After a very short period of beta, Opera 6 for Windows is released. Read the press release or download the plain (3.2 MB) or the Java-enabled (10.7 MB) version. Opera 6 for Linux, Tech Preview 1, is also available.
Opera 6 Final for Windows Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
in reusable code and platform independance………the interface on windows blows, but 3.2 MB for non java and it has all those features!!!
Opera should publish books on programming
I think you are very easily enthusiastic about things you haven’t really seen with your own eyes. Let me say that while Opera 5+ is a bit more portable than it used to, earlier versions were a pain in the butt, with full of Windows-centric code and it was not thread-safe at all. The people who ported Opera 3 and 4 (Be and that other company that I forgot their name) on BeOS, they had nightmares for months in order to port it. Same goes for the Mac and earlier Linux ports.
Plus, still, Opera 6 does not render pages as fast as IE does. They claim that they have the fastest browser on Earth, but their rendering engine plays it so safe, that it does not pre-render pages. Sometimes you have to wait for a page to load 80% of its available data before you see a single rendering in an Opera sheet. Latst versions of Mozilla are pretty good on that matter, but IE cannot be competed.
Having said all that, I am posting this from Opera6, which is otherwise, a wonderful browser (with only some CSS rendering glitches
.
when compaired to Mozy or Opera. perhaps it is because IE still uses the render each Item as it comes as apposed to the render entire page at once….of cource that could also be why you prcive IE to render faster….I guess it is a matter of opinion, but all I know it that I can se everything right away with Mozy of Opera, IE I have to wait for the rest of the page.
>I guess it is a matter of opinion, but all I know it that I can see everything right away with Mozy of Opera
To test which browser renders faster, all you have to do is ‘downgrade’ to 33.6 kbps modem, don’t try to use DSL. Then, you will see which browser is really faster and *makes a difference* indeed. I am on 33.6 right now (sometimes it connects only on 28.8 kbps) with the crappy AOL, and let me tell you that *nothing* is faster than IE. Then, it’s Mozilla. And then it’s Opera.
well see now we are taling vastly diffrent data rates…….IE probably does better on Dial up because it renders as it gets and Opera and Mozy renders at once so you don’t get the at once benefit when it takes 5-20 seconds to get all the information. but on DSL/Cable, the HTML file is there so the render speed can be seen better. I will admit that that IE renders faster for Dialup, but not for fast connections like DSL or Cable.
When I say ‘render faster’, I do not mean benchmarking which browser can really read, process and render HTML or images ‘faster’, but which browser has such algorithms that when you try to load a page, it pre-renders parts of that web page, even if not 100% of the web page data have been downloaded yet. And IE is just unbeatable on such algorithms. There are cases that Opera will wait to download every little single little gif, wait and wait and wait, and then show you the page. For me, this is unacceptable.
The first case (‘fast’) is only useful to academics, the second case (page pre-rendering) is important to users who want to be practical, especially if these users are on slower connections.
> I will admit that that IE renders faster for Dialup, but not for fast connections like DSL or Cable.
Try loading http://www.benews.com“ http://www.benews.com with your DSL connection. Which browser does it render it faster? Mozilla 0.9.6, Opera 6 or IE 6? On dial-up it is IE 6.
isn’t that what I said in my previous statment? the IE algorythms are good for slow connections but they are slow for fast connections. in the ethernet/DSL/Cable world, a fully prerendered page is nice to have, I am using IE at work and I can start typeing this before all the graphics are loaded, however, if I use Mozy, I get to see the Content along with the entire page in the same abmount of time that IE displays the content only.
it is just a limitation of the algorythm, IE does better for slow connections, Opera and Mozy do better on fast.
so we agree
>isn’t that what I said in my previous statment?
Yes, but I was writting that comment, while you had posted yours while I was writting it, so I did not read yours.
> IE does better for slow connections, Opera and Mozy do better on fast. so we agree
We agree about the dial-up connections. I am still not convinced that IE is slower than Mozilla or Opera on faster connections though.
Did you try the BeNews experiement? What your conclusions were?
I did not mean to get into a flamefest with you.
Flamefest? But I am not shouting! We are just discussing things, like two, good matured people. We are just talking about the technlologies involved, nothing more. There is no flamefest involved. At least not on my part.
ie renders the content first, then begins on the artwork, mozy renders the entire page. I see no diffrence in content rendering, but in terms of full page, mozy wins.
Perhaps a 3rd party could check this out.
Any takers?
>ie renders the content first, then begins on the artwork, mozy renders the entire page
EXACTLY my point! This is what I want, not try to render the entire page after lots of seconds. I want to be able to read while it is loading the pictures.
>in terms of full page, mozy wins.
How is it possbile for Mozilla to win, when you say that it renders the page ONLY when it has downloaded everything? This is not what I call practical, neither desirable.
but I get the whole page in the same time as IE give me the content of the page.
Well Flamefest is probably to strong, I read /. alot so the culture is diffrent there….you get marked a flamer if you opose every point of the original poster….even if you are siting evidence and being respecful….thats what happens when you give mod power to a bunch of 15 year old kids with personality disorders:-/
Ah. Ok, then.
