14 DAY TRIAL // Weeks ago, the Opera Team released version 10.0 Alpha 1 to the public, stressing that the new launch contained the latest changes. However, developers signaled that the release could have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. A new version of the software is available (as well as a stable build – 9.63). While several bugs have been fixed, the do-not-rely-on warning still applies for this Alpha release.
Showcasing its new Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine, Opera Software revealed that its engineers had optimized the Opera Presto 2.2 to be much faster on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook. The team behind the Opera browser added that, “With an Acid3 100/100 score, Web Fonts support, RGBA/HSLA color, and SVG improvements, Opera 10 Alpha is ready for the next generation of Web applications.”
With the release of Alpha Build 6186, Opera 10.0 adds several backend improvements to auto-update, content filter rules with a whitespace at the end work, usable spell checking on content-editable elements, better switching between html and plain text mail composition, an option to doubleclick a tab to close it, “plus tons of behind the scenes changes,” the low level changelog reveals.
Mac specific issues include: - Fixed startup crash on Mac OS X 10.3/Panther; - Fixed the mail/chat counter background; - Fixed low framerate on fullscreen YouTube videos.
The Opera Team also improved stability in the search engine that indexes webpages and mail, according to the release notes.
To get either version of the web browser for Mac, use the download link available below. There are tons of enhancements to discover in the 10.0 Alpha 1 version, but you will need to proceed with caution when installing this new one. The Opera Team advises users to install the new iteration of the browser only on computers that are properly backed up. Should this not be the case with your machine, the least you can do is not replace previous Opera builds with this one. As for the 9.63 update, it should be as solid as a rock.