What happened to Opera while I've been gone?

[ddustin]

ddustin last edited by

I have not used Opera in several months for various reasons. I go today to download it and find that it is much larger in size. It went from a stable 11MBs(when originally downloaded) to 30MBs!! It seems more focused on Socialization (with Twitter, facebook, etc.. being in the speed dial by default) like Google Chrome is. That frightens me because Google Chrome isn't very private. I really want to know where all the extra space came from. I can't imagine that their is anymore CSS3 or HTML5 support because they were always very good with that, and in fact their small size plus their support of CSS3 and HTML5 is what made Opera superb. Does the new Opera include sandboxing now or something? And I haven't really gotten to use it yet but is it still just as quick and stable with an increased size?
Opera was small, stable, fast, supported everything modern, easy to use, beautiful to look at, user friendly and I even go some of my old friends to use it... what happened to Opera while I've been gone?...

[leevi]

leevi last edited by

Opera switched to Blink engine (same engine as in Chrome), so basically the new Opera 15+ is just Chrome with some Opera features. Not necessary the same features as in old Opera as quite a lot of them are missing from the new Opera. They are adding (some of) them back in later versions.

Personally I would recommend using the latest Opera 12.16 while waiting for the Opera 15+ be worth using as main browser.

[Lupin-III]

Lupin-III last edited by

Everything you loved about Opera is gone. It may or may not be returned... but until then, you should stick with an older version 11 or 12 of opera, or invest in a vat of lube and a hemoroid donut to sit on. Opera 15 is the software version of anal rape.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Originally posted by leushino:

Another useless poll. Another pointless thread. :whistle:

..and yet another reminder of one point of view with which all are familiar by now.

[browzer1]

browzer1 last edited by

re leushino ..."Another useless poll. Another pointless thread."

I must respectfully disagree. The more users that honestly voice their concerns, the better.

There is strength in numbers.

[ddustin]

ddustin last edited by

Thank you all for the help (perhaps excluding leushino), I think for now I shall stick with the old Opera 12. Hopefully Opera has learned their mistake and will go back to how things were.

[euphrates]

euphrates last edited by

I went back to opera 12 . What scares is the sense that the opera is no longer the same, like the old versions that we have loved and used to. I really do not understand why the company made such an absurd decision. They just try to make opera resemble to Chrome. For god's sake, if somebody wants to use the Chrome features, let him/her to go and use Chrome.. Why are you guys making such an irritating and unnecessary change while everything was just perfect with old opera.. ???

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

I didn't vote because there's no suitable option on the poll. Opera Next is not only a little worse — it needs many essential features before it will be usable for me. However, it is not a catastrophe.

It works well, is stable, and fast, it doesn't look too bad, and it's not difficult to find your way around after upgrading. However, there is just too much missing for me to even consider using it yet.

Originally posted by euphrates:

Why are you guys making such an irritating and unnecessary change while everything was just perfect with old opera.. ?

Unfortunately, that's not the case. Everything was far from perfect, so Opera had to abandon the losing battle to maintain the Presto rendering engine. That meant building a new browser around the new engine, which will take a while.

If it was my decision, I would have left Opera 12.16 as the default download and offered Opera Next as an alternative to try out. That might have avoided a lot of the flack from existing users, while still tempting some new users to look at the new Opera version. It's enough for many users, but not for those of us who like to customise our software to get the most out of it.

[dickcaverly]

dickcaverly last edited by

I only just discovered this move to Blink yesterday, and after installing v.17, was totally chagrined. I've used Opera about as long as it's been available... and, without a doubt, it's has always been the software I use most. I've tried the other browsers and never understood why they had any users when Opera did so much, so well. So, yesterday, in my fit of pique, I checked 'catastrophe' in the poll. Last night, however, I was reading at Huffingtonpost, which has been becoming increasingly balky in v.12.16, and I decided to test it in v.17. The difference was remarkable. So, now I'll admit this move is probably a good thing. Hopefully they can bring back the features I've come to rely on.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

It takes time. It's an enormous task they have in front of them. Run both v.12 and v.17 alongside one another and use each as the tasks require. In time the new browser is going to rock.

[malacath360]

malacath360 last edited by

I like the new Opera. It means I can finally ditch Chrome which you could almost class as spyware.

I just think Opera needs bookmarks

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Originally posted by malacath360:

I just think Opera needs bookmarks

It already has bookmarks — enable the Quick Access Bar with "opera:flags" and in settings, then import your bookmarks from old opera or D&D from HTML file links to the QAB.

[malacath360]

malacath360 last edited by

Originally posted by Pesala:

Originally posted by malacath360:

I just think Opera needs bookmarks

It already has bookmarks — enable the Quick Access Bar with "opera:flags" and in settings, then import your bookmarks from old opera or D&D from HTML file links to the QAB.

I've done that. But it doesn't do anything.

