Thursday, June 3, 2010

Safari Web Browser

Safari is a graphical web browser developed by Apple and included as part of the Mac OS X operating system. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003[1] on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther." Safari is also the native browser for the iPhone OS. A version of Safari for the Microsoft Windows operating system, first released on June 11, 2007, supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.[2] The latest stable release of the browser is 4.0.5, which is available as a free download for both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. As of 2010, Safari was either the third or fourth most widely used browser, tied with Google Chrome.[3]

Contents

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[edit] History and development

See also: Safari version history
Until 1997, Apple Macintosh computers were shipped with the Netscape Navigator and Cyberdog web browsers only. Internet Explorer for Mac was later included as the default web browser for Mac OS 8.1 and onwards,[4] as part of a five year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. During that time, Microsoft released three major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac that were bundled with Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9, though Apple continued to include Netscape Navigator as an alternative. Microsoft ultimately released a Mac OS X edition of Internet Explorer 5, which was included as the default browser in all Mac OS X releases from Mac OS X DP4[5] until Mac OS X v10.2.[6]

[edit] Safari 1

On January 7, 2003, at Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed their own web browser, called Safari. It was based on Apple's internal fork of the KHTML rendering engine, called WebKit.[7] Apple released the first beta version for OS X that day. A number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003. Initially only available as a separate download for Mac OS X v10.2, it was included with the Mac OS X v10.3 release on October 24, 2003 as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser.
The last version of Safari to support Mac OS X v10.2 is Safari 1.0.3, released on August 13, 2004. The last version to support Mac OS X v10.3 is 1.3.2, released January 12, 2006.

[edit] Safari 2

In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his progress in fixing specific bugs in Safari, thereby enabling it to pass the Acid2 test developed by the Web Standards Project. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.[8]
Safari 2.0 was released on April 29, 2005 as the only web browser included with Mac OS X v10.4. This version was touted by Apple as possessing a 1.8x speed boost over version 1.2.4, but did not yet include the Acid2 bug fixes. The necessary changes were not initially available to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at OpenDarwin.org.[9] Apple eventually released version 2.0.2 of Safari, which included the modifications required to pass Acid2, on October 31, 2005.
In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.
The final stable version of Safari 2, Safari 2.0.4, was released on January 10, 2006 for Mac OS X. It was only available as part of Mac OS X Update 10.4.4. This version addresses layout and CPU usage issues, among others.[10] Safari 2.0.4 was the last version to be released exclusively on Mac OS X.

[edit] Safari 3

On January 9, 2007, at Macworld SF, Jobs announced Apple's iPhone, which would use a mobile version of the Safari browser.[11]
On June 11, 2007, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Jobs announced Safari 3 for Mac OS X v10.5, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. During the announcement, he ran a benchmark based on the iBench browser test suite comparing the most popular Windows browsers,[12] hence claiming that Safari was the fastest browser. Later third-party tests of HTTP load times would support Apple's claim that Safari 3 was indeed the fastest browser on the Windows platform in terms of initial data loading over the Internet, though it was found to be only negligibly faster than Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox when loading static content from local cache.[13]
The initial Safari 3 beta version for Windows, released on the same day as its announcement at WWDC 2007, had several known bugs[14] and a zero day exploit that allowed remote execution.[15] The addressed bugs were then corrected by Apple three days later on June 14, 2007, in version 3.0.1 for Windows. On June 22, 2007, Apple released Safari 3.0.2 to address some bugs, performance issues and other security issues. Safari 3.0.2 for Windows handles some fonts that are missing in the browser but already installed on Windows computers, such as Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, and others.
The iPhone was formally released on June 29, 2007. It includes a version of Safari based on the same WebKit rendering engine as the desktop version, but with a modified feature set better suited for a mobile device. The version number of Safari as reported in its user agent string is 3.0,[16] in line with the contemporary desktop versions of Safari.
The first stable, non-beta release of Safari for Windows, Safari 3.1, was offered as a free download on March 18, 2008. In June 2008, Apple released version 3.1.2,[17][18] addressing a security vulnerability in the Windows version where visiting a malicious web site could force a download of executable files and execute them on the user's desktop.[19]
Safari 3.2, released on November 13, 2008, introduced anti-phishing features and Extended Validation Certificate support. The final version of Safari 3 is 3.2.3, released on May 12, 2009.

