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Opera is a cross-platform Web Browser and Internet Suite which handles common Internet-related tasks including Visiting Web Sites , sending and receiving E-mail messages, managing contacts, Chatting Online , viewing Widgets , downloading BitTorrent s, and reading Newsfeeds. Opera's lightweight mobile web browser Opera Mini and most current versions of its desktop application are offered free of charge. Opera is Proprietary Software developed by Opera Software based in Oslo , Norway . It runs on a variety of Operating System s including many versions of Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X , Linux , FreeBSD and Solaris . It is also used in Mobile Phone s, Smartphone s, Personal Digital Assistant s, Nintendo DS , Wii and Interactive Television s. Technology from Opera is also licensed by other companies for use in such products as Adobe Creative Suite . HISTORY See Also: History of the Opera Internet suite Opera began in 1994 as a research project at , 2006 With version 2.0 the first public release was made in 1996. Due to popular demand version 3.0 was released for multiple operating systems in the end of 1997. Opera version 5.0 became Ad-sponsored instead of having a trial period. With version 8.5 the ad-banner was removed and the browser also stayed free of charge. In version 9.1, Opera Software ASA introduced a fraud protection by Geotrust and Phishtank. http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/910/, retrieved on December 21 , 2006 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Opera 10 will be based on a cross-platform experience which will allow the user to begin reading a web page on the desktop, then continue on a mobile phone or PDA. Opera 10 will also include tools that will provide a platform for developers based on open standards. Espiner, Tom " Opera reveals version 10 vision ", C-NET News, July 26 2006 The future of Opera is lying on three different code bases, named “Merlin”, “Kestrel”, and “Peregrine”Borg, Johan " Opera code names uncovered ," My Opera Community, February 16 , 2007 .. Merlin Merlin is the current code base used for version 9.0x, 9.1 and 9.2. It will see only minor feature improvements and mostly bugfixes. After 9.2 Merlin will no longer be used. Major improvements such as rendering improvements are not planned for the Merlin code base. A Merlin beta build with the new Speed Dial Browsing feature was released on February 28 , 2007 . In that same build Opera introduced support for Animated GIFs in Skins Opera Skins will support animated GIF images - Opera Watch . Kestrel Kestrel will be the code base closing the gap between Merlin and Peregrine, to be released as Opera 9.5. Opera Desktop Team blog entry on Kestrel. It will see some of the rendering improvements due to be made in Peregrine, and will also head to connect the Opera versions on different systems. It is neither clear right now if new functionality will be added with Kestrel, which are likely to be released soon. [http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2007/07/19/macification Entry on the desktop team blog , retrieved on July 23 , 2007 . As Peregrine builds are to be released in 2007, the first alpha Kestrel build was released on September 4, 2007. Kestrel will support many more CSS3 selectors, the text-shadow property, and bug fixes to standards support. The interface will undergo a few minor alterations, one of which is adding back in screen reader support. Opera's mail client, M2, will be updated, sporting brand new backend and indexing, and also fixing some outstanding bugs. Tim Altman's Opera Bits v5.0 , retrieved on April 14 , 2007 . Kestrel will also have the ability of online syncronisation of bookmarks, personal bar and Speed Dial settings using my.opera. Peregrine Peregrine is the code base which will see the most improvements. It will have new features, new rendering improvements, bug fixes and perhaps a new GUI. First builds are to be released in 2007. Peregrine will likely be named Opera 10. CSS3 support David Storey, the chief Web opener at Opera Software, has announced that there will be improved , 2007 . Additionally, there will be a new pseudo‐class called nth-child, which will, for example, allow an author to dynamically define alternating background colors for HTML/XHTML list or table elements without having to resort to the use of scripting languages. Support for the CSS2/3 text-shadow property is also planned for Opera 9.5. {Link without Title} FEATURES See Also: Features of the Opera Browser In addition to the Web Browser , the other main component in the desktop versions of the Opera suite is the Opera Mail client, previously known as M2 . Opera Mail supports regular POP and SMTP mail as well as IMAP . It also has an Address Book . Opera Mail also features a Newsreader and a Newsfeed reader for RSS and Atom , as well as an IRC client for online chat. Usability, Accessibility Opera was designed to run on low-end and small computers, with a commitment to Computer Accessibility for users who may have visual or mobility impairments. It also caters to a wide variety of personal preferences in the user interface as a Multimodal Browser .
