New Opera 11 alpha snapshot. Big changes!

[ViperAFK]

This is a really solid build, no more crashes like the previous ones. Opera 11 is gonna be great.

[LiquidSolstice]

You can't get to this blog post without copying the URL and pasting it directly in your URL bar. For some reason it doesn't like being clicked on.

[Nagisan]

You can't get to this blog post without copying the URL and pasting it directly in your URL bar. For some reason it doesn't like being clicked on.

Clicking it works fine for me in 10.63, perhaps its a bug in the previous alpha releases (assuming you attempted it from a different alpha release build)?

[LiquidSolstice]

Clicking it works fine for me in 10.63, perhaps its a bug in the previous alpha releases (assuming you attempted it from a different alpha release build)?

Strange. As far as I'm aware I'm still on the same 10.63 stable @_@

[ViperAFK]

Been playing around with this build more and I am really impressed with the adressbar changes. Visually it just looks so nice and clean with the domain highlighting and the http replacement (implemented it a little nice than chrome, and looks clearer to new users) If opera had native menus (and some menu structure cleanup) It would definitely have the nicest UI out of fx 4, ie9, and chrome IMO.

Search suggestions have definitely been a long awaited feature that the competition has already had for a while. I like how they implemented it so it works in the addressbar when using search keywords (I use just an address bar like chrome is setup).

[LiquidSolstice]

Been playing around with this build more and I am really impressed with the adressbar changes. Visually it just looks so nice and clean with the domain highlighting and the http replacement (implemented it a little nice than chrome, and looks clearer to new users) If opera had native menus (and some menu structure cleanup) It would definitely have the nicest UI out of fx 4, ie9, and chrome IMO.

Search suggestions have definitely been a long awaited feature that the competition has already had for a while. I like how they implemented it so it works in the addressbar when using search keywords (I use just an address bar like chrome is setup).

I'm seriously considering switching to it JUST for those search suggestions (coming from 10.63 beta). Anything special I need to know before I do that? Clean uninstall and everything? Not too big on extensions yet, the lone ad-blocking extensions is very, very buggy and looks to be struggling to keep up with Opera's snapshots, so would I be able to stick with Fanboy's list in the same way I have it now?

[DrJens]

This is nice! I like the new address bar, it will help fight cyber crime against newbies (at least prevent a few incidents). The new visual mouse gesture helper will increase productivity, heck, I've been using Opera since v. 7, and I learned a few new short cuts as well!

A nice feature I would like to see is a highlighter. Just like a marker pen, it would be nice to highlight paragraphs, divs and what not, that will be remembered the next time you visit a page. This would be great when you compare information, following tutorials or doing school research. And of course a "paste bin" that would also link you to the original page.

All in all it looks like O11 will be a solid browser, and if they do the marketing right, I believe they can easily reach a 10% market share.

[dknm]

Looks great ! Once it gets out of alpha , I can look to replacing 10.63 :)

[ViperAFK]

I'm seriously considering switching to it JUST for those search suggestions (coming from 10.63 beta). Anything special I need to know before I do that? Clean uninstall and everything? Not too big on extensions yet, the lone ad-blocking extensions is very, very buggy and looks to be struggling to keep up with Opera's snapshots, so would I be able to stick with Fanboy's list in the same way I have it now?

Yeah I still just use fanboy's list. I haven't had to clean install opera like ever.

[eilegz]

Opera its such a great and lightweight browser, the addons its basic right now, kinda like chrome.

What i dislike somehow its that to change and customize the UI its not that friendly like firefox, i have to resort to alternatives methods, edit .ini and many things just to have a decent interface or at least what i like, but at least theres an option, the default ui should be a little bit more simple less buttons, and as i said before the tendency of copy chome with tabs above and now with the "simple" info url bar its good for new users but somehow i prefer to see the http, https, ftp and other things, if they can add the prefix and make it like firefox somehow it would be great.

my opera 11 interface

very classic, other thing that somehow annoys me and somehow chrome got it right and other browser should imitate its the limited use of aero and transparency, chrome interface only use few transparent element, but firefox and opera want its all interface be transparent, sure it looks cool but i find it hard and counterproductive.

anyways opera should have more marketshare, its a decent and fast browser, but i find so much hate and indifference for this browser, which its not justified.

