outofspace:
Haven't tried this, but can be done by editing the skin.zip, specifically the sections 'Transparent Skin' in skin.ini. Set Clear Background to '0'.In what way?
Spell checking doesn't work *at all* in this pre-alpha, so not having more dictionaries is hardly a problem
Originally posted by neon1225:
Yes, that's what Huib wrote after all. The 10.2 widgets work will get integrated in 10.5.Originally posted by Kildor:
Yes, the MDI stuff is mostly gone at the moment. We'll see how to clean it up.Originally posted by rseiler:
I think Haavard's stance from last March speaks well for our ideas on JavaScript speed: you don't notice it much in most 'real' webpages right now, but that might very well change in the future, so we should be prepared for that future. And, it just doesn't do to be seen as 'much slower' on benchmarks, no matter their relevancy to perceived browsing speed.Originally posted by FataL:
Site Preferences, disallow it there for abusive sites... Or disallow generally and allow on good sites. Default will now be 'allowed' in 10.5.Originally posted by v0te:
waiting in the wings.Originally posted by zikzakatak:
I've got them here...Originally posted by tomassplatch:
No bugs for obvious user interface issues please... Crash reports and site compatibilty bugs, yes please.Originally posted by Uzm:
The 'follow long description link' feature. Not fully ported to 10.5 yet.Originally posted by wywh:
I hope some people get to take some vacation and relax.Originally posted by nfredrik:
Hm? History autocompletes from what you type, just like in 10.10. If you want previously typed addresses, press 'down' in the empty field.Originally posted by soulburner:
Originally posted by corrmage:
Making the tab go to the top (like Chrome does) kills the title bar functionality: double-click to restore the application window, dragging in Windows 7.Originally posted by kecinzer:
The favicon work is not all forward ported to 10.5 yet. Note that 10.5 branched of from 10.0 quite a while ago, so anything 'new' in 10.1 has to be ported to 10.5.Originally posted by MetalRaise:
We'll look into those bookmarks issues anyway. Upgrade testing hasn't been done much yet.Originally posted by Markus07:
Known issue.Originally posted by lwiczek:
Known issue.Originally posted by Svoboda:
Please keep sending in crash reports (unless you hit the same crash more than a few timesKamaleshkamalesh # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:40:59 PM
Originally posted by Purdi:
Yeah, he smoked something...and now, he's trying to find his way back.
JanGen # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:42:26 PM
Also element highlighting is great, can't find a ruler, but the guides are nice.
MetalRaise # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:47:02 PM
The adress bar drop-down list is moving URLs to the top of the list when being selected! Damn, I've been waiting for that fix since ages... Probably among the most annoying things, now fixed.
DEAR BUG, I THINK I WILL MISS YOU!
Ben Ryvesbenryves # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:47:42 PM
However, I've been having some problems with Flash. Some of them started in Opera 10, but were minor enough to be ignored, but they're much worse in the new 10.5 build - maybe it's just me?
One example is YouTube; none of the videos show up for me (I can hear them playing in the background, but can't see them - it's just a white space where the player should be).
Another example is http://b3ta.com/links/ (contains links to NSFW content, though these should be flagged with a NSFW tag). In the current 10.10 Flash files (especially YouTube videos) sometimes become unresponsive to mouse clicks, but scrolling them out of the viewport and back in "fixes" them (I'm not referring to the Eolas "click to activate" issue with that site). In 10.5, I can usually start a video playing but then can't stop it - the UI flickers strangely as I move my mouse over it, as if it's receiving a mouse enter event followed almost immediately by a mouse out event.
As Flash is something that's external to the browser I thought I'd check first if it's just me/my installation of Flash 10 or an Opera issue. Flash works fine in other browsers (tested in IE 8, Firefox 3.0).
Thanks for all your hard work!
Krishnankrishnan # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:48:06 PM
Originally posted by mgillespie:
That comment is just a report. am not using the pre-release or lab builds for the first time.
And this is not the main opera installation too.
And am not expecting 8 crashes just with in 15 minutes.
Thanks for the reply anyway.
pepejeria # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:49:29 PM
http://blog.stephenhorlander.com/2009/12/21/windows-themeui-update/
Is this just a coincidence?
PeterGiraffePC # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:50:05 PM
Originally posted by zoquete:
Thank you zoquete - I'd never have found that and, like Pendarric, I don't want to know about M$I!
Lucalucaviozzi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:52:55 PM
Originally posted by pepejeria:
u mean what mozzilla presented is similar to actual opera
pAULSG1 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:58:50 PM
Some buggies I've noticed:
-Download progress on taskbar.
-Download ETA on sidebar - I get "49710 6" if Opera can't estimate it.
-RSS - can't access ater subscribing.
-A little messed up GUI:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8931/gui1050.jpg -
logo isn't prepared for bigger size - O cut in middle, sidebar icons should start on top of sidebar list, inline search textbox and combobox should be same size... and their bar should have more accurate to the rest of skin).
-Still can't run Voice.
-Spellings is off.
-Can't start/access Unite.
-Some not localized variables like M_MAIL_VIEW_OPTION_MENU_SHOW_SENT.
What would be awesome:
-Search results marked on scrollbar.
-Some more forms autofill.
-Some add-ons/widgets integration with browser - making suiting GUI in user scripts takes sweet time.
Markus SchebsdatMarkus07 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:01:13 PM
Markus
Tore Olavson BuarøyTLPM # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:03:05 PM
MetalRaise # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:05:17 PM
Originally posted by Rijk:
So removing the arrow for opening the address bar drop-down list was indeed done on purpose?
