For the adventurous out there (that’s you, developers), the Opera 10 browser has just been released in alpha. Opera has a 1 to 2 percent browser market share, depending on what statistics you look at, and will soon likely be surpassed by Google’s Chrome, if it hasn’t been already. But it does have its fans.
The alpha for Opera 10 is based on its Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which it says is 30 percent faster than before. The browser also looks better, with more accurate and clearer fonts. It includes an in-line spell-checker, auto updates, and support of transparent effects on Web pages.
But, as with any alpha, be prepared to deal with bugs.
faster than faster!
love opera, i would like better add-ons like firefox has but, its faster! always!
Competition is great! Keep it coming.
Why not to note that Opera invented tabs, quick search and all other things which were stolen by IE, Firefox, Safari, etc..
Opera always seemed clumsy to me; Firefox seems faster and updated more often. I pretty much never use IE anymore after using Firefox.
Always been a big fan of Opera.
I love Opera too! I think if it would have had the marketing behind it that Firefox had, it would be #2 instead.
BTW, I tried the Opera Mobile for my Treo 750 (WM6) and it did not even install. I got a version to install at one time (do not remember which one) was quite of buggy and slow.
Anybody managed to get Opera on Treo 750 / WM6? If yes, which version?
+ 1 for the Opera lovers!
In spite of needing to play with Chrome, Firefox, Flock and, yes, even IE, I always end up coming back to Opera when I need to get real work done.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
The in-line spell checking and the updates improvement is very welcome, they seem to be the standard in other software and browsers, especially OS X sporting OS-wide spell checking, though, Opera is of course using their own implementation and it uses Hunspell dictionaries.
I can’t wait for the final release of version 10 as I’m an avid user.
This is great news. I think Opera has been the best browser for a long time. Opera doesn’t have all the extensions like firefox (they still have quite a few), but it makes up for it in other features such as a built in torrent client and speed dial (firefox has to have an extension for this functionality).
I also think Opera Mobile is a great browser, or it is compared to the blackberry browser anyway.
Naturally I am always a fan of the underdog
. The little problem I have with opera is why should I use it over FF or Safari? The existing plug in basis always brings me back to FF no matter how hard I try to move to Safari. A few years ago I actually bought a license to support Opera but it somehow failed to convince me to keep upgrading. So why should I get it now again ?
umm, Opera is free for the last 4 or 5 years…
Why doesn’t Microsoft just buy these guys? It’d solve SO MANY of their browser issues and give them exposure on the mobile platform far better than what they’ve got on Windows Mobile.
Dave, that’s an excellent idea. Except that the O team will probably be sucked into the MS way of making browsers in no time and then we’re back to square one.
Why use Opera? Is it is FAST, and I don’t mean how quickly it renders pages but how quickly you surf the web; mouse gestures, speed dial, quick find, etc. it’s so easy!
There’s more – I use Opera on my desktop (Linux and Windows), laptop and mobile phone and Opera Link synchronises seamlessly between all of them, it’s fantastic and you only have to set it up once.
The big guys never manage to kill off Opera and there’s a good reason for that, it’s about time people realised that the Opera fanboys might be on to something…..
At 1 or 2% of the market I’m guessing the big boys guys don’t lose a lot of sleep over trying to kill them off, especially when all their rev comes from the big boys by way of search deals
“all their rev comes from the big boys by way of search deals”
Not quite:
http://www.oper...stors/faq/#faq3
Saved by ZEEEErooow.
Greasemonkey. I can’t put into words how much Greasemonkey improves my browsing experience. I can simulate or forget about most of my extensions, but Greasemonkey is necessary (and no, Opera’s userscripts functionality doesn’t work).
The hiring of Jon Hicks has me keeping an eye on this browser. Visually Opera never agreed with my browsing needs, but now that Jon is on board, I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
It certainly seems like Microsoft should rid itself of IE. Every site I build works fine in Safari and FF but does not work in IE. I have not tried Opera – but will add it to my compatibility list. Would be nice if it played well with other’s code…
opera is the best… i have always loved opera. just open 8 tabs in both opera and firefox..and check the memory usage and leaks, opera consumes lot less memory and is way faster. Its interface is also way better than any other browser. Its browser integrated mail is faster and cooler than thunderbird as well. I am just waiting for the new version of opera..
3 extremely useful features no other browser has but Opera:
1) Sessions
2) Select > RightClick: Search With (custom searches)
3) Select > Go to Web Address
The only thing Opera is missing is a true Google toolbar. I miss its mouse-over translation feature.
I loved Opera. It had many features like tabbed browing that no other browser had a few years back. But they never were marketing savvy. That probably explains their dismal market share. I am with FF now.
Eric, Why is this even a news in TechCrunch?
For the adventurous developers this a very good platform to face challenges in solving problems though it will be surpassed by Google’s chrome I just hope tat google and opera can tieup! Man then Can we see a navigator that rocks the net????
Screen Sleuth
What world have you been living in ? Opera is waay faster than FF
Opera’s built in RSS newsreader and email client is phenomenal…makes it so much simpler to track everything. Mouse gestures make it much simpler browsing (Right mouse button + Left mouse button = Back button; Left mouse button + Left = Forward button), and so intuitive once you learn to use it. Being able to build custom searches (visit any site with a search box, right click it and you can search it from your address bar).
Firefox has addons that incorporate a lot of these features, like Fast Dial if you like Opera’s Speed Dial, but these are third party and don’t always mesh as well.
Firefix is a HYPEBOX
Opera Rules all the way !!
Nothing against Opera. It is a great browser. A really good rendering engine and fast JS (though others have caught up on that front).
But for those of us creating cutting edge web applications it is just extra work for 1-2% of the market. Don’t believe those who say that the fact that a browser is standards-based and your software is standards-based then it all will work. There are hundreds of small details that are not defined about how browsers should render when you dynamically update parts of a page. And there are those features not in the spec that everyone implements but each one slightly differently (e.g. keyboard handling, innerHTML, execCommand).
So the bottom line is that if web applications keep getting more and more sophisticated and a browser only has 1-2% of the market it’s prospects are not great. Fortunately for Opera they have a decent market share in mobile.
Opera’s market share is larger then 1-2%. It’s difficult to accurately track a browsers market share and thus those numbers shouldn’t be taken as law. Many Opera users use Firefox as well.
Anyways – Opera is, in my experience, the faster browser avaible. Not simple in rendering, but in it’s UI as well. Mouse gestures are incredible and I can’t even force myself to use Firefox anymore.
But to each his own.