Opera browser does an encore

As America Online subsidiary Netscape Communications struggles to deliver Version 6 of Navigator and Microsoft works on its Internet Explorer 5.5 update, a third contender is pushing ahead with its next-generation product.

Oslo, Norway-based Opera Software A/S on Sunday officially announced that Beta 1 of its Opera 4.0 product for Windows was available for download. The company is working simultaneously on Opera 4.0 for Linux, Mac, BeOS and EPOC platforms. The Linux Opera port is in alpha testing; the others are in various beta phases. The company is shooting for second-quarter availability for Opera 4.0 on all supported platforms.

Community-based browser
Opera has been described as a "community-based" software development effort -- something that falls between open source and the traditional, proprietary development process. But Opera's claim to fame has been the small size and OS independence of its browser.

"Tired of 10MB+ downloads, megabytes of updates, sluggish performance, HTML standard violations, desktop domination, instability, the seductive word 'free,' and a browser war that left you as the only casualty? Then welcome to Opera!" reads the company's Web site, where volunteer testers can download the Version 4.0 beta for Windows.

'PowerPoint killer'
New to Opera 4.0 for Windows is an embedded e-mail client.

Version 4.0 release will add support for XML, HTTP 1.1 and Cascading Style Sheets 2.0, making for "more beautiful screens," according to Chief Technology Officer HÃÆ'Ã,Â¥kon Wium Lie. The Windows release will also support ECMAScript, JavaScript 1.3 and 128-bit encryption.

In addition, the new release will sport a number of user interface improvements, Lie said. One will be the capability to take a standard HTML file and split it into a number of PowerPoint-like presentation screens -- what Lie jokingly called a "PowerPoint-killer" feature.

Opera's announcement of Opera 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows came just a day before Netscape officially announced that the next release of its browser will be called "Netscape 6." (The company skipped Version 5 in its numbering scheme.) The first beta of 6 will be released within 25 days, Netscape said Monday.

At the heart of Netscape 6 will be a next-generation rendering engine, code-named Gecko, that is under development by Mozilla.org, the open-source arm of AOL/Netscape. Netscape isn't the only Gecko licensee; others include IBM, Intel, Liberate, NetObjects, Nokia, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems.

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