Filed under: Freeware, Beta, Browsers
Opera 10 beta 3 speeds up, drops Unite, tweaks interface
Visual tab previews can now be displayed on the left or right - in previous versions, thumbnails only appeared if your tab bar was placed on the top or bottom. There's also an auto-updater built in and a better inline spell checker, thanks to the open source Hunspell project.
Gone from beta 3 is Opera's server-in-browser project Unite. Because it is still in the alpha stage of development the decision was made to deliver Unite as a separate download.
Beta 3 definitely feels faster than previous versions, though it still came up short in benchmarks like Dromaeo and Peacekeeper. With my usual set of half a dozen "core" web apps open, Opera initially used about 40mb memory less than Firefox 3.5. However, as I kept my session open usage continued to climb, ultimately peaking around 230mb (about the same as Google Chrome 3 on the same system).
If there's one thing that could ever get me to switch to Opera full time, it's Turbo. This weekend I spent 72 hours on an entry-level Xplornet KA Band satellite connection, and surfing with Firefox wasn't the most enjoyable experience. Opera 10 with Turbo enabled provided much more DSL-like browsing. If I ever wind up in a DSL-free area, Opera 10 and Turbo could easily become my browser of choice.
To take the new version for a spin on Windows, Mac, or Linux, head over to the Opera download page.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
homey said 10:34AM on 8-13-2009
Opera rocks! Can't wait for the final version.
The Turbo functionality really helps where in my country higher bandwidth doesnt come cheap.
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sida said 11:41AM on 8-13-2009
i like the new blue circle that pops up on a background tab when that tab is done loading
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blackloti said 3:14PM on 8-13-2009
They were red in the snapshots, but people argued they were in high contrast with the rest of the skin and were annoying. I liked them red, personally. Their point was to alert me that that task was done. Now that they're blue, they're too similar and I don't notice them.
comctrl6 said 4:04PM on 8-13-2009
Does it support Keychain integration on the Mac OS X yet? Chrome, which hasn't even been released yet support Keychain integration. Opera and Firefox don't seem to care much about that. That's why I'll stick to Safari and Camino.
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WolvenSpectre said 5:52PM on 8-18-2009
Opera Unite was never part of the beta, but it has its own parallel branch untill it is ready because like you said its in alpha development, but they want community developement to start now.
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Lee Mathews said 5:53PM on 8-18-2009
The beta I download from Softpedia prior to this build had Unite integrated. *shrug*
WolvenSpectre said 6:28PM on 8-18-2009
This is where the common confusion came in... Opera released a beta build and teased a big announcement "that would change the web". That was Opera Unite. A version of that beta with Unite in it was thought by many to be the next stable Beta Build.
The problem was it was just the platform for the alpha of Unite. If you went to Opera.com and downloaded the current beta it did not have Unite in it. This misunderstanding, or poor explanation, depending on whose point of view you look at it, didn't come to a big head until there was a new stable beta that didn't have Unite in it. because of this several people announced Unite was taken out of the beta, when you have to go to Opera's Unite Site or the dev blog to get the one with unite in it.
It is also supposed to be in a version of the nightly builds.
Users are already making community services and more are on the way.