Opera 10 Beta 3 Revision 1701 Released

The builds of version 10 of Opera are flowing hot and heavy these days, with the releases coming almost too fast to check the improvements, and make note of any flaws. The changes are coming, we are told, due to the automated problem reporting, allowing the programmers at Opera Labs to get the bugs out that much faster.

Since I use Opera as my main (97-99% of the time) browser, and I have it running on several machines in my house, I tend to know what the problems are. I can’t say that anyone in the house has experienced a crash with any of the last 4 beta builds, so they certainly aren’t getting any information from my house. The only things I have observed are certain features disabled, from build to build, and a small number of niggling problems with how screen real estate is handled. I am one of those people who runs no program full screen on my computer, no matter the screen size, and sometimes, the zooming feature is a bit off, or the icons resize at strange times.

These problems are important, but nothing to get excited about, as they don’t affect the usage one bit. What has changed with this release is that Unite is not included, as it is still considered too rough for most to use. Though I would tend to agree, it might have been nice if we could have found this out before leaving the download site.

– Just a side note…I am really wondering why IE8 takes so darn long to start up. It is speedier than IE7 after it is pulled into memory, but the wait for the first pull up is ponderous and unending. Of course, the Microsoft line is that there must be third party additions to it, causing this plodding behavior, but, as I use it for nothing other than those contemptuous sites that refuse to follow standards, and nothing is installed whatsoever, that can’t be it. –

Also, the changes under the hood are promising a 40% faster result from the Presto rendering engine. I would have to believe this, as it is now faster than the revision 3 of SR Iron that I have on my notebook, along with Opera and, of course, the required IE8. I really could never use Iron, Chrome, or anything based on Chrome, full-time, until someone gets it through their head that having a drop-down history, accessible by single mouse click, is de rigeur for browsers. What pinhead thought that not having it was a good idea? Another target for hanging in effigy! However, the inclusion of themes to get rid of the obnoxiously bright blue that is standard is much appreciated - but back to the point of this - Opera.

The speed up is so great, and the stability so good, that any user of Opera should immediately abandon Opera 9.64, as it now begins to feel like IE in its slowness. Also, the feel of 10 Gold is starting to be there, but I wonder what will happen, as many sites are still going to report Opera 10, as Opera 1, and cause problems - that is why it is currently reporting itself as revision level 9.90.

As I finish up, I look at Iron, and Chrome, and see the things that have been nicked from Opera, along with the many things that Firefox has nicked from the Opera builds over the years, and still I can’t believe why people don’t give credit where due, and why Opera doesn’t own at least 10% of the market. Unbelievable.

Highly recommended for those who can leave preconceived notions behind, and don’t need to run with the crowd.

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Les Paul, innovator, inventor, guitarist

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