Today's snapshot is significantly faster on Windows thanks to a technique called profile-guided optimization (PGO). Compiler optimizers sometimes make tweaks that are controversial: they improve performance in what it perceives as the most common case, but make it worse in the perceived least common case. The result can be much better if the compiler is given some hints. That's what PGO is about. With this technique, Opera is compiled twice. The first compilation creates a specially instrumented build that gathers statistics about which code is called and which variables are used most often. The instrumented build loads sites automatically using "URL player", a testing feature available in every Opera build (more information about that in a later blog post). This information is dumped into files and used to produce the final build that's optimized based on the gathered statistics.

Opera uses Microsoft's Visual Studio C++ compiler on Windows and gcc on UNIX and OS X, both of which support PGO. On Windows, setting up PGO builds was straight-forward. PGO in gcc is a different story. On both UNIX and OS X, the first PGO builds crashed. Work continues to resolve this issue.

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Known Issues

• [Bug 327180] Dragonfly does not work when JavaScript is disabled.
  
• [Bug 324985] International installer on Windows is broken when using some languages.
  
• [Bug 324377] Save Linked Content As fails sporadically.
  
• [Bug 327333] Some SVGs do not paint on Windows.
  
• [Bug 328186] Crash when using Master Password.
  
• [Bug 324727] The Octoshape plug-in causes Opera to crash on start-up.
  
• The tab bar on Mac may mix up favicon/text placement.
  

Changelog

• Fix for reloading inline elements.
  
• Fixed cookie settings for local server names.
  
• Fixed forwarding, replying and redirecting of HTML-only mails.
  
• Fixed high CPU usage when subscribed only to the IMAP Inbox folder on GMail.
  
• F8 now works again to focus address field when focus is in panels.
  
• [Bug 328318] Wand button is fixed again.
  
• Fixed problem downloading POP mail from bellsouth.net (and other providers).
  
• Fixed extensions in File > Save As and File > Open dialogs.
  

UNIX specific:

• Fixed updating of Google Maps when panning
  
• CJK fonts should now look better in the default setup
  

Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

Opera 9.5 Beta 2 is available now!

Beta 2 introduces Notes syncing support using Opera Link, EV certificate support, improved Fraud protection, many performance and usability improvements in Quick Find (also known as history search), improvements in website rendering and performance, plugin support and of course lots of bug fixes. Check out the changelogs for the details.

We would like to thank the community for all testing, suggestions, and other feedback! Congratulations everyone with making 9.5 Beta 2 a great release! :-)

Stay tuned for the upcoming release of Opera Dragonfly and more exciting updates on this blog.

Build Numbers

• Windows: 9945
  
• Mac: 4789
  
• UNIX: 1933
  

Known Issues

• [Bug 325677] POP mail download doesn't work on web.de (and some other servers)
  
• [Bug 324727] The Octoshape plug-in causes Opera to crash on start-up
  
• [Bug 322553] The "Execute program" action fails in certain circumstances
  

Changelog (since the last snapshot)

• Fixed Bug 324643: "Remove from toolbar" doesn't work
  
• Fixed Bug 324645: Right-clicking an IRC channel prevents it from showing new messages
  
• Fixed Bug 324678: Mail attachment options don't work on Windows
  
• Fixed Bug 324696: The "Go to Web Address" action fails
  
• Fixed Bug 324699: Crash when choosing "Open Opera" from the tray icon after hiding Opera on Windows when the mail client is disabled
  
• Fixed Bug 324700: "Save image" context menu item doesn't work
  
• Fixed a crash on start-up for some POP mail users
  
• Fixed a problem where inline find highlighting didn't work correctly in mail (or when using "white-space: pre-wrap")
  
• Fixed incorrect label on "Remove" button in newsfeed views
  
• Re-added the "Delete mail" action for backwards compatibility
  

We've introduced subtle, but important UI and back-end changes is this build. In just a few words: Kestrel gets EV, the address field will change the way it displays page information, and we now have automatic certificate updates!

This latest snapshot build has support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates. This means that on EV sites you'll see a padlock on a green background. And remember: It ain't EV 'til it's EV, all EV. Opera is a more strict than other browsers, and will display an EV site with a "green padlock" only if all elements on the page are from EV sites. Read Yngve's article for more details.

There are some more changes in the address bar: the fraud protection button will now work differently. For HTTP sites you will not see the button anymore. On HTTPS sites the padlock will be on a yellow background (green for EV). If, however, you come across an HTTPS site which lowers the overall rating of the security level of the page (details on the levels are again to be found in Yngve's article), you will see a grey "?" button, which will provide you with more information on the security level. A fraudulent page will still be flagged with a red warning in the address field.

The back-end change in this snapshot affects the certificate database: we can now add new Roots to the Certificate Authority database without requiring users to update their installation. Find details about this over in Yngve's article.

