SOUTHPAWAMI  As much as can be said for Opera 10.0b1, you can NOT run Opera 10b1 on a case-sensitive format with Leopard 10.5.7.

After much trial and error over the last year, I finally tri-partitioned my 320gb hard drive for work, games, and school. The first format was case-sensitive as it has shown me a rock like dependability that the simply journaled format doesn't have. The second the normal format so things like WoW work. The third for windows rc 7.

The case-sensitive format has a few things that show up differently

- some programs don't install or work, or work partially like Opera 10b1

- Manga Studio 3.02 EX works faster... significantly

- WoW doesn't install

- Programs appear to crash less and load slightly faster

- There are no temporary duplicate displays when working in finder (Leopard 10.5.7)

As is the standard, Omniweb just works.  
(Version 10.0b1)

SOUTHPAWAMI  Opera 10 beta is quite possibly the best browser I've used to date. As Omniweb Sneaky Peek 5.10 & Apple Safari 4, it is one of the few browsers that passes Acid 3 test. As usual with these browsers, the extra stuff causes a slower load. On my laptop(2.16 ghz, 3GB, 300GB HD 5400rpm, 950 GMA), only Safari 4 is unbearably slow in loading. Omniweb 5.10 sneaky peak is quite nice.. and loads everything well. Something like a mozilla charm, with geek like control, and an acid 3 pass. If it ran on other operating systems, it would be number one.

Opera 10 has speed dial, which is choosing many webpages as presets. Opening up Opera 10 shows the cached picture of the preset pages. Opera 10 reloads the pages much quicker than normal. Opera 9 had 9 pages as presets. Opera 10 has up to 25 pages as presets.

The loading time is slightly slower than Omniweb, but generally much faster than the first load of Safari 4. The loading time of Google Chrome is faster than any of these, though it fails Acid 3 with the Linktest. Acid 3 test is mostly an ECMA script( http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm ) test as far as I know. What it tests is general Web 2.0 ability which includes DOM, ECMA, & CSS.

Opera 10 beta runs most web pages well. Putting the tab bar on the right makes it quite nice. (Say, with a widescreen... DOCK on right... Opera maximized with tabs on right. No accidental program launches.) The personal bar is ridiculously thick, apparently the Opera team did not think to spend the time to bring to a more reasonable size such as Omniweb and Firefox/Camino features.

Opera 10 beta presently crashes on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com . Also, Opera 10 massacres http://www.mlb.com . (Why do I have to use another browser to check baseball out from mlb?) The other browsers which I've mentioned do not appear to do this. Besides, Fox Sports has a beautiful free game stat list per game via gametrax. So, while there are web pages that Opera 10 beta crashes on, the majority of them Opera 10 beta is stable with. And yes, Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek is more stable than Opera 10 beta.

As for speed, only Camino 2 beta and Google chrome would satisfy. Opera 10 beta, Safari 4, Firefox 3, and Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek are slow in comparison.(Though a powerful system would make everything seem the same speed) In speaking of those, Camino 2 is as fluff-less as it gets, finally getting the hint to have the 'page info' feature that Firefox has had. It's clean and fast, but without the web page presets that Opera started. (It also fails with a 72 of 100 on Acid 3)

Opera 10 also has a unique feature that is a 'why didn't i think of that?' after you start using it. The menu you get after right clicking on any web page has a 'check web page' on the very bottom, which after clicking, runs the page automatically through w3c's validation service. Besides the usefulness page info button and proper display on Firefox and Camino 2, the check web page feature is easily an amazingly simple and extraordinarily useful tool after you start using it. It puts the power of notifying the webpage maker of problems in the hands of the user. Screen shot of the results, email, tada!

Rabbit trail... why is the page info feature on Firefox and Camino 2 so ridiculously useful? Because, it allows you to see the identifying stuff in the header without looking at the code. The metas of the author, copyright, keywords, language specified, tool to create the web page, etc. Page info makes looking for this information not a chore, but an ease.

Sessions... One of the odder features in web browsers is sessions. Sessions are meant to be saving all the web pages you are on at a certain moment and even saving the size of the web browser at that same moment. By saving the session, you could conceivably go back to the session at a later time when it would be most helpful. If there are 11 websites you use for a certain part of your job, you only to load up the session that pertains to that, and all the pages in that session load at once. In my opinion, Omniweb is better at sessions than Opera is. Opera's sessions are capable, if a bit unnatural to use.

