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 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

Things here in the Desktop Team have been very, very hectic lately as we approach Kestrel Beta 2. The good news it that the wait is almost over.

Introduced in this build is a new fraud protection back-end. It's better, more reliable and allows us to block malicious sites more quickly than ever before. Fraud protection is now enabled by default.

For all of you non-native English speakers out there, most translations are included in this snapshot. Of course, someone will have to tell you what this blog post actually says for you to get the snapshot.

So download it, enjoy, and submit your feedback.

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 324643] "Remove from toolbar" doesn't work
  
• [Bug 324645] Right-clicking an IRC channel prevents it from showing new messages
  
• [Bug 322553] The "Execute program" action fails in certain circumstances
  
• [Bug 324678] Mail attachment options don't work on Windows
  
• [Bug 324696] The "Go to Web Address" action fails
  
• [Bug 324699] Crash when choosing "Open Opera" from the tray icon after hiding Opera on Windows when the mail client is disabled
  
• [Bug 324700] "Save image" context menu item doesn't work
  

Changelog

• New fraud protection back-end
  
• Enabled fraud protection by default
  
• Setting an external source viewer now works properly
  
• Open with... for other programs now works properly
  
• Starting without tabs works again
  
• Several security UI improvements
  
• Opera Link: Fixed a bug where notes would not be synced when you upgraded to a build that supports syncing them
  
• Opera Widgets: Fixed form submission
  
• Opera Widgets: Fixed opening links in iframes
  
• Paste & go doesn't open the address in the background anymore
  
• Added a special menu for selected text which is a link
  
• Spatial navigation now properly uses text selection for links
  
• Made address field focusable from an empty workspace
  
• Fixed find in page from the Find in page search field
  
• Increased number of lines in the address field drop-down
  
• Removed encoding of slashes when opening local files
  
• Fixed print preview of mail and pages with iframes
  
• Large plain text documents are no longer cut off
  
• Fixed an issue with using bookmark nicknames as your home page
  
• Fixed progress bar when set to pop-up at bottom
  

Mail

• Top-level account access points can now be selected via the mouse and show all messages for the selected account
  
• Better icon for e-mails without bodies
  
• Saved passwords are now indicated by the text "Click to change password" instead of six asterisks
  
• Fixed IMAP authentication/connection issues
  
• Fixed problem downloaded POP mail when using "Leaves messages on server" on certain servers
  
• Removed confirmation dialog when unchecking "Leave messages on server" for POP accounts; all messages on the server will automatically be removed
  
• Better labeling of "Delete" button
  
• Fixed problem where messages on the server are redownloaded after importing mail
  
• Download message bodies before exporting
  
• The default account when sending new messages is now chosen more intelligently
  
• Added confirmation dialog when deleting newsfeeds
  
• Fixed issue where the spam filter would not learn from its mistakes
  
• The Mail panel button now correctly indicates new mail
  
• Re-added message body settings for newsgroups
  
• Stopped generating plain text version of newsfeeds that contain HTML (and vice versa), which makes photo newsfeeds more usable
  
• Fixed long-standing issue where deleting drafts from the Drafts view while the compose window was open would render the draft unusable
  

Platform-specific

• [Windows] Tray icon now indicates when new mail has arrived
  
• [Windows] When hiding Opera (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H), a tray icon is created
  
• [Windows] Fixed DCC transfers on Windows
  
• [64-bit Linux] Fixed a crash when saving things
  

Download
Windows
Windows Classic
Macintosh
UNIX