Opera 10.5 Released for Linux, Is Faster Than Chrome!

By , Published January 1, 2010

The Opera development team have given all Linux users something to smile about this fresh new years day – the Pre-Alpha of Opera 10.5!

Opera 10.5 Pre Alpha looking pretty

“Blazingly fast”
First impressions are pretty good because boy does this browser have speed on its side thanks to the new Carakan JavaScript engine powering it. A quick non-scientific side-by-side comparison of Amazon.co.uk loading in both Google Chrome and Opera 10.5 had Opera winning hands down.

It is blazingly fast!

Interface – Bye bye blocky menus!
As we mentioned in our previous article on Opera 10.5, the browser no-longer uses or relies on the Qt framework.

This is noticeable from the get-go on a GNOME desktop because it boots up with relative speed now it doesn’t need to call and employ an entire Qt library. UI wise it looks pretty good on my GNOME desktop given it’s just had Qt ripped from it’s skeleton.

There are one or two issues such as fonts look blurry and baldy rendered and menu’s disappear when using them, but overall it integrates quite nicely with GTK – and this integration will only get better during the development cycle.

 Sadly for KDE users, this pre-alpha only currently “draws” GTK for its interface, so you’ll be stuck with something resembling Opera via MSDoS via an etch-a-sketc. (It’s not that bad, honestly!)

 HTML5 Video
Opera 10.5 also includes support for the HTML5 video tag – which Opera themselves first proposed. The “video” tag on Opera lets videos use the native GStreamer plug-in set, so anything GStreamer can handle – so can Opera!

Sandwiching Gstreamer between the video itself and what you see also has an added benefit to end users – “improved responsiveness and audio quality.”


Opera:Cache – A new way to view
Also present is Opera’s spiffing new cache view – allowing you to browse, search and preview items on a “Per Site” basis.



Missing
Given the status of this release being not-even-an-alpha, please don’t expect this to be stable, feature complete or even pretty to look at. The standalone Opera Desktop Widgets we told you about a week or so ago, which are currently available with Opera 10.2, are missing from here (i.e. widgets close when Opera closes.)

Download
Opera 10.5 Pre-Alpha (boy am i sick of typing that out…) can be “got” @ http://snapshot.opera.com/unix/labs-6177/

Install
To run Opera, extract the archive and run ‘./opera’ from the main directory via terminal or just double click on the ‘opera’ file inside.

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Opera 10.5 For Linux Ditches Qt, Is Faster Than Chrome
  2. Google Chrome Beta Officially Released For Linux
  3. Opera 10 Adapts Flawlessy Into Gnome Desktop – Goodbye Ugly Opera!
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  • http://twitter.com/WolfHook Paul

    Opera are starting to win me over, the Mac version looks like an actual native application now instead of a Windows port. I am going to try and run this on my netbook.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      It’s a shame the fonts are so crumby for me atm because i really have a soft-spot for Opera.

  • Anonymous

    Hey d0od , I have a question for you. Do you know which article you posted recently contained a panel picture…? It was a dark one… I just can’t find it for the sake of me!

    Anyways, keep up the good work.

  • Anonymous

    how did you get the menus to be transparent?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I didn’t do anything to Opera, they just “respect” my gtk menus which are also transparent.

      if you’re using compiz you can enable transparent menus. Easiest way is via Ubuntu Tweak.

      • Anonymous

        my menus are transparent outside opera :S

        anyway, it’s not really an issue, i don’t use the menus that much

  • bhm

    How’s flash?
    Cannot check it out now, so I’ll ask you.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Oddly much much better than in Chrome!

    • Anonymous

      it works perfectly on my end And it uses less cpu somehow

  • Anonymous

    It has quite a long way to go, but it already looks awesome!

  • Mohan

    It’s definitely pre-alpha as there are many refinements to be done. But it does show where Opera 10.5 is going and I really like it!

  • Anonymous

    GStreamer? That’s better than google chrome then, which embeds its own ffmpeg… hmm!

    • http://the-art-linux.blogspot.com/ artoflinux

      it’s fast but still have a buggy :p

  • http://twitter.com/re5et re5et

    It isn’t open source though right?

    • bhm

      Does it matter?

      • Yfrwlf

        I’ll bite, regardless of whether or not that was a serious comment. Open source means more freedom, so yes it does matter, but if you just want to use what exists right now as it is, without doing your own things to it, etc, then no, right now for you it doesn’t matter. Just hope the company implements the things you want/like though in the future, because closed source has no forking, among many other things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software#Open_source_vs._closed_source

        I run both closed and open source programs, but the open ones are clearly better for me as a user of them as it means I have more freedom. :P

        That’s like someone at an amusement park asking someone else if it would be better if they were the owner of the park so they could do what they wanted. Yes, you can still ride the rides as they exist at the time, but you could do a lot more if you wanted to if you had more control. Even if they didn’t want to change anything, it means others can, and who knows if one of their creations might be interesting to you.

        • bhm

          So you are full time dev or experienced one, that modifies code every time he needs some function in the app.
          Otherwise do not sing about Open Source and how much freedom it gives. You are just repeating slongans from Mozilla..

          • https://launchpad.net/~flimm Flimm

            You don’t have to be a programmer to benefit from open source. Just off the top of my head:
            - you benefit from other people fixing bugs and adding features who aren’t in the core team. Example: because Chrome is open source, it got ported to Linux sooner rather than later as Chromium.
            - you can hire people to work on your pet issue or your wish-list, although, I admit, this isn’t as easy as it should be for individuals.
            - you can have more confidence in the security of the application, as the code can be examined by many people around the world, skilled and unskilled.
            - you can have more confidence in the future of the software, and avoid proprietary lock-in.
            There are also ethical arguments for keeping the code freely licensed, as the FSF has long argued, the simplest being: you should be able to do what you want with the software you purchased or obtained free of charge.