Verdict: While Omniweb Sneaky Peek 5.10 is the most useful browser at giving rights per web page in a quick and timely manner without plug-ins, Opera 10 beta is a multi-operating system(works on mac and windows) with updated speed dial, and unique check web page feature on right click. Besides the problems associated with an over thickness of the personal bar and the lack of the page info feature, Opera 10 beta is a better daily browser than any other at the moment. If all you use is macs... feel free to give the verdict to Omniweb 5.10 Sneaky Peek which excels in ways unexplainable with browsing the web.   
(Version 10.0b1)

BILL CLINTON  Opera 10b1 has a lot going for it and it mostly looks like a native Mac app considering the fakery involved. (If Apple changes the widgets, Opera will look wrong.) However, the one big new feature, thumbnail tabs (a feature that OmniWeb has had for many years) is poorly implemented, putting the thumbnails at the top (or bottom) of the scrollable window space. This is a horrible design because it forces the user to see less content and to scroll more. Vertical screen space is more valuable than horizontal screen space because content is made to be scrolled vertically, for pretty much the same reason that newspapers are printed in columns--it makes text easier to read. Opera has an option to put the tabs on the left or right sides of the window but then only the text of the site name is displayed--_no_ thumbnails!

There are lots of other little things that pop up with Opera 10b1 as you use it. But for OS X users, there will be some just for us--no Keychain integration, jerky scrolling, no Control-Command-D functionality, no spell checking in some text boxes (and it uses its own spell checker for what is checked, ignoring all of your customized spellings), and lost formatting of copied text. (All of these complaints and more apply equally to Firefox, BTW.)

All in all, Opera 10 is typical of past Opera browsers and, sadly, typical of cross-platform software generally. Just not up to Mac snuff in polish, and not integrated with the rest of the system.  
(Version 10.0b1)

ERICG  I just downloaded Opera 10 beta 1 and really liked the interface. Alas, Opera's persistent problems remain. It has all kinds of problems loading iGoogle pages properly. Many gadgets get endlessly hung up and never resolve. I also tried it out on facebook, but it had trouble getting "comments" entered. It's an improvement over the alpha, but it is still far away from Safari and Firefox with respect to everyday usability.  
(Version 10.0b1)

JOBBY  So, I applied a simple version update, and Opera reset all my preferences.

That meant that, on starting up, it reloaded all my saved pages and allowed them to set cookies, run Javascript, Java, Flash etc, EVEN THOUGH I HAD EXPLICITLY TURNED ALL OF THESE OFF.

This is supposed to be a SECURE browser? I would have been better off staying with the old version!

Opera devs, here is a list of circumstances when you may set default preferences:

1) When there is no pref file in existence because the user has never run ANY version of Opera.

2) When the user explicitly tells you to.

THAT IS ALL. If you're going to reset prefs at any other time, at least TELL THE USER YOU'VE DONE SO, and then ALLOW THEM TO SET THEM BACK *BEFORE* LOADING ANY CONTENT!

I am SERIOUSLY pissed off with Opera right now. Even Microsoft don't pull this crap.  
(Version 9.64)

BURAK  Excellent. Worth seven stars.  
(Version 9.64)

DP-G4-450GUY  "Fixed a moderately severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date"

Excuse me ??

This is ridiculous.

What sort of guessing game are they trying to play here? How do I tell my bosses to 'hold on till a later date' on a moderately SEVERE issue, most probably relating to security?

This is very, very poor technical writing.  
(Version 9.64)

MNTBIGHKER  No 1Password support.. sorry can't use it :-( And it does have a really ugly look on the Mac.  
(Version 9.64)

LEOPOLDBLOOM  Opera is functionally very impressive, but no matter how hard I try, I can't get past its disgusting Mac interface. I'd like to give Opera a more serious spin, so I really hope the interface sees some improvement in the future. Also, I don't know how easily solvable this is, but the developers of 1Password say that Opera compatibility is impossible due to its architecture. Allowing the inclusion of such a popular add-on probably wouldn't hurt Opera's popularity on the Mac platform. For me, lack of 1Password in a browser pretty much precludes it from default use.  
(Version 9.64)

JAZZYGUY  I installed 10.0a1 I really see nothing that is an improvement over the past versions. It is just OK. It IS very unMaclike! For example zoom is no longer available in this browser by using Commandand+. That is just one instance of this browser being more a Windows thing than anything else. I have watched its progress over the years on the Mac and I am in a state of ennui and total boredom with its widgets and gadgets.  
(Version 9.63)