[edit] Safari 4

On June 2, 2008, the WebKit development team announced SquirrelFish,[20] a new JavaScript engine that vastly improves Safari's speed at interpreting scripts.[21] The engine is one of the new features in Safari 4, released to developers on June 11, 2008. The new JavaScript engine quickly evolved into SquirrelFish Extreme, featuring even further improved performance over SquirrelFish,[22] and was eventually marketed as Nitro. A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009, with new features such as the Top Sites tool (similar to Opera's Speed Dial feature), which displays the user's most visited sites on a 3D wall.[23] Cover Flow, a feature of Mac OS X and iTunes, was also implemented in Safari. In the public beta versions, tabs were placed in the title bar of the window, similar to Google Chrome. The tab bar was moved back to its original location, below the URL bar, in the final release.[24] The Windows version adopted a native Windows theme, rather than the previously employed Mac OS X-style interface.
On June 8, 2009, Safari 4 was officially released. Safari 4.0.1 was released for Mac on June 17 and fixed problems with Faces in iPhoto '09. Safari 4 in Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard" has 64-bit support, which can make JavaScript loading up to 50% faster. It also has built-in crash resistance unique to Snow Leopard; crash resistance will keep the browser intact if a plug-in like Flash player crashes, such that the other tabs or windows will be unaffected.[25] Safari 4.0.4, released on November 11, 2009 for both OS X and Windows, further improves JavaScript performance.[26]
Safari was one of the twelve browsers offered to EU users of Microsoft Windows in 2010. It is also one of the 5 browsers displayed on the first page of browser choices along with Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.[27][28]

[edit] Future development

On April 9, 2010 Apple announced WebKit2.[29] This may be used in a future version of Safari.
"WebKit2 is designed from the ground up to support a split process model, where the Web content (JavaScript, HTML, layout, etc) lives in a separate process," wrote Apple developer Anders Carlsson to WebKit's public mailing list on April 8, 2010. "This model is similar to what Google Chrome offers, with the major difference being that we have built the process split model directly into the framework, allowing other clients to use it."[29]
The "process split" model to which Carlsson refers is the architecture that enables processes spawned by the browser, including add-ons and Web apps, to be run as separate processes in the operating system while still being protected by the browser's sandbox. Google's Chromium team developed the first such model in working form for its Chrome browser.[30][31]

[edit] Features

Safari offers numerous features, including:
Safari's Web Inspector, showing the DOM tree for this page.
On Mac OS X, Safari is a Cocoa application.[33] It uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (originally based on KDE's JavaScript engine, named KJS). Like KHTML and KJS, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.
It includes a built-in web feed aggregator that supports the RSS and Atom standards. Other features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained by the browser),[34] the ability to archive web content in the proprietary Webarchive format, the ability to e-mail complete web pages directly from a browser menu, and the ability to search bookmarks.
Beginning with Safari 4, the address bar has been completely revamped:
Safari 4 on Windows XP
  • The blue inline progress bar is replaced with a spinning bezel and a loading indicator attached to it.
  • The button to add a bookmark is now attached to the address bar by default.
  • The reload/stop button is now superimposed on the right end of the address bar.
These modifications make Safari on Mac OS X and Windows look more similar to Safari on iPhone than previous versions.
In addition, Safari 4 includes the following new features:
  • Completely passes the Acid3 standards test
  • Cover Flow browsing for History and Bookmarks
  • Improved developer tools, including Web Inspector, CSS element viewing, JavaScript debugger and profiler, offline table and database management with SQL support, and resource graphs
  • Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to eight times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3[35]
  • Native Windows look on Windows (Aero, Luna, Classic, etc., depending on OS and settings) with standard Windows font rendering and optional Apple font rendering
  • Support for CSS image retouching effects
  • Support for CSS Canvas
  • Speculative loading, where Safari loads the documents, scripts, and style information that are required to view a web page ahead of time
  • Support for HTML5
  • Top Sites, which displays up to 24 thumbnails of a user's most frequently-visited pages on startup
Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch

[edit] iPhone OS-specific features

iPhone OS-specific features for Safari enable:
  • Bookmarking links to particular pages as "Web Clip" icons on the Home screen.
  • MDI-style browsing (with up to 8 pages open concurrently, limited by cache storage).
  • Opening specially-designed pages in full-screen mode.
  • Pressing on an image for 3 seconds to save it to the photo album.
  • Support for HTML5 new input types.

