Opera Software ASA today unleashed Opera 6.0 for Linux Beta 1 with a wide range of speed-boosting functions and exclusive features only available to Linux users. The earlier version of the Opera for Linux browser, Opera 5 for Linux, has already been downloaded and installed a record one million times.

“Opera 5.0 for Linux has been incredibly popular among our Linux desktop users, and we are very happy to see that one million have downloaded and installed Opera,” says Dean Kakridas, VP Desktop Products, Opera Software ASA. “There is clearly a demand for a better Internet experience in the Linux community.”

In addition to greater speed and ease of use, Opera for the first time displays non-Roman alphabets for Linux users, opening up the local markets in the Asia/Pacific and Eastern European region to true browser competition.

“We have seen a great interest in Opera for Linux in the Asian and Eastern European markets,” says Dean Kakridas, VP Desktop Products, Opera Software ASA, “and we are very happy to finally be able to meet this demand with a faster, accessible and more flexible browser that integrates seamlessly into the Linux environment.”

Opera 6.01 for Linux Beta 1 is available immediately from www.opera.com.

New features in Opera 6.0 for Linux Beta 1

Contact List
Keep information about your friend and colleagues in the new contact list. Visit their Web pages and with the use of an external mail client, send an e-mail to your contacts.

Cookie Management
Manage your cookies with the new cookie editor. [exclusive]

Mouse Gestures
Perform almost any operation with mouse gestures such as the ones found in Opera 6.0 for Windows, as well as some Linux-specific mouse gestures like the middle-click on windowbar to open clipboard URL in new window. [some exclusive]

Help window
You can now read the help documentation in its own window with useful buttons.

Import
You can import bookmarks, contact lists, window setup files and pages. [partly exclusive]

Bookmark import
Kde1/Kde2 paths and Kde2 XML Netscape/Mozilla Path [partly exclusive]

Bookmark management
Easily move bookmarks around. Drag bookmarks to folders and the Personal Bar. When dragging bookmarks to te Opera workspace, a window or the windowbar Opera will go to the bookmark URL.

Quick Preferences F12
Quick access to some of the most frequently changed preferences.

E-mail links
Advanced mailto links often include subject and body. With Opera’s new and more advanced invoking of an external e-mail client such links now work perfectly. [exclusive]

Plug-in support
Improved Opera plug-in support. Most Netscape plug-ins are supported such as Macromedia Flash, Acrobat Reader, Real Player, Java, Plugger, TCL 2.0, Codeweaver Crossover (Apple Quicktime).

New look
Opera has a new default button set, skin and panels. Change to classic Opera look or set your own under Preferences > Browser layout. Find more buttons, skins and panels at my.opera.com.

Hotclick
Double-click a word or right-click a selected phrase and display a pop-up menu full of powerful features such as search, encyclopedia look-up, and translation.

Personal Bar
Organize and personalize your favorite bookmarks and searches in one place.

Bookmarks
Search bookmarks or sort them by title, date created, when visited or customize your own ordering.

Panels
Users can place their favorite Web pages in panels that are displayed in the hotlist during their browsing session. Web pages for panels have to be optimized to the hotlist size. Panels are available at my.opera.com.

Unicodez
For the first time, Opera supports the Unicode Worldwide Character Set, making Opera available in local languages for the Asian/Pacific and Eastern European regions when users have the correct fonts installed.

Improved window handling
Switch easily between document windows with the new keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Tab.

Keyboard shortcuts
New shortcuts to speed up your surfing.

Help files
New help files, completely rewritten and improved. If you are running Opera 6.0, press F1 to see them now.

About Opera Software

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Web browsers for the desktop and embedded markets, partnering with companies such as IBM, AMD, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Ericsson, Sharp and Lineo. The Opera browser has received international recognition from endusers and the industry press for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than other browsers. Opera is available on Windows, Mac, Linux/Solaris, Symbian OS, and QNX. Opera Software ASA is a privately held company headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.

Contacts

Katherine Barrios
PR Manager Americas & Asia/Pacific
Tel: +47 40 40 14 65
Tel: 1-888-624-4846 (Press only)
E-mail: uspress@opera.com

Cox writes: [+ indicates stuff that went to Marcelo, o stuff that has not,
* indicates stuff that is merged in mainstream now, X stuff that proved
bad and was dropped out] Changelog below,

Linux 2.4.18-ac2
o Fix sparc compile error (Marco Colombo)
o Fix serverworks IDE for ide=nodma (Ken Brownfield)
o w83877f watchdog compile fix on SMP (Mark Cooke)
o binfmt_elf merge error fix

Linux 2.4.18-ac1
o Merge with 2.4.18 proper
o Add missing -rc4 diff
o Use attribute notifiers to account shmemfs (me)
o Initial luxsonor LS220/LS240 driver code (me)
| This is just setup code and only in the tree because
| its where I keep my hacks in progress

