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Opera Goes To 11, With Extensions and Tab Stacks
surveyork writes "Opera Software released Opera browser 11 for desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc). The main features are support for extensions similar to Chrome and Tab Stacks, Opera's version of tab management. The extension catalog is still small, with roughly 200 extensions, but steadily growing. The browser is very fast — Chrome-fast — and lightweight, with a new installer which is 30% smaller than the one in the previous version. Other enhancements include visual mouse gestures and better address field. There's no hardware acceleration yet, but it could be coming in a further dot release and benefit XP users as well as Mac, Linux and Windows 7/Vista users."
Why don't you just make 10 better? And make 10 be the top, number... and make that a little better?
I tried Opera last time. It looks quite a bit like FF 4. Which itself is looking somewhat similar to Chrome.
Meh, at this point in time, it hardly matters which browser you use - so long as its not IE6... So browser wars can stop now ;)
But at least all this competition is putting a lot of push into better browsers.
No, you weren't... http://www.zdnet.be/zd_images/2010/48/opera11.jpg
Manuals are your last resort only
I can't be the only one who thought of this...
Ya, I'm sure the guy who wrote the headline Opera Goes To 11 never thought of the connection to Spinal Tap.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Preferences -> Advanced -> Shortcuts -> Enable visual hints... I personally use mouse gestures so I don't need to use menus. They also changed the close tab which is really the only movement gesture I used (apart from the button flips), it prompted me to look at the settings more carefully and remove everything else so now it's just GestureRight; setting it to the old style GestureRight, GestureLeft, GestureRight failed 50% of the time.
You didn't even read the title?
I haven't used Opera's tab stacking yet, but it sounds a lot like one of the features the Tree Style Tab add-on adds to Firefox. It's quite a flexible add-on, and if you constantly have a lot of tabs open or would prefer to have a hierarchical tab list on the side to save vertical real estate (especially if you have a 16:9 monitor), it can revolutionize your world almost as much as tabs did originally. I can't recommend it enough.
Firefox is my primary browser, but I do have Opera installed and keep it updated. One annoying bug that's been around for a while is that middle-clicking on a link does not set the Referrer header. This causes a number of *ahem* "image-hosting" websites to throw their hotlink prevention message at you.
People will pass up steak once a week, for crap every day.
How is Opera "Chrome Fast"? Shouldn't it be Chrome that is almost opera fast?
Based on both age and lots of tests...
The stack concept is an interesting alternative to Firefox's panorama. I find the former convenient with a small amount of tabs.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
I've been using Opera 11 for a few days now and I'm enjoying it. It feels faster than version 10. I think it's more stable too, based on my testing so far.
It's built in. Firefox is *the only major browser* that doesn't give its users more control over JS than a global on/off switch buried 3 menus deep. The relevant bug has been given the silent treatment for a decade, so it's safe to say they don't give a shit at this point.
Programmers at Opera have proven to me that they are a force to be reckoned with. If the Firefox team had just 3/4 of the ambition of Opera folks, Firefox would be quite advanced. Credit goes to them. The [frequent] releases they make are a testimony to their skill.
Actually, it does have the ability to use hardware acceleration for graphics in both opengl and direct3d, it just has not been implimented in general release versions of opera yet. See this discussion for more details and a post by an Opera developer. Currently, as the links mention, Opera's rendering engine is pure software, but it seems to keep up well enough with the browsers that have opted for hardware acceleration so far. I'm guessing they wont implement it until they can make sure it works on Windows/OSX/Linux/Unix, since they try to keep uniform support most of the time on all major Operating Systems.
