There is already an outrage on Google Product Forums because of the removal of GDI rendering ("Disable DirectWrite" option). A lot of people are complaining about blurry, unreadable fonts.

I have created a petition and tried to raise some attention on online forums. Please sign / share / promote this petition and show Google that we are opposing the withdrawal of our freedom of choice.

Please also don't forget to upvote an already existing suggestion.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd368170

but what are users supposed to do then, not upgrade?

• Report the problems so they can be solved.
• Get used to Direct write

I think this particular "fork," if that's even what it is, is important enough to do

It's hard to say because we don't have enough data showing how many want an option to disable Direct write.

And it's only an option, as before; it's not mandating anything.

As i said once before somewhere: more options means more code and more code may lead to more bugs and difficulties in maintain the code. So they (options, features, etc) should always be discussed and investigated before being implemented.

...
I think this particular "fork," if that's even what it is, is important enough to do. And it's only an option, as before; it's not mandating anything. Also, doesn't Opera go its own way a lot of the time? Is it a strict Chromium/Blink clone, or are they always talking about their "contributions" to the project? A "fork" by a different name?

If GDI support itself has been or is being removed from the chromium code (which is only logical if they've removed the option to select it) in support of DirectWrite, then Opera's forking chromium in future versions to support the GDI option could indeed represent a major operation - hence a major cost element. It puts Opera back into the position of supporting its own rendering engine, even if only in part. Each subsequent chromium update would have to be examined by Opera and the chromium code changes imported into the Opera chromium fork, along with Opera having to create whatever (if any) modifications needed to those updates to be compatible with the fork's codebase, then heavy Opera testing would be required to make sure nothing has been broken.

Developers of a browser either must support their own rendering engine (as Opera did with Presto) or they must use intact a rendering engine supplied by an outside entity (as with chromium). If the latter path was chosen because of cost efficiency, going back to the former path abandons that cost efficiency. The price of obtaining the cost efficiency from an 'outside engine' is loss of ultimate control of the design decisions embedded in the rendering engine.

I think this particular "fork," if that's even what it is, is important enough to do. And it's only an option, as before; it's not mandating anything.

Also, doesn't Opera go its own way a lot of the time? Is it a strict Chromium/Blink clone, or are they always talking about their "contributions" to the project? A "fork" by a different name?

the developer still has control. Look at Cent browser, for example.

Like in any open source project. However, just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do it.

Forking Chromium may bring issues and most probably will only delay the inevitable for a while.

[2016-08-02] v2.0.10.55 for Windows
Upgraded to Chromium 52.0.2743.91
Added back disabling Direct Write

Come on devs, dont make me switch to another browser. Please return option to disabe directwrite. With new update when i open Opera i feel like drunk - texts are so unclear. I just cant use my favorite browser right now((

As you should have read in this topic, it's a Chromium change and will affect all Chromium based browsers as long as they start using the Chromium build with the flag removed.

Just compare texts:
-> with Directwrite
http://i.imgur.com/cYPqVhu.png http://i.imgur.com/B5viDYF.png
-> and without
http://i.imgur.com/zoKC1g6.png http://i.imgur.com/pgduAxn.png

First one seems better without Directwrite and the second seems better with Directwrite.