As a webpage designer and web application developer each and every one of us will have one question in mind for sure. Will my webpage work fine with the future releases of the browser? Or do I’ve to redesign it? Isn’t it?

To solve these problems, Chrome started with different channel called Chromium which provides a facility to download the latest build of the product. After Chrome, even Apple’s Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox started releasing the lot many betas, aurora, platform preview etc. These releases surely help the developer to test their webpage for future releases.

Now! Where’s Opera? It is nowhere in the frame right? This is because till now Opera was stuck to release only beta, RC’s and final version. But now even they joined their rival browsers with the new release cycle.

What is Opera Next?

Opera Next is a stand-alone installation of the Opera desktop browser intended for testing the development of new features, technologies, and improvements.

Opera Next automatically updates when new versions become available without affecting your everyday browsing. This means whenever the new version is available Opera Next will let you update your Opera Next installation.

One good thing about Opera Next is, just similar to Chrome and IE, Opera Next will never affect the Opera installation, so you’re safe to play around with alphas, betas and even snapshots! User can run Opera and Opera Next simultaneously.

You can also distinguish between Opera and Opera next by the difference the logo. Opera Next comes with the white colour logo.

Opera and Opera Next’s Release Cycle

Well this time around, Opera has got a fresh and best release cycle to stay in browser war. The standard development release cycle for Opera Next includes builds of: snapshots, alpha, beta, beta2, release candidate (RC), RC2, and final.

But user can also configure this release cycle. opera:config allows users to disables automatic updates of snapshots for Opera Next.

In comparison to Opera Next, the Opera browser product is designed for day-to-day use and is only released for beta, release candidate (RC), and final versions. While these releases are identical to beta, RC, and final versions of Opera Next, the installations still remain separate, as described above. Auto-update only applies to final releases of the Opera browser (if this is enabled) as shown in the diagram below.

Key Notes:

• The diagram above depicts release cycles for Opera Next with default settings and Opera with auto-update enabled.
• O = optional manual download. If you download a beta build, any beta2 is automatically updated, followed by the final. For manual download of RC, only final builds are automatically updated.

What is new in Opera Next?

Extensions were introduced in Opera 11. Now with Opera 11.50 we take them to the next level! Developers can add new functionality to your Speed Dial. A click of your mouse opens a new tab that could show live news feeds, display the weather, present email notifications or much more.

We hope the new release cycle will work out really well Opera team by getting some more users. Opera 11 couldn’t get expected market share but the overall market share of Opera has got a little jump as Firefox and Internet Explorer lost some.

At last, what do you think about this latest move by Opera team? Will this really help testers to have a hand on and get their webpage work fine in future? Share your thoughts and lets discuss about it 🙂

Source: Opera Support