I've been a long time Opera user, switching from Mozilla (pre firefox) to Opera when it became free (as in beer). However, I do get irritated by their efforts to keep up with Chrome's speed while screwing over long time users (they cant win that fight in the long run anyways, Google has way too much money). Numerous bug reports on long time stable features and major regressions happen every time they release a major update for Opera and take months or years to fix. From Opera 10.5 to pre 11, tool tips would cover up other applications even if Opera was located in the background. If you happen to have a mouse with arrow buttons for back and forward, the forward arrow button has been broke as far as using the "fast forward" feature since 10.5. At one point, during the version 11 betas, the arrow buttons were broke period (though it was a development release so one cannot really complain about that). With Opera 11, their famous mouse gestures are also partially broken with their implementation of a graphical interface for showing what gestures do what when you hold down the right mouse button. One of the more useful gestures was "right" + "left" + "right" (closes the current window). Now, with the changes they have made, this gesture only works half the time, but they have said they will fix it, but it's tied into the UI they implemented, so it will probably be a while.
They do generally listen to their users. They decided to force chrome like urls on their users during the Opera 11 development (removing "http://" and any of the args after *.com such as ?id=12345) claiming it would make users less likely to click fraudulent links. However, if you're a developer, seeing the arguments is a must and not seeing "http://" or "https://" or "ftp://" is just kind of silly, since sometimes you like to know what protocol you are using instead of guessing through some abstract replacement graphic. Since opera has never been a browser to appeal to novice internet users, dumbing it down seems kind of counter intuitive.
Opera is still my primary browser (except for development--I prefer Firefox/Firebug for that over Opera Dragonfly, but it seems every new version they release, I dread what long time feature they will break next. They haven't frustrated me enough to want to modify the Chromium source code to natively have all the features of Opera, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it for Opera 12.
For me Opera was the first browser which actually made sense; practical mouse gestures, backtracking via closed tabs "trashcan", ctrl-z actually works, speed dial, convenient keyword searches (use and creation of) and modifiable layout weren't a done deal in those days and neither are they now. It was and probably still is the most viewer/user friendly browser if you take advantage of these things.
Starting Opera 10 as a normal user triggers UAC randomly. Eventually I started to skip that by pressing ESC since it will still run the program normally. Hard to believe the devs caused that since Opera doesn't know how to seamlessly automatically update itself or inform you why UAC is needed and why you need to cooperate. Lots of Opera forum users sadly type their PW everytime Opera asks, many fellow forumers have no idea what's going on, so they're are just told to DISABLE UAC! Disable UAC because of malware --the exact reason UAC was created!
The devs screwed up royally and I've so far not found any workaround on their forums or elsewhere.
I just upgraded my Opera 10 installation; I have about 20-25 tabs that I start when I decide to check the internet; forums, blogs, email, facebook, etc.
Firefox grinds to a halt for about 10 seconds, and takes a total of about 20 seconds to render all of them, max CPU usage on my quad core is about 28% when I'm not doing anything else with my computer. Keep in mind this is with Adblock enabled.
Chrome maxes all 4 cores to 100% for a few seconds and then it's completely done rendering. No adblock.
Opera still only hits ~30% CPU, so it's not using much more than 1 core as well. However, it manages to complete almost as fast as Chrome. Not sure how they've managed this. Very fast I must say. And the interface doesn't grind to a halt like Firefox's, it definitely appears to be capable of prioritizing mouse-click events on the fly (to change tabs for instance).
All that said I still use Firefox on my desktop, and can't wait till they get true multi-core support.
Opera definitely has a chance on my netbook though.
What I always liked about Opera is that I can customize the UI to be whatever I want (in my case it's a modified version of Opera 7 UI and "Opera Standard" skin) instead of being stuck with Chrome UI (and Firefox, now that FF4 is copying Chrome UI). I have a big monitor (21", 4:3) with resolution high enough that I do not need to maximize the browser window (1600x1200) and I do not really care about saving 16 pixels by eliminating the menu bar or whatever. The menu bar (for example) is useful to me and I want to keep it.
I agree with you on the render time though - I don't really care if the browser renders the page in 5 or 4.9 seconds, as long as it does that fairly quickly.
And I don't understand why any sensible user would discriminate between browsers solely based on the license. Unless of course, you're of the same frame of mind as Richard Stallman. The truth is, the major web browsers have differences that have little to nothing to do with the availability of their source code. Want guaranteed compatibility? Use IE (closed source). Want a large library of extensions? Use Firefox (open source). Want a simple, no frills, fast browser? Use Chromium (open source). Want a little bit of everything? Use Opera.
