Opera just released the first pre-alpha version of Opera 10.5. While most users generally only think about Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome as the major players in the current browser wars, there can be no doubt that Opera is working hard to push browser development forward as well. This latest alpha version shows that Opera has worked hard to speed up the browser. Carakan, the new JavaScript engine in Opera 10.5, is up to seven times faster than Opera’s current engine. The new version of Opera also adds a number of new features like an enhanced private browsing mode and a new graphics engine that can be hardware accelerated.
The new alpha is currently only available for Windows and OSX users; a Linux version will follow soon. Download links can be found at the bottom of this page.
New Features
New Features:
- private browsing
- better integration with native systems
- notification messages are now non-modal
- improvements to the search box and the address box
- new and improved highlighting
- new in-line page search and password manager
Along with the focus on speed – an area where Opera used to lead before WebKit-based browsers like Safari and Chrome became popular – the company also included a number of other enhancement in this early version of 10.5. Windows 7 and Vista users, for example, will notice that the browser is now closely integrated with the desktop environment and makes use of features like Aero Glass in Vista and Aero Peek and Jump Lists in Windows 7. On the Mac, Opera can now make use of multi-touch gestures like the three-finger swipe and Growl notifications.
Other new features include a new “private tab” and “private window” mode that actually works far better than similar features in other browsers. You just have to right-click on the tab bar and select “private tab” to start the private browsing mode in this new tab, for example.
Opera also updated the look and feel of the browser’s in-line page search and password manager.
It’s All About Speed
The focus for Opera, however, is clearly not so much on bringing new features to the browser (the current Alpha doesn’t even support Opera Unite, for example), but on testing the new JavaScript engine. When we spoke to CEO Jon von Tetzchner about the state of the browser during LeWeb earlier this month, he stressed that the company was very focused on improving the speed of the browser. He did say, however, that the JavaScript engine was only a small part of this effort and that the company was also looking at other bottlenecks that are slowing the browser down. The fact that that the new image rendering engine is already pre-wired for hardware acceleration is a good example for this (though the feature isn’t turned on yet). We will bring you more of our interview with von Tetzchner after the holidays.
In our own tests, Opera performed remarkably well and this new version clearly shows that it would be unwise to underestimate Opera in the browser wars. We should note, however, that this is still a very early alpha version and that the browser is likely to crash occasionally.