[ViperAFK]

Opera its such a great and lightweight browser, the addons its basic right now, kinda like chrome.

What i dislike somehow its that to change and customize the UI its not that friendly like firefox, i have to resort to alternatives methods, edit .ini and many things just to have a decent interface or at least what i like, but at least theres an option, the default ui should be a little bit more simple less buttons, and as i said before the tendency of copy chome with tabs above and now with the "simple" info url bar its good for new users but somehow i prefer to see the http, https, ftp and other things, if they can add the prefix and make it like firefox somehow it would be great.

my opera 11 interface

very classic, other thing that somehow annoys me and somehow chrome got it right and other browser should imitate its the limited use of aero and transparency, chrome interface only use few transparent element, but firefox and opera want its all interface be transparent, sure it looks cool but i find it hard and counterproductive.

anyways opera should have more marketshare, its a decent and fast browser, but i find so much hate and indifference for this browser, which its not justified.

Opera had tabs on top before chrome was even idea. And IMO opera's interface is pretty customizable, certainly FAR more than chrome's, but not as much as firefox. Its pretty good at letting you move pretty much everything around.

[Pallab]

I'm seriously considering switching to it JUST for those search suggestions (coming from 10.63 beta). Anything special I need to know before I do that? Clean uninstall and everything? Not too big on extensions yet, the lone ad-blocking extensions is very, very buggy and looks to be struggling to keep up with Opera's snapshots, so would I be able to stick with Fanboy's list in the same way I have it now?

You can get search suggestions in Opera 10.6x also

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/google-search-suggestions-in-opera

[flexkeyboard]

Opera its such a great and lightweight browser.

Lightweight is an understatement, but I know what you mean. Because Opera (and also Chrome) use more cpu power to render objects faster. Thus making it feels speedy, but also at the cost increase cpu and memory overheads. Great for desktops, but a drain for laptops.

anyways opera should have more marketshare, its a decent and fast browser, but i find so much hate and indifference for this browser, which its not justified.

Same here, I love how Opera works since version 8. Too bad for them because if they weren't too anal about IE dominance they wouldn't get the hate rep they've got. Being a closed-source also doesn't help its adoption-which what FireFox and Chrome has enjoyed.

[PreKe]

Even though that 'badge' looks much like what Firefox and Chrome to an extend have had for years, but I'm glad it's in there.

Interesting... Do you have any screenshots of the "badge" in Chrome and Firefox you are referring to?

The blog didn't load in Opera but did in Chrome... and when it did in Chrome it loaded the Italian page (guess they rolled out the My Opera refresh today). Fail :p

Loaded fine in Opera here. Seems to be loading for everyone else too (otherwise they would be complaining about it).

Opera link doesnt do passwords, and isnt cross browser like xmarks.

Actually, it is cross-browser now. They published the API.

what?

the new address bar rocks!

I feel that it hides too much information. The "badge" wants too much attention. But at least I can change that setting to always show stuff after "?"...

[PreKe]

Too bad for them because if they weren't too anal about IE dominance they wouldn't get the hate rep they've got.

They weren't anal about IE dominance. They reported Microsoft's illegal activities to the authorities, with full support from Mozilla and Google.

Most people seem to ignore that part.

Also, why isn't Google getting a hate rep? Not only did they fully support the browser antitrust case, but they've also filed their own antitrust complaints against Microsoft.

I smell hypocrisy and double standards...

All in all it looks like O11 will be a solid browser, and if they do the marketing right, I believe they can easily reach a 10% market share.

If you count all their users (not just desktop), they have 7% already. 140 million Opera users, vs. less than 2 billion people online in total.

