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Software The Internet Upgrades Technology

Opera Goes To 11, With Extensions and Tab Stacks 296

Posted by timothy from the none-more-fat dept.
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."
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Opera Goes To 11, With Extensions and Tab Stacks More

Opera Goes To 11, With Extensions and Tab Stacks

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  • 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.

    • Re:All look the same to me... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18, 2010 @08:49PM (#34604018)

      Actually FF4 looks a lot like Opera. The big thing is Opera has always had a URL attached to each tab that is unique to each tab. Opera also added a menu button in the top left. FF4 has copied both of these to a point where it looks like exactly like Opera now.

    • Re:All look the same to me... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Nimey ( 114278 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @11:21PM (#34604802) Homepage Journal

      What? Opera looks nothing like Final Fantasy 4.

  • Only took seven years [opera.com], but now I'm using them and liking them. Would probably prefer them to expand vertically instead of horizontally, and while I realize it's a niche-request and might not work well in practice, I'd still like the ability to automatically redirect pages into groups using regex against title/url/whatever.

    • I haven't used Opera's tab stacking yet, but it sounds a lot like one of the features the Tree Style Tab [mozilla.org] 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.

  • 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.

  • Middle-click still buggy... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Cl1mh4224rd ( 265427 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @08:30PM (#34603898)

    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.

  • Liking it so far (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • So... when do we get noscript for opera?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Ant P. ( 974313 )

      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.

      • Noscript does a lot more than Opera's built in functionality.

        It is not difficult to find the FF settings - no more clicks than with Opera.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      It's part of the top most popular extension now:
      https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/noads/1.0.8/?display=en [opera.com]

      With the bonus of a one click install

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AaxelB ( 1034884 )
        That's more of an adblock-equivalent, and I found it lacking when I first tried it (I don't remember my specific complaints, and it may have gotten better). The more direct noscript-equivalent is "NotScripts" [opera.com], which is quite simple and works pretty nicely.

        • adblock for opera blocks no ads for me

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by surveyork ( 1505897 )
            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
    • Since the only thing I really never want and haven't been able to control using the built-in options, are those annoying ad-things which highlight words, I've been using a user-javascript in Opera [gazonk.org] with a hook to detect and disable them. Sure, I need to manually update it a couple of times per year, but no big deal. To use, find/set your user javascript directory under "prefs->advanced->content->javascript options" and just drop the file there.

  • Opera folks amaze me... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bogaboga ( 793279 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @09:08PM (#34604150)

    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.

  • Opera Graphic Acceleration (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ya really ( 1257084 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @09:26PM (#34604250)

    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.

    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 [opera.com] and a post by an Opera developer [opera.com]. 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.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Yeah, I love the search features in it as well. I noticed that google.com browser sniffs for opera and disables many of the newer features for their products in opera only (even if opera supports them, since their html5/css3 support is similar to chrome 7 and firefox4). Masking opera as firefox brings up instant search in google as well as their newer image search. Not that I really like either of those, but other people do I'm sure. However, their browser sniffing is less of a "screw you" to me and more of

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hkmwbz ( 531650 )

      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.

      In other words, "there's no hardware acceleration yet."

      I do get irritated by their efforts to keep up with Chrome's speed while screwing over long time users

      They are doing no such thing.

      Numerous bug reports on long time stable features and major regressions happen every time they release a major update for Opera and take months

  • Devs better have fixed the UAC problem (Score:5, Interesting)

    by vlueboy ( 1799360 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @09:56PM (#34604398)

    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 [google.com] and I've so far not found any workaround on their forums or elsewhere.

  • I don't understand why any knowledgeable user would want to use a closed-source browser nowadays. Any specific benefit Opera might have over another particular browser would be outweighed by the drawbacks, IMO.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by lyinhart ( 1352173 )
      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 littl

      • Richard Stallman's mindset may be overkill at times, but he's basically right. I don't want to use a closed-source browser for the same reason I don't want to use a closed-source OS, among other reasons.

        I think determining which browser is more secure is more complex than simply checking a vulnerabilities list. There are all sorts of other variables and factors that play into the number, which may or may not be representative of reality.

        Opera seems like a good bunch of people, so I'm not especially worrie

        • I think that Free Software is better in principle, in theory, and in practice. It's more future-proof than being locked-in to any company's closed-source software.

          I think that Free Software is better in principle, too, but I personally think that Opera as an application has better execution than most other browsers. I am also not too worried about future-proofing of a web browser for a number of reasons:

          • Opera has been around long enough to demonstrate they are not a "fly by night" browser. I trust tha

          • You have some valid points, but I completely disagree about the last one. A browser could do many things besides phone home in plain text. And all it'd take is one malicious employee or cracked Opera server to allow malicious code into the binary that might not be found for a long time.

            • Which could never happen with Open Source, right?

              Like, the recent discussion about compromised crypto functions in OpenBSD can cease NOW, because that's open source and malicious code would have been detected 10 years ago, right?

              Yes, in theory backdoors and the like COULD be detected more easily if the source is available. But the reality is that there is not a million people out there scanning all new code thoroughly.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hkmwbz ( 531650 )

        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.

        100 MB? Out of what? Let me guess, more than 1 GB? In that case, that's by design. It's supposed to use more memory to increase performance, if possible. It's pointless to have loads of RAM, and then complain that it's being used.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jgrahn ( 181062 )

      I don't understand why any knowledgeable user would want to use a closed-source browser nowadays. Any specific benefit Opera might have over another particular browser would be outweighed by the drawbacks, IMO.

      I'm knowledgeable, and I use free software *exclusively* ... except I also use Opera. The alternatives simply suck too much. Firefox still has the look and feel of beta software, and I'd have to go hunt for extensions for the features I need.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hkmwbz ( 531650 )
      Knowledgeable users choose the best tool for the task, and it doesn't matter if the source is open or closed.

  • Still won't scale to quad, X cores. (Score:3)

    by electrosoccertux ( 874415 ) on Saturday December 18, 2010 @10:43PM (#34604588)

    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.

  • Amazing how few of these comments discuss the topic, and how many go on about Opera generally.

    Anyway, I've wanted this feature for years, and this looks like it could be a decent implementation. I like the way the 'master tab' of a stack can be altered according to the last highlighted tab when you click "Tab Group" to stack them. One slight issue however is that it's hard to see which tabs are part of a group if the tab placement is vertical instead of horizontal.

    Time will tell how all this works in

  • Oh, noes. not extensions again... (Score:3)

    by Amiralul ( 1164423 ) on Sunday December 19, 2010 @03:05AM (#34605686) Homepage
    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.

  • (By a Chrome user, who also sometimes uses FF, Opera, and Chromium)

    -Nice menu. Press Alt to get access to the whole menu without it taking up a lot of space.

    -Quick preferences. The most used settings, accesible either from the menu or F12. Toggle Javascript with F12-J. You may not even miss NoScript.

    -Trashcan for closed tabs. Ingenious.

    -Thumbnail preview when you hover over a tab.

    -Fonts work right on Ubuntu. That's only true for Midori, Opera, and a 1 year old version of Chrome.

    -Easy on the CPU. Google Maps

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