Opera 10.50 Beta 2 Released

By Vygantas Lipskas | February 25, 2010 | 47 Comments

Opera 10.50 Beta 2 ReleasedOne more Opera 10.50 Beta has been released by Opera Software, as company continues to stabilize and improve web browser.

Highlights (changelog)
Skin work, and tweaked styling of internal pages (opera:* and error pages)
Improved opera:config
Improved overlay authentication dialogs to avoid spoofing
Context menu fixes
Basic Web Storage user interface
Lots of crash fixes
Widgets fixes

Windows users can download it from the following page, while Mac OS and UNIX enthusiasts will have to wait for a day or two.

Update: Mac build is now also available.

Thanks to Daniel Hendrycks for news tip.

[digg-reddit-me]


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas Lipskas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://www.pneumatig.com.pl pneumatyka

    Another version just released today (Win, Unix, Mac) with more bugfixes.
    It looks very awesome on XP. And works faster too. And besides there is new dragonfly build available with some new features (but still no css enable/disable :P)

  • nvm

    It’s a little bit faster than Chrome, but Chrome has a nicer default UI. I love minimalism, and Chrome is about as minimalist as it gets.

    Maybe I’ll give Opera a try if they go for an even more minimalist look. That third button with a key or whatever just looks silly and cluttered.

    Also, Opera still haven’t solved all memory problems in 10.5.

    • nobody

      it will slow down as code will stabilise.

      it is always that way, error handling and stability cost cpu cycles, so i presume both chrome and opera to slow down at near future. not that it matters anyway..

      what isnt fixed is still a very long list of mayor pages not working ‘as in ie6/7/8′.

      if opera aims for ballot screen users, they MUST be presented with the same experience, otherwise it is a gooner.

      and opera does not provide it, yet.

      and i still claim, that they will not make it with a polished, quality product.

      • nvm

        Why would Chrome slow down? It has only gotten faster since version 1. Your theory is just pure speculation and flies in the face of known fact. Just because Firefox is slowe doesn’t mean that Google have to send Chrome down the slow driving lane as well.

        Take off your Firefox fanboy hat, dude.

        Pages not working as IE6? Meh.

        • bingo007

          he was talking about opera.

          • nvm

            Nope: “i presume both chrome and opera to slow down at near future”

          • nobody

            yeah, both will slow down a little.

            opera as final approache, and chrome after ver 5 leaves ‘dev’ status that it currently has.

            it is always that way, the first builds are the fastests, but least stable, as more and more error scenarios are covered program slows down. a little, but inevitable.

          • Crackerflack

            nobody the Firefox phanboi can keep telling himself that browsers will be slower in the final version than in alphas and betas, despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

            He can calm himself down because his pet browser is being beaten to a pulp in the performance department.

            Poor thing.

      • Bemused

        “it is always that way, error handling and stability cost cpu cycles, so i presume both chrome and opera to slow down at near future. not that it matters anyway..” – What an amazing statement. You are directly arguing that browsers get slower over time. Oh dear. I think what you meant by your terribly miss worded statement is that they get slightly slower compared with early alphas/betas. So what? The comparative slow down is insignificant compared to the gain in say new engine and optimization. Do please post evidence if you can prove otherwise.

        • Bemused

          Oh, and do please post the long list of major (or “mayor” as you call it) pages that don’t work with Opera (10.10 obviously since its the final release, and no one expects beta versions to be finished in page rendering).

          Many of us eagerly await your list.

          • nobody

            gmail, google docs, yahoo mail, hotmail/live, facebook, deviantart, youtube quite large portion of bank sites.

            to go further, most RTF js controls fail in opera at one point or another – so no CMS support in opera.

            i know that you’ll load homepage of each and tell me ‘it works here’ but it is like closing your eyes and shouting ‘i cant see you so im invisible’.

            opera does not provide 100% functionality of these sites, some of them outright fail. if you dont believe, launch ff or chrome ans check these sites again. you’ll spot the differences.

            and NOBODY, seriously NOBODY cares if it is because of evil developers or santa claus. it doesnt work in opera. the end.

