The Opera Thread!

Well, so much for the integrated features that the current Opera has it seems: Opera 15 provides a mish-mash of Opera features and the Chrome interface | Ars Technica

Still a very early version, so things will probably get added back, but the fact that the mail feature was integrated in the browser was a good incentive for me to use opera, if the other features I like go, I'll just jump ship to another browser.

 

Is it just me or is it totally busted? I downloaded Opera Next 15.0.1147.18, and nothing seems to work. Won't load any pages, won't load any settings, the print dialog doesn't do anything. I can open and close tabs, but they have no content. And the File -> Exit option works. But that's it. Kind of disappointing. I wanted to see if the features I care most about were axed or not, but in the version I downloaded even web browsing was axed. That tops the time I tried a Firefox preview and there was no way to navigate backwards. Though I'd presume that a future release will be better than this.

Needless to say, I'll be sticking with 11.x and 12.x until this is quite a bit more feature-complete. Or possibly switch to Firefox.

Also, what happened to 13 and 14? I don't want Opera to be like Chrome and Firefox and inflate version numbers arbitrarily. I want to actually care about Opera releases like I care about IE releases, even though I don't use IE.

 

Number 15 is the current version of the browser engine Opera is using. That's why they've skipped on numbers 13 and 14.

 

The current 15 version is pretty much a alpha as far as I can tell. Regarding the version numbers, I think 13 or 14 is the engine version for android and I'm not sure what the other engine version # is. Now that the mail client is apparently going separate from the browser, if tab stacking and other similar features go the way of the dodo, I'm jumping ship to another browser.

Heck, I might just simply stick with IE, chrome, I didn't like the early releases so I didn't bother with the following ones, Firefox I ditched because I was tired of having to get a ton of add-ons for the functionalities I wanted and IE was just a no go with version 8 and prior for me, but version 10 seems to be adequate.

 

I removed Opera (after several uninstalls/reinstalls) because it kept locking up and I get getting Hanging exception fails. Now I am just sticking with Chrome & cough..IE. It worked great for me when it did though.

 

Oh, the new browser engine. I was going to say, Presto can't be anywhere near 15. (Presto is 2.12)

What all other browsers have the one-key shortcuts that Opera has? That's one of my favorite Opera features, but I'm not too keen on switching to a WebKit/<Blink> based browser like Opera 15. The only browser I'm aware of with a similar feature is Sleipnir 2, but I'm not sure if that version is being updated, and even if it is, they appear to be focused on their Sleipnir 4 version, and Opera does them better regardless. I'll probably mostly stick with Opera (whether 12.15 or 11.64, I'm not sure) for the next few months, but I could very well see myself using Firefox or some other less-used browser as my main browser in 2014. I'm already using Firefox at work, and aside from lacking single key shortcuts and not having an X on every tab, it's not bad.

Edit: :laugh: The part of my post after the Blink tag is now actually blinking, at least in Opera 12.15! I didn't realize we could put HTML in posts here... hmm, wonder if strong works, too?
</blink>
<marquee behavior="Alternate">Awesome, marquees work, too!</marquee>

 

Well, these single-key shortcuts should have nothing to do with the Presto/WebKit engine. That engine primarily drives the rendering and browsing, but stuff like shortcut keys should be controlled by libraries and resources outside of the WebKit engine. Same thing with the speed dial feature.

Siiiiigh. The new Opera 15 has dropped its Next moniker, and so it's just plain ol' "stable" Opera v15.

They dropped single-key shortcuts. They also dropped the entire sidebar (F4). No more Notes, no more quick history scanning, no more quick bookmark scanning. At this moment, all the features that I loved about Opera are pretty much completely gone.

I'll give them the next few version releases/updates to see if they bring those back. I hope that they've stripped those features out only so that they could just get the new WebKit/Chromium engine-driven browser out the gates first. I really hope that they don't leave those features out of the browser entirely: they are what made Opera stand out of the crowd and usable. Without those features, Opera is just Chrome with a Swedish accent.

 

Yeah, seems like they're trying to get more users on board with the blink engine, but they're cutting/altering features which will alienate a part of their already established user base. I remember another piece of software that did that and recently the company that makes it started backtracking a little because of the backlash caused by some users. Opera has a small user base and going against their current user base isn't a smart move in my opinion. I've seen a lot of people not happy about loosing features like mail, rss feeds, etc.

At this rate, I'll stick with IE10 and that's it. I never really got into chrome when it launched, I was tired of getting add-ons for firefox to add the functionalities I wanted. Opera struck the right cords, but now, not so much.

I haven' tried v15 yet, so I gotta ask if tab stacking is still there.

 

Nope, no tab stacking. Literally all of the features that made Opera what it was are gone. As it currently is, Opera is - just like I mentioned previously - Chrome that's been designed in Sweden.

I'm still thinking that Opera knows that their miniscule user base was only very heavily loyal to them due to the unique feature set that it once had. I really hope that v15 is really just a "look we're on Blink/WebKit/WhateverGoogleCallsItNext" release, and that they'll be restoring features one by one as they go along. Luckily installing v15 keeps your old v12 separately, so you can run them together side by side. It does not update your existing installation.

 

^this

One thing I really like about the new release though is being able to stack speed dial pages into "folders" - which is a great, although it's not enough to switch to the new version. I hope they will be implementing functionalities of the older version, because as many people say, it's kind of not opera anymore.

 

Norwegian accent. Let's get our Scandinavian countries right! Opera does employ a decent number of people in Sweden, too, but it's a Norwegian company and at least the plurality of their positions are in Norway.

