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Opera (Internet suite)

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Opera
Opera's Logo
Image:Opera Browser.png
Opera 9.0 under the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution showing the Wikipedia main page
Maintainer: Opera Software
Stable release: 9.02  (September 21, 2006) [+/-]
Preview release: 9.10 weekly build  (November 17, 2006) [+/-]
OS: Cross-platform
Use: Internet suite
License: Proprietary
Website: Opera.com

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, and online chat. It is proprietary software and closed source. Opera's lightweight mobile web browser Opera Mini and most current versions of its desktop application are offered free of charge.

Opera is developed by Opera Software, based in Oslo, Norway. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including many versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD and Linux systems. It is also used in mobile phones, smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants, game consoles and interactive televisions. Technology from Opera is also licensed by other companies for use in such products as Adobe Creative Suite.

Contents

[edit] History

Image:MulTorg Opera.gif
Main article: History of the Opera Browser

Opera began in 1994 as a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company. In 1995 it branched out into an independent company named Opera Software ASA.<ref>About Opera, URL accessed on 21 April, 2006</ref>

The Opera browser was, until version 2.0, called MultiTorg Opera and was not available to the public — although online documents show it at The Third International WWW Conference in 1995.<ref>MultiTorg Opera, retrieved on November 5, 2005</ref> It was known for its multiple document interface (MDI) and 'hotlist' (sidebar), which made browsing several pages at once much easier, as well as being the first browser to completely focus on adhering to the W3C standards.

[edit] Timeline

Image:Opera 3.62.png
Image:Opera-7-for-Windows.gif
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[edit] Future development

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Current event marker This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software.
The content may change dramatically as the software release approaches and more information becomes available. 		Image:Nuvola apps kpager.svg

Opera 10 will be the release of the desktop version of Opera that will directly compete with Internet Explorer 7 to gain market share. 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. <ref>Espiner, Tom "Opera reveals version 10 vision", C-NET News, July 26 2006</ref>

[edit] Features

Main article: 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.

[edit] 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.

  • It is possible to control nearly every aspect of the browser using only the keyboard, and the default keyboard key definitions can be modified to suit the user. The product supplies several popular styles of key mappings; for example in one, the keys for editing a form entry are similar to those of Emacs. Opera also implements access keys, which allow a computer user to immediately jump to a specific part of a web page via the keyboard. Opera was also one of the first browsers to have mouse gestures,<ref>Building a better computer mouse, Evan Hansen, October , 2002, retrieved on October 30, 2005</ref> allowing patterns of mouse movement to trigger browser actions, such as "back" or "refresh".
  • Page zooming allows text, images and other content such as Macromedia Flash, Java and Scalable Vector Graphics to be increased or decreased in size (20% to 1000%) to help those with impaired vision. User stylesheets may also be used to do this and to enable high contrast coloured fonts.
  • Voice control, co-developed with IBM, allows control of the browser without the use of a keyboard or mouse. It can also read aloud pages and marked text. IBM has a browser based on Opera<ref>IBM article on multimodal technology, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>.
  • A "Fit to Window" feature that relies on technology similar to Opera Mini's Small Screen Rendering (SSR), allowing websites to fit within a smaller screen without the need for horizontal scrolling.

[edit] Download manager

Image:Opera Download Manager.png 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.

[edit] Extensions

Since version 8, Opera supports User JavaScript extensions. 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.

[edit] MDI and Tabs

The Opera browser (version 9.0 Beta) with a customized interface and MDI

Opera supports tabbed browsing and has a true multiple document interface. 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.

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).

[edit] Pop-up blocking

Opera lets the user control whether web sites can open pop up windows. By default Opera blocks all unrequested popups but can work in a variety of different ways, such as opening a pop-up as a background window, or only blocking pop-ups when they do not result from a user action like clicking on a link. Windows that have been blocked may be later opened at the user's discretion.

[edit] Privacy control

Opera can be configured to use proxy servers. It has an built-in cookie editor and cache viewer. Also, a powerful password managing tool called Wand is integrated into the browser.

