Opera software releases today the new Opera 7.50 preview version for Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris (*nix), Mac OS X and Windows. Elsewhere, OmniGroup recently released OmniWeb 5.0b5 for testing.
Opera 7.50 Preview 4 Available
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Eugenia Loli
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Another preview version of the next version of this great browser, which I use as my main browser.
Browser wars was over when Opera 6 arrived.
However I wish they improve the default look and try to make things look less cluttered. Out of the box look/feel of v7 is terribly bad. But when the look is personalized nothing comes close.
I use Opera as my main browser since a long time…:-) It is really great..
Hi
Opera looks very cluttered and the installer is customisable to cherry pick just the browser instead of mail and irc and what not.
The browser wars are not over at all. With IE still holding the majority share.(ugh)
Firefox looks poised to take over
I’m still with 6.x until they put back some features they removed (explorer context menu on interrupted files in download manager for ex.,…)
:/
but i wish, they would make v7 so nice as v6 was.
i have now 7.50 tp3 on my linux desktop and the default look and feel is terrible.
i start to hate the to big pannel and the key mappings are killing me (ctrl + f3 should normaly show the source, but kde disturbs me in that).
i know, that you can customize it to the death. but why do i need to learn again how to tweak an application?
anyway… opera is an terrific browser and very fast. and mouse gestures in opera are very fast and sensitive. i like that. actualy it was the speed of the browser and the mouse gestures wich attached me to the opera browser.
nice to see, that they still manage to pack so much into serval megabyte and still be fast.
cheers
SteveB
“However I wish they improve the default look and try to make things look less cluttered. Out of the box look/feel of v7 is terribly bad. But when the look is personalized nothing comes close.”
With the Opera 7.5 previews, they de-clutterized the whole interface. It’s less cluttered than Firefox.
Hi
” It’s less cluttered than Firefox”
Yeah sure. Firefox has exactly 5 buttons on the toolbar. its contextual menu has 11 options and 7 options in its iconbar. You dont get a irc client and mail stuff.
can you tell me what opera does better in the interface as far as being cluttered goes?
This is my favorite browser ranking on a FreeBSD platform (On Windows, I still prefer IE, sorry).
#1 – Firefox
#2 – Mozilla
#3 – Opera
I liked a lot the 6 version of Opera, it was really nice, but the 7 version looks ugly to my taste.
The Yeti.
the new version 7.50 TP4 is faster then 7.50 TP3. it feels much smoother then the old preview version.
well done Opera! respect!
Hi
Yes. You are right yeti. opera is getting worse while firebird rocks
Even the preview is better than any other browser I’ve used. It’s stable and fast even with a large number of windows open and it’s full of unique features that I find really useful. The full release is sure to be fantastic.
I don’t understand why people complain about the look when you can change the skin and turn off the features you dislike with a few mouse clicks. After installing the latest preview took me two minutes at most to configure it exactly how I want. I like to be able to have multiple windows open on screen, so I love how efficiently you can use the available screen space with Opera. No other browser comes close.
Hi
Its stupid to say you can customise when the defaults are so bad
‘Its stupid to say you can customise when the defaults are so bad’
You may find the defaults bad, but judging by posts in the Opera forums other people are very happy with them.
No defaults are going to be the best for everyone. If Opera’s defaults were changed to meet your preferences then they would probably annoy 95% of other Opera users.
I use a very minimalist configuration with very little on screen, yet plenty of other Opera users like to have a large hotlist, personal bar and pagebar. They’re never going to be able to please everyone with the defaults, but I don’t see why it’s a problem when the configuration is so easy to change.
Personally I’d rather use Opera in it’s default configuration than Firefox, Internet Explorer, or any other browser.
they both seem pretty fast. ie seems slowest
Hi
”
You may find the defaults bad, but judging by posts in the Opera forums other people are very happy with them. ”
thats not good enough. you need to get the general idea. opera has decidely gone worse from 6 to 7. you cant choose not to install irc client or mail client. you will to play around with dlls to disable it which is pathetic.
look at firefox defaults to understand what is good
No defaults are going to be the best for everyone.