          • Bemused

            You’ve just stated a list of what doesn’t work on YOUR computer. We don’t know anything about your computer. For all we care, it might be corrupt.

            Unless you can give a list of how to reproduce any bugs you are worried about, and how they make a page “Not Work”, then unfortunately no-one cares, since all normal users who do a clean install will NOT experience what you are talking about.

            One can make any piece of software one likes “not work” just through user stupidity (for example installing beta builds over and over the top).

            At the minute, on clean installs in XP/Vista/7, all of the websites you listen work with Opera 10.10. Unless you can prove otherwise, your claims are worthless. Do please show us how one of these sites “outright fails”.

            I hope that opens your eyes.

          • RJF

            I’ve only been using Opera (10.10) for a short time now, but got an incompatibility warning on Picassa (although I’m not sure what exact functionality was impaired – I’d have to compare with another browser and I had no time for that)… then, I’m getting some warning messages about the font size (?!) whenever I’m posting on Interia pl message board (major news website in Poland)… I also frequently use Chesstempo (a website devoted to chess puzzles), and drag&dropping pieces doesn’t work correctly, whereas it does in other browsers.
            It’s surely not a big collection of samples, but I have only been testing Opera for a few days – and I had no problems with my favourite websites accessing them with Firefox & Chromium (SRWare Iron to be precise).

            I also think there was no good reason to pick on his spelling mistake Bemused – English isn’t the first language for all of us (me included) and not everyone has perfected it. Also it had nothing to do with the subject we discuss here, so this was neither relevant nor called for.

          • Bemused

            Maybe so, but as far as I am aware, all European languages require one to put a capital letter at the start of a sentence. There is no excuse for poor grammar.

            Anyway, my point still holds – “nobody” has yet to produce a list of sites that “outright fail” in Opera 10.10, so that the rest of us can reproduce this.

          • RJF

            Bemused I see no reason to burden myself with the task of compiling and verifying such a list. I have my own work to do, and we are not at court and there’s nothing to win :) It is more Opera’s problem than mine, or ‘nobody’s. I, for one, believe him, simply because my experience sort of supports his observations. I just gave a bunch of examples out of my personal, very recent experience and if you don’t believe it it’s perfectly fine with me.

            The point is that if users will be running into issues like they won’t be happy, and 99 times out of 100 they will not react by compiling a list of troublesome websites and tediously submitting bug reports etc. – no they will simply move on.

          • Bemused

            I think you are missing the point. “nobody” spends his time by commenting negatively on all Opera related posts on this site – if you don’t believe me, just have a look:

            http://www.favbrowser.com/opera-software-q4-2009-financial-results/
            http://www.favbrowser.com/opera-10-50-now-in-beta/#comments

            etc, etc.

            When called out on his claims, he never produces a shred of evidence, but consistently keeps bashing Opera with dubious and unsubstantiated comments. This lowers the standard of the comments section, and means potential readers can be confused into thinking that his claims (whether wrong or right) are true.

            I am aware of problems in Opera and many other major browsers (I develop for Firefox), but they are no where near as large as “nobody” makes them out to be. Which brings us nicely back to the important point:

            Where is this list of reproducible major sites that “outright fail”with Opera 10.10? I’m very curious to see these sites, so that I can laugh at my colleagues over at Opera as to how poor their work is.

            If he cares so much as to post on EVERY Opera related post with criticism, he can at least provide some evidence – otherwise his claims are just useless bravado.

          • nobody

            if it comes to not supporting claims with evidence you, Bemused or Thoe (or Purdi from opera forums) are the king on insubstance

            and you suddenly ‘develop for firefox’?

            or you have coleagues? real ones?

            it is opera’ problem and opera’ job to make websites work in opera because it is OPERA that looses money and users if something fails.

            if asked kindly, i’d maybe help opera, but asked by a troll, who refutes everything with ‘works fine here’ or ‘browser sniffing’ i couldnt give a damn.

            it is opera problem anyway, that people like haavard are paid to do. it seems lately that they prefer to pretend that bugs do not exist.

