Opera 11 released, adds extensions and tab stacking

[Emil]

Following a relatively short beta, Opera has released version 11 of its browser. In addition to visual mouse gestures, performance improvements, and memory issue fixes, the biggest feature additions in the new version are extension support and tab stacking.

Much like Chrome and Safari, installing extensions on Opera adds little automatically updating buttons to the right of the search bar. Opera's extension gallery has just over 200 extensions at the time of writing, a small number compared to the number offered by either Firefox or Chrome, but it's a start. Tab stacking, meanwhile, is a feature that will prove useful to those who find themselves with a large numbers of tabs open on a regular basis. As its name implies, tab stacking enables you to group them by site or theme, similar to what Panorama does in Firefox 4. Stacking tabs is as simple as dragging one tab on top of another. To expand or contract the group, use the small arrow that appears next to the tab. Here's a video of the feature in action:

Opera 11 also has better mouse gestures with a new visual interface that highlights available mouse paths. The address field now hides unnecessary information and puts the security status of each page front and center. You might notice there's an improved auto-update system that makes sure that your Opera, its extensions, and Opera Unite apps are up to date. Last but not least, plug-ins like Flash can be set to load on-demand.

You can download Opera 11.00 directly for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You'll probably also want to check out the changelog for Windows, Mac, as well as Linux and FreeBSD.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41610-opera-11-released-adds-extensions-and-tab-stacking.html

 

[Archean]

I've been playing around with the beta for a while, and it seems a reasonable upgrade, I am not sure about the value of tab stacking (may be because I hardly ever open more then 5-6 tabs at any given time), and they are pretty late with that extensions support. Anyway time to upgrade to final release

 

[ET3D]

I just moved back to Firefox, but I guess I could download and see what kind of improvements there are.

 

[foreverzero89]

now that opera has extensions, firefox is now obsolete.

 

[Guest]

Firefox isn't obsolete until all other broswers have a good adblock and firefox is the only one right now that does. Chrome's adblock should be named adhide since it still downloads the ads but doesn't show them. Which after earlier in this week when both Google and Microsoft where both severing malware through there ad services. It is very important to outright block ads for security reasons.

 

[lawfer]

foreverzero89 said:
now that opera has extensions, firefox is now obsolete.

I admit, I lol'ed at that.

 

[EDO219]

hm ... could anyone offer an educated analysis of how negatively these added extensions have affected Opera's security? It has long been one of the absolute most secure browsers available to the public, but I wonder if this update has entirely negated that title.

"Firefox isn't obsolete until all other browsers have a good adblock and firefox is the only one right now that does. "

If I remember correctly, Opera actually has a built in ad blocking feature. You can simply edit the urlfilter.ini file and paste in Fanboy's entire list. Voila, every ad blocked via the Adblock Plus extension in Firefox is thus blocked in Opera.

 

[vangrat]

PYGMUS said:
hm ... could anyone offer an educated analysis of how negatively these added extensions have affected Opera's security? It has long been one of the absolute most secure browsers available to the public, but I wonder if this update has entirely negated that title.

"Firefox isn't obsolete until all other browsers have a good adblock and firefox is the only one right now that does. "

If I remember correctly, Opera actually has a built in ad blocking feature. You can simply edit the urlfilter.ini file and paste in Fanboy's entire list. Voila, every ad blocked via the Adblock Plus extension in Firefox is thus blocked in Opera.

That is good to know, and I will do this when I get home tonight. However, what you just said will make absolutely no sense to the average user. Therefore, an addon that does this for you is in order.

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

I've already upgraded to Opera 11 from version 10.63. I also use Chrome 9 beta and Firefox 4 beta 7 on the same PC. My personal experience is that, on the really pesky websites, Opera does a better job of blocking pop-ups than either Chrome or Firefox.