But I guess we all agree how tasteless the v7.0 default blue skin is. What about trying something less obtrusive? Like the Odyssey skin? It’s something almost anyone would be ok with. I think a lot more people who try Opera the first time like it then. Otherwise I have no problems with the default skin, it takes a few minutes to configure. But whoever I introduced Opera first gave the same reaction to its default tasteless look/design. That’s why I think a new user hesitates to adopt it. Apart from its skin, after first install it looks like it’s full of clutterware (what the heck is Super Search etc.?) with links to other sites in the Personal bar.
I love Opera and don’t even care about my skin (my Main and personal bars are off). Firefox/Mozilla is quite slow and gestures are nowhere as good (no two-button gestures). They also feel less polished and professional.
‘thats not good enough. you need to get the general idea.’
IME users are more likely to come to a software forum if they dislike something about the app and want to see it changed. Many of the posts are critical of Opera and complain about it’s bugs, yet there are very few posts complaining about the default settings.
‘opera has decidely gone worse from 6 to 7.’
In your opinion. Personally I think it’s greatly improved in version 7 and each new update is making it even better.
‘you cant choose not to install irc client or mail client. you will to play around with dlls to disable it which is pathetic.’
And yet it’s still significantly smaller than Firefox and much smaller than most other browsers. If you don’t like the IRC and mail clients just don’t use them, I don’t even notice that they’re there. What’s the problem?
‘look at firefox defaults to understand what is good’
Since I much prefer Opera even in it’s default configuration, I obviously don’t agree.
Hi
”
IME users are more likely to come to a software forum if they dislike something about the app and want to see it changed. ”
wrong. only those who want it to improve. decidely people who already like and use it to a extend
opera is supposed to be this customisable browser.it should allow me to not install an irc or mail client. there is no reason it shouldnt. just your excuses.
what kind of stupid skin is the default one. huh
I really disliked the initial 7.0.x versions of Opera myself, but Opera 7.2.x and 7.5 are really, really good. I can’t stand to use anything else now — FireFox is just so much slower, less configurable, and so unusable compared to Opera 7.23/7.5.
‘wrong. only those who want it to improve. decidely people who already like and use it to a extend’
People who don’t use it or don’t want it to improve probably wouldn’t have any real opinion on how to improve it. If the default configuration was such a problem more people would be complaining about it.
‘opera is supposed to be this customisable browser.it should allow me to not install an irc or mail client. there is no reason it shouldnt. just your excuses.’
Maybe it should be an option, but I don’t understand why you find it such a problem. As I said before, it’s still smaller than other browsers and the mail and IRC clients are practically invisible if you turn off the hotlist panels. Perhaps you should explain why you find this to be such a big deal.
‘what kind of stupid skin is the default one. huh’
A skin that can be changed in about 10 seconds if you don’t like it (and quite a few people do).
In the time you’ve spent here posting about Opera you could have totally customised it’s UI 10x over. To me this seems like fuss about nothing.
Yeah I agree. I loved 6.x then tried 7.0 and freaked out. It was too different plus decidedly flakey.
7.2 though recovered things a lot and 7.5 is just heading in awesome ways.
Not installed p4 yet but p3 has been great for me.
i’m curious as to what makes 7.5 awesome
Just a side note, after installing 7.50p4 on my Windows machine, I pressed the “Back” button on my Intellimouse Explorer and I could’ve sworn the browser loaded the page before I finished pressing the button…
Opera have stated in their forums that a new default skin is being designed in time for the release of 7.50 . There isn’t any point in discussing how good/bad the current default skin is any more…Opera has listened and they are going to change it.
In the four 7.50 previews so far, Opera have experimented a lot with the default GUI settings…they seem to be aware that the “everything including the kitchen sink” default is confusing and cluttered.
I haven’t seen anyone mention yet that everything associated with mail can now be disabled by clicking one button in the preferences. No need for any more complaining about the browser being bloated by including mail!
* There’s no longer a “default blue skin.” Of course the latest one is ugly too, but as someone’s already mentioned, Opera Software has listened and will be making a new default skin.
* In TP4, there are no longer maximized panels.
