Opera for Linux 7.0 Preview 1 is out

lets see if its as good as the windows flavor

[amznVibe]

Opera just posted version 7.0 beta preview 1 for linux:

direct download link [web.opera.com]

let us know how it looks and feels eh?

other static and dynamic builds at: [web.opera.com...]

[tedster]

What, no linux folks have tried this? I'm very curious to know about this as I plan on creating a full non-MS system.

[dingman]

I'll get to it eventually, but it's not a real high priority as (1) Opera is not my primary browser on Linux and (2) I already have Opera 7.01 for Windows running just fine on Linux :)

<edit>1, 2, a, b, whatever... </edit>

[David]

I am not in a big hurry either, 6.3 did nothing for me and when you can choose between Galeon, Konqueror, Phoenix, Mozilla and more with out "adds" I know I will never use it.

I have recntly conveted to Mozilla 1.3b with xft support (from Galeon ) and the move has been good. :)

[amznVibe]

7.0, at least in the PC world, is a whole other animal than the 6.x flavor.
At least with rendering documents meant for IE, its incredibly much better.

6.x also could not change the document after it was initially rendered in any way. 7.0 changes all that.
I hope its just as powerful in the linux flavor.

I've yet to see a single review about 7.0 linux, so it would be (yet another) webmasterworld first.

[bird]

- It insists to start with a full screen window, and windows switch to full screen randomly once in a while.

- I really miss the "page info" window from Netscape/Mozilla. I haven't found an easy way to get a good overview about the meta data of a loaded page in Opera yet.

- Some preferences don't stick. I changed the search paths for plugins, and it just kept loading a very old flash plugin from one of the removed paths, even after a restart.

- No selective image blocking as in Mozilla for ignoring banner ads and counters.

- Couldn't find an easy way to check which cookies are currently stored.

- GIF animations either play all the time or never. Mozilla can let them play once, while preventing annoying loops.

On the positive side:

+ Can block automated popups now, while still allowing requested ones.

+ The GUI is generally very slick.

Looks like quite a nice browser overall, but Mozilla still has the better features for those who like to keep control of what they're viewing.

[amznVibe]

Thanks bird! Those were some good insights!

Since its practically an alpha release, I look forward to seeing what they can do in time...

you didn't make any comments about page rendering, performance and "accuracy" vs mozilla?

[David]

O.K. I went ahead and installed it on Redhat 8.0. In a few minutes heres a bit...
1.) It crashed just went away 3 times, when clicking on a link.

2.) Fonts are jaggy on the ui and pages are not real good either. I tried to find a place where I could set a minimum font size and didn't find it. Google serps are tiny. I see where I can change font for normal text etc. ,but in the past when I did that I was unable to render fonts the same when testing layouts between browsers.

3.) Images load incomplete sometimes gif and jpg. If I open the pref window and close it , I get a big white spot on the screen and have to refresh.

4.) Found a couple of dynamic pull down menus that did not work.

5.) A site of mine that validates both css and html that uses absolute positioning and turns visibility on and off via links. The links are dead can't click them. It might be the js or css and it could be the code isn't perfect but its the only browser that does not work.

I had three registered copies of Opera for windows and one for linux. I used it on linux for testing but I think the change from 6.0 to 6.1 was when it fell apart for me on Redhat. I installed the static (didn't try the shared this time) because I haven't been able to get the shared to work.
Stock Redhat box with gnome desktop.