Oh yeah, and don't mention about an open source browser being more secure. The closed source Opera has a consistently low number of vulnerabilities according to Secunia. Mind you, I don't actually use Opera these days. The thing easily goes over 100 MB in memory usage just after two tabs and it doesn't seem as stable as it used to be.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
If you are having problems with NoAds, it might be because it's not compatible with Opera 11 final. The last NoAds release dates from November 25. You can try this:
1. In Opera, paste in the address bar exactly this: opera:config#PersistentStorage|UserJSStorageQuota
2. Change it to 500 or more.
3. Save this new setting.
4. Install NoAds.
5. NoAds Preferences > Select a blocklist > Click save.
6. Restart Opera.
You may still see some ads. You can block them by clicking the NoAds button and selecting Block Ads/Elements
2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
xkcd link
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Extensions were nice when they first appeared on Firefox. Then they become a pain, causing all sorts of problems. Your Firefox is crashing too often? Try disabling the extensions! Your Firefox is eating up your RAM? Try disabling the extensions! Headache? Have you tried disabling the extensions? I really liked browsers who stand out of extensions bandwagon, but now it's really hard to find one: Chrome, Safari even Opera have them now. I don't need to change my Twitter status form the extensions, or to learn about latest whether updates. I usually use my browser to surf the web.
That's weird, maybe it is your version of Chromium? I've recently switched to Comodo Dragon thanks to Mozilla with their "don't care, won't fix" attitude with regards to low rights mode in Vista and Win 7. It is also based on Chromium, has all the "phone home" crap cut out, and as a nice bonus offers you the choice of using the Comodo secure DNS which black holes the IP addresses of malicious spammers, scammers, and other nasties. If you are on Windows I would heartedly recommend it, it is quite nice and Adblock for Chrome works beautifully.
As for TFA, while I wish Opera nothing but luck something about their UI has always struck me as being...off. I don't know how to describe it, my oldest loves it so every time a new one comes out I give it a try on his machine but just never have been able to "get" Opera. It always feels like I'm fighting the thing. Maybe it is just one of those "love it or hate it" kind of things with no middle ground. Frankly with Chrome and Chromium I have a feeling both Opera and FireFox are gonna be in for a serious fight, Firefox because of their "cross platform or GTFO" attitude with regards to codecs and low rights mode. I mean why should I risk my customer's security just so Firefox can sit on their high horse about an OS that doesn't bloody need low rights mode anyway? And as for Opera their big selling point was speed, which frankly IMHO is mattering less and less daily. Mozilla is gonna have crazy JavaScript speed in Firefox 4, Chromium based browsers are already crazy fast, really how much fricking faster can we get? You still have to depend on a person to push the button, which means my Dragon is already faster than this old greybeard.
And allow me to finish since I'm already in my old and crotchety mode, that FF and Opera speeding up JavaScript without increasing security by using things like low rights mode seems horribly irresponsible to me. I mean we see time and time again that "JavaScript malware o' the day" is quickly getting right up there with Adobe products on the list of "things to bite you in the ass" and just means by cranking the JavaScript to 11 you are gonna make the machine get pwned really really REALLY fast, which just doesn't seem like a useful feature IMHO. At least IE and Chromium based browsers like Chrome, SWIron, Dragon, all use low rights mode to isolate the browser from the rest of the system. It just seems to me as Windows 7 replaces XP with tech like UAC, DEP, ASLR, and file and registry virtualization, the browser by virtue of it being so close to "bare metal" with the net will become the #1 attack vector if it isn't already. Anything the browser maker can do that limits the ability to be attacked is great in my book. And I apologize if Opera managed to sneak low rights mode in, but after doing a Yahoo Search all I found was folks complaining about FF and Opera not having it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
But this is completely wrong, because Opera never had that "nazi like adherence." In fact, for many years they have very specifically and in no uncertain terms continuously stated that Opera was built from the ground up to be compatible with the real web. Opera was designed to handle the real web, in addition to supporting open standards.
Why shouldn't one point out who's the innovator?
Interesting discussion, by the way...
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