From all of us to all of you

December 22, 2009 · by Huib Kleinhout

A few weeks ago when we released Opera 10.20 alpha, many of you were asking for a test version of Opera 10.5. The desktop and core team have been working on 10.5, codename Evenes, for more than 18 months now. As a Christmas present, we're happy to share all the goodies of Opera 10.5 with Presto 2.5 with you in an early pre-alpha release.

Presto 2.5
Presto 2.5 includes several new features like CSS transformations, HTML5 local storage (and soon video). But most important of all, support for Carakan. Carakan is the new JavaScript engine that is completely written from scratch. Using a JIT compiler it is many times faster than Futhark, the javascript engine in 10.10.
Operas caching system has also undergone a major rewrite. A nice feature in the new cache system is opera:cache, which allows you to browse through everything that Opera has stored on memory or disk. But the new cache system is most importantly much faster. You should definitely notice shorter startup and shutdown times. M2 users with a lot of mail will in addition benefit from the mail database reading optimizations that have been done to speed up startup.
Another big technological change is happening in graphics rendering. In Opera 10.10, VEGA (Opera's vector graphics library) is only used for rendering SVG. In Opera 10.5 VEGA is used for rendering all graphics in Opera, including content on webpages and the user interface. Currently VEGA is a pure software rendering engine, with the possibility to add hardware accelerated back-ends in future releases. But the software rendering is incredibly optimized, which means that Opera 10.5 has very fast painting performance even without using hardware acceleration.

Platform Integration

If you're using Mac OS, you will notice that Opera looks a lot more Mac-ish. This is the result of some big changes under the hood. Opera 10.5 for Mac has moved to using the Cocoa framework, which makes it possible to introduce the Unified Toolbar, more native user interface widgets and support for Growl. Note that not all functionality has been ported to Cocoa yet, so some features (like printing) won't work and the performance isn't optimal yet.
Windows users will see some major visual updates too. Aero Glass support makes Opera 10.5 look nicely integrated on Windows 7 and Vista. And off course 10.5 support Jumplists and Aero Peek. To maximize the space available for webpages Opera does not show the menu bar by default anymore. All the menus are still accessible trough the Opera button

New and improved features

If you share a computer with other people, you might be interested in Private Mode. Contrary to other browsers, Opera make it possible to have both Private Windows and Private Tabs. You can also quickly close all private tabs and windows with a shortcut.

One of the biggest usability improvements in Opera 10 is the handling of dialogs. Most interactive dialogs will no longer block tabs or disturb your work flow. Tab specific dialogs (like javascript popups) are displayed as part of the tab in an overlay, so you can easily switch tabs without have to move or close the dialogs. Other dialogs, like find in page, are now displayed as toolbars on top of the webpage so they don't overlap the webpage anymore. Find in page also has improved highlighting of search results and finds results as you type.

No Unix … yet!
Don't worry, Unix users will not be forgotten. Like Opera for Mac, the Unix version will have some big changes under the platform hood: it will no longer be necessary to have Qt installed. This makes Opera for Unix much faster, smaller and easier to install. Naturally Opera will still integrate well with your desktop environment by supporting KDE/GTK skinning and show open/save dialogs that match your desktop. The Unix version of this labs release will be made available later.

10.2 and widgets
In 10.2 alpha we showed the next generation of our Widget implementation. This will soon be part of Opera 10.5 too. And with full focus on 10.5, there will not be new releases of 10.2.

Warning
This build is pre-alpha quality. It's intended as an early showcase for new technologies. It might freeze your computer, corrupt your data, embarrass you in front of your friends or worse. Don't upgrade your existing Opera installation with it.
Known issues: JIT doesn't work on CPU's without SSE2, printing and PowerPC are not supported on Mac, Memory usage can be high, Opera will regularly quit unexpectedly. Some features, like Opera Unite are disabled.

Download the build from Opera Labs

Readers' comments

Comments left by My Opera members under the original post: the first 50, as archived.

olli22. December 2009, 07:52
First!
Claudio Santambrogio22. December 2009, 08:00
Best!
Serdar22. December 2009, 08:01
Thanks
SerK6922. December 2009, 08:02
SonicGD22. December 2009, 08:02
Thanks!!!!

Guys, you are the best!

P.S. From Russia with love
Saya22. December 2009, 08:02
zoquete22. December 2009, 08:03
Will there be classic installer? :|

Will thre be linxu builds?
Mark Gillespie22. December 2009, 08:03
Excellent!!
Arguggi22. December 2009, 08:04
Thanks!

Downloading....

And merry Christmas and a happy new year to all the Opera Team.
Tri M. Nguyen22. December 2009, 08:04
Merry Christmas!
Galileo22. December 2009, 08:04
Ralf Demuth22. December 2009, 08:05
Thank you for all the macification fixes and Happy Holidays!!!!
zikzakatak22. December 2009, 08:06
Originally posted by olli:

First!

thats not fair

damn reload page button...
Alexander Remen22. December 2009, 08:06
Yeah finally out \o/
arghwashier22. December 2009, 08:08
No christmas present for us *nix users though
ruaman22. December 2009, 08:08
Helge Gjølme22. December 2009, 08:08
Great! It's out, now we can take xmas vacation or what Ruario?
Leng Chhay22. December 2009, 08:10
Toxigene22. December 2009, 08:11
Damn.. can't wait...
Brad22. December 2009, 08:11
http://digg.com/software/Opera_10_5_Pre_Alpha_Released

Digg it!
Sasquatch22. December 2009, 08:11
Like Opera for Mac, the Unix version will have some big changes under the platform hood: it will no longer be necessary to have Qt installed.