Yeah, I knew that we would see it our way
If a third party can join in…I really want to love non-IE browsers, because I love competition, but as someone who writes my web pages primarily in HTML, CSS, and Javascript…IE is my preferred browser. Without getting into “browser wars,” aside from about 90% of my hits coming from IE, it supports lots of CSS, XHTML, and Jscript. Mozilla is nice, but it too chokes on a lot of stylesheets. Opera is a great app. It’s fast at loading the app initially, which is nice for the impatient. The interface is very customizable – which is still a new trend. It can import from Outlook Expres, a big benefit to migrating new users. Most importantly, something no one mentioned – it’s multiplatform, like all of us! My XP box runs IE 6 and Opera. My Linux box runs Mozilla and Opera. My BeOS box ran Net+ and Opera. My BSD box ran Netscape and Opera…see a trend?
I must say that I find Jeremys arguments reasonable.
If you talk rendering speed of a HTML rendering engine I would base that on the time it takes to render a certain amount of information – not which engine makes parts of info viewable first.
So if ie IE renders x.html in 5 s and Moz in 4 s I would say Moz is the fastest renderer, EVEN if it doesn’t show YOU he content object by object when rendered (note that even though you don’t see them the objects actually are rendered).
If we’re talking 3D renderers I’m sure no one would oppose me if I state that the app that renders a completer 3d image fastest is the fastest renderer EVEN if it may not show a progressive process of the rendering.
Just my 0.02 SEK.
w3c has put up a css test which you can try the css standards compliance by different browsers.
I’ve tried viewing the page with Mozilla, IE and Konq.
Results were this:
IE 5.5 couldn’t render it correctly (haven’t tried with IE6)
Moz rendered correctly but the page was slow to scroll due to the heavy use of css functions
Konqueror both rendered and scrolled the page smooth and perfectly… I’ll get back to this thread soon if I find the link
Btw, I’m anxious to try it with Opera since they claim to have the best standards support
Mabye a “He said….She said” article would be a nice addition to OSAlert
here’s the page
http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
I like Opera very much. I think everyone should take a look at the perfect idea of the e-Mail-administration integrated in the hotlist. Also the “Find in page” and the other search functions are a good idea…..
ok… opera rendered the page as good as Moz and Konq, and it was even faster than konq in the sence that the menu highlighting was more responsive (lagged a little with konq)
so at least in this w3c test of css Opera was best followed by Konq, Moz lastly IE
>>Opera 6 does not render pages as fast as IE does.
What planet are you from again? I usually post from a cyberc(rap)afe
and I _always_ download the Opera Browser for use, BECAUSE it’s faster
than Internet Explorer EVER was! I’d never want to use the net without
it, I’m so impressed by its speed. My mom, (not the most net savy person
in the world) refuses to use the net without it these days because it
works so much faster than IE does!?! (She’s on a dial up too, btw!)
>>Opera6, which is otherwise, a wonderful browser
>>(with only some CSS rendering glitches
.
There I’ve gotta agree with you! I too get CSS and XHTML errors,
unfortunately this seems to happen more often than not in MSN and
or in Hotmail….[glares at effigy of Bill Gates] I wonder why
_that_ happens?
ok, Now that is flaming
After using the beta for a few days I went back to 3.60 because on my old (K-6 200) machine 6.0 was noticably slower.
The upgrade pricing is also a bit lame. Version 5.0 came out about 5 months after 4.0 and was not a true version upgrade – the number change was a marketing gimmick used only because IE and Netscape (before they decided to jump straight to 6.x) were on their 5.x iterations at the time. I think I will just live with the advertisement bar for those pages where 3.6’s rendering capabilities are inadequate.
– Keyboard navigation (load up a bunch of pages, hit F11 (full screen) and navigate only with the keyboard (or gestures). CTRL-W, z, x, 1, 2 etc are indispensable. Once you learn the commands, browsing with IE feals slower.
– Greater number of zoom settings (as opposed to 5 in IE).
– MDI which leaves a usable taskbar (great when browsing from work, plus the easy method of toggling images off/on)
– ability to save almost everything (except streaming video) ie. a lot of content is saved in the cache (like Quicktime video) so you can save it to disk. IE5.5 and Mozilla don’t store as much in the cache (or I cannot find it).
– User CSS mode / print mode is a godsend. There are too many web sites with dark blue text on a light blue/black background. With IE/Mozilla they’re hardly viewable, with Opera its easy to get a black on white webpage.
– Immunity to maliscious code which targets IE (99% of code). Nothing touches my home page settings.
– There is a MP3 site I access (ethnic music) which limits two simultanoues downloads with IE but with Opera I dont have this limit.
The downside is that some web sites dont render properly with Opera, or even refuse to let me in.
ok.. konq, ie, opera etc.. But don’t forget that Windows users have also kmeleon (http://kmeleon.sf.net)! It’s fast and still under development (a 0.7 rel will be avaiable soon) and it’s under GPL…
Kmeleon is just Mozilla. It may load and feel faster, but when it comes to *page rendering*, it is the same as Mozilla, simply because it IS mozilla underneath its HTML engine. Same goes for Galeon.
