Opera 10.50 - again the fastest browser

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    In recent days, even experienced Opera browser users have been amazed - five Release Candidate in one day! Although there is nothing to be surprised: it is no longer a secret that the new Carakan JavaScript engine is eight times faster than its predecessor, and this is the result - Opera assemblies flew out like hot cakes from the stove, still preserving the delicate aroma of fried keyboards. However, “Stakhanovism” will be enough - today the long-awaited final version of Opera 10.50 has gone on a great voyage.

    Contrary to established tradition, today we decided not to publish the next official press release on Habré - well, I'm tired, honestly. Anyone who wants to - will be able to read the original on the Opera Software website; whoever wants to, but cannot (in the sense of - in English) - will wait for publications in the press. And here today there will be a kind of improvised overview of the new version - it’s good to talk about something.

    Opera 10.50


    Figuratively speaking, we can say that this release "stands" on three pillars of three new engines - the actual browser Presto 2.5, already mentioned above Carakan and the graphics library Vega. It was the infernal mixture of these “ingredients” that once again allowed us to truly present something new - a browser that has no equal today. And this is not marketing bravado: there are fast browsers, there are functional ones, there are convenient ones, but so that everything is in one bottle, “out of the box” - only Opera. Well, let's see what it is. And we begin with what immediately catches the eye -

    Interface

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    As you can see in the screenshot, the interface has become even more minimalistic, removing almost all standard panels and browser controls out of sight. The reasons are clear: the era of netbooks and other pocket electronic trifles is not far off, which, due to objective reasons, require maximum space for displaying web page content. The tabs removed under the very roof also meet the same tasks (however, there is no reason to hide - a certain mod also played a role). A reasonable question arises: where now to look for all the usual menu items? And now you need to look for them under one big red button:

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    Moreover, to search - in the full sense of the word. The new menu system is completely redesigned, and, of course, now you have to relearn. Laugh laugh, but at first I spent a few minutes to find the function of viewing the source code of the page. However, with further use of the new menu, the logic of categorizing the options becomes clear and finding a familiar item is not difficult. Although in the future it will still be clearly adjusted in order to increase intuitiveness.

    One more step towards minimalism is the changed buttons on the address panel. Once the Opera's calling card, the Return and Transition buttons give way to multifunctional brothers: now the same button will represent different functions depending on the situation. It looks convenient and I have never had any discomfort while working in the browser - the buttons always offer exactly what I might need on this particular page.

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    Some elements of the interface are simply no longer possible to minimize further - but even here there is still great scope for creativity. In this case, in the direction of increasing functionality. In the address field, you can now (in addition to actually entering the address of the pages) not only search the Internet, bookmarks and history, but also edit the list of previously visited pages (those who have long asked for this feature - restrainedly rejoice).

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    The search field has not been without changes. In addition to external cosmetic edits, new functions appeared - saving the last three search options, as well as direct access to editing the list of search resources. Unfortunately, sorting is not provided. Till.

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    The tabs have changed quite significantly. In visual terms, animation appeared rather nimble (but not interfering with work) when opening / closing / sorting, for which thanks I must say to the Vega graphics library. In terms of functionality - again, a long and persistent private mode required by users. Despite the fact that such a “safe” viewing appeared in Opera as one of the last in comparison with other browsers, in my opinion it turned out to be more “advanced” than that of the brothers in the shop - the user can open a new private window (thereby completely separating The "secret" part of their work from the main session), and use only the private tab, "masking" it among others.

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    In general, since the last version 10.10, a large number of changes have occurred in the interface, but if you describe them all here, this will not be an article, but a real novel in several volumes. One support for Aero Glass effects (Windows Vista and 7) is worth it. But we will not dwell on the “little things” - it’s better to see what Opera has inside.

    Service functions
    Once upon a time in Opera, first “secretly” and then openly, a wonderful page of fine-tuning appeared - opera: config. Then gradually the family of these very “opera: xxx” has grown and now we see a whole bunch of convenient viewing and editing tools that are usually hidden from the user's eyes. But one cannot say that they are left unchanged: in Opera 10.50 this is especially noticeable.

    The same legendary page of thin settingsopera: config is gradually gaining new features. Judging by the screenshot below, soon we will be able to read the descriptions of each setting already officially (now many people use the tools developed by perhaps the most experienced specialist in refining Opera to mind - Lex1 ):

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    Also, many probably remember how many "kind" words were said to the developers after the disappearance of the extensions in the files in the cache. As it turned out, fishing out valuable information from this, in general, temporary directory turned out to be quite a popular hobby. Well, one more proof that developers are still listening to user requests is the new cached data viewer ( opera: cache ):

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    As you can see, now this tool is equipped with filtering and preview tools, which greatly simplifies the search for the necessary files.

    The tools for working with history are also slightly improved. Besides acquaintance with the chronological list of visited pages ( opera: history ) ...

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    ... you can search by keywords directly in the text of all pages you have ever visited ( opera: historysearch ):

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    However, much of the above has already been introduced in version 10.10, so it makes sense to dig even deeper - in support of various “tasty” and promising web technologies.

    Support for new web standards
    Yes, they are the most rounded corners. At first, they could only be seen in special "presentation" assemblies, and finally they got to the public version. Well, what can I say for a long time? That is something like :

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    No, I do not understand the charms of rounded corners. Well - beautiful, well - now it's easy to use them on web pages. In my opinion, the same background-attachment looks more impressive :

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    Yes, and with text-shadow you can do some pretty good things if you wish:

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    However, the most vivid pictures are still “live” pictures, some of which appear thanks to the video tag :

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    and the other part is thanks to the animated vector graphics :

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    You can learn more about web technologies supported in Opera 10.50 on the official website , and a lot of demo examples accompanied by source codes can be found in the developer’s articles .

    Well, that’s probably all. Not? Oh yes. Carakan. In fact, what about the new JavaScript engine? He sits to himself in the bowels of the browser, quietly and peacefully grinds all kinds of JavaScript ... Although why - quietly? Quite the contrary - very fast. How fast Yes, that's it:

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    As a conclusion,
    as I warned, the review is very cursory, otherwise a detailed description of all the innovations would have drawn to a weighty brochure. But even with such an introduction, it becomes clear that the developers have done a huge amount of work, creating a truly modern, fast and convenient browser. You probably guess what I'm getting at: yes, there are a lot of innovations, and where there are innovations there are bugs;) There is no other way. The developers already know about many “roughnesses,” but an order of magnitude more hidden flaws are still waiting for their discoverers. So let's take care of each other's nerve cells and just calmly send / receive bug reports. This is the surest way to make Opera's browser even better.

    Official Press Release

    Opera Download Page

    PS So far, only Windows users have been lucky - other versions of Opera 10.50 will be presented a little later.

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