          • http://twitter.com/re5et re5et

            nailed it.

            the most important thing on this list for me is the security benefits of the many eyes on the code, especially for something as potentially dangerous as a web browser.

          • bhm

            Altho I agree, ask yourself. Do you directly gain any profit on this? No. Devs do.

            For security argument. True to a degree, you are not safer on the streets with people around you. Most valuable patches come from closed dev teams – hence SELinux.

            It’s all good to praise FOSS, but to a degree. Some people just repeat “Open Source, Extensibility, Secure” like a mantra. Just to sound techish. Fancy. Geeky. Without knowing what all of that exactly means to them as users of OS software, not programmers.

          • https://launchpad.net/~flimm Flimm

            I’m glad we’re agreed. ;)Do I directly gain any profit from a program? No. Who cares whether I profit directly or indirectly? I do benefit from it sooner or later.I agree that people should understand what they’re talking when they praise FOSS. But there’s nothing wrong with slogans. They’re catchy. And frankly, if people use open source software without understanding why, it’s not the end of the world.Personally, I’m not annoyed at mantras like “Open Source, Extensibility, Secure” (your words), because I understand what the mantra is summarising. The real issue is when real problems or issues with the software are ignored because of its free license.

          • bhm

            It wouldn’t bother me that much year ago. Hell, half year ago, but when suddenly “geek is sexy”. When Ashton Kutcher “is a geek” everyone seems to be catching on this. Slogans wear off, especially when repeated.
            Often great piece of software is ignored because someone just does not want to change habits. Argument brought up to the table is “It’s not Open Source”, often without knowing with what this means.
            Sadly those type of people are catching in while Linux and Open Source goes more mainstream. Guess, it’s price to pay, but still feels bitter.

          • Yfrwlf

            Like I said, even if you would not ever use a program outside what a closed source license restricted you in doing, it still effects you, because others having freedom benefits you as well as just you yourself benefiting from not having to deal with an abrasive, mean program (in the cases of DRM any way, tho not all closed source is DRMed of course). For instance, you often can’t modify, say, a game unless you have the kind of access that comes with open source programs. Otherwise, changing a theme or adding certain sounds or whatever is much easier, so that means if you like something, and someone else does too who knows how to modify something, they can do it, and you’ll both get what you’d like to see.

            Commercial software as well as open source software tries hard to cater to what users want. The difference is open source almost always will cater better since it can be directly modified without permission.

            Just like Microsoft wants you to use their OS even for free at the *very least*, because doing so makes it have more power over what developers are going to join together on programming, which in turn pushes their OS, just using open source software propels it as well. Even if you don’t file any bug reports, the fact you’re using it makes it more forceful, i.e. more popular, which means more attention from open source developers working for companies, working for free, and from closed source developers making extensions when and where possible, i.e. more attention from everyone. That helps the app and so good apps will prosper and have more potential to turn into even better apps.

            So, there’s some software ecosystem reasons why wanting something to be open source helps. Last but not least, this is a GNU/Linux/Ubuntu blog, and Linux is (mostly) open source, so reading “open source is good” comments shouldn’t come as a surprise.

  • Anonymous

    Its GTK integration is poor to be honest – it feels about as native as OpenOffice, which was beaten by the Qt4 version of Opera in some ways.

    But it’s a pre-alpha and Opera being Qt was a little inconvenient (I won’t go as far as annoying) so I’ll watch with an eager eye to see how it develops :)

    • hgeh

      You are joking about the GTK integration, right?

      You are aware that this is a PRE-ALPHA, and far from even being considered even half-ready? They haven’t even finished the GTK integration! This is just an insanely early preview!

  • Anonymous

    Cool, looks good – I’m excited for the alpha release, and whenever we get a PPA that’ll add it to the menu :)

    Of course, I could add it myself but… meh.

  • Chris

    Well, I wanted to give it an honest try, but it literally crashed and closed within the first ten seconds of using it, so I won’t be trying again any time soon.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1734060140 Anonymous

    OMFG. It is NOT faster than Chrome. It’s not even HALF as fast as Chrome.
    I ran the v8 benchmark suite, where the bigger the number the better.
    Opera 10.50 got 1454, and Chromium 4.0.287.0 (35422) got 3677.
    Please change the title.

    • Anonymous

      so maybe try sunspider not google v8, you will see difference

  • http://moondowner.wordpress.com/ Martin

    Is there a DEB package? I want to replace my Opera 10.10 with this one.

    • bhm

      I wouldn’t do that tbh.
      Deb files are just binaries with other files needed to run.
      Copy over whats inside package to /bin.
      Better off make ‘bin’ folder in your home directory. Unpack that tar file there, Then rename opera binary file to opera-prealpha and add launchers to menu or dock. You’ll have both stable and pre-alpha.

  • https://launchpad.net/~flimm Flimm

    Opera using Gstreamer is impressive.

  • Bob

    Can’t wait for the full release. Opera has always been one of my favorites and they just keep getting better.

  • Anonymous

    So, that looks lovely. But… the real, *pressing* question is…

    … where’s the PPA?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Funny you ask – Opera dev just posted this article answering your question ;)

      http://my.opera.com/ruario/blog/show.dml/6738551

      • Anonymous

        Heh I actually just tried it out myself. The fonts are terrible!

        I don’t think it’s faster than Chrome – it doesn’t feel faster. But not bad for a pre-alpha for pete’s sake :P

        I wait with bated breath.