          • Bemused

            I genuinely hoped you would be more thoughtful in your remarks, but it seems that’s not the case (should really have known to begin with by the absence of any grammar in your writing – tell tale signs).

            I have coded for Firefox since 1.5, and as always, my opinions are those of my own and do not necessarily reflect that of Mozilla.

            By accusing me of being someone else (pretty easy for any intelligent user to verify that that’s not the case), you’ve just shown complete disregard for the question asked to you. Answer the question, as though Vygantas Lipskas asked you – otherwise no one will ever take your claims seriously.

            “trolling” – making provocative comments with no evidence to back up claims.

            You fit the definition perfectly, and I’m genuinely surprised Vygantas Lipskas has not banned you, since you completely degrade the reputation of his site.

          • nobody

            and your mozilla/bugzilla login is?

          • Bemused

            Is what? Sorry, I don’t understand your english, if one can call it that.

          • Bemused

            And may I remind you, you have resorted to accusations rather than naming any major sites such that Opera 10.10 “outright fails” . I’m still eagerly waiting.

          • nobody

            cheap.

            if you’ve coded for mozilla for 3 or so years (ff1.5) then tell us what your login on bugzilla is – it is all trackable. otherwise it is just hot air being wasted.

            list was given above – and you did with it that what i expected – told me that ‘my computer is corrupt’ and that there is everything okay while it clearly isnt. so why should i waste my time?

          • Bemused

            Not a single one of the sites you mentioned in your so called list “outright fails” in Opera 10.10.

            As soon as you post a list of major sites that do, as well as apologize for your rudeness, I will happily give you my login details.

          • RJF

            Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature does not work in Opera 10.50 final

  • RJF

    Opera users: how do you close tabs to the right in Opera?
    I’m really baffled. I gave this browser a go recently, but all I can see is “Close”, “Close All”, “Close All but Active”. Come on

    How do you create a mouse gesture closing all tabs to the right / left?

    • http://www.pneumatig.com.pl pneumatyka

      And this is, my dear children, an example of what should not be ever done.

      Browser is a browser my lad, and each browser have its own “style”, its own “image”, it own “look&feel”, and its own “philosophy”.
      Whatever you are trying to accomplish – never expect to find a browser what does everything the way You like it to do (unless you write your own of course).

      Now when we have this sorted out. Opera has “Windows Panel” – a great feature which can be used for moving tabs between opened opera windows, and manipulating them. Great feature with great possibilities.

      And mouse gesture, there is a one, complicated though, but should be simple for advanced browser expert like yourself.
      in Opera 10.5
      mouse to bottom left (panels icon), one click, move mouse to position with windows&tabs icon, click, find bold text, click it, then press & hold shift, and move mouse to position where is the last window you want to close (up or down), click it, then press del.
      Very powerfull mouse gesture – with simple modifications you can close like four tabs on the left, or five on the right.

      Mistaken, wrong tabs closed??? No worries, simply press Ctrl + Z, and Voila, recent window restored.

      Enjoy Opera, good luck with it, its a great browser, be patient, discover it, treat it good, and it will give it back :)

      • RJF

        ???
        I never claimed to be an “advanced browser expert” so this sarcasm wasn’t really necessary. I asked a simple question, in a place where I lurk anyway and where (unlike on Opera forums) I don’t have to set up an account etc.
        The gist of mouse gestures – Opera’s invention after all, and admittedly a good one – is that they’re very quick to perform, so your (and cousin333′s) solution doesn’t really cut it for me.

        “each browser have its own “style”, its own “image”, it own “look&feel”, and its own “philosophy”.
        Whatever you are trying to accomplish – never expect to find a browser what does everything the way You like it to do (unless you write your own of course)”

        Well: obviously, and I do have *some* beefs with every browser I tested – which is why I’m trying out different ones from time to time

        “Mistaken, wrong tabs closed??? No worries, simply press Ctrl + Z, and Voila, recent window restored.”