[edit] System requirements

The latest version of Safari requires either a Mac running Mac OS X v10.4 or later, or a PC running Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. Official minimum hardware requirements are any Intel processor or a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 with 256 MB of RAM for Mac or a 500 MHz Pentium processor with 256 MB of RAM for Windows. Cover Flow and Top Sites require a graphics card that is Quartz Extreme-compatible with 16 MB or more video memory for Mac or DirectX 9-compatible with 32 MB or more video memory for Windows.[36]

[edit] 64-bit builds

The version of Safari included in Mac OS X v10.6 is now compiled in 64-bit. Apple claims that running Safari in 64-bit mode will increase rendering speeds by up to 50%. However, there is currently no 64-bit build for Mac OS X v10.5 or older, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Distribution through Apple Software Update

An earlier version of Apple Software Update (bundled with Safari, QuickTime, and iTunes for Microsoft Windows) selected Safari for installation from a list of Apple programs to download by default, even when a pre-existing installation of Safari was not detected on a user's machine. John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, stated that Apple's use of its updating software to promote its other products was "a bad practice and should stop." He argued that the practice "borders on malware distribution practices" and "undermines the trust that [software companies are] all trying to build with users."[37] Apple spokesman Bill Evans responded to Lilly's statement, saying that Apple was only "using Software Update to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari update from Apple."[38] Apple also released a new version of Apple Software Update that puts new software in its own section, though still selected for installation by default.[39] In a newer update, Apple Software Update no longer selected new installation items in the new software section by default (as of late 2008).[citation needed]
On September 22, 2009, Apple once again checked "Install Safari 4" as a default setting with their update to iTunes v9.0.1.[citation needed] As of September 30, 2009, Safari is not a pre-selected application in Apple Software Update when it is not already installed.[40]

[edit] Browser exploits

In the PWN2OWN contest at the 2008 CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, a successful exploit of Safari caused Mac OS X to be the first OS to fall in a hacking competition. Participants competed to find a way to read the contents of a file located on the user's desktop, in one of three operating systems: Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista SP1, and Ubuntu 7.10. On the second day of the contest, when users were allowed to physically interact with the computers (the prior day permitted only network attacks), Charlie Miller compromised Mac OS X through an unpatched vulnerability of the PCRE library used by Safari.[41] Miller had been aware of the flaw prior to the beginning of the conference and worked to exploit it unannounced.[41] The exploited vulnerability was patched in Safari 3.1.1, among other flaws.[42]
In the 2009 PWN2OWN contest, Charlie Miller performed another successful exploit of Safari to hack into a Mac. Miller again acknowledged that he had advance knowledge of the security flaw prior to the competition, and had done considerable research and preparation work on the exploit.[43][44] Apple released a patch for this exploit and others on May 12, 2009 in Safari 3.2.3.[45][46]

[edit] Software license agreement

The original software license agreement for Safari on Windows was unusually restrictive for several months,[47] reading in part:
This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.[48]
As most personal computers running Windows are not Apple-labeled computers, it was impossible for most Windows users to use the software and abide by the license agreement, with the exception of Intel-based Mac computers running Windows. Within hours of the story breaking about the long-unnoticed anomaly, Apple changed the agreement as posted on their website to read:[48]
This license allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on each computer owned or controlled by you.[49]
However, the Safari installer was not immediately updated and still contained the old license.[50] Later installers include corrected copies of the license.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_web_browser
06/02/10
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Windows Vista Firewall

Windows Firewall is the firewall service included with desktop and server releases of Microsoft Windows from Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 onwards. Prior to the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 in 2004, it was known as Internet Connection Firewall.

