Epic snapshots are epic

March 27, 2012 · by Aleksander Aas

What's a snapshot?

A snapshot is a preview of what we are working to implement in the next release of Opera. Our Desktop team tries to deliver one to two new ones each week. But since these previews are legendarily unstable, we release them separately through Opera Next.

What's new?

Today we saw another release through this channel. But this is no ordinary snapshot! It has so many features we have been waiting to show you:

Drag and drop
CSS animations
Updated CSS transitions
Out of process plugins
and 64bit support!

How's that for some serious updates?

The last points are especially important. Why is that, you ask? Well, the deal with the 64bit and out of process plugin stuff is that this removes the strong tie between Opera and plugins such as Flash. So whenever a plugin crashes (more frequent than you think) Opera will no longer die alongside it. Improved stability FTW!

To help show off all the new CSS magic included in this snapshot, we even got some brand new demos from the Opera Developer Relations team. Expect a lot more fancy stuff from them as we move towards our next release.

Get the snapshot now!

With so much awesomeness coming at once we really need your help to test the next version of Opera. Head on over to the Desktop Team Blog and find out more.

Readers' comments 15

Left under the original article, as archived.

KarenTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:02:56 AM
Epic.
MuneerTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:05:34 AM
http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2012/03/22/whats-new-in-opera-development-snapshots-march-22-2012 is 404

You did it on purpose !!! ?
SushubhTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:09:37 AM
Desktop Team Blog link is 404 as well.
Krzysztof HankiewiczTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:10:14 AM
You've got a typo at the end in the Desktop Team's URL (s/dekstopteam/desktopteam).
Robert JacobsenTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:10:15 AM
Originally posted by mha2999:

http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2012/03/22/whats-new-in-opera-development-snapshots-march-22-2012 is 404

Originally posted by Sushubh:

Desktop Team Blog link is 404 as well.

Originally posted by lordmorgul:

You've got a typo at the end in the Desktop Team's URL (s/dekstopteam/desktopteam).

Fix'd!
FreeBrainTuesday, March 27, 2012 10:11:43 AM
Great ! ... last link says /deKStopteam/... (sic) ... should be http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/
mubaidrTuesday, March 27, 2012 11:01:52 AM
John DoeTuesday, March 27, 2012 11:33:59 AM
stuff just got real

Nice job Opera team!
ClashCityRockerTuesday, March 27, 2012 12:05:30 PM
It's also worth mentioning that Opera is the ONLY 64bit browser that can use 32bit plugins....

Take than Google, Mozilla and Microsoft.
Charles SchlossTuesday, March 27, 2012 1:24:31 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Happy.gif -

testing
alex micuTuesday, March 27, 2012 1:48:45 PM
Pretty buggy, but I like it
d4rkn1ghtTuesday, March 27, 2012 3:50:55 PM
PeterTuesday, March 27, 2012 4:33:46 PM
Done.
Shane BundyTuesday, March 27, 2012 9:54:06 PM
Originally posted by clashcityrocker:

It's also worth mentioning that Opera is the ONLY 64bit browser that can use 32bit plugins....

Take than Google, Mozilla and Microsoft.
Let me think about that - IE can't, Firefox can't, Safari can't, Maxthon can't but Chrome can (on Windows, anyway). Yes, you're right; Opera is the the only one that can truly use both.
Cutting SpoonWednesday, March 28, 2012 3:42:31 AM
It can use 32-bit/64-bit simultaneously, even on the same page. The containers are separate programs which means that Opera can use one CPU core, 32-bit plugins like PDF/Flash can use a 2nd, and 64-bit plugins like Java/Flash(beta) can use a third. There should (eventually) be pretty much no lag caused by plugins anymore.