[edit] Search facilities

Opera provides quick access to a variety of search engines and commerce sites, via the use of search plugins. 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 future.

[edit] Sessions

Opera allows the user to save a collection of open pages as a session. This set of pages can then be opened later in a new Opera window or inserted into the current one. Opera can also be set up to start with the pages that were open when the browser was last closed. A saved session includes the independent history of each page and the settings each page had, such as scrolling position, images on/off, etc.

Each session is saved in a file that can be transferred to another computer via mail or otherwise.

[edit] Standards

Since version 3.5, Opera has supported CSS, and Håkon Wium Lie, one of the inventors of CSS, is the CTO at Opera.<ref>CSS: If not now, when?, Eric Meyer, June 1999, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref> 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 introduced the faster and more powerful Presto layout engine (Which is in Macromedia Dreamweaver which is owned by Adobe Systems to render web graphics). Opera introduced a completely new browser, which supports the standards of the older Elektra layout engine and has almost full support for the HTML DOM.

Version 8.0 introduced support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Tiny. This marked the first major web browser to natively support some form of SVG. <ref>Opera Adds SVG Tiny Support to Desktop Browser. svg.org. Retrieved on 2006-09-12.</ref> Opera has a presentation mode called Opera Show, which allows the use of a single HTML or XML document for large-screen presentations, and web browsing.

Version 9.0 is the first Microsoft Windows browser that passes the Acid2 test, proving robustness of its CSS and HTML implementation. This version adds XSLT and improves SVG to 1.1 Basic level.

[edit] Trash can

Opera has a "trash can" button which allows the user to retrieve a tab closed earlier in the same session. The list of deleted tabs is kept until the session is closed and can be used as a temporary bookmark during the session.

[edit] User defined themes

Image:Opera browser theme.png

Opera supports customized user interfaces themes, allowing users to change the location and style of toolbars, buttons and menus. A drag and drop functionality allows the user to easily place links and buttons on toolbars. Many user-created themes, ranging from color changes to OS adaptations can be downloaded and installed with a few clicks thanks to the built-in automatic installer.

[edit] New features in Opera 9

Image:Opera fraud protection.png

There are several new features in Opera 9. The most important ones are:

  • Simple BitTorrent client, targeted towards novice users.
  • Content blocker (also known as AdBlock).
  • Thumbnail preview of tabs (when hovering mouse over them).
  • Widgets - small standalone applications sitting on top of the browser.
  • Site specific preferences (pop-up blocking, cookies, scripts, user style sheets, user java scripts, user-agent masking)
  • The ability to create search engines from a textfield.
  • Improved rich text editing (WYSIWYG editor)
  • Redefined default hot keys to be more like Internet Explorer.
  • Fraud-Protection (Introduced in Opera 9.1) is real-time security. Opera tests sites, that you navigate to, against database entries to see if they are "Verified" or "Fraud". This feature is disabled by default.<ref>Opera’s new fraud protection to be off by default</ref>

[edit] Technologies implemented/improved

[edit] Opera for devices

[edit] Smartphones & PDAs

Image:Opera85 WinCE.png
Main article: Opera Mobile

Opera can dynamically reformat any webpage for narrow tall viewports, such as smartphones and PDA displays. This can also be used with Panels. The technology in itself is proprietary, but authors can affect how webpages look in SSR by using Cascading Style Sheets for the media "handheld". Mobile Versions of Opera which utilize this technology are available on a number of smartphones and PDAs, including those produced by Nokia, BenQ, Sony Ericsson, Sharp Corporation, Sendo, Kyocera, Motorola, and Psion.

[edit] Mobile phones

Opera Mini 2.0
Main article: Opera Mini

Opera Mini is a free compact browser for mobile phones and other devices that have Java ME installed. It uses Opera's servers to render and compress pages before sending the binary data to a small display program run by the phone. The method makes many pages mobile-compatible.