Contents

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[edit] Overview

When Windows XP was originally shipped in October 2001, it included a limited firewall called "Internet Connection Firewall". It was disabled by default due to concerns with backward compatibility, and the configuration screens were buried away in network configuration screens that many users never looked at. As a result, it was rarely used. In mid-2003, the Blaster worm attacked a large number of Windows machines, taking advantage of flaws in the RPC Windows service.[1] Several months later, the Sasser worm did something similar. The ongoing prevalence of these worms through 2004 resulted in unpatched machines being infected within a matter of minutes.[1] Because of these incidents, as well as other criticisms that Microsoft was not being active in protecting customers from threats, Microsoft decided to significantly improve both the functionality and the interface of Windows XP's built-in firewall, and rebrand it as, simply, "Windows Firewall".
Security log capabilities are included, which can record IP addresses and other data relating to connections originating from the home or office network or the Internet. It can record both dropped packets and successful connections. This can be used, for instance, to track every time a computer on the network connects to a website. This security log is not enabled by default; the administrator must enable it.[2]

[edit] Versions

[edit] Windows XP

Windows Firewall settings in Windows XP Service Pack 2
Windows Firewall was first introduced as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2. Every type of network connection, whether it is wired, wireless, VPN, or even FireWire, has the firewall enabled by default, with some built-in exceptions to allow connections from machines on the local network. It also fixed a problem whereby the firewall policies would not be enabled on a network connection until several seconds after the connection itself was created, thereby creating a window of vulnerability.[3] A number of additions were made to Group Policy, so that Windows system administrators could configure the Windows Firewall product on a company-wide level. XP's Windows Firewall cannot block outbound connections; it is only capable of blocking inbound ones.
Windows Firewall turned out to be one of the two most significant reasons (the other being DCOM activation security)[4] that many corporations did not upgrade to Service Pack 2 in a timely fashion. Around the time of SP2's release, a number of Internet sites were reporting significant application compatibility issues, though the majority of those ended up being nothing more than ports that needed to be opened on the firewall so that components of distributed systems (typically backup and antivirus solutions) could communicate.

[edit] Windows Vista

Windows Vista significantly improves the firewall to address a number of concerns around the flexibility of Windows Firewall in a corporate environment:[5]
  • A new management console snap-in named Windows Firewall with Advanced Security which provides access to many advanced options, and enables remote administration. This can be accessed via Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, or by running "wf.msc"
  • IPv6 connection filtering.
  • Outbound packet filtering, reflecting increasing concerns about spyware and viruses that attempt to "phone home". Outbound rules are configured using the management console. Notifications are not shown however for outbound connections.
  • With the advanced packet filter, rules can also be specified for source and destination IP addresses and port ranges.
  • Rules can be configured for services by its service name chosen by a list, without needing to specify the full path file name.
  • IPsec is fully integrated, allowing connections to be allowed or denied based on security certificates, Kerberos authentication, etc. Encryption can also be required for any kind of connection.
  • Improved interface for managing separate firewall profiles. Ability to have three separate firewall profiles for when computers are domain-joined, connected to a private network, or connected to a public network (XP SP2 supports two profiles—domain-joined and standard). Support for the creation of rules for enforcing server and domain isolation policies.

[edit] Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 R1 contains the same firewall as Windows Vista. The firewall in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 contains some improvements, such as multiple active profiles.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Firewall 
06/02/10
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Opera Web Browser

Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading Web feeds. Opera is offered free of charge for personal computers and mobile phones.
Features include tabbed browsing, page zooming, mouse gestures, and an integrated download manager. Its security features include built-in phishing and malware protection, strong encryption when browsing secure Web sites, and the ability to easily delete private data such as HTTP cookies.
Opera runs on a variety of personal computer operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. The Desktop Team recently dropped support for Solaris.[7] Evaluations of Opera have been largely positive, and Opera has innovated many key features of modern browsers.[8][9] Despite these factors, Opera has captured only a small fraction of the worldwide personal computer browser market. It does, though, have a stronger market share on mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, and personal digital assistants. Editions of Opera are available for devices using the BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android, and iPhone operating systems, as well as Java ME-enabled devices.[10][11][12] Approximately 120 million mobile phones have been shipped with Opera.[13] Opera is the only commercial web browser available for the Nintendo DS and Wii gaming systems. Some television set-top boxes use Opera. Adobe Systems has licensed Opera technology for use in the Adobe Creative Suite.[14][15]