* As has already been mentioned, there’s one-click disabling for mail (IRC too?), though why anyone wants to disable a powerful mailer that automatically sorts incoming mail, does IMAP, etc., and fits in 100kb or less, I’m still mystified.
All in all, I’m pretty sure that no other browser has changed UI this rapidly in response to consumer demand, yet Opera has still managed to stay extremely fast and have the smallest download. And speaking of fast, the way mouse gestures speed up my browsing is great. I open mail with them, dump cache, open/close the pagebar and other UI items, with a split-second twitch of the wrist. Everyone who has tried mouse gestures in some other browser after getting used to it in Opera, raise your hands!
All those platforms being released at once? Thats wonderful, I remember when every non-windows platform lagged behind badly. Cool! I’ll have to download this sometime.
Opera is a great browser. If you take off the text labels from that ugly toolbar, it will look *much* nicer.
Firefox download: 6megs
Opera P4 download: 3megs
1 minute of tweaking, and Opera’s clean as a whistle.
Personally, I’ve set it up as favourite websites on the top toolbar. Then below, a few text-only buttons, address bar, google search and magnify.
Opera rocks! =)
Hi
USD 29.25 or adware
4.9 MB static rpm for redhat 9
firefox requires no tweaking, uses gecko engine and acts as a xul platform
Impossible to go back from Opera 7.5 to anything else once you get used to a few of its unique features. It’s been rock solid for me since 7.50p3 and I absolutely love it.
I agree, like most, about the default interface, but like a lot of people have mentioned, it only required a few minutes of tweaking to have a browser that acts exactly the way you want it to. I like forefox too, certainly better than crap IE, but Opera is my browser of choice and I couldn’t be happier.
As most have you have mentioned, the default is ugly has hell. It looks way too busy.
Although, Opera is very configureable. You can get rid of toolbars, you can get rid of icons, you can get rid of alot of stuff and make it more pleasant. You can pretty much configure it the way you want it.
The problem is that, I’m lazy. I don’t to spend an hour or more customizing the look of my web browser. It should be simple and clean from the get go.
I have yet to use the mail and chat features. To be honest with you, I don’t want them. I use a web browser for just that, web browsing.
I say all this, but you know what? Opera 7.5 is the only brower I have installed on my FreeBSD 5.2.1 box because it’s still the smallest, fastest browser around. Although, 7.50 is starting to get a bit heavier than it’s predecessors (i.e. the 6.0 branch). It’s still a good browser though, it rarely crashes on my machine. It’s actually pretty damn stable which I find very impressive. Javascript works well too.
Other than it’s default hideousness and it’s slight footprint increase, I have no complaints.
“opera is supposed to be this customisable browser.it should allow me to not install an irc or mail client. there is no reason it shouldnt. just your excuses.” – it is customisable – if the irc or mail client being there caused the browser to be slow or affected it in some other way then it would be a problem BUT as it doesn’t – its a bit of a petty whinge
what kind of stupid skin is the default one. huh ” – i can only understand this very petty whinge if you couldn’t change it.
“firefox requires no tweaking” – this is as a negative feature as it is a positive one, it depends what you want from your browser.
If you haven’t at least tried 7.50 P3, then you are missing out.
Opera set the target for all the other browsers to copy, which some have done. Each one have an advantage over the other for a specific useage.
Firefox is fine, i use it on windows at work because opera doesn’t allow me to log into the MS authentication annoyance. But Opera would be my preferred choice on any platform. Its very very fast and innovative and you can customise it if you wish
Although, 7.50 is starting to get a bit heavier than it’s predecessors (i.e. the 6.0 branch)… Other than it’s…slight footprint increase, I have no complaints.
True, Opera 7 uses more memory and is sometimes slower than 6, but it has vastly better support for CSS, XHTML, XML, DOM, EMCAscript etc. I almost never need to switch to another browser (ver 6 was another story) unless the page is specifically designed not to work in Opera. I think the trade off of performance vs support is well worth it and hope they continue supporting the latest web standards like CSS 3.
Also, try turning off the mail/news/chat client if you don’t use it: Tools -> Preferences -> Programs and paths -> uncheck Show mail client.