No-Charge Opera for Linux Now Available

By Dennis E. Powell, LinuxPlanet

Linux users who favor the Opera web browser no longer have to
click an expiration nag screen at startup, with the release of
Opera 5.0 beta 6 for Linux.

Today’s release is the first that does not expire 30 days after
download — and the first Linux version that is supported by
advertising banners. An ad-free version is available for $39.

It also is a nomenclature jump for Opera on Linux. The previous
beta was 4.0 beta 5. But the Opera web page suggests that the new
Linux version is not considered a beta, as were the previous Linux
offerings. Gone are the “what works” and “what doesn’t work yet”
listings, replaced by a listing of new features in Opera 5.0. Among
them:

• Keyboard and mouse functions, including Ctrl-Backspace, which
  replaces the current URL with the selected text and a middle click
  opening the selected URL in a new window.
• Greater javascript support.
• Improved font handling, printing, and print preview.

The advertising banner in the free version appears in the upper
right corner of the browser frame, in an extension of the toolbar
outside the page being viewed.

Built with the QT-2.2 toolkit, the new Opera for Linux can be
downloaded in both dynamically linked versions (for those who have
KDE2) and statically linked, in binary tarball, .deb, and .rpm for
Linux X86 and tarball and .rpm for PPC. Source is not
available.

Opera 5.0 bets 6 for Linux can be downloaded from www.opera.com/linux