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Opera began in 1994 as a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company. In 1995, it branched out into a separate company named Opera Software ASA.[16] Opera was first released publicly with version 2.0 in 1996,[17] which only ran on Microsoft Windows.[18] In an attempt to capitalize on the emerging market for Internet-connected handheld devices, a project to port Opera to mobile device platforms was started in 1998.[18] Opera 4.0, released in 2000,[17] included a new cross-platform core that facilitated creation of editions of Opera for multiple operating systems and platforms.[19]
Up to this point, Opera was trialware and had to be purchased after the trial period ended. Version 5.0 (released in 2000) saw the end of this requirement. Instead, Opera became ad-sponsored, displaying advertisements to users who had not paid for it.[20] Later versions of Opera gave the user the choice of seeing banner ads or targeted text advertisements from Google. With version 8.5 (released in 2005) the advertisements were removed entirely and primary financial support for the browser came through revenue from Google (which is by contract Opera's default search engine).[21]
Among the new features introduced in version 9.1 (released in 2006) was fraud protection using technology from GeoTrust, a digital certificate provider, and PhishTank, an organization that tracks known phishing web sites.[22] This feature was further improved and expanded in version 9.5, when GeoTrust was replaced with Netcraft, and malware protection from Haute Secure was added.[23]
Also in 2006, editions of Opera were made and released for Nintendo's DS and Wii gaming systems.[24][25][26][27] Opera for the Wii, called the Internet Channel, was free to download from its release on 12 April 2007[28] until 30 June 2007. After that date, Wii users had to pay 500 Wii Points (about US$5[29]) to download it.[30] As of 2 September 2009, it is again free to download. Users who previously paid to download are offered a NES game of their choice of the same value.[31][32] The Nintendo DS Browser is not free; it is sold as a physical DS game cartridge. The DSi has an Internet Channel that can be downloaded for free from the DSi shop.[33]
Opera was one of the twelve browsers offered to European Economic Area users of Microsoft Windows in 2010.[34]
A new JavaScript engine called Carakan, after the Javanese script, was introduced with version 10.50.[35] According to Opera Software, Carakan is more than seven times faster in SunSpider than Opera 10.10 with Futhark on Windows, which has since been more or less confirmed by other sources after its official pre-alpha release in December 2009.[36][37][38] Also introduced was Opera's vector graphics library, Vega, which handles all of the browser's rendering. This allows platform specific rendering code to be replaced with code for Vega, which makes it easier to deploy across platforms; aids Opera's implementation of some advanced CSS3 properties, such as backgrounds and borders; and also allows hardware acceleration with optional OpenGL and Direct3D backends.[39] An initial Alpha of Opera 10.60 was released on the 31st of May, 2010.

[edit] Features

Main article: Features of the Opera web browser
See also: Opera Mobile#Features, Opera Mini#Features, Nintendo DS & DSi Browser#Features, and Internet Channel#Features
One set of third-party speed tests [40] [41] [42] concluded that Opera 9.5 was indeed faster than Internet Explorer 7 and prerelease versions of Firefox 3 and Safari 3.[43] Technology website ZDNet's speed tests in early 2008 showed that out of Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3, and pre-release versions of Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5, Opera was the fastest in some areas, but the only browser that Opera clearly outperformed was Internet Explorer.[44] However, as of Opera 10.50 (codenamed Evenes)—which has been released for Windows and Mac OS X, and currently is in the pre-release stage for UNIX—features a new JavaScript engine (codenamed Carakan), as well as a new vector graphics library (codenamed Vega), which together significantly increase Opera's overall rendering speed.[36][45]
Opera includes built-in tabbed browsing, ad blocking, fraud protection, a download manager and BitTorrent client, a search bar, and a web feed aggregator. Opera also comes with an e-mail client called Opera Mail and an IRC chat client built in.[46]
Opera includes a "Speed Dial" feature, which allows the user to add up to 25 links (or more, by editing the speeddial.ini file) shown in thumbnail form in a page displayed when a new tab is opened. Thumbnails of the linked pages are automatically generated and used for visual recognition on the Speed Dial page or can be modified using Opera Image Dial Generator. Once set up, this feature allows the user to more easily navigate to the selected web pages.[47] Note that editing the speeddial.ini located in the directory file (which is in an OS-dependent location) of Opera gives the user better control of the look of the new tab. It gives the ability to edit the number of columns and rows separately, and recently the opacity of thumbnails for better visibility of the background image.
Opera supports Opera Widgets, small web applications that start from within Opera. Alongside Widgets, "User JavaScript" may be used to add custom JavaScript to web pages. Greasemonkey support is limited, and there is no interface to manage scripts or toggle 'Greasemonkey-on' functionality.
Opera is extensible in a third way via plug-ins, relatively small programs that add specific functions to the browser.[48] However, Opera limits what plug-ins can do and does not support full-fledged third-party extensions to the browser. Opera does this as a quality assurance measure, so that third-party extensions cannot introduce bugs.[49]

