5 Opera Tips and Tricks

Although closed-source, Opera was always a full-featured and powerful web browser with a very good support for Linux. Built using the commercial Qt toolkit and including powerful features like RSS reader, widgets, speed dial, tab previews (in the upcoming Opera 10), themes, BitTorrent client, to mention just several, Opera also offers packages for any popular distribution out there, including DEB, RPM or compressed .tar.gz packages.

For users who prefer to use Opera over Firefox, Konqueror or Epiphany in Linux, here are 5 tips and tricks which I could find useful.

1. Disable the system tray icon
The system tray icon can only be an advantage, but if you really want to disable it, just run Opera like this:

opera -notrayicon

That's it. You can edit the Opera menu entry or desktop launcher to automatically run Opera without the tray icon.

2. Make use of the powerful opera:config settings
Just like Firefox, Opera offers an opera:config window (just type about:config in the address bar), which is even more user-friendly. You can customise virtually any settings here, like, for example:

- BitTorrent configuration: you can change the upload and download speed limits here for BitTorrent downloads
- Colors: change the colours of the background, links, headers, highlighted background, and so on
- Fonts: select from a large number of fonts to use throughout web pages and Opera's user interface too (this can also be done via the Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Fonts option)
- Mail: change default external mail application

Powerful opera:config settings windows

3. Large tabs with embedded web page previews
A new feature in the upcoming Opera 10 is the ability to resize the tab bar, allowing you automatically preview web pages loaded in the respective tabs, without the need to mouse-over them:

Use large tabs to automatically see web pages previews

4. Make use of the powerful address bar
Opera features an address bar somewhat similar with Firefox's awesome bar. You can automatically search on Google for whatever you write in the address bar. For example, hitting Ctrl+L and typing 'opera widgets' will automatically search Google for 'opera widgets':

5. Use widgets to enhance Opera
One of the great features of Opera are widgets. There are widgets for practically anything, from production ones like Google Toolbar or Video Downloader, to the ones which can prove useful like the Analog Clock or the Weather Report. Widgets also include a large number of games, like Crossword or the aquarium simulation game SimAquarium. Even Opera.fm for Last.fm integration is available.

Opera widgets - a great way to enhance and extend Opera's functionality

Updated: August 11, 2009

Opera 10 Beta - Preview and Screenshots

The last time I had a look at Opera 10 it was in alpha state, meaning no new features were introduced, and only the rendering engine was replaced with a newer one compared to 9.x series. This first Opera 10 beta comes with various new features.

According to the announcement on the official website, the new rendering engine is 40% faster, the speed dial has been improved, the design was changed compared to 9.64, there is now a resizable search field, and a new browsing mode for slow connections, called Opera Turbo.

The first thing that jumped in my eyes was the new interface, Opera 10 beta using a blue theme, different from the black one used in 9.6x. Here's how it looks:


Opera allows now for tabs to be resized, and previews of the web pages loaded in them are shown in the tab space. Here's a screenshot to make this clearer:

Resizable tabs

Presto, the rendering engine used by Opera, has also been improved, and if we take into account what the official website says, it should be up to 40% faster compared to older versions. The Acid3 score for Opera 10 was maximum, 100/100, while Firefox 3.0 got 72/100 and Google Chrome unstable for Linux got 99/100.

Opera Acid3 Test - 100/100

The location bar (also called search field) can also be resized, leaving more space to the fast search box to the right.

Opera 10 has support for widgets too, just like older versions. Here's a crossword game, running inside Opera:

Crossroad widget running in Opera

As always, Opera provides packages for various Linux distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE or Mandriva.

Opera 10 beta comes with all the additional features its users are already used with: integrated BitTorrent, IRC and email clients, support for widgets, a sidebar which provides access to stuff like bookmarks or even notes. On top of this, Opera is highly configurable, allowing you to configure each and every aspect of it, from keyboard shortcuts to the user agent. Just like Firefox, it comes with an about:config configuration utility.

Opera 10 already looks very promising, and it's just in beta phase. Though closed-source, it always managed to keep its marketshare throughout the years, it provides very good Linux support (really, I don't know many - even open-source - projects who provide installation packages for so many distributions), it comes with Flash by default, and it's very fast at rendering web pages.

Opera 10 Alpha - Preview

Introduction
Opera 10 is the next generation of the popular, closed-source web browser built in Qt, and available on UNIX (including both Linux and FreeBSD), Mac and Windows platforms.

In this review I used the Qt 4 version of Opera 10 alpha, build 4102 (the .tar.gz package), but Opera 10 will be available using both Qt 3 and Qt 4 toolkits, so you can choose which one you prefer. I ran Opera in Debian Lenny (KDE 3.5.10) with all the updates to date.


Presto 2.2 engine
Opera 10 alpha is powered by the Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which, according to the website, should provide 'significant improvements in speed, performance and security'. Presto 2.2 also comes with improved CSS performance, web font support, and a score of 100/100 at the Acid3 test, where Firefox 3.0.5 gets 71/100 and Konqueror fails. Acid3 is a test page for web browsers which shows how much a browser follows web standards like DOM or JavaScript.


Impressions
At this stage, the interface is Nice Graphics by Flott Altså, the same one used in Opera 9.6, with apparently no changes. Currently, the alpha version does not come with Flash Player included by default. A bug I could catch was that sometimes when you click a widget (like the web pages scrolling bar or clicking on tabs) does not always work the first time you use it, so you will have to click it again. This happens completely random for me.


Regarding stability, I was impressed to see that Opera 10 is pretty stable, even though it's still in alpha stage. No crashes occured while I used it for this review.

