What to expect in Opera update from 12.17
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A Former User last edited by
Today, Opera 12.17 offered me the chance to "Discover the New Opera", saying it would download and install a new version. I'm guessing this is the oft-reviled Opera Chromium. The dialog also said, "Find out more at www.opera.com". Well, www.opera.com doesn't tell me much about what an Opera 12 user (as opposed to a new user) needs to know. What happens to my mail? My newsfeeds? My keyboard shortcuts? I did find in the Help & support section a page called "Migrate your data from Opera 12", which says that Opera 15 (!) would read my old bookmarks, and that if I download Opera Mail, it will find my mail. Unfortunately, the help section for Opera Mail talks about the integrated version inside Opera 12, so I can't find out anything there.
So would anyone care to tell me what to expect? What will I lose? Should I resist this update kicking and screaming, or will it be not to bad?
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Deleted User last edited by
Use Opera 12 if you want Browser and Mail as long as it is not stated as unsupported/discontinued in public by Opera.
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Deleted User last edited by
I've seen #28, but still NO PROGRESS on bookmarks front!
Keep on your "hard work" guys!
I'm still with Opera 12.17. -
blackbird71 last edited by@bvm42, by "updating" from old Opera, you will lose a wide variety of customizations, shortcuts, and capabilities native to that browser. The impact of all that depends on how much you rely on the missing elements. You will gain improved website and protocol compatibility, speed, and a few new features. The impact of all that depends on how much those kinds of things matter to you.
Because the two Opera browser families are so different, much of what you're used to in controlling/tweaking the old browser will not directly carry over, so there will be a learning curve - just as if you migrated to a non-Opera browser. Some (but not all) of what was natively available in old Presto Opera is now available under new Blink Opera via third-party extensions/add-ons, both from Opera's own "store" and, via a special adapter extension, from Chrome's store... but be aware that the look and feel of functional extensions will be different from what you experienced natively in old Opera. Hardware impacts of the new Opera will be somewhat steeper, in particular, more CPU loading because more processes will be running (one for each tab and extension used). Old Opera allowed a user to easily block future automatic version updates; the new Opera does not (unless the user manually mods some special files or OS settings)... new upgrades to the new Blink Opera come automatically every so many weeks.
You are welcome to resist updating your old Opera installation, with or without "kicking and screaming", for as long as you want... Opera isn't forcing an update to old Opera versions (yet, if ever). But time is against you, since not updating pushes you ever-closer to visible web/website compatibility issues. Sites are constantly changing, browser-sniffing, using new protocols, and such - but an old, unsupported browser doesn't change, so problems will start arising simply from the passage of time. Keep in mind that even if you do "update" your old Opera, the new version design does not remove the old one (though it may replace it as the 'default' browser)... so you can still access and use the old version as much as you want. And frankly, it might make sense to keep the old version just to keep on using it for your eMail client (the code in the "Opera Mail" program is essentially the very same thing).
But eventually, you will have to find a new browser (and perhaps an eMail client program), if only because at some point, newly-discovered security flaws, changes to web protocols, and site-forced incompatibilities will cumulatively degrade your browsing experience so much that you will have no other choice. At that time, your challenge will really be to decide to which browser you migrate. But be aware that all of them, including new Opera, will impose "change" and a learning curve upon you.
My advice is to start sooner, rather than later, in exploring new web browsers, new Opera included. Try out several of them - see how they look and run on your system for the kinds of browsing you do. The browser you eventually migrate to as your 'primary' should be the one that works best in how you use it... not what somebody else thinks or recommends.
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sw88 last edited by
This is just like iTunes removing Cover Flow in their latest version. Everyone was unhappy!
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A Former User last edited by
@blackbird71, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I do realize I'm eventually going to need a new regular browser. As it is, Opera 12 has features I love, but it's not super reliable any more (leaks memory, gets into states where it won't open connections to web sites, etc.).
I did go ahead and let it install the new version to have a look. It read my Opera 12 bookmarks and even restored my Opera 12 tabs, which is nice.
My first impression is that it's Chrome with some minor tweaks but without such essential features as bookmark sync. Here are some of the things I like about Opera 12 that I didn't find:
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Is there any way to have multiple rows of tabs? Without this, it's impractical to have more than a dozen tabs open at once.
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Is there any way to cycle tabs in MRU order? This is perhaps the single feature I hate most about Chrome -- Ctrl-Tab only cycles left-to-right, and closing a tab just opens the adjacent one. I want Ctrl-Tab to go back to the most recently visited tab, and I want closing a tab to do the same. I frequently find myself alternating my attention between two tabs, and this is just horrendous to do without MRU tab order. I have found extensions that restore some of the Opera 12 tab behavior (e.g., closing tab goes to last visited), but none that fixed Ctrl-Tab behavior. There aren't any Chrome extensions for this, either, so I'm guessing it's a Chrome engine restriction. (I find it ironic that Opera, which pioneered tabbed browsing, seems to have fallen down so badly in this area.)