I don’t use IE for ideological and pragmatic reasons, but I still have it installed on my NT machine (because many apps are dependent on it). So I did some tests with all three browsers. In my experience, Mozilla is often slightly faster than IE, and sometimes slightly slower. Both try to display pages reasonably well while loading. Mozilla, according to various tests (e.g. recent ix comparison, http://www.heise.de/ix) has much better CSS compliance than IE and also supports other HTML elements better. Regarding BeNews, I could not see any significant difference in rendering in Mozilla vs. IE.
Opera is often slightly slower than the other two, and sometimes has rendering errors. However, the browser generally “feels” faster because opening windows and browsing cached pages is *much* faster than in IE or Mozilla. This is much more important to me than rendering speed, which is negligible nowadays (it sucked in Netscape 4.7). But Opera often stalls during page loading, which is the main reason that I don’t use it all the time — I hope 6.0 fixes these problems.
(I tested this on a 800 Mhz machine with 128 MB RAM and 768/128 ADSL.)
My main beef with Mozilla is its excessive memory consumption. This is no longer much of an issue at current RAM prices, but still, having the browser suck up 75 MB after opening 10-15 tabs is really hard to justify. At least most of it is freed after closing the tabs.
Hi. I’d have to say that Opera renders much faster for me than IE or netscape 6.2 (haven’t tried mozilla). Just so you know, I have a fast connection.
I dont think those (ms) will make a change when you choose browser for your system. I used Opera very much 3.62 in BeOs, but after a while i thought that NetPositive is enough. And from now on I use Net+.
Internet Explorer is big and fat as Mozilla, Opera is slim and pretty fast to, maybe not the fastest browser on earth…. (net+)
Bye for now!
/Konrad
I’ve been using Opera for the first time when the 6 beta came out. I’d looked at it before but I hated the interface, the new classic style interface works for me well.
Unfortunately the browser just doesn’t seem to work on a load of sites with forms and so on. 3 different e-commerce shops I tried to buy things for just utterly failed on Opera. CSS stuff seems to be broken in many instances also.
It also wont run my external mail client for mail-tos: despite being configured to do so. I might try the final version but if these problems persist then I’ll uninstall that also.
Shame, I’d really like to use another browser.
Eugenia, K-Meleon is NOT Mozilla. Gallion is not either. they use the same rendering engine(Gecko) but that is it. Gecko!= Mozilla
I love Opera’s easy on-the-fly toggling of images, mouse gestures for common tasks like reloading the page, back, forward, etc instead of constantly pressing on the buttons on the top as per usual, and other nifty reasons. Haven’t tried 6 yet.
As allready has been said, Opera may not have the fastest rendering engine, but Opera has (in my opinion) the best cache handling.
When you press ‘Back’ in IE then IE re-loads (very often) the entire page. Opera does not. Opera just goes back without complete re-load.
There is a question begging to be asked: “What is the definition rendering?” If rendering is just downloading HTML, or if it is processing that HTML, that’s much different than if rendering includes actually displaying the page. Opera tends to wait until most of the page is ready to go before putting anything on the screen, whereas some other browsers show you everything progressively and back-fill as that data is received.
Now, Dictionary.com says:
ren·der (rndr)
<snippet>
7.Computer Science. To convert (graphics) from a file into visual form, as on a video display. </snippet>
I take that to means that rendering includes actually displaying the final product, and frankly, I don’t always think Opera is fastest at displaying the entire page. But that’s just my experience. I still love Opera. In fact, on my network at work, it’s like lightning.
Come on people, you KNOW which browser is the fastest : NetPositive under BeOS of course !
Well, there is also Lynx / Links, but in text mode…
Has anybody compared Opera’s/IE’s speed whith iCab for Mac?
7.Computer Science. To convert (graphics) from a file into visual form, as on a video display. </snippet>
I take that to means that rendering includes actually displaying the final product, and frankly, I don’t always think Opera is fastest at displaying the entire page. But that’s just my experience. I still love Opera. In fact, on my network at work, it’s like lightning.
Not exactly – turning from a file into visual form doesn’t necessary mean to even display that visual form – it just means that the new form is visual. Ie this could also mean making a PGN of a web page.
Btw.. fastest overall GUI browser I’ve tried (and smallest – 200-300 kb) is Dillo. http://dillo.sf.net
I’ve had very few problems with Mozilla when it comes to stylesheet support, and I’ve used them fairly frequently. It had problems with applying styles to HR elements (although Opera 4, the last version I used, got it even more wrong), but it was actually somewhat better at handling position elements than IE 5 was.
What usually gets me with Mozilla is, oddly enough, Javascript. There are pages that do Javascript tricks that Mozilla can’t follow. IE can–and so can Netscape 4.7. Opera 4 used to have some problems in this respect, too.
I’ll poke at the Opera 6 download later–after I poke at the gobeProductive beta 2 download.