On January 1, 2006 Opera announced that Google will be its default partner for its mobile browser. <ref> Reuters: Opera Software chooses Google as search partner, URL accessed on 15 April, 2006</ref>


[edit] Nintendo DS

Main article: Nintendo DS Browser
Image:Opera-browser-Nintendo-DS.jpg

On February 15, 2006, Opera announced that they had developed a web browser for the Nintendo DS. <ref>Giving gamers two windows to the Web: The Opera Browser for Nintendo DS, URL accessed 15 April, 2006</ref> It will take advantage of the system's dual screens for either zooming in on certain sections of a website or having a longer vertical view. The browser has gone on sale in Japan on July 24 2006, for 3,800 yen. (32.15 USD). It has been released in Europe on October 6, 2006. So far no U.S. release date has been mentioned.<ref>Giving gamers two windows to the Web: The Opera Browser for Nintendo DS™. Opera Software (February 15, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-02.</ref><ref>Chris Playo. Japan: Nintendo DS Press Conference. Retrieved on 2006-04-02.</ref>

[edit] Wii

Main article: Wii Browser

On May 10 2006 Opera announced that it will be developing a browser for Nintendo's Wii console. "For our Wii console launch in 2006, we required a browser that was fast and secure with support for the latest standards including AJAX. Opera proved perfect for our purposes and is an exceptional addition to both the Nintendo DS and the Wii console," said Genyo Takeda, senior managing director and general manager, Integrated Research & Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd. <ref>Japan: Opera partners with Nintendo.</ref>

[edit] Sony mylo

On Aug 23 2006 Opera announced that it will be supplying the browser for the soon to be released Sony mylo handheld instant messaging / web browsing multi-media device.

[edit] Main Opera powered devices

[edit] Compatibility

[edit] Compatibility With Web Site Being Browsed

Common compatibility problems are caused by websites not following standards or using outdated methods for detecting the browser being used. Websites are sometimes tested only with Internet Explorer and fail to work correctly with other browsers.

To cope with outdated detection methods or poorly built websites, Opera enables users to change the information that is sent to websites to identify what kind of browser is being used -- known as the user-agent. In previous years, Opera came preconfigured to partially "cloak" itself as Internet Explorer, but still included the word "Opera" in the user-agent information allowing the browser to be counted in web statistics. As websites modernized themselves and Opera 9 became more compatible with IE code, Opera began to use its own identification by default.

Later versions of Opera offer more advanced methods of cloaking, such as the ua.ini file. The ua.ini file does not allow the user to write arbitrary user-agent strings, but rather it allows selections from a pre-defined range including Mozilla and Internet Explorer. If needed, Opera can mask completely as Internet Explorer or Mozilla, leaving out the reference to Opera in the UA string and Javascript objects.

While many early web sites tailored their response to a browser based on the user-agent string (often refusing to work with the browser at all if it did not identify itself as one for which the web site was designed), web sites today use more sophisticated methods to determine what software is on the client end. Simply claiming that you are Internet Explorer is no longer enough to get you into these websites. These techniques include testing for features and idiosyncrasies known to be present in the desired browser. Opera is often unable to pass these tests.

Version 8 of Opera introduced a further provision for dealing with faulty coding, by providing a set of scripts that can rewrite known broken pages as they are being opened. The closely-related UserJS (similar to Mozilla's Greasemonkey), allows users to run their own code at various times in the processing of a page. These techniques have allowed many popular but incompatible sites to be used fully with Opera. <ref>UserJS site</ref>

Opera periodically updates itself with the latest version of BrowserJS and ua.ini <ref>Opera employee Hallvord Steen explains Opera's work on compatibility</ref>.

[edit] Compatibility With Operating System

Opera is less compatible with open source operating systems than typical software on those systems because it is distributed in binary form. Open source operating systems are designed for software that is distributed in source form. Because it is so easy to recompile such software for slight variations in the underlying platform, open source operating systems tend to provide a wide variety of binary platforms. Different versions of Linux operating system, and different releases of the same one, may require slightly different browser binary files. For example, a binary built for Release 2.3 of the GNU C library will not run on a system that has Release 2.2. Opera distributes only a fraction of the number of binaries that would be needed to run on all the forms of Linux in use. By comparison, a browser such as Firefox, for which source code is available, can be easily built for and installed on all those systems.

