Rehearsing for Big Opening: Opera 10 Alpha
Opera measures up. With a new, faster version of the Presto engine and a 100/100 score in the Acid3 test, the browser might easily get under its competition’s skin.
Opera Software has come out with an alpha version of its Opera 10 that it's presenting to the browser world as a "preview". The alpha should give users a taste of Opera's new rendering engine, known as Presto and currently in version 2.2. In their press release, the company indicates that "Opera Presto 2.2 offers approximately a 30-percent-faster browsing experience as compared to Opera Presto 2.1, introduced in Opera 9.5 in June 2008."
Opera can also brag that it passed the Acid3 test with flying colors. It's easy to confirm the score by opening the Opera 10 alpha to the acid3.acidtests.org website, which will resolve to the page shown in Figure 2. Opera 10 also provides a spell-checker as you type and an auto-updating feature to the newest available Opera version.
The Opera developers, who are now expecting feedback for the alpha, are especially excited about users' possibility to render web pages supporting new technologies. Among these technologies are Web Fonts and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files for transparent graphics that have an additional alpha channel for RGB and hue/saturation/lightness (HSL). Not least of all, Opera's Dragonfly can inspect HTTP headers and edit Document Object Model (DOM) files to help in website debugging.
The final Opera 10 should appear in 2009, exactly when isn't clear. The alpha, intended for exploratory use only, is available for download here.
| Gallery (2 images) |
|---|
|
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.