[edit] Usability and accessibility

Sample mouse gestures in Opera
Opera back mouse gesture.svg Back: hold down right mouse button, move mouse left, and release or hold the right button down and click the left button
Opera forward mouse gesture.svg Forward: hold down right mouse button, move mouse right, and release or hold the left button down and click the right button
Opera new tab mouse gesture.svg New tab: hold down right mouse button, move mouse down, and release. Clicking a link with the middle mouse button produces a similar effect, but the new tab is opened in the background instead of becoming the active tab.
Opera was designed with a commitment to computer accessibility for users who have visual or motor impairments. As a multimodal browser, it also caters to a wide variety of personal preferences in the user interface.
It is possible to control nearly every aspect of the browser using only the keyboard,[50] and the default keyboard shortcuts can be modified to suit the user.[51][52] It is the only major browser to include support for spatial navigation. Opera also includes support for mouse gestures,[53] patterns of mouse movement that trigger browser actions such as "back" or "refresh".[54]
Page zooming allows text, images and other content such as Adobe Flash Player, Java platform and Scalable Vector Graphics to be increased or decreased in size (20% to 1,000%) to help those with impaired vision. The user may also specify the fonts and colors for web pages, and even override the page's CSS styling as well. This can be useful for making sites appear in high contrast or in more readable fonts.[55]
Voice control, co-developed with IBM, allows control of the browser without the use of a keyboard or mouse.[56][57] It can also read aloud pages and marked text.[46]

[edit] Privacy and security

Opera has several security features visible to the end user. One is the option to delete private data, such as HTTP cookies, the browsing history, and the cache, with the click of a button. This lets users erase personal data after browsing from a shared computer.[58]
When visiting a secure web site, Opera encrypts data using either SSL 3 or TLS,[59][60] both of which are highly secure encryption protocols. It then adds information about the site's security to the address bar. It will also check the web site that is being visited against blacklists for phishing and malware, and warn if it matches any of these lists. This behavior is enabled by default, but the user may opt to not make such checks automatically. If this check is disabled, the user can still check sites individually by opening a Page Info dialog.[61]
The user can protect every saved password stored in Opera with a master password. This prevents malware from accessing those passwords unless the master password is known. To catch security flaws and other software bugs before they are exploited or become a serious problem, the Opera Software company maintains a public web form where users can submit bug reports.[62] According to Secunia, a computer security service provider, the mean average of unpatched vulnerabilities in the last 365 days is 0.01. This stands in contrast to Internet Explorer (38.3), Firefox (5.77), and Safari (1.54).[63]
In January 2007, Asa Dotzler of the competing Mozilla Corporation accused the Opera Software company of downplaying information about security vulnerabilities in Opera that were fixed in December 2006. Dotzler claimed that users were not clearly informed of security vulnerabilities present in the previous version of Opera, and thus they would not realize that they needed to upgrade to the latest version or risk being exploited.[64] Opera responded to these accusations the next day.[65]

[edit] Standards support

Opera was one of the first browsers to support Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), now a major building block of web design.[66] Today, Opera supports many web standards, including CSS 2.1, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic, XHTML Mobile Profile, XHTML+Voice, WML 2.0, XSLT, XPath, XSL-FO, ECMAScript 3 (JavaScript), DOM 2, XMLHttpRequest, HTTP 1.1, TLS 1.2[67], Unicode, SVG 1.1 Basic, SVG 1.1 Tiny, GIF89a, JPEG, and full support for PNG, including alpha transparency.[68] Since version 9, Opera passes the Acid2 test, a test of whether or not a browser properly supports certain web standards. Opera was the second or fourth web browser to pass the test (depending on opinions regarding hiding the scrollbar)[69] and the first Windows browser to do so. Opera 10.5+ achieves a score of 100/100 on the Acid3 test[70] which is primarily focused on DOM and JavaScript standards compliance.
Opera also has a fast and standards compliant JavaScript engine named Carakan, which in Sputnik conformance tests (written by Google) failed only in 78 cases. For a comparison with other browsers: Safari 159, Chrome 218, Firefox 259, Internet Explorer 463 (all current stable versions as of May 4, 2010).[71]