        Ctrl+shift+T in Chromium and Firefox. Yes this is another good example of a feature that should be a standard one. But if you prefer to use the trash can – the existence of a keyboard shortcut doesn’t stop you from doing so.
        Similarly, “Close tabs to the right” in the context menu wouldn’t prohibit you from using the windows panel with its extended functionality when you need it. That’s why I’m surprised it’s missing, as it normally comes very handy.

    • cousin333

      It looks like you want to banter with the Opera users…

      I don’t know any methods to do this. But, have no fear! Just open Windows panel on the side, and select as many tabs you want (with Ctrl or Shift), and choose Close – thats it! The items are aligned the same as the tabs above.

      It might not be a one-click task, but certainly doable. Or – forming the question otherwise – how can I close quickly every tab on the right of the actual except the last and the last but two if I’m not using Opera? :)

  • bingo007

    no crashes till now..UI doesnt seem much different.hope they bring some cool innovation with opera 11.i want 11 to be the perfect browser,if such a thing could exist.

  • Ichann

    These Builds are getting ridiculous. Every little thing they do is released. Yeah we get it you are trying to get it out for the ballot thing. But the sheer amount of snapshots Opera have released makes so much sense.

    Anyway I’m running Beta 2 (not the latest snapshot) and I have noticed the have raised the max connection from 8 to 16 and to 64.

    Also this build broke my z1-ten theme(one without the glass)

    • Crackerflack

      So you find Firefox, Chrome and Webkit nightlies to be ridiculous too then?

      Ask yourself this: Why wouldn’t they want to test everything they do? Why should they not do it if the development process is so fast and there are so many fixes all the time that releasing frequent builds is necessary to test everything?

      People seem to love frequent builds as well. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to get builds as often as they possibly can if that’s what they want?

      The only ridiculous thing here is someone crying over frequent builds when he can easily skip them!

  • nobody

    http://www.betanews.com/article/Is-Opera-105-ready-for-the-March-1-choice-screen/1267217114

    just read it, and tell me, do you really believe, that you can stabilise something as big as a browser in a week?

    i’ve been in it industry for 6 years now, and can tell you, that opera is 2 months too late for ballot screen.

    comparisons to vista in the article are more than valid.

    ‘perception is everything in this business’

    • nobody

      direct quote, that all opera fanbois should read, carefully

      Opera has come a very long way in a very short period of time. But as Vista proved, perception in this business is everything. If its engineers take the time they need to sand off all the splinters, this browser has all the ingredients it needs to dethrone Firefox, Chrome, and even IE in their respective categories of strength. This is the one that could actually do it. But if it’s rushed, and it premieres to the general public looking unfinished and cobbled together, those ingredients may go unnoticed.

      • Somebody

        I understand the points , but Opera has no other option. They have to release 10.5 by the time the Ballot goes live. Opera 10.10 is good but it isn’t special. Sadly, 10.5 is far from ready. But the devs have been working really hard and relentlessly. Hopefully, they can fix most of the bugs by March 1 and then fix the smaller ones in a subsequent release which can be pushed through auto update.

        • nobody

          Thanks for the only sane answer I’ve got here. It is hard to find sensible people around browsers lately.

          i know that they have to. i know the reasons, and i even can state, that it is most probably opera desktop be or not to be moment.

          there wont be any more ballot screens and free advertisements. chrome and safari became major browsers, and google has all the means (even the dirty ones) to promote chrome. they’ve played html5 video chaos card perfectly.

          now the average joe knows that ‘html5 video is good’. but is too stupid to understand that whole h264 debacle. and now we have youtube that is ‘cool because it supports html5 video’ and look, opera and firefox arent cool, because it doesnt work there.

          this alone makes chrome + and opera/firefox -.

          what i think opera could have done better was to drop EVERYTHING else for some time and concentrate on the desktop. i know the old song of ‘but these are different developers..’ but this is..

          bullcrap. mobile C++ programmer is perfectly capable of fixing small glithes in desktop C++ code. thats why you hire GOOD coders, to shift them in emergencies. and opera has good, very good coders.

          but they try to do 5 major things at once, and that led to few mobile tech demos and one half baked desktop. no final product :/

          and, oh. opera autoupdate doesnt work as smooth as firefox or chrome one, people will get mad about updated

        • nvm

          “It is hard to find sensible people around browsers lately.”

