Opera 7.10 Released (First Opera 7.x For Linux)

joshieck writes "The much awaited (at least I know I've been waiting for it) Opera 7.10 has been released. This marks the first release of Opera 7.x for linux, and is a cause for rejoicing. Even if it is a 'beta,' it's opera, so you know it's gonna be good. Go get it at Opera.com, or go right to the download page. From the Press Release: 'Opera Software today released Opera 7.10 for Windows and Opera 7.10 for Linux Beta with features that are not only new to Opera, but also completely new to the world of browsing. Right from the beginning, users can see the two new buttons FastForward and Rewind in the toolbar, accelerating Opera users' Web navigation. Users can also speed up researching with the completely new Notes features or view photo files with SlideShow.'"

Comments

'Completely new' web notes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell, NCSA Mosaic had an 'annotate' function.

'Completely new' my ass.

Works Great

[xtremex]

on Suse 8.0!
Have more testing to do however.

Excellent

[www.andycheung.com]

Great news - I sure hope Opera make some money out of their browser. years ago, it was well worth paying the license fee considering that IE4 and Netscape 4 were the competition. Now that Mozilla, Konqueror et al have gotten so good, I wonder if it's so compelling anymore.

RH9/M1.3

[kajoob]

I just installed RH9 and Mozilla 1.3, finally the fonts are beautiful, it renders fast, and tabbed browsing is heaven. I am loving life. Can someone give me some good reasons why I should use Opera over Mozilla (or at least, why i should use Opera in certain situations)? I'm generally looking for insight into the whole browser landscape.

Re:RH9/M1.3

[akorvemaker]

Can someone give me some good reasons why I should use Opera over Mozilla (or at least, why i should use Opera in certain situations)?

Sure. Speed is one thing. On my (old) computer, Mozilla is really sluggish. It takes over 30 seconds to load. Opera is quite snappy, and loads in about 15.

Opera's keyboard support is superb (and now easily cusomizable). Surfing on a laptop, my hands are always near the keyboard, and Opera's use of hotkeys really speeds up browsing. Everything is easily accesible with the keyboard (at least everything I've tried to do...)

Opera makes it incredibly easy to switch on/off plugins/java/cookies/popups/etc (F12). It's really handy if a site needs a plugin but I usually keep it off.

In general, I just find it really usable.

Opera Icon

[LPetrazickis]

Isn't it time for Slashdot to get an Opera icon? It has a Mozilla icon, a Netscape icon, and even an AOL icon.

Opera happens to be my favourite browser and I want to see it's giant O at my favourite tech news site.

/me sulks:)

Bork bork!

[KikassAssassin]

Yeah, but does this version have the Swedish Chef? I refuse to use a browser that doesn't have a bork feature.

Just downloaded it...

[TWX]

...and it's fairly pretty. I've been using Mozilla for quite a long time, mainly due to cross-platform compatibility, but this is definitely going to be worth looking into.

Though I can already see a couple of things that will cause problems. I'm running triple-head xinerama and gnome/sawfish, and when maximizing Opera, it fills one screen, but thinks that it has the realestate of all three, so stuff ends up being rendered off of the viewable area. I don't know if this is an Opera problem, a Gnome problem, or a Sawfish problem, but I won't be able to do much to fix it until I get around to installing a newer version of Gnome anyway. Hopefully this'll correct at that point.

Definitely pretty though.

Re:This is not 1990!

[LPetrazickis]

Why the hell would I pay for a browser?

Because Opera is worth the money.

Or why should I settle for an ad-supported browser?

Because the ad does not report your surfing habits and is generally innocuous.

And especially since I have so many free and open source choices.

It's a free planet. If you prefer them, use them.;)

Why would I not use Phoenix, Mozilla or Konqueror?

I use the Windows version of 7.10 and it is simply amazing. The interface is extremely smooth and has loads of little touches that are simply missing from Phoenix 0.5 and Mozilla 1.4.

I'll paste in a pro-Opera 7.10 rant that I posted in elsewhere:

http://www.opera.com/windows/changelogs/710/ http://www.opera.com/download/

I am really impressed with this release.

0. Mouse gestures (you know, the things that Mozilla and Phoenix ripped off from Opera) are now customizable. In other words, there will be no more accidental window closures.

1. There is now a good interface for saving toolbar layouts so that you will not have to recustomize after every upgrade.

2. The Notes feature is a multiple item clipboard (independent of the usual thing) done right. The storage is permanent, it doesn't throw itself at you, and you can misuse it for something goofy like a personal quotation database.

3. The nature of 7.0 MDI/SDI is even more obvious now. Context menus allow you to open links in the current child window, in a new child window, in a background child window, in a new parent window, and in a new background parent window.

4. Fast Forward has become even better. To quote the changelog, "FastForward can now be used as a "slide show" on galleries, like http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asi a/".

5. All dialogue boxes are now skinned. You won't believe how much skinned javascript prompts imrove the user experience.

6. All the great features from 7.0x are back. I can go through those if anyone wants. The include universal interface dragndrop, Links sidebar/CTRL+ALT+J, pervasiveness of text files, etc.


Unfortunately, the Active Bookmark Folder concept from 5.x/6.x is still not back, but I am managing without it. It's likely to reappear in 7.20, no one in the Mozilla/Phoenix crowd has used Opera enough to learn the full splendour Insane Greatness, and Microsoft has stopped shovelling features into MSIE after it killed off Netscape 4.x.

P.S. Do remember to set Opera to Always Check Documents in the History and Cache preferences panel.

P.P.S. I've just discovered skin scaling. Wow. Not quite as cool as skin colour schemes, but still very wow.

To illustrate the customizable interface, check out this pic of my personalized Opera.

I hope that helped.;)

Free as in beer?

[Anonymous Coward]

But is it free?

As a CD-carrying FSF'ist, I don't appreciate this coverage of software that isn't Free (as in ankle tracking device).

You should only discuss software that is Free, so that I can live my life blissfully unaware of the superior products available.

Adware ...?

[frodo from middle ea]

Is that the correct model ?
I am scared of putting any adware on my PC. I don't care if Opera is THE browser. I still refuse to even give it a shot.
And for those of you who will say "Why not pay the odd 40$ and buy the ad free version.". I would say "Why should i dish out 40 $ when i can do with perfectly competetive products like mozilla or phoenix or god-forbidden even IE ?"

Re:This is not 1990!

[arose]

Mouse geastures, big deal... Opera ripped of the ability to display HTML from Mosaic.

You can save screen estate

[Compact Dick]

Simple - upgrade to 7.10, then go to PREFERENCES -> SKINS and select your toolbar magnification scale. I've set mine to a perfectly usable 40%. Additionally, you can use more skins that may suit your needs better.

That's your main complaint solved. Let's optimise things a bit, shall we?

Turn off the navigation bar: VIEW -> NAVIGATION BAR -> OFF.

Right-click on the main toolbar and press "I" [or "Images only".]

Finally, if you've registered Opera you can do this to good effect - remove all the toolbar buttons that you don't use by right-clicking on them and selecting "REMOVE". Then click on the status bar [if it is visible] and drag it on to the main toolbar. Select VIEW -> STATUS BAR -> OFF.

Have fun.

P.S.: To get to www.cnn.com from "cnn" faster, turn off local computer searching by going to PREFERENCES -> NETWORK -> SERVER NAME COMPLETION... and un-check "Look for local network machine".