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Known Issues

• Too many searches in the search engine list
  
• "Open With" other browsers doesn't work
  
• The progress bar does not show if it's set to "Pop-up at the bottom"
  

Changelog

New Features

• Added EV certificate support
  
• Added root certificate update
  
• Added Notes synchronization
  
• Added opera:historysearch to default list of search engines
  

Core Fixes

• Fixed problems loading Gmail
  
• Improved XHR (AJAX) performance
  
• Fixed mouse gesture crash in print preview
  
• Windowless mode for Silverlight 1.1 now works
  

Mail Fixes

• Fixes to decoding of mailto: URLs
  
• Fixed crash when listing channels/rooms on IRC server
  
• Fixed problem when fetching feeds would freeze Opera for a long time
  
• Fixed problem where Opera wouldn't start for some users with old mail directories
  
• Optimized newsfeed download when users have lots of existing feed messages
  
• Fixed problem seen when changing the status of several messages at the same time
  
• Fixed several parse errors caused by IMAP server bugs
  
• Fixed problem adding contacts to messages when the contact has multiple e-mail addresses
  

UI Fixes

• Fixed crash when opening Help
  
• Some fixes to Opera Link synchronization
  
• Fixed problem saving pages in formats other than HTML
  
• MHTML files can now only be saved as MHTML
  
• Fixed problem where Personal bar was greyed-out sometimes
  
• Viewing source doesn't put the file in the system temp folder anymore
  
• Viewing source and applying changes to local files commits the changes to the local file again
  
• Fixed the internal "Execute program" command, which caused Open in buttons to stop working
  

Platform-specific

• [Windows] Fixed opacity inversion on web pages
  
• [Windows] Fixed GDI leak related to favicons
  
• [Windows] Fixed crash when closing Opera
  
• [Windows] Fixed printing issues where some words would run into each other
  
• [OS X] Fixed problem scrolling to the bottom of the pages using scrollbars
  

Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

It's been a while since our last snapshot build. Some things fell apart while others were shaping up nicely - so we are very happy to show you some good improvements now!

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Known issues:

• Opening Help causes Opera to crash.
  
• There are some funky parsing problems on YouTube.
  
• "Open With" other browsers doesn't work.
  
• Save As for a web page only lets you save as "HTML file" on Windows.
  
• The progress bar does not show if it's set to "Pop-up at the bottom".
  
• On OS X, scrolling to the bottom of a page with the scrollbars does not work.
  

General changes:

• Fixed inline find.
  
• Fixed downloading attachments in the new Yahoo! Mail.
  
• Fixed async XMLHttpRequest to never be blocked by a slow script.
  
• Fixed internal plugin methods not accessible from javascript engine when data attribute defined.
  
• Fixed an issue where new mail messages would not be detected.
  
• Opera Mail now handles mailto links with encoded characters correctly.
  
• Improved handling of subscription to temporary subscription to news groups.
  
• Fixed some offline mode issues.
  
• And lots more of stability fixes!
  

Acid3 fixes:

• getSVGDocument is now supported in an iframe.
  
• createDocumentType now throws an exception for malformed qualified name.
  
• Fixed NodeFilter returning true => 1.
  
• Fixed HTMLTableRowElement.rowIndex and .sectionRowIndex returning undefined for table rows created via DOM.
  
• HTMLButtonElement.type now defaults to "submit".
  
• Fixed form control collection not indexed by name when outside the main document tree.
  
• Fixed Range.surroundContents().
  
• Fixed insertNode to not collapse range.
  
• Fixed removeNamedItem() and removeNamedItemNS() to throw a not-found error.
  
• Fixed NodeIterator to function well also under dynamic changes.
  
• Fixed Date.UTC() to do proper 1900 year offsetting.
  

Windows-specific:

• Better performance with plugins.
  

Mac-specific:

• Shift+space for Page Up works again.
  
• Function keys work again.
  
• Opera now uses the proper OS X Downloads folder by default.
  
• Changed the icon in alert and prompt dialogs to something prettier.
  

UNIX-specific:

• Fixed crash when closing tab with Flash.
  
• Several plugin fixes.
  

Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX

Enjoy the new build, and Happy Easter!

New snapshot with several interesting CSS and mail fixes today. Enjoy!

WARNING: These are development snapshots: they contain the latest changes, but they also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all.

Known issues

• Crash when you clear history while history search is disabled
  
• Format selector when saving pages is broken
  
• Some plugins on Mac don't work at all
  
• Plugins crash Opera on UNIX
  

Bugs fixed

• Images in mail and standalone images are now printed
  
• Significant mail startup speed improvement on systems with NTFS and ReiserFS filesystems, like Windows and openSUSE.
  
• Fixed a rare crash when importing Thunderbird mail
  
• Reduced CPU usage when downloading mail
  
• Fixed the "prioritize excludelist" option in urlfilter.ini
  
• Fixed import of IE favorites with dots in their name
  
• Fixed issue where you would get duplicate trash folders when using Opera Link
  
• Fixed a few spatial navigation issues (Shift+arrows to navigate on the page)
  
• The spam filter should start remembering marked mail on Windows now
  
• Fixed a CSS parser error that caused layout errors on Facebook, Yahoo! Mail, Last.fm etc.
  
• Fixed dynamic updating of CSS3 selectors (:first-child, :last-child, :empty etc. selectors)
  
• Opera now supports getClientRects and getBoundingClientRect
  
• Added support for the CSS color and background-color properties for the ::selection pseudo-element
  
• UNIX: Fixed a crasher when closing tabs when using the MDI controls (present without close button on tabs)
  
• UNIX: Tooltip generation CPU usage is again back to normal
  
• Windows: Torrent applications now show up correctly in the download dialog if you've disabled Bittorrent in Opera
  

Download

• Windows
  
• Windows Classic
  
• Macintosh
  
• UNIX