[edit] Opera Unite

Opera Unite Logo
Opera Unite is an extensible framework that allows for several web services (referred to as "Applications"[72]) to be hosted from the user's computer, including a web server for hosting a site, file and photo sharing, a chat room, and streaming media. Opera ASA has released an API to create new or improved applications for the Opera Unite Platform, and many have already done so. An Opera Unite user's applications run on a domain associated with their Opera Community account, and are accessible from any web browser. For these applications to be accessed, the computer and the Opera Browser hosting the applications must both be running.
The included API uses HTML, CSS, client-side ECMAScript and a new server-side JavaScript technology with local file access and persistent storage. Unite Applications are packaged according to the W3C Widgets 1.0 specification. Opera also provides a vetted facility for developers to upload these user-created applications.[73]
Unite has been included standard since version 10.10.[74]

[edit] Other editions

Aside from the main edition of Opera for personal computers, editions of Opera are available for a variety of devices. All are based on the same core,[75] but there is some variation in the features offered and the design of the user interface.

[edit] Smartphones and PDAs

Main article: Opera Mobile
Opera Mobile can be used on smartphones such as the Nokia 6630.
Opera Mobile is an edition of Opera designed for smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). The first version of Opera Mobile was released in 2000 for the Psion Series 7 and NetBook, with a port to the Windows Mobile platform coming in 2004.[76][77] Today, Opera Mobile is available for a variety of devices that run the Windows Mobile, S60 platform, or UIQ operating systems.[78]
Users may try Opera Mobile free for 30 days, but beyond that it costs US$24.[79] Devices that use the UIQ 3 operating system, such as the Sony Ericsson P990 and Motorola RIZR Z8, come pre-installed with Opera Mobile, the price of Opera Mobile being included in the price of the phone.[78]
One of Opera Mobile's major features is the ability to dynamically reformat web pages to better fit the handheld's display using small screen rendering technology.[80] Alternatively, the user may use page zooming for a closer or broader look.[81] However, like previous versions of Opera for personal computers, Opera Mobile's user interface has come under fire for being difficult to use or customize.[82][83]

[edit] Mobile phones

Main article: Opera Mini
When a user browses the web using Opera Mini, the request is sent via the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to one of the Opera Software company's servers, which retrieves the web page, processes it, compresses it, and sends it back to the user's mobile phone.
Opera Mini, offered free of charge, is designed primarily for mobile phones, but also for smartphones and personal digital assistants. It uses the Java ME platform and consequently requires that the mobile device be capable of running Java ME applications. The browser began as a pilot project in 2005.[84] After limited releases in Europe,[85][86] it was officially launched worldwide on 24 January 2006.[87]
Opera Mini requests web pages through the Opera Software company's servers, which process and compress them before relaying the pages back to the mobile phone.[84][88] This compression process reduces bandwidth use by up to 90%[89] and the pre-processing smooths compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.[90]
In March 2010, Opera Software has launched a new beta version of its Mini browser for mobile phones running on the Google's open source Android platform.The company claims that the Opera Mini 5 is capable of compressing data by up to 90 per cent before sending content to the phone, resulting in improved page-load times and speed.[91]
Opera Software has launched a native version of Opera Mini 5 beta for Windows Mobile 5- and 6-based handsets, which traditionally requires Java. The Mini 5 for Windows mobile phone included the same feature set as its Java-based version.
On April 13, 2010, Opera Mini was officially approved as a free download for iPhone (and iPod Touch) on Apple's App Store.[92]

