Opera Debuts Latest Version for Linux

Oslo, Norway’s Opera Software debuted the latest version of its Opera
browser for Linux Monday.

The new version, Opera 7.11 for Linux, builds on the previous Opera 6 for
Linux with a built-in email client and email organizer, as well as a number
of other new features.

The email client includes an integrated spam filter and supports POP3 , IMAP and ESMTP .

The company has enhanced its standards support in the new version, adding
support for DOM Level 2 and CSS2, improved ECMAScript and HTML 4.01
support, and WML 1.3 and 2.0 support.

Opera has added two new buttons to its browser’s toolbar, the FastForward
and Rewind buttons, that are evolutions on the FastForward capability it
added to the Forward button in Opera 7 for Windows. The new version adds
Rewind and gives them both their own buttons, which the company said lets
the browser anticipate where the user will want to go next. The FastForward
button also allows the browser to display photo files on the Web as a
slideshow.

The company is also striving to make its browser a better researching tool
with the addition of a Notes feature which allows the user to jot down a
note in conjunction with a Web page and then drag it to an e-mail or store
for future reference.

It has also added a cookie manager which allows users to keep track of
cookies and delete them, while the Wand password manager offers one-click
log-in to password protected sites. The browser notifies users that a
passwords are stored for particular sites by marking log-in fields with a
golden rim. Users can access the passwords by clicking the Wand icon or using
a keyboard shortcut.

Opera also borrowed from its iTV business unit for the new browser, taking
the Spatial Navigation feature which allows users to utilize the shift and
arrow keys to move to links or other navigational elements on a page.

In
addition, Opera has added a new navigation bar which displays site
navigation within the navigation bar.

Other features include new Window management which allows users to combine
MDI, SDI and tabbed browsing without having to restart the browser;
small-screen rendering, which gives developers the ability to see how Web
pages would look on a small-screen rendering device like mobile phones and
PDAs; the ability to refuse pop-ups or push them into the background; the
ability to set up multiple Opera user profiles and multiple user style
sheets; and a built-in search field at the top of the Opera Window.