Does this mean that it can use both Qt AND GTK? That would be so sweet, finally real GTK integration. Makes us GTK users (Gnome, Xfce, etc.) a lot happier.

I'm waiting anxiously for the Linux build.
Harlekin MOND22. December 2009, 08:11
Thank you very much for your present ... but I can't test because Opera opens and crashes on iMac Intel Snow Leopard
Ruari Ødegaard22. December 2009, 08:12
Originally posted by zoquete:

Will thre be linxu builds?

Sure ... but more work is needed. Personally I blame the Linux testers!

Originally posted by helgeag:

Great! It's out, now we can take xmas vacation or what Ruario

Sure let's leave right now and go to the pub. Thought it might be a little early.
saito22. December 2009, 08:12
Merry Christmas to you all.
arekm22. December 2009, 08:12
"Unix users will not be forgotten." but are still treated as second class citizens :-( Shame on you!
ks32822. December 2009, 08:13
Finished downloading.
Now installing..
Justas22. December 2009, 08:13
Thank you!!
babox22. December 2009, 08:14
You are great!

Support for Growl ...that's incredible!, just yesterday I bought a Mac and I was thinking about it for Opera!!! Simply great!!
Logan22. December 2009, 08:14
Yes!!!
Mark Gillespie22. December 2009, 08:15
SunSpider (10.10 vs 10.50)

** TOTAL **: 7.67x as fast 5056.2ms +/- 9.4% 659.0ms +/- 1.3% significant

ACID3:

100/100
Failed 0 tests.
Test 26 passed, but took 131ms (less than 30fps)
Test 69 passed, but took 14 attempts (less than perfect).
Total elapsed time: 1.54s
zikzakatak22. December 2009, 08:15
i believe in Xmas again!!! hahahaha

now too much cafeine...
Pallab De22. December 2009, 08:15
Awesome! Can't wait to benchmark Carakan.
arekm22. December 2009, 08:16
"it will no longer be necessary to have Qt installed." - this also doesn't sound as fun - if this means that qt will be staticly linked then it's very disappointing in todays world. Unix people hate static linking and libraries duplication (whether on disk or in memory). If this means that qt won't be used at all then it's interesting...
Ruari Ødegaard22. December 2009, 08:16
Originally posted by arekm:

but are still treated as second class citizens :-( Shame on you!

Not really. UNIX received plenty of work, as much as any other platform but the hurdle was higher in that we stripped out Qt.
myownfriend22. December 2009, 08:16
I just ran Sunspider on Opera 10.5 and on Chrome and Opera was 400ms faster!
Pendarric22. December 2009, 08:17
Is there a classic installer available?

MSI is a non starter for me. ;/
arnaud lautier22. December 2009, 08:17
Double Click to close Tabs doesn't work on this build
Ruari Ødegaard22. December 2009, 08:17
Originally posted by arekm:

if this means that qt will be staticly linked then it's very disappointing in todays world.

It means it is totally removed and no longer required at all. Hence UNIX required a bigger rewrite than the other platforms.
zoquete22. December 2009, 08:17
Well, here is the classic installer:

http://snapshot.opera.com/windows/Opera_1050_3172_classic.exe

The title of the installer is Opera 9, due to it was not published 8-)
DrillSarge22. December 2009, 08:17
how do I get my bookmarks back? (yes I have a backup of them, but 10.50 doesnt care about bookmarks.adr file)

edit: I forgot: thanks opera for pre-christmas present
jajator22. December 2009, 08:18
looks nice,but gestures doesnt work :/ so im back to 10.20
Томица Кораћ22. December 2009, 08:18
I really really REALLY dis-like firefox-like password manager!
serious22. December 2009, 08:19
gogogo, want linux build

PS: backing up .opera dir should be sufficient, right?
Tamil22. December 2009, 08:20
Mark Gillespie22. December 2009, 08:20
1.18x faster than Chrome 4.0.249.43 (latest)
outofspace22. December 2009, 08:21
where i can turn off opacity in skin??
in my case it is impossible to work with bookmarks
I cant also add new languages to dictonary
Ruari Ødegaard22. December 2009, 08:21
Originally posted by serious:

want linux build

We'll get one out as soon as possible and I think you will like it. Removing Qt means we can support both Qt and Gtk styles natively! Woo Hoo!
zikzakatak22. December 2009, 08:21
Originally posted by jajator:

looks nice,but gestures doesnt work :/ so im back to 10.20

it's about carakan...

speed and few nice things...give it a try...
GeneralKane22. December 2009, 08:22
middle mouse button scrolling isn't working for me and mouse gestures are kinda buggy, uses wrong ones or ignores them totally
Stein7322. December 2009, 08:22
WOOOOOW... The new password manager will take a little bit of time to get used to, but I think I will love it. The new inline search is fantastic - and everything seems so much more integrated in the UI. Fantastic work. And no crashes so far