Opera 10.50 - the fastest browser again

In recent days, even seasoned Opera Opera users have been amazed - five Release Candidate in one day! But why be surprised: it's not a secret for a long time that the new JavaScript Carakan engine is eight times faster than its predecessor, and that's the result - Opera assemblies flew out like hot cakes from the stove, still retaining the delicate flavor of fried keyboards. However, enough of the “Stakhanovism” - today the long-awaited final version of Opera 10.50 went into the big voyage.

Contrary to the established tradition, today we decided not to publish the next official press release on Habré - well, tired, honestly. Whoever wants it, he will be able to read the original on the Opera Software website, whoever wants, but cannot (in the sense of, in English) wait for publications in the press. And here today there will be an impromptu brief overview of the new version in some way - there is nothing to talk about.

Opera 10.50

Figuratively speaking, one can say that this release is “worth” on three whales of three new engines - the browser-based Presto 2.5 itself, already mentioned above Carakan and the graphic library Vega. It was a hell of a mixture of these "ingredients" and allowed once again to present something really new - the browser, which has no equal today. And this is not marketing bravado: there are fast browsers, functional ones, convenient ones, but Opera is all in one bottle, out of the box. Well, let's see what he is. And we begin with the fact that immediately catches the eye -
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Interface



As can be seen in the screenshot, the interface has become even more minimalist, removing almost all the standard browser panels and controls from out of sight. The reasons are clear: the era of netbooks and other pocket e-trivia is just around the corner, which, due to objective reasons, require maximum space for displaying the content of web pages. The same tasks are answered by the tabs that are removed to the very roof (however, to confess - a certain fashion 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:



And look - in the full sense of the word. The new menu system is completely redesigned, and, of course, now 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 the further use of the new menu it becomes clear the logic of the distribution of options into categories and finding the usual point is not difficult. Although in the future it will still be clearly adjusted in order to increase intuitiveness.

Another step towards minimalism - the modified buttons on the address bar. Opera’s once-so-called business card — the Return and Transition buttons give way to multi-functional brethren: now the same button will represent different functions depending on the situation. It looks comfortable and I have never had any discomfort while working in the browser - the buttons always offer exactly what I may need on this particular page.



Some interface elements are simply no longer possible to minimize - but here there is still a lot of room for creativity. In this case - in the direction of increasing functionality. In the address field, it is now possible (in addition to actually entering the page address) not only to search the Internet, bookmarks and history, but also to edit the list of previously visited pages (those who have long requested this function are reticently happy).



There was no change and the search box. 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, no sorting is possible. Until.



The tabs have changed quite significantly. In visual terms, the animation appeared quite fast (but not interfering with the work) when opening / closing / sorting, for which, thanks, you need to tell the Vega graphic library. In terms of functionality - again, a private mode, which has been persistently demanded by users. Despite the fact that such a “safe” view appeared in Opera one of the last in comparison with other browsers, in my opinion it turned out to be more “advanced” than that of colleagues in the workshop - the user can open a new private window (thereby completely separating “Secret” part of their work from the main session), and use only the private tab, “disguising” it among others.



In general, from the previous version 10.10 a large number of changes occurred in the interface, but if you describe them all here, it will not be an article, but a real novel in several volumes. One support for the effects of Aero Glass (Windows Vista and 7) is worth something. But on the "ryushechki" we will not dwell - better see what Opera is inside.

Service functions
Once upon a time in Opera, at first “secretly”, and then into the open, a wonderful tweaking page 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 at the same time it cannot be said that they are left unchanged: in Opera 10.50 this is especially noticeable.

The same legendary opera: config tweaking page gradually acquires new features. Judging by the screenshot below, soon we will be able to read the descriptions of each setting already officially (now many use for this purpose the tools developed, perhaps, by the most experienced expert in fine-tuning Opera to the mind - Lex1 ):



Also, for sure, many people remember how many “good” words were said to the developers after the disappearance of the extensions from the files in the cache. As it turned out - catching valuable information from this, in general, the temporary directory turned out to be quite a popular hobby. Well, another proof that developers are still listening to user requests is a new cached data viewer ( opera: cache ):



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

A bit improved and means work with the story. In addition to getting acquainted with the chronological list of visited pages ( opera: history ) ...



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



However, much of the above has already been presented in version 10.10, so it makes sense to dig 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 be seen only in special "presentation" assemblies, and finally they got to the public version. Well what is there to tell a long time? Something like this :



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



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



However, the “live” pictures remain the most obvious, some of which appear thanks to the video tag:



and the other part thanks to animated vector graphics :



More information about the supported in Opera 10.50 web technologies can be found on the official website , and a lot of demo examples, accompanied by source codes - in the articles of developers .

Well, on this, perhaps, that's all. Not? Oh yes. Carakan Actually what can be said about the new JavaScript engine? He sits himself in the bowels of the browser, quietly peacefully grinds all sorts of JavaScript ... But why - quiet? Quite the contrary - very quickly. How fast? Yes, that's so:



As a conclusion
As I warned, the review is very quick, otherwise a detailed description of all the innovations would draw on a weighty brochure. But even with this introduction it becomes clear that the developers have turned a huge amount of work, creating a truly modern, fast and convenient browser. Probably, you can guess what I'm getting at: yes, there are a lot of innovations, and where innovations are bugs;) There is no other way. Developers already know about many “rough spots”, but there are an order of magnitude more hidden flaws still waiting for their discoverers. Therefore, 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 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.