Opera Desktop Team

Subscribe to RSS feed

Posts tagged with "auto-update"

Opera Next and auto-update

,

We get many questions about why the builds we upload to this blog aren't immediately added to the auto-update system. This is quite understandable, since auto-update is such a convenient way to get the build. However, the very fact that it is automatically updated without any interaction from you, makes us want to make sure that the builds are somewhat usable before pushing them to auto-update – you do not want Opera to unexpectedly start crashing on all your favorite sites.

In short, this is how it works:

  1. Make a build
  2. Smoke test it internally while writing the blogpost
  3. Upload it to the snapshot server
  4. Publish the blog post
  5. Wait for eager testers to give their feedback
  6. If nothing is obviously wrong, we ask our server guys to add the build to the auto-update system. This part can often happens a day after we decide that the build is good enough
So be patient. We will add builds as soon as they are deemed good enough. If we don't add the builds to auto-update within a few days, it probably means we decided it was not good enough. If that is the case, a new snapshot will very likely be released very soon.

Peregrine takes flight... Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 is here!

, , ,

It seems like yesterday we released Opera 9.6 and now you can all get your hands on Opera 10.0. Rather than ramble on, here's a quick list of what's new:

  • Presto 2.2 Engine
  • Performance boost
  • 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
  • Auto-update
  • Inline spelling checker
  • Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days
  • Widget Improvements on Linux

Can't wait to get your hands on Opera 10.0 Alpha 1, then get it now! party

Download
Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
Macintosh (Intel-only)
UNIX


What's New
Below is an overview of the new functionality in Opera 10.0 Alpha 1.

Presto 2.2 Engine

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 includes Presto 2.2 (Kestrel includes Presto 2.1.1), an updated version of Opera's Core. Presto 2.2 features numerous new features and loads of bug fixes, such as:

  • 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
  • New regular expression engine, which greatly improves performance
  • Improved CSS performance
  • Pretty-printing of unstyled XML
  • Web font support
  • RGBA and HSLA support
  • Selectors API support

Auto-update
The long awaited auto-update functionality is here! That's right, Opera will now update itself as new versions are released. And for those of you who want every single snapshot release just enable the "Download All Snapshots" setting (opera:config#AutoUpdate). Please be aware that if you do so, you will be upgrading to all snapshots - and as you know: snapshots contain the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all. You have been warned smile


Inline Spelling Checker
Opera now checks your spelling as you write! The inline spelling checker is enabled by default for multi-line edit fields and this Alpha comes with a US English dictionary. Use the context menu of input fields to change the settings, and to correct spelling errors. See the detailed changelog for information about using other dictionaries.

Opera Mail Improvements
Rich Text Composition
Opera Mail can now send rich text messages! You can insert inlined images, styled text, links, custom HTML, and more! You can also forward and redirect rich text messages or reply to them with styled text.
In the account settings select "Prefer HTML formatting" in the outgoing tab so that you can start writing rich text mails by default in our WYSIWYG editor!

Remove from server after X days (POP-only)
This new feature is for our POP users with limited server space. Opera Mail can now remove messages from the server that have been there for X days. Of course you can limit Opera Mail to only remove read messages from the server, and/or only fully downloaded messages, which works great in combination with low-bandwith mode.

Other Changes
When viewing a message, the message subjects are now a text field again instead of a button. We have added also a "Thread" button to the message list toolbar to make some features more visible.

Widget Improvements on Linux/UNIX
We have added experimental support for true transparency for widgets on Linux/UNIX. For this to work you have to have an X Server that provides a 32-bit visual device and a running composite manager. If you start Opera from a terminal it will print this message if it detects a suitable 32-bit visual device: "(experimental) ARGB visual detected: Use '-visual 0x6f' to activate it".

If you have a composite manager running you can then try it out by starting Opera with: "opera -visual 0x6f" (0x6f may be another number on your machine).

Detailed Changelogs

Enjoy! beer