First look: Opera 10 faster with new features

[nsane.forums]

Opera has announced the release of the Opera 10 Web browser for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. Are the new features and performance increases enough to beat out other popular browsers? The answer: it depends mostly on your choice of platform.

New features

Opera has a history of introducing new features long before they become mainstream, and often failing to receive credit for doing so. Opera was the first browser to have tabs—now considered an essential part of any browsing experience on any platform—and also led the way in supporting mouse gestures for navigation. More recently, Opera invented Speed Dial—a way to display visual bookmarks in a grid when opening a new tab. This feature has since been copied by Safari 4. Some features, such as a built-in and fully integrated BitTorrent download client, have not yet been adopted by Opera’s competitors.

With Opera 10, it seems as if the company is slowly running out of new features to add. The new release mostly improves on existing capabilities rather than unveiling a dramatic new interface. For example, the browser now has system-wide spell checking (with dynamic red underlining) on all platforms, meaning Windows users no longer have to install the GNU Aspell plugin to improve their posts. The Speed Dial page is more customizable, letting users choose from a 2x2 up to a 5x5 grid and select a custom background image.

The most dramatic new feature is the addition of optional thumbnails for each tab. Opera already shows a large thumbnail when you mouse over a tab, but now in version 10, if you drag the bottom of the tab bar downwards, all open tabs will show dynamically-sized thumbnails. If you prefer, as I do, having your row of tabs on the right-hand side of the screen (this feature is especially useful on widescreen laptops), the thumbnails appear automatically.

The ever-present Search bar (it defaults to Google, but you can adjust this on the fly or by editing your preferences) can now be expanded by simply dragging its left edge. Curiously, there is no option to simply combine these bars as Google Chrome does, although if you type in a search query in the address bar you can scroll down to the last entry in order to search on that term.

Many of the improvements in the Opera 10 release involve the Opera Mail program, which seems like a very nice e-mail client for those users who want to get away from Outlook on Windows or Mail on OS X. One handy feature that is new to Opera 10 is the ability to select a webmail client’s Compose Message page as the default for new email messages.

Finally, as with all Opera releases, version 10 claims to offer significant performance increases over the 9.6 release. I did not have time to run comprehensive tests of all browsing areas such aors startup time and webpage loading times (Opera claims that version 10 is up to 40 percent faster on pages such as Gmail and Facebook), but Opera 10 did feel slightly faster than its predecessor in this area. What I did have time to test was a simple Javascript benchmark, and here it was possible to compare Opera with other browsers.

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[RadioActive]

I've always been an Opera user until I get fed-up with the incompatibility problems, many websites weren't displayed correctly on Opera so I moved on to Firefox. I never been a FF fan (still ain't) but I'm using cause it offers the features I need and the fact it's computability with the majority of websites.

Can anyone comment of the level of computability in Opera 10 compared to 9.X?

Currently there are 2 particular add-ons that I can't live out and couldn't find a similar alternative for Opera, they are Xmarks (online backup and synchronization of bookmarks) and LastPass (online backup of user-names/passwords and form filler).

Any idea if Opera 10 offer similar features?

[shought]

No idea about those features, I actually just installed Opera for the first time and I must say I'm pretty amazed, it does seem faster than Firefox to me ;)

[DKT27]

+1. Opera 10 has loaded the sites faster than FF 3.5.2. Astonishin. :think:

[donizme]

+1. Opera 10 has loaded the sites faster than FF 3.5.2. Astonishin. :think:

I read once a message from Mozilla that addons slow Firefox down. So try a clean install of Firefox verses Opera.

Although I was reading a review of Opera 10 Final where it got SunSpider Javascript Benchmark of about 6400ms compared to Chrome 890 and Firefox 1880 (lower is faster). But Opera CEO said that this was a bug in the SunSpider benchmark. Maybe he's right! :rolleyes:

[DKT27]

Well I cannot say anythin about java script. But I tested both back to back on the same reputed and fast site. And I got the results. I will have to try again with FF in safe mode to see that is opera 10 really faster than FF or I have made my FF slower.

[HX1]

I would actually say that 10 is a smiggin slower than 9.6.4 was.. I have thought several times about downgrading..BUT Javascript has always loaded faster in Opera.. I actually tested it on a Plone site.. works fast..

The compatibility has changed in the last two versions of Opera.. Ten I think remains fixed, yet incompatibilities will happen sometimes between languages, developers, countries.. just a part of web standards and peoples ability to validate pages and keep up with changes.. That is just going to be a part of it.. BUT like I said they have been less in the past two versions..

My FF3 still will smoke Opera..I have 32 Extensions installed, but on startup Opera is faster, I poll to 5 blocklists, and AccuWeather.com for a five day forecast and updates when I start my browser though, and Opera has no such thing..FF for me is still more bang for the buck.. but Opera has come along nicely.. I would recommend it as an additional browser, or if you simply need a browser for normal browser functions.. FF3 for me serves a little more than just a browser..

[DKT27]

On the last para, +1.

[WaKa WaKa]

I've always been an Opera user until I get fed-up with the incompatibility problems, many websites weren't displayed correctly on Opera so I moved on to Firefox. I never been a FF fan (still ain't) but I'm using cause it offers the features I need and the fact it's computability with the majority of websites.

Can anyone comment of the level of computability in Opera 10 compared to 9.X?

Currently there are 2 particular add-ons that I can't live out and couldn't find a similar alternative for Opera, they are Xmarks (online backup and synchronization of bookmarks) and LastPass (online backup of user-names/passwords and form filler).

Any idea if Opera 10 offer similar features?

Opera 10 have online synchronization (Opera Link). Opera will backup your bookmarks, persona bar, search, notes and speeddial.

[tonyblair]

I have three browsers on my desktop ( Safari, FireFox and Opera )

I use :

Safari        1%

FireFox      10%

Opera        89%

[halo]

ii stil preffer FIRE FOX,

[Lite]

Apparently Opera 10 has over 10 million downloads.

Blog Link

[Chocobito]

I'm a Opera user since version 6 and always when I try FF or other browser I miss so much Opera, specially the speed, and that all the feature that its have in-the-box without buggy extensions. ;)