I don't think it's a good idea and I'll explain why: Sometimes I'm sitting in my chair in a really relaxed manner, navigating and controlling Opera almost exclusively with my mouse only, but now, with the removed arrow for the drop-down list it would mean I have to reach for my keyboard just to open the URL list? Sure, when I want to type in an URL I still need to use my keyboard, since there's no sensible way to do that using the mouse, but being able to open a drop-down list with the mouse is pretty basic stuff, isn't it? And it doesn't need much space anyway.
Originally posted by Rijk:
Alright, thanks Rijk.
Rijk # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:05:32 PM
Originally posted by mgillespie:
I somehow doubt they whipped up that blog post in a few hours after seeing the leaked buildIt's more like naturally drifting to comparable solutions when thinking about a problem in a certain way.
Lucero Jr.Luxer88 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:07:51 PM
LOST FOR WORDS
Johan Borgborg # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:09:01 PM
Originally posted by lucaviozzi:
The menu button didn't change much from earlier 10.x builds either, it's just that it's on by default now and the title bar is merged in Aero (the logical thing to do, anyway).
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:09:42 PM
Originally posted by EzeAris:
I did a comparison between Opera 10.5 and Chrome 4. This is the first browser that, on my computer, has scored faster than Chrome.
Hugo Del Castillohcastill # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:10:38 PM
It would be really nice to see the Private Tab feature implement as an option on the Site Specif Preferences. That way every time you visit a certain site, private browsing is started automatically for you.
None of the competitors have anything like Site Specific preferences and including Private browsing will blow their mind.
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:12:43 PM
hochmartinez # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:15:29 PM
Amazing build! This puppy flies with gmail and Google docs. As the javascript benchmarks confirm, It feels faster and less bloated than Chrome 4.
It is a blessing for notebooks and netbooks in low power mode. Nothing touched the speed of Opera 10.20 on low power mode, a proof of it's efficiency. But with 10.50 the performance is awsome!
Dragon fly is a joy to use now. Really *fast* with the new javascript engine.
Overall page rendering, scrolling feels faster. And without gpu acceleration!...
Opera hackers show us again that we use very inefficient sofware and that we have more power than we think.
It really is a work of (programming) art. I know what I'm talking about (25 years experience in programming).
When will you ship 'Opera OS'?
Congratulations team! You are not only visionaries but amazing hackers. Again you showed that you are the best of the best.
Thank you for this wonderful present and keep up the good work.
Hoch.
pAULSG1 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:17:04 PM
Originally posted by hcastill:
Great idea
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:18:52 PM
* Amazing start-up speed. Absolutely no wait at all. Starting it is like starting Notepad. This is despite the fact that I have more than a gigs worth of email for it to check before it opens.
* Amazing javascript performance. The first browser I've seen that scores faster than Chrome on the Peacekeeper benchnmark test.
* I love the integration of tab bar with title bar
* I love the new menu button. SO much better than the ugly thing on 10.1 to 10.2
* I love the Windows 7 integration that allows me to see all open Opera tabs when I hover over the Opera icon....and that allows me to see all Speed Dial pages when I right click the taskbar icon.
* I love the auto-completion feature (I guess that's what it's called)...that lets me start typing an address in the addrss bar and it fills in what it thinks is the rest of the address. That's the one thing I've always envied on Chrome.
* I love the fact that you fulfilled one of my Wishlist items from a couple months ago: Making it so that as soon as I down-click on another tab, it switches to that tab rather than waiting for me to down click and then release. This always made it SEEM like Chrome and Firefox were faster than Opera even though it's just a "feeling" kind of thing....Now, like those browsers, it switches to the new tab as soon as I down click, making it feel snappier.
otzi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:19:39 PM
Lucero Jr.Luxer88 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:21:41 PM
Originally posted by Rijk:
i may have not really understood the issue, but double or mid-clicking on an empty area on the title bar DOES open up a new tab here, except when you click too much at the top of the window (when it'll behave like a title bar, as it's meant to haha)
On chrome, for example, wherever you click, you'll only get the behaviour of a title bar.
i really appreciate the current behaviour of opera here. Quite intuitive FOR ME.
kaikaixi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:25:27 PM
FAS # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:25:45 PM
- Mouse wheel click to scroll the page doesn't work anymore (this is a problem !)
- The "Close tabs" icon is not very intuitive : at first I didn't understand what it was.
Chris Rimmerrockinrimmer # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:27:10 PM
Loving the integration with Windows 7! Although, please please please! Change the save dialog aswell! that is one of my major problems with Opera (minor really i know
kaikaixi # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:27:53 PM
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:29:49 PM
Using Windows 7 on an HP Pavilion laptop, 2 dual core processor.
Anton DiazAntonDiaz # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:30:42 PM
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:31:59 PM
poorrichard01 # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:34:14 PM
Yogurth # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:34:29 PM
Aside for these, Opera 10.5 is astoundingly fast. Can't wait for the next build advancement.
Only crash I had so far was repeteable crash when right clicking on file in Downloads panel or in Downloads tab.
Windows XP SP2 x64.
porneL # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:37:38 PM
FAS # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:38:19 PM
- The new title bar merged with the tab bar looks great, but concerning the "Opera" button, when you click on the "O" and not on the arrow you get the menu for the application window and not the Opera menu. This is annoying
- I'm not convinced at all by the "glass status bar". This looks really weird.
abhitux # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:47:40 PM
homeagain # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:48:09 PM
Christian WaldeMithaldu # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:49:52 PM
Originally posted by "MetalRaise":
Yes, i tried that. Even setting it to 1 did not make it as responsive as it was in 10.10.
Arothan # Tuesday, December 22, 2009 2:51:15 PM