[edit] Nintendo DS

Main article: Nintendo DS & DSi Browser
The Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS Browser is an edition of Opera for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system. The Nintendo DS Browser was released in Japan on 24 July 2006,[93] in Europe on 6 October 2006,[94] and in North America on 4 June 2007.[95] It is sold as a physical game cartridge for US$30.[33]
The Nintendo DS Browser includes the same small screen rendering and page zooming technology present in Opera Mobile.[25][81] It also includes handwriting recognition software and an on-screen keyboard to enable user input. Additionally, Nintendo partnered with Astaro Internet Security to provide web filtering for the Nintendo DS Browser. The technology is simply a professionally maintained proxy server that blocks web sites related to pornography, discrimination, security hacking, software piracy, violence, gambling, illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, dating, weapons, abortion, and other content that Nintendo deems objectionable.[96] Users can configure the Nintendo DS Browser to receive web pages through this proxy server, and this setting can be password-protected (by a parent, for example) to prevent circumvention.[97]
In August 2007, the Nintendo DS Browser was quietly discontinued in North America,[33][98] although it is still available from Nintendo's online store.[99] Instead, Opera is available on the Nintendo DSi through the DSi Shop.[100]

[edit] Wii

Main article: Internet Channel
Nintendo's Wii console
On 10 May 2006, the Opera Software company announced that it was partnering with Nintendo to provide a web browser for Nintendo's Wii gaming console.[24][25][26][27] Opera for the Wii, called the Internet Channel, was free to download from its release on 12 April 2007[28] until 30 June 2007. After that date, Wii users had to pay 500 Wii Points (US$5[29]) to download it.[30] However, in late August / early September of the year 2009, the Internet Channel was once again available to download for free and those who paid for the service had their Wii Points returned in the form of a free NES virtual console game.[101]
Scott Hedrick, an executive of the Opera Software company, explained that the Wii browser was designed to suit a "living room environment".[102] In contrast to Opera's appearance on computer monitors, fonts are larger and the interface is simplified for easier use.[102] Notwithstanding the changes in design, the Wii browser supports the same web standards as the desktop version of Opera 9,[102] including passing the Acid2 test.[103]

[edit] Market adoption

The usage share of web browsers.
Source: Median values from summary table.      Internet Explorer (53.26%; Usage by version number)      Mozilla Firefox (31.60%; Usage by version number)      Google Chrome (8.00%)      Safari (5.40%)      Opera (1.82%)      Other (0.89%)
Statistics reference: Usage share of web browsers
In July 2009, usage data on English-language sites showed Opera's share of the browser market as being just around 2%.[104] The browser has seen more success in Europe, including about 43% market share in 2009 in Ukraine, 36% Russia, and 8-11% in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic.[105]
In September 2009, Opera broke its previous download records when Opera 10 was released and was recorded to be downloaded 10 million times during the first week of release.[106]
Since its first release in 1996, the browser has had limited success on personal computers. It has had more success in the area of mobile browsing, with product releases for a variety of platforms.[107] Approximately 40 million mobile phones have shipped with a copy of Opera pre-installed.[108]
In addition to mobile phones, smartphones, and personal digital assistants, Opera has found a place with Nintendo's Wii and DS gaming systems. It is used on some television set-top boxes as well.[109] In 2005, Adobe Systems opted to integrate Opera's layout engine, Presto, into its Adobe Creative Suite applications. Opera technology is now found in Adobe GoLive, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, and other components of the Adobe Creative Suite.[14][15] Opera's layout engine is also found in Virtual Mechanics SiteSpinner Pro.[110]

[edit] Reception

See also: Opera Mobile#Critical reception, Opera Mini#Critical reception, and Nintendo DS & DSi Browser#Critical reception
Critical reception of Opera has been largely positive,[111][112][113] although it has been criticized for website compatibility issues.[114][115] According to one of Opera's competitors, this is partly because developers do not test web sites with Opera due its lack of market share.[115] Because of this issue, Opera 8.01 and higher have included workarounds to help certain popular but problematic web sites display properly.[116][117] Notwithstanding other criticism, when Nintendo chose in 2006 to adopt Opera as the web browser for its Wii and Nintendo DS gaming systems, a Nintendo representative explained:
For our Wii console launch in 2006, we required a browser that was fast and secure with support for the latest standards including AJAX. Opera proved perfect for our purposes and is an exceptional addition to both the Nintendo DS and the Wii console.
—Genyo Takeda, senior managing director and general manager, Integrated Research & Development Division , Nintendo[26]
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_Web_Browser
06/02/10
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