The Speed Dial folders is intriguing, and I'm glad to see it since it's the kind of unique feature that Opera's known for and have been somewhat lacking (in terms of new ones) the past couple years. Though if initial reports that that's the only place for bookmarks are true, I don't know that it's worth the tradeoff.

I'm certainly one of those people daver160 is talking about, in that I'm loyal to Opera due to the unique feature set. I first tried it because I wasn't totally thrilled with Firefox at the time and heard Opera was good, but the unique features made it my favorite pretty quickly. Single-key shortcuts are the single most important feature for me, so I'll stick with Opera 12 and Presto for the time being. Reports are that F2 doesn't work, either, which was another of my favorite shortcuts. Sidebar, I've never actually used much aside from Opera Unite. I might have to explore using that more. The unique features that are appealing do vary by person, though, and there's usually more than one, so leaving them out does invite the current user base to investigate what Firefox and other competitors that they may not have looked at for awhile have to offer

I was encouraged by the blog posting that they'll both be continuing to add back in existing features, and will be continuing to update Opera 12. So it does appear that they understand that a lot of these features really are important, and that there's more than a few existing Opera users who's rather stick with 12.x until their favorite features are ready. As I've said for a long time, Opera's shortcuts save me more time than whatever faster page rendering Chrome or another browser may have would, so as long as competing browsers (including Opera 15+) don't have those shortcuts, I'm unlikely to switch to them. Though given the long list of requested features, it might take until 2015 before Opera 15+ is feature-equivalent to 12.

Most of the comments on the blog are also pro-12.x/I-need-some-feature-that's-missing, so I think they realize that the features are important. I like the comment that, "I feel like I'm using Notepad. Opera 12 feels like Microsoft Word."

 

Just found an addon to firefox that makes your tabs behave like in opera (Classic Opera 1.1). Gestures addon, speed dial addon -> bye bye opera. I've been a user for a few years now, no other browser was able to provide the "opera experience", until now.

 

Sheesh, you're absolutely right. Shows you how much I know about the company that makes the browser!

I definitely saw the blog post and enjoy reading the comments of everybody who, like me, are loyal to Opera because of its feature set. I don't mind at all that it might look completely different. However, I just need single-key shortcuts. Even the exclusion of the sidebar is not a matter to me: those were all just shortcuts to already existing functionality. I'll miss Notes, that's for sure, but ultimately I already have that, it's called "Notepad".

I was excited to read that the folks at Opera will still continue to "update" v12, though we all know they'll be focusing on v15+ most of the time. I just really hope that they hear our voices and try to bring the features from v12 into v15 and beyond!


On a happier note, v12.16 is out!

 

Opera 16 is now out. Top features:

W3C geolocation API,
form auto-filler,
support for jump-lists on Windows,
support for presentation mode on Mac,
better performance,
tons of bug-fixes,
opera:flags,
using Chromium 29 engine.

Still doesn't sound like it's worth upgrading from Opera 12 to me. Good to see new features, but I can't say I use any of those features in O12, except perhaps some of the configuration options that will be in opera:flags.

On the plus side, Opera 12's compatibility with websites is still holding up, so I haven't had to switch to Firefox yet.

 

So, more than a year later, I'm still on Presto for a high majority of my web browsing, with Gecko (Firefox) picking up nearly all the remainder. But Opera 25's beta announcement was the first one in a long time... quite possibly since the Presto days, perhaps 10.10 with Unite, that I found rather interesting.

In particular, the graphical bookmarks sound like an interesting feature. While not applicable to every type of site, I could definitely see it being useful in some categories like recipes, travel planning, places to visit around town, and so forth. It's perhaps the first time with <blink>Blink</blink> that I've thought, "hey, this sounds like an innovative new idea that can give Opera an edge". And I might even be curious enough to try it out.

The integrated PDF and mp3 support is also a nice practical improvement. I'm not sure if native web notifications is really such a great idea, but by and large it sounds like probably the most significant single update since before <blink>Blink</blink>.

Any thoughts from other long-time Opera users? Are you all still on Presto, migrated to <blink>Blink</blink>, or have you left Opera entirely?

 

Still on Presto and you can pry it from my cold dead hands. Bring integrated mail back and RSS. Then we'll talk...

 

It is indeed one of the most interesting recent updates from the Opera team, but it's still not compelling enough to make me switch. Since Opera moved to Blink, I've transitioned over to Firefox, and it works well enough that I don't feel the need to move back.

 

A new browser from Jon von Tetzschner: https://vivaldi.com/

A worthy replacement? I don't know yet. But it's from von Tetzschner, so I'm interested! Noteworthy features include keyboard shortcuts, and that they are working on mail (though it's not yet in the first tech preview).

I"m still using Opera 12.17 as my primary browser, but plan to give Vivaldi a fair chance. Firefox has been gaining use for me, particularly at work, but is still in the minority. I did notice that earlier this month Opera started pushing a recommended update to Opera 26 from Opera 12. Needless to say, I declined.

I did try Opera 26 slightly before that after reading on Ruari's Thoughts that it now supported single-key shortcuts, but they can only be configured via text file and apparently something went wrong when I tried it as then I had no keyboard shortcuts whatsoever. For now Vivaldi sounds like a more promising candidate to succeed good old Opera Presto as my main browser.

 

I came across an old article today that Opera may not have read before switching to Blink:

At least it didn't take Opera three years to release the new version. But for feature parity, it may well end up being circa three years.

I'm still using Vivaldi. About 20% Vivaldi, 70% Opera 12.x, 10% Firefox on my main computer. It's still rough around the edges, and could use some speed optimizations on the address bar and switching tabs, but it's lasted longer than any other minor browser I've tried. Having 12.x shortcuts counts for a lot. I'll give it a few more months of updates before trying it full time.