Speed Dial Browsing Opera 9.20 has "Speed Dial Browsing". The "Blank Page" when a new tab is opened is replaced with a page with nine slots which the user can set to contain a webpage. This feature is based on the speed dial browsing in Opera Mini "Is that my blog on your Speed Dial?" (Article for the First Desktop Opera Build to contain Speed Dial Browsing) - Opera Desktop Team . Image Loading Opera has long had the option to load a page without graphics, or to use only images in the Cache . This was very useful when dial up via modem was the overwhelming method for using a web browser. It remains useful today with overloaded servers. This is the only browser with such an easy method of turning graphics on or off. Download manager Opera allows the user to list, pause, resume or restart the downloading of files. It also keeps history of recently downloaded files and allows opening them from within the browser. Opera 9 is also packaged with a torrent plugin, so BitTorrent downloads can be handled just like regular HTTP / FTP downloads. Opera can also be used with external download managers. Extensions Opera has been criticized for not providing an architecture to add application extensions to the browser, Why doesn't Opera support extensions? although it does support User JavaScript (including extensions since version 8. Those scripts execute when pages are loaded and are used to enhance site functionality. UserJS.org is the unofficial central repository for Opera User JavaScripts. Userscripts.org lists scripts designed for the Greasemonkey Firefox extension, but many of them also work with Opera. MDI and Tabs Tabbed Browsing with a true Multiple Document Interface (MDI) was an original Opera innovation in the field of publicly available web browsers. This means multiple web pages can be opened within the same application window and resized, moved, tiled and cascaded like normal application windows in the Operating System . Additional tab features include thumbnail previews for the page contained in each tab. Most modern browsers now offer Tabbed Browsing , but not all will use true MDI. A feature of Opera's tabbed browsing is that Opera can be exited and restarted with all tabs and windows and their navigation histories still intact. See Sessions below. Also, if a tab is closed accidentally its history has still been retained and the tab can be reopened using Undo( Ctrl-Z).In subsequent years the default settings have changed from MDI to the simpler concept of tabs. Since version 6.0, Opera offers users the choice of three modes: Tabs, MDI, and SDI (No tabs). Notes This built-in tool allows the user to copy and paste content into a text editor & archive. Clicking on the Note takes the user back to the web page from which it was originally copied. Pop-up blocking By default Opera blocks all unrequested Pop Up windows, but does allow the user to control their behavior in a variety of ways, such as forcing them into a background tab, or Caching for later viewing. Privacy control Opera can be configured to use Proxy Server s. It has an inbuilt Cookie editor and Cache viewer. Also, a powerful password managing tool called Wand is integrated into the browser. Search facilities Opera provides quick access to a variety of search engines and commerce sites, via the use of Search Plugin s. Many search plugins are included with the browser, but they can also be user-defined or installed from an external sources. Opera also allows a user to translate a paragraph or look for meaning of a word directly by a right mouse click. With the latest version of Opera, a user can have access to any search engine without opening the corresponding page. Right click in a search field and then use the "create search" option. The search engine will be listed in Opera in the future. Each search engine can have shortcut keyword. Typing in this shortcut keyword followed by space and search keyword into address field and going to that address will open page with search results of this search engine. Search engines that come with Opera by default have one character shortcut keywords. Sessions Opera allows the user to save a collection of open pages as a Session , which can be opened later. Saved sessions include the independent histories and settings of each tab and window, including scroll positions, and could even be used to transfer an entire session to another computer. Standards Since version 3.5, Opera has supported CSS, and , 2005 Up to 6.0 Opera supported most common web standards, Netscape plugins and some other recent standards such as WAP and WML for wireless devices, but its implementation of advanced ECMAScript (better known as "JavaScript") and the HTML Document Object Model was poor. Version 7.0 saw Opera undergo an extensive rewrite with the older Elektra Layout Engine being replaced with the faster and more powerful Presto Layout Engine . The new engine brought almost full support for the HTML DOM meaning that parts of, or a whole, page can be re-rendered in response to DOM and script events. This release also saw incorporation into Adobe Dreamweaver , for the rendering of web graphics. |
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