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Is there any quick way to toggle loading of images on/off? Opera 12 has a button in the button bar.
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Fit to width? Again, Opera 12 has a button.
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Fast forward?
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Save a web page in mht format? (I see there's an extension called SingleFile that might actually be better in some cases.)
So far, I've only discovered one Opera feature that I like, is in the new Opera, and which Chrome doesn't have: the z (back) shortcut. But in Opera 12, I customized this to be Back | Close, which makes it even more useful. I don't see any capability for keyboard customization in Opera 26.
Has anyone written anything extolling Opera over Chrome? You'd think Opera marketing might have, but I couldn't find anything.
Incidentally, OperaMail was a huge failure for me. I installed it and pointed it at my old accounts.ini (on a machine where I had no mail, just news feeds). It spent a long time reading the .mbs files, and when it finally came up, there were zero feeds. Thousands of messages when I tell it to "Read Feeds", but they're all mixed together. When I go to "Manage Feeds" there are no feeds. Big disappointment.
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lando242 last edited by
but without such essential features as bookmark syn
Bookmark sync is coming. Its already in Opera 28 and works well.
Is there any way to have multiple rows of tabs? Without this, it's impractical to have more than a dozen tabs open at once.
I read webcomics a lot. I have a lot of webcomics bookmarked. At least 3 times a week I open 423 tabs at once (yes, four hundred and twenty three and still counting). Opera handles it well enough, but has a few issues. That said I have no problem navigating them. While I can't read the titles of each I am able to click on each individual tab and between the 1-2 keys being tab cyclers and the open tabs button (no clue what its called but its a scrollable list of every open tab) I can very easily navigate them.
Is there any way to cycle tabs in MRU order?
Is there any quick way to toggle loading of images on/off?
Fit to width?Theres extensions for that.
Fast forward?
AFAIK no one has that anywhere in any current web browser, sorry.
I don't see any capability for keyboard customization in Opera 26.
Is currently in an editable config file. I think theres an extension that does it also though.
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stng last edited by
@bvm42
New Opera is entirely different browser that have an absolutely opposite concept/ideas/direction when it's compared with the old product.As it is, Opera 12 has features I love, but it's not super reliable any more (leaks memory, gets into states where it won't open connections to web sites, etc.).
Try 12.14, x64 builds.
My first impression is that it's Chrome with some minor tweaks but without such essential features as bookmark sync.
So it is. It's ordinary Chromium-based web-browser with a few of specific features and options.
Is there any way to have multiple rows of tabs? Without this, it's impractical to have more than a dozen tabs open at once.
Not sure if it's possible with the UI which is built on Chromium (even as an new UI's layer).
Is there any quick way to toggle loading of images on/off? Opera 12 has a button in the button bar.
Unlikely.
Fit to width? Again, Opera 12 has a button.
No, of course.
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FTW feature is based on the special rendering mode in Opera 12(thats unique for Presto rendering engine). It wasn't implemented by competitors.
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FTW was considered (by the Opera devs) as one of the most confusing feature that frustrated a lot of non-experienced and newbie users:
"...Presto-based Opera had become overloaded with features, a number of them confusing rather than helping our users — you can’t imagine how many reports we’ve gotten from users telling us that their favorite site was broken, simply because they had turned on fit-to-width by accident, for instance...."
Details: http://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2013/07/the-vision-behind-opera-15-and-beyond/
Fast forward?
Hmmm... I don't think. Too "geeky".
So far, I've only discovered one Opera feature that I like, is in the new Opera, and which Chrome doesn't have: the z (back) shortcut. But in Opera 12, I customized this to be Back | Close, which makes it even more useful. I don't see any capability for keyboard customization in Opera 26.
They won't implement mouse gesture customization ( "too geeky feature" - http://i.imgur.com/fDSjYZq.png ). Why they should implement keyboard customization? There is no way to get back these "geeky" features and an extensive customizability (what typical or an average user never care about).
Incidentally, OperaMail was a huge failure for me. I installed it and pointed it at my old accounts.ini (on a machine where I had no mail, just news feeds). It spent a long time reading the .mbs files, and when it finally came up, there were zero feeds.
Opera Mail (as an separate application) is a dead born product. It's a stripped down version of Opera 12 with a number of useful features removed.
Thousands of messages when I tell it to "Read Feeds", but they're all mixed together. When I go to "Manage Feeds" there are no feeds. Big disappointment.
RSS feed reader was replaced with Discover.
Anyway, Google Corp that dictates trends on the Internet declared that RSS became obsolete. -