Linux 2.4.18rc2-ac2
o Fix a corruption problem in the jfs dir table (Dave Kleikamp)
o Fix trap when extending a single extent of (Dave Kleikamp)
over 64Gb in JFS
o NBD deadlock fix (Steven Whitehouse)
o Fix device ref counting in netrom stack (Tomi Manninen)
o Fix shmemfs link counting (Christoph Rohland)
o Fix potential scsi disk oops (Peter Wong)
o eepro100 carrier init fix (Jeff Garzik)
o Fix wrong kfree in netrom stack (Tomi Manninen)
o Add TI1250 inits to ZV bus support (me)
| Zoom video now works on the IBM TP600 at least.
o Fix off by one on loop devices limit (Heinz Mauelshagen)
o Improve handling of psaux open with no mouse
present (Christoph Hellwig)
o 3COM 3c359 token ring driver (Mike Phillips)
o Fix a case where hpfs didnt set block size (Chris Mason)
early enough
o Remove use of lock_kernel in softdog driver (me)
o Make olympic driver use spinlocks not
lock_kernel (Mike Phillips)
o Fix type of detected devices in md.c (Jakob Kemi)
o Changes and defconfig update (Niels Jensen)
o PNP BIOS driver updates (Thomas Hood)
o Turn off excess printks in pnp quirk reporting (Andrey Panin)
o Add documentation for ITE I2C (Steven Cole)
o Add documentation for other zoran cards (Steven Cole)
o Add an SC520 watchdog, and enable wd8387ff (Scott Jennings)
o Cleaned up and fixed some SC520 watchdog bugs (me)
| Scott – can you double check these
o Fix return on generic lib/string.c memcmp (Georg Nikodym)
o Further zoom video cleanups (me)

Linux 2.4.18rc2-ac1

o Merge with 2.4.18rc2
o Ignore i810 modem codecs (me)
o Core of address space accounting code (me)
| Enforcement, ptrace and some shmem corner bits to do
* Fix security hole in shmfs (me)
o Fix various bits of 64bit file I/O in shmem (me)
o Merge with rmap12f (Rik van Riel and co)

Posted at LinuxPR: The Linux StepByStep has moved from its old domain at http://linux.nf to its new domain at www.linux-sxs.org. All of our existing services have moved to the new domain as well.
Our news server can now be found at news.linux-sxs.org and our mailing lists can be found at www.linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo. We’ve also added a new jobs board at jobs.linux-sxs.org that specializes in Unix/Linux/Embedded opportunities. You can post your resume, search the open positions, and even sign up to receive notice of new job postings!

From PRNewswire: Wasabi Systems, the NetBSD Company, today announced its support for the
Intel IOP321 I/O processor based on the Intel(R) XScale(TM) core. NetBSD, the
world’s most portable operating system, runs on nearly fifty distinct
architectures, representing fifteen CPU families. In keeping with open source
practices, the source code will be committed to the NetBSD source tree upon
completion.

LinuxJournal.com review the Dillo Web browser, a “fast, compact browser in its early stages. The uncompressed source code tarball is approximately 1.2MB and the resulting executable file is 1.1MB. While Dillo is based on GTK+ (GTK version 1.2.0 or higher is required), GNOME isn’t required to run it. Dillo uses the HTML parser from the gzilla project, so Mozilla doesn’t have to be installed either, as is the case with Galeon.”

From LinuxPR: 7bulls.com S.A. provided a Compaq cluster solution to the Institute of Atomic Energy (IEA) in Swierk, Poland. Linux/x86 nodes are connected with Gigabit Ethernet. The cluster performs advanced calculation related to atmosphere modelling.

7bulls.com also released a new version of its Advanced Cluster Control software developed with Quant-X Service Consulting GmbH, Austria. The software allows easy, unified control and management of up to 4 thousand node clusters.

A vnunet.com story suggests reports of Linux kernel patch problems are just rumors. “Linux developers have called on the open source community to encourage the flow of kernel patches and dismiss rumours about ‘severe problems’ in kernel development.”

From LinuxPR: MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, today announced that its flagship product, MontaVistaTM Linux® 2.1, will support the new Intel® IXP2400, IXP2800 and IXP425 Network Processors.

These three new Intel network processors are designed to meet requirements within the core infrastructure, the network edge and in customer premises equipment (CPE). The new network processors are optimized in terms of performance and cost-effectiveness for each of these respective segments.

CRMdaily.com quotes new IBM CEO Sam Palmisano as saying “Big Blue is in a strong position to deal with a rapidly changing technology industry.” He also comments on Sun embracing Linux.

From LinuxSecurity Contributors: “Over the past five years, Sean Boran has put together what has become the most comprehensive
online Internet security resource available. LinuxSecurity recently had an opportunity to chat with
the author, talk about its new home at LinuxSecurity.com, and a few words about the resource
itself.
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/itcoo kbook-feature.html.”