[edit] Market adoption

[edit] Usage share

Statistics reference: Usage share of web browsers

As of October 2006, usage data gives Opera's overall global share of the browser market as being between 0.5% and 1.0%, although Opera's usage share is over 12% in Ukraine, over 9% in Russia, and over 6% in Poland and Lithuania.<ref>RankingCEE.com, URL accessed on 26 November, 2006</ref><ref>Yandex.ru, URL accessed on 26 November, 2006</ref><ref>Spylog.ru, URL accessed on 26 November, 2006</ref>

Since its first release in 1996, the browser has had limited success on desktop computers in the face of competitors including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Netscape. Opera Software has had more success in the area of mobile browsing, with product releases for a variety of platforms. There is not currently any substantial data on mobile browsing statistics (perhaps due to the tiny proportion of browsing that occurs on equipment other than desktop or laptop computers). Opera's availability on many platforms has given users access to a highly functional browser where this choice did not previously exist.

Novell distributes the Linux version of Opera (based on the Qt Library) with its SUSE Linux distribution. Prior to version 3, Xandros included Opera in its Open Circulation Edition as the default browser, but now distributes Firefox.

Available for Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite is an Opera version that comes on a regular DS game card, but with an additional GameBoy cardridge for extra memory that can be plugged into the DS's 2nd port. This will allow the Nintendo DS to access the World Wide Web. The Wii will also use Opera, which will come free with the console until June 2007, after that it will be downloadable using the Wii Points system. The browser will be stored on the Wii's internal flash memory.

Ubuntu is cooperating with their 6.x versions so Ubuntu users can easily download Opera 9. Gentoo allows users to download and install Opera using the Portage package management system.

[edit] Versions

[edit] Latest release versions

Note: The latest version number may differ between languages; these numbers are for the original English (US) version.

[edit] Preview versions

Beta releases for the desktop platforms (Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) are tested by a selected group of beta testers. Announcements of technical preview versions are posted on Opera's newsgroup, forums,<ref>Opera Beta forum, retrieved on October 29, 2005</ref> and the mailing-list, so the public can test and discuss new features. On 20 April, 2006, a beta version of Opera v9 was released.

The public beta for version 9.0 became the first Microsoft Windows browser to pass the Acid2 browser test.<ref>Weblog of Tim Altman, Opera employee</ref>.

[edit] Weekly versions

Since February 13, 2006, Opera has been releasing a new weekly build every Friday, and sometimes a "mid-week" build before then. Builds for Windows, Mac, and Unix variants (Linux or FreeBSD) are released. These weekly builds are available at The Desktop Team blog. They are more experimental than Technical Preview builds and should only be used for testing purposes.

[edit] Latest weekly versions

A list of all of the weeklies is available at Opera build releases

[edit] Criticism

Opera has been criticized for:

[edit] Bug tracking system

Opera Software has been criticized for not running an open-readable bug tracking system. This means that users are less likely to submit good (or any) bug reports - compiling a bug report can take considerable time and the reporter has no idea if they are wasting time because they cannot know if the bug is already reported. Further to is the "one-way street" nature of bug reports to Opera, in that reports are sent to, but seldom replied to or acknowledged in any non-automatic way by Opera developers. These criticisms were brought to the attention of Opera Software in January 2006 Slashdot interview with Jon von Tetzchner the CEO of Opera Software, however no change has been made to address these issues since the interview.

[edit] Website rendering

Opera has been criticized for different or incorrect website rendering. There are several reasons why Opera sometimes does not render a website as the others do:

It is notable in the face of criticisms of rendering accuracy, that Opera 9.0 passes the Acid2 rendering test by the Web Standards Project, which is designed to test compliance with the latest HTML, CSS and other web standards.<ref>Acid2 and Opera 9 Clarifications: Yes, Opera 9 Passes the Test. The Web Standards Project.</ref> Browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 do not pass this test.

