I don't see any major bugs. MDI mostly works as it used to.

If you think it's unusual for a beta to not be feature complete, you certainly haven't used a lot of Opera betas

Opera didn't have a Windows look and feel before. It does now. What you are referring to as "Windows look and feel" in previous versions was nothing but a custom skin!

Actually, Opera does look much more like a native Windows application. At least if you are using a recent version of Windows. Get with the program, and get Windows 7. XP is dead.

As for betas being feature complete, you are wrong indeed.

You aren't supposed to install betas over final versions.

What makes you think it was released at the wrong stage? It seems to be just fine to me. Most people are praising it.

Opera 10.5 fits perfectly into Vista. But you probably switched off the default VIsta theme and enabled the crappy old 80s-style Windows design instead?

If you use the standard themes, Opera fits perfectly.

Previous Opera betas have not been feature complete. Check out Opera's very own version history document.

There are no badly broken features in this beta. "Obvious problems" are mostly minor ones.

With Windows native skin, previous versions of Opera fitted in with the UI whether it was in Windows classic, XP's teletubby default, the IMO ugly and distracting Vista theme, whatever.

"If you use the standard themes, Opera fits perfectly.

At the moment that loss is causing a lot of usability problems, at least for those of us who use some of Opera's most unique and powerful features.

I've used many previous Opera betas, had a look at that document, and I still think you're talking nonsense.

Tweaks and bug fixes - that's generally all that changes between beta and the final release.

There are one or two exceptions, but nothing compared with the amount of broken functionality in 10.5. There are past alpha tests have had far fewer major issues.

I always try betas of Opera when they're released, and this is the first one that I haven't been willing to use as my day-to-day browser.

To me MDI window management has always been one of Opera's most important features

In Opera 10.5 it's a bug ridden, barely usable, mess of broken functionality, no different from how it was in the pre-alpha, when those problems were first reported.

I disagree, but never mind. The "native" skin wasn't even standard. Now Opera actually fits with the default Windows theme.

Opera's MDI has always been different from everyone else. It isn't even proper MDI anymore (they have made a huge number of hacks to make it more SDI-like).

Just some examples of features added in final versions, not betas:

Dragonfly, cookie manager, fraud protection, NTLM support, User JS, password manager...

So what? You don't represent everyone else. Hardly anyone cares about MDI.

Nonsense. They have fixed a lot of MDI stuff since the pre-alpha.

Get with the program, and get Windows 7. XP is dead.

Oh man, you are so persistent

It behavior is different than current stable, and will be different then next stable, because some thing aren't right:

Why does it open tabs in new windows when I set it not to do so?

I really hope toolbar will have major polish, as it distracts from whole layout (Opera 10.10 balances fine between Windows/OSX look - but new beta brutally mixes them

The native skin was included as standard, it just wasn't the default.

with a few tweaks it's still a full MDI app, that works just like other proper MDI apps.

Change a few options and the 10.10 UI can work almost exactly like Opera 2/3 from 96/97, with all the same MDI features. Opera 10.5 is a big change from that.

The Dragonfly debugger is itself an alpha test of optional development tools - it isn't a core browser feature.

The cookie manager, password manager and fraud protection were added in 7.1 and 9.1 - updates to Opera which never had their own beta releases.

That doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of previous Opera betas were feature complete, without seriously broken functionality, and mainly just needed tweaks and bug fixes before release. You've just proven that point.

Exactly. And now the native skin is useless since they are moving to a standard skin which is even more native for the latest Windows versions.

Wrong. Opera's UI is not a native Windows UI. It's using their own cross-platform toolkit, which means that they had to emulate MDI. And while doing so, they added all sorts of hacks. Opera acts nothing like a standard Windows MDI app no matter what you dp.

"The Dragonfly debugger is itself an alpha test of optional development tools - it isn't a core browser feature.

"The cookie manager, password manager and fraud protection were added in 7.1 and 9.1 - updates to Opera which never had their own beta releases.

Again, you are wrong. And the fact is that MDI is irrelevant in the big picture.

Only if you use the latest versions of Windows and their standard skins, change that and Opera's default look doesn't fit in.

Opera 10.10 and earlier do not use a cross-platform UI - that's something Opera have added in 10.5 with vega.

Opera 10.10 and earlier do not emulate MDI, they are pure Windows MDI apps that can work exactly like any other pure Windows MDI app.

They have directly stated that previous Windows versions used standard Windows MDI, and that the change to the vega graphics library

This is the case because Opera 10.10 and earlier are standard MDI apps under their skin.

No, it isn't irrelevant, it's a separate, optional utility

No it isn't wrong. Look at the Opera version history that you linked. That makes it completely and unambiguously clear that those features were added in Opera updates, not features that changed between the beta and final.

All I'm saying - and this point is supported by Opera's history - is that their past betas were typically highly functional, more-or-less feature complete, and perfectly usable - with the major problems reported in pre-betas already fixed.

I simply find the fact that 10.5 is an exception to that rule very disappointing.

Wrong again. They rewrote the UI using Quick in version 7. They had to re-implement everything from scratch.

It was made part of Opera (there's UI in the actual browser) after a beta. Fail.

Again, you are wrong.

The idea that MDI window management had to be completely re-implemented, rather than using standard Windows MDI, contradicts recent statements from Opera staff. They've talked about Opera 10.10 tabs being true MDI child windows, with 10.5 the first time in Opera history that this isn't the case.

Whatever. I'd consider Dragonfly a separate utility and not part of the actual browser.

All new features that were added via point releases, after the .0 final, not after a beta.

No, what he's referring to is simply that the way Opera handles windows has changed.

It's part of the browser. It was added with UI and all, after a beta.

Again, wrong. They were added right into the final version, after beta.

No he isn't. Please work on your reading comprehension then take another look.

It's completely clear that Opera was an MDI app, with tabs generated as standard MDI child windows.

And that doesn't change the fact that it's still an alpha test of an optional utility for developers, not a core browser feature.

it's still one of a tiny number of features added to Opera between the beta and final

Yes he is. They were using Quick, not Win32.

Again, you are wrong.