[Denis W. Veteran]

In my opinion, Opera's level of UI customization is a fine line between Firefox and Chrome. Firefox's UI is essentially a XUL document (I think) loaded by the browser so anything goes in terms of modifying its appearance. Chrome's default UI looks fine, but the UI is generally immutable unless you count adding extension buttons. Don't get started on its skins - and I honestly thought some Opera skins were the worst before Google came along and unveiled its themes gallery.

Opera's skinning system goes back years although its format keeps changing per major version, so older skins will still load but be intertwined with a mess of controls from the current Opera Standard skin and its own skinned controls. The current standard skin looks great, but they didn't design the standard skin to tolerate major deviations from its standard appearance without making the browser look ugly. For instance, try placing tabs on the left... you can see a visual disconnect between the tab bar and the 4 lower left controls. Turn on the menu and there's still an opaque gradient menu bar floating in the middle of glass (you can fix this with custom skins, but still...).

Loaded fine in Opera here. Seems to be loading for everyone else too (otherwise they would be complaining about it).

Yeah it loads fine now; I'm assuming they had a server-side glitch at the time I wrote that.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Lightweight is an understatement, but I know what you mean. Because Opera (and also Chrome) use more cpu power to render objects faster. Thus making it feels speedy, but also at the cost increase cpu and memory overheads. Great for desktops, but a drain for laptops.

Same here, I love how Opera works since version 8. Too bad for them because if they weren't too anal about IE dominance they wouldn't get the hate rep they've got. Being a closed-source also doesn't help its adoption-which what FireFox and Chrome has enjoyed.

On your first point: there was a test conducted that showed the opposite for your claims of using more memory overhead in the pursuit of speed.

For your second point: I think it was sometime around their press event last month that they said they would entertain an open source model in the future, but their current revenue stream coming from the desktop browser (mainly around the search engine deals with Google and Bing amongst others) prevents that from happening.

[sic133]

Loving Opera so far. Missing a couple extensions from FF but nothing too bad. I hadn't used Opera since at least version 5 or 6. Great development!

[progh]

I feel that it hides too much information. The "badge" wants too much attention. But at least I can change that setting to always show stuff after "?"...

opera:config#UserPrefs|HideURLParameter

[x-byte]

Great build. I guess they are nearing a beta release.

Lightweight is an understatement, but I know what you mean. Because Opera (and also Chrome) use more cpu power to render objects faster. Thus making it feels speedy, but also at the cost increase cpu and memory overheads. Great for desktops, but a drain for laptops.

Hmm.. Opera was really snappy on my netbook. Never heard of that before. Any source to back that up?

[-KJ]

It needs some small UI polishes, like the addressbar being 2 pixels too short against the buttons and the Open/Close Panel and View buttons sitting on the corners of the window are off by 1 pixel. :cool:

The addressbar arrow should have some more left and right padding so it's easier to click on.

--

BTW, I don't see this on http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog?

The latest article I see on there is dated November 15, but the one you linked to is November 17.

[Lovell]

hmm an annoying change though. if you double click the blank space to the right of the + new tab button of the tabs, it'll open a new tab instead of change from maximixed to windowed.

That's because it's a tab bar not the title bar, the title bar is now only the tiny bit you can see above the tabs, you'll have to click above the tabs for it to work.

[Nagisan]

BTW, I don't see this on http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog?

The latest article I see on there is dated November 15, but the one you linked to is November 17.

Are you sure you're not loading from cache? I see the linked article on the main page of the desktopteam blog, dated Nov. 17th like it should be.

[ViperAFK]

Lightweight is an understatement, but I know what you mean. Because Opera (and also Chrome) use more cpu power to render objects faster. Thus making it feels speedy, but also at the cost increase cpu and memory overheads. Great for desktops, but a drain for laptops.

[Citation Needed]

I haven't noticed opera/chrome using any more cpu than firefox or ie or draining the battery faster on my laptop... And using memory won't use more power unless its using so much that it starts swapping.

[HawkMan]

Opera does tend to use more cpu in short bursts than FF. however if you count total cpu usage, FF is higher. but Opera tends to use slightly more just when it loads the page. then it almost dies down completely whereas FF will have small peaks but will constantly use a mediocre amount of cpu. and thus consuming more total battery.