          Says the Firefox fanboy who thinks Chrome will magically become slower with version 5 despite only becoming faster and faster with each version…

          BTW, the ballot screen will be there for five years.

    • nvm

      Oh noes! A browser with bugs! What is the world coming to!

      That article basically says “heavy customization can break the skin”. Problem is, the people who will be getting Opera through the ballot screen are not going to do that kind of customization.

      Anyone can do crazy stuff in any browser and present those corner cases as evidence that the browser is “not ready”.

      Conclusion: Nitpicking on insignificant corner cases does not show that a browser isn’t ready.

      • nobody

        read the text again.

        you can see there the most unbiased and even opera friendly point of view from mainstream tech news site. others arent so kind or do not write about opera at all.

        they know that these ‘flaws’ are nitpicking (or papercuts). but opera aims to steal users that:

        -do not care about new features
        -do not care about html5 and all other new gizmos
        -do not have ANY problems viewing webpages
        -do not have ANY problems using plugins (flash, silverlight, -java, gears etc etc)
        -do not care about speed
        -are using ie7/8

        both ie7 and ie8 are almost papercut free. for them these ‘little problems are a complete disaster’ because they do not expect any problems of that sort.

        not mentioning that opera still has problems with pages like facebook (CMON!!!) gmail, live etc. first error on this kind of pages and goodbye opera.

        if you refuse to understand it, be it, fanboism has its rights, but do not try to look for worldwide conspiracy when this ballot flops for opera.

        • Bemused

          Do please answer my question above, I’m eagerly awaiting your reply so that I can bash my colleagues over at Opera.

        • Crackerflack

          Why do you always change the subject and never actually address other people’s comments?

          You did get the part where the article was based on advanced customization, right? Those “papercuts” are irrelevant and insignificant because hardly anyone will ever see them or even care.

          You are just a Firefox phanboi who can’t handle the fact that both Chrome and Opera beat Firefox to a pulp when it comes to performance.

          • nobody

            papercuts are just that. you can wlive with one or ten, but with 100 or 1000? no. pain will kill you, same as bleeding.

            opera UI has LOTS of them. most of them because due to lack of time opera’ new skin system is tweaked around one skin. all other are expected to fail, some of them fataly.

            and if you call ‘advanced’ customisation moving toolbars to acomodate widescreen laptop display, you are in for a shock how many people do that.

            youll cover your ears and shout lalalalala anyway, so im not going to cover other things.

            press will do that en masse in just few days, and the ‘antiopera conspiracy’ theory will rise again

          • nvm

            Oh no! Some Firefox fanboy who doesn’t even use Opera complains about trivial UI issues that won’t even affect anyone!

        • nvm

          Too much text for too little content, buddy. Way to be a good representative for the Firefox fanboy collective. Keep harping on those nitpicky details for Opera, and claim that Firefox will surely catch up with Chrome performance-wise because Chrome according to you will only get slower each time. Good job.

          • nobody

            excuse me while i ignore your general presence

          • nvm

            You do seem to have a tendency to ignore facts. I guess it must hurt to be a fan of the slowest browser (except IE).

            Chrome will keep beating Firefox, and Firefox will fade away into obscurity.

  • Grrblt

    10.5 RC has been released

    • nobody

      and this means that – willing or not – opera will try to release final tomorrow, to hit the extremally tight deadline of ballot screen.

      we will never know if MS did this release 2 weeks earlier than expected on purpose to kill opera, the only company MS fears (sarcasm)

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