There is no quick access bar below the address bar.

Also the bookmark import option is greyed out.

EDIT: I got the bookmark bar working but can't get the importer working at all. It's still greyed out.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Originally posted by malacath360:

I've done that. But it doesn't do anything.

There is no quick access bar below the address bar.

Also the bookmark import option is greyed out.

EDIT: I got the bookmark bar working but can't get the importer working at all. It's still greyed out.

I'll copy-paste my post from here

if you have stable version with working bookmarks, just copy Bookmarks, Bookmarks.db and Bookmarks.db-journal to developer folder.
If not, try to manually force import from old presto opera with shortcut command switch

--presto-small-prefs-dir=ROAMING_PROFILE_DIR

eg. right click on your Opera 18 shortcut, go to properties, shortcut tab and under target add code with the RIGHT path to your roaming profile folder at the end of it
(probably C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera)
note: after the program path under "" put space before the code
--presto-small.....

After you import old profile with bookmarks from it, don't forget to delete that code from shortcut, because every time you click it, it will start importing again.
If you have x64 version of Presto, change profile name in the way so that it doesn't have space in it, like "opera_x64" instead of "Opera x64"

If you don't want to bother with all this, install RealBookmarks extension through developer mode, and import bookmarks as HTML

http://my.opera.com/Sumpfkrautjunkie/blog/2013/07/16/export-tooltips-thumnails-thumbnail-mode

it's not finished, but it is fully functional

[malacath360]

malacath360 last edited by

Thanks.

I've installed that Realbookmarks

[cooljoebay]

cooljoebay last edited by

Sunnuva Nut. I went from 12.16 to THIS!! What a piece of SHIT. And to think how many hundreds of times I took a few seconds to click on that jelp menu to send information about a broken website. Apparently they don't listen at all to the users. This is getting to be like the bureaucratic Micro$uck. If that's the case, then its time to switch to a different one. Guess I''ll go back to Firefox. Not my favorite choice. But at least it isn't like that piece of hogshit Chrome.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Originally posted by cooljoebay:

And to think how many hundreds of times I took a few seconds to click on that help menu to send information about a broken website.

Broken web sites were the main reason why Opera made the decision to drop development of Presto and switch to Webkit/Blink. Rather than investing so many resources in fixing Presto to work with web sites, they can invest a fraction of that time in fixing Blink, and the rest in improving the browser.

Although there are still many missing features, the Bookmarks Bar is already available, and more will return gradually. The switch brought several minor benefits like this — not only defects.

[Deleted User]

Deleted User last edited by

Originally posted by Pesala:

The switch brought several minor benefits like this — not only defects.

This particular benefit is annulled by inability to select text when it contains a link. This is by design, by the way http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/show.dml/59961552#comment105445992

Also, there is a CSS class that prevents the user from copying text. It didn't work in Presto (so it was okay) but is implemented in webkit http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=1291752 This class is, IMHO, evil in principle. The user should be able to operate with what is displayed on the screen, otherwise what is the display good for? I always use a set of utterly different other browsers to go round odd problems like this. No single browser ever satisfied my needs completely, though Presto came close.

So, for these reasons, your example of benefit is imaginary.

[stng]

stng last edited by

Pesala

Broken web sites were the main reason why Opera made the decision to drop development of Presto and switch to Webkit/Blink.

"The reason for dropping Presto was indeed funding." (c) Former Opera Software ASA CEO and Opera's co-founder.

Rather than investing so many resources in fixing Presto to work with web sites, they can invest a fraction of that time in fixing Blink, and the rest in improving the browser.

A few specialists involved into the Browser.js(web-site fixing) department (less than 5 people, AFAIR) was an investing so many resources???
I'd rather not believe in this PR's fable.

Although there are still many missing features, the Bookmarks Bar is already available, and more will return gradually. The switch brought several minor benefits like this — not only defects.

That's doesn't make sense since Opera has lost all of its functionality (besides a very basic features) and customizability (that won't return back anyway, according to their PR).
The most advanced browser has turned into the faceless shell of the Blink engine and Chromim's framework. This is the end of Opera browser that we known and like.

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

Originally posted by ersi:

This particular benefit is annulled by inability to select text when it contains a link.

I can select text that contains a link “topic.dml?id=1291752” or “http://my.opera.com/community/” How hard is that?

Originally posted by ersi:

Also, there is a CSS class that prevents the user from copying text. It didn't work in Presto (so it was okay) but is implemented in webkit

So that's another improvement due to the switch.

Originally posted by ersi:

IMHO, evil in principle.

:lol: Evil in principle to support CSS properly? Now I am sure that you have lost it. If you really want to select text that is supposed to be unselectable because it is defined to be unselectable, view the source code.

Originally posted by ersi:

The user should be able to operate with what is displayed on the screen, otherwise what is the display good for?

Err, it is good for reading and following links.