14 DAY TRIAL // Opera 10.50 has been available for a couple of weeks on Windows and Opera 10.51 has just been released, but Linux fans are still stuck at Opera 10.10. Hopefully, this won't be for much longer, as the new browser is packing some serious punch and is coming with an impressive feature list. The final release isn't here, but Linux users can finally get to testing Opera's latest creation as the first snapshot builds of Opera 10.51 6252 for Linux have been made available by the development team.
"In addition to containing fixes from the previous Mac snapshot and Windows RCs the big change is that new packages have arrived for Opera 10.51 UNIX. So if you were waiting for an .rpm or .deb package before you start testing, you no longer have any excuses," Opera developer Ruari Ødegaard announced.
"Please note however, that this does not mean that every issue is fixed. It simply means that you can test the packages themselves if you are comfortable with that or if the outstanding issues are not ones that bother you, then you could choose to install Opera 10.51 UNIX and make it your primary browser," he warned.
The Opera 10.51 snapshot 6252 should be labeled as an alpha and, if you're already using Opera, perhaps you should wait for the final release before replacing your installation. Opera 10.51 for Linux is getting closer to launch, but there are still plenty of issues.
Known Issues in Opera 10.51 6252:
· Unneeded GTK libraries get installed on some distros; · Font problems; · Language input issues; · No KDE integration; · Problem with address field drop down position under non compositing Window Managers; · Black drop down menus for some KDE3 users; · Black border around Ctrl+Tab dialog when running under compositing Window Managers; · Some command line options don't work.
However, even in this pre-release, Opera 10.51 has plenty to offer. The interface has seen a revamp and borrows more than a few cues from Google Chrome. Even with the evident inspiration, Opera, by default, is probably the best looking web browser on Linux. It's the fastest too, as Opera 10.51 comes with a brand-new JavaScript engine and plenty of optimizations all around. In my quick and dirty benchmarking, Opera 10.51 marginally edged out Google Chrome 5.0.356.2 dev, but others have seen bigger differences.
Opera 10.51 6252 snapshot (alpha) is available for download here on Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