Currently Opera 10 does not include new features (except for the Presto engine), but these will be added pretty soon when it gets into beta phase.

Conclusion
There isn't much to say about Opera 10 alpha at this time, expect for the major change with the new version of the rendering engine. I truly hope for a stable release on Linux rather than lots of new features, since I already consider Opera full-featured, coming with an IRC client, BitTorrent client, widgets, great-looking, customisable themes, these being just a few.

Opera 9.61 Released

Opera 9.61, a security fix release for the 9.60 stable version, was released yesterday, October 21, 2008. This security release fixes several problems concerning the user interface as well as a few other security bugs. The full changelog is available here.

Opera is a closed-source, full-featured web browser for both Linux and Windows, built in Qt 3, which also includes an IRC client and a BitTorrent client. Each release is packaged for all the major distributions, like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Mandriva, SuSE, Slackware or MEPIS.

To install it on Debian or Ubuntu, download the DEB package from their official website, here, and use:

In Debian:

su
dpkg -i opera_9.61.2456.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

In Ubuntu:

sudo dpkg -i opera_9.61.2456.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

With your user's password.

Opera 9.60 Review - Awesomeness, Great Features and a Few Annoying Crashes

I must say that I think Opera is doing a great job supporting its browser on Linux. Even though it's closed-source, it's still one of the most powerful web browsers out there, and each release comes with packages for every major distribution out there.

One of the differences I noticed between Opera and Firefox or Konqueror is how fast it scrolls web pages containing Flash content, and not only those. Scrolling does not lag behind how it lags on pages like Digg.com with Konqueror 3.5.9 or YouTube with Firefox. At this chapter at least, Opera is way more fast, browsing and scrolling giving a real speed and a smooth impression over other browsers.

Opera 9.60

The interface didn't change much since the last stable release, 9.52. It's still black and in my opinion it looks just awesome. Opera is built in Qt 3.3.8b, the commercial edition.

The search bar

Opera's rendering engine, Presto, performs very well displaying fast and pretty accurate any web page I tested.

Among the new features this release comes are several improvements in Opera Link, which is a service which lets you synchronise bookmarks, speed dial, notes and other data from Opera with other computers or mobile phones. Version 9.60 also comes with several changes at the Opera Mail client, like the feed preview, which allows you to preview the RSS/Atom feed before you subscribe to it, or the low-bandwidth mode, for both IMAP and POP protocols.

Another new feature is the so-called 'Opera Scroll Marker', which if enabled, will show a scroll marker when you reach the end of a page to show you where to start to read. That is, from where you scrolled last time until you reached the end of the page. Below is a screenshot of how the scroll marker looks like:


The full changelog for the 9.60 release is available here.

One of the characteristics of Opera is that it handles everything in tabs: bookmarks, widgets, downloads, the about information, for each of them a new tab is opened. I find this very handy, fast and more useful than a new window which will steal focus from the primary browser window.

Taking a look at the new Google Chrome, which, although open-source, has yet to arrive natively on Linux, I think the big three for Linux still are Firefox, Konqueror and Opera.

The preferences editor can be opened typing opera:config in the address bar, and the tab which appears somewhat resembles the settings from the about:config variables in Firefox.

Preferences - the Browsing tab

Opera has another advantage over Firefox: it allows you to customise shortcuts via the Preferences dialogue, so you can change several shortcuts which do not work in your desktop environment (Ctrl + Tab in KDE 3.5.x for example).

Opera IRC client

Some great features Opera comes with are also: IRC and BitTorrent client, Widgets - which are great add-ons for making Opera look nicer and also show various information, and the already classic, well-known 'speed dial', which will allow you to preview in a single tab several web pages (depending on how you configure it, default is 9), from which you can enter the desired website.

Opera Speed Dial

Analog Clock widget on the desktop

Although I thought this would be an awesome release, the major problem with Opera are crashes. It crashed when I right-clicked the personal bar, then Show Searches -> Google, and it also crashed when I started the IRC the client for the first time without filling up any account data. I ran Opera in KDE 3.5.9, on Debian Lenny.

As always, Opera does a great job, putting up a pretty solid, fully-featured and powerful web browser, with great support for the Linux users. Although I'm an advocate for open-source, I really think this shiny new release deserves a top place among the Linux web browsers.

Official website
Download Opera

Opera 9.60 Beta 1 Released

The first beta release of Opera 9.6 was released today and it provides, as usual, packages for all the major distributions out there, including all Ubuntu versions and Debian Potato, Sarge and current stable, Etch. The last stable release is still 9.52.

Opera is a powerful and full-featured web browser which provides good support for Linux, but unfortunately it is closed-source. It includes by default an IRC and BitTorrent client, a cool interface, widgets, a nice approach by using tabs for most of its features, like the download manager, a speed dial page for previewing several web addresses in a single tab. And these are to mention just a few.

Opera 9.6 Beta 1 running on Kubuntu 8.04

You can download Opera 9.6 Beta 1 from the official website, here. According to the changelog on the official website, the main changes since 9.52 are:

- preview RSS/Atom feeds before subscribing
- a low bandwidth mode for mail accounts, POP and IMAP protocols
- several interface changes
- several bugs fixed regarding the interface and scripting

In order to install it on Debian or Ubuntu, download the .deb package which matches the version of the distribution and type, for example:

For Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron:

sudo dpkg -i opera_9.52.2091.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

For Debian Lenny:

su
dpkg -i opera_9.52.2091.gcc4.qt3_i386.deb

License agreement after starting Opera for the first time

To uninstall Opera, just issue one of the commands below:

For Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron:

sudo dpkg -r opera

For Debian Lenny:

su
dpkg -r opera

Updated: Sep 11, 2008