The Microsoft-owned MSN website has caused several problems for Opera users:

In October 2001, the MSN web page was altered shortly after the launch of Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 to exclude other browsers, including Opera and Mozilla. Users were told to upgrade to Internet Explorer 6 in order to view the page. When asked why Opera was excluded, Microsoft claimed it was because Opera did not support the latest XHTML standard. Opera responded that their browser did indeed support the standard, and following the controversy MSN made their page accessible to all browsers.<ref>MSN.com shuts out non-Microsoft browsers, October 25, 2001, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref> <ref>MSN, Opera, and Web Standards by Hakon Wium Lie November 9, 2001, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>

In February 2003, Opera Software employees discovered that the MSN home page sent a different style sheet to Opera users than it sent to Internet Explorer. The two most popular browsers, Internet Explorer and Netscape each got a style sheet tailor-made to them. Opera, on the other hand, was served a generic style sheet that worked only in older Netscape browsers. Because Opera did not have the same coding, the page did not appear correctly.

The code to blame for the faulty rendering (which is a hack to fix an old Netscape bug) is this: 

ul {list-style-position: outside; margin: -2px 0px 0px -30px;}<ref>Why doesn't MSN work with Opera? by Hakon Wium Lie, February 2003, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref><ref>Opera cries foul against MSN--again, February 5, 2005, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>

Testing showed that Opera was served with this old style sheet only when it was possible to discern that it was Opera being used to fetch the page. If one used a user agent like oprah, one would get a more up to date stylesheet. Opera claimed that this was a deliberate action to discredit the browser. Microsoft denied the claims, blamed it on a coding error, and fixed it.

Regardless of Microsoft's claims, Opera went public with the story and created a "Bork" edition of their browser, which garbled www.msn.com into the speech of the Swedish Chef. Opera says that this was a joke to show how easily a web-page can be changed if one actually wants. In the press-release, they reiterated its mantra that the web should be open to all.<ref>Opera releases "Bork" edition, February 14, 2003, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>

Yet another incident occurred in May 2003, when MSN's servers caused users who had altered their preferred languages for websites to get a "server error" message. Although the error also affected users of Internet Explorer, Opera makes it easier for users to change languages, so Opera users were more likely to be affected. Opera supporters once again claimed that it was an attempt by Microsoft to discredit Opera. <ref>Opera wails about MSN problem, May 21, 2003, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>

Opera Software have cited the above incidents as supporting the theory that Microsoft has an anti-competitive agenda because Opera Software, as publishers of the Opera web browser, are a competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

In May 2004, an unknown entity made a 12.75 USD million payment to Opera Software. Opera CTO Håkon Wium Lie said the settlement "resolved an issue close to his heart," but no admission was made regarding who paid this money, or why. Many speculate that it was Microsoft paying to avoid embarrassment in court over the MSN issues.<ref>Microsoft behind $12 million payment to Opera, CNET, May 24, 2004, retrieved on October 25, 2005</ref>

[edit] Browser upgrade

Opera users must download a whole setup file for every minor release, where some other browsers have implemented incremental updates.<ref>Where is Opera’s Update Manager?. Opera Watch.</ref>

[edit] Functionality

Although Opera does not provide an architecture to add application extensions to the browser as seen in Firefox, <ref>Why doesn't Opera support extensions?. Opera Press FAQ.</ref> User JavaScript and Widget functionality have been added in recent versions.<ref>Take Control with User JavaScript. Opera Tutorials.</ref><ref>Opera Widgets.</ref>

[edit] See also

[edit] References

<references/>

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

Image:Wikinews-logo.png

[edit] Official sites

[edit] Unofficial sites


v • d • e</div>

Selected web browsers

Arachne · Camino · Firefox · Internet Explorer · K-Meleon · Konqueror · Links · Lynx · Maxthon · Netscape · OmniWeb · Opera · Safari · SeaMonkey · Shiira

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