Opera 28: new experimental start page looks ugly

A Former User

Update: and some pages for some reason are still being bookmarked as screenshots! Plus, some tiles have a random picture from the bookmarked site, and I don't understand how opera chooses the pic. For example, one of the tiles shows an adverstizement pic from the bookmarked page

lando242

lando242

When you bookmark a page in 29 its up to you to choose what you want to show up on the tile. Thats what the left and right arrows in the heart menu around the picture are for. And, as I said before, its a development release. Changes might still be made to it and bookmarks as a whole have been evolving every release or so for months now.

A Former User

lando242
So, I have to bookmark all my sites all over again in order to get them right looking?.. Is there a way to change the look of the tile AFTER I bookmarked a page?

And do you know why in each update the developers of opera ruin something? What's the logic? I'm really curious, cuz on hi-tech sites opera gets highly negative feedback from commenters, and really agressively replies. All this flaming causes a feel that developers never listen to the users, but FOR WHOM they develope the browser then? I can't get it! If in v26 there was a button to switch the design of express panel, then i had to search a necessary flag (standart users won't even think of that), and now I have to use an unstable developer version in order to get back my favorite design of express panel. Either kill it at last, or get it straight, dear opera developers! Many thanks, I still use opera.

PS: Dear opera developers! PLEASE do not make a change to the browser that will cause it to shut down if the last tab is closed, like it is now in all other browsers - that really irritates! Another reason why I use opera - it doesn't let you close the last tab, thus the browser can't be closed accidentaly.

lando242

lando242

So, I have to bookmark all my sites all over again in order to get them right looking?.. Is there a way to change the look of the tile AFTER I bookmarked a page?

Yes, there is. As I said above you change them from the heart menu. This is part of your problem dude. You don't want to 'read the manual' yet you have no clue how to operate the browser. Well, thats the price you pay for willful ignorance. If you spent half the time reading the documentation that you did complaining on these forums you wouldn't even need these forums.

All this flaming causes a feel that developers never listen to the users

Vocal minority. All rage and furry but no substance. Opera's market share has been going UP for the last year.

standart users won't even think of that

Standard users don't care.

Dear opera developers!

They don't spend much time on this forum.

videogame57

videogame57

lando242, where can I download it? And should I? I was searching for the download link, but couldn't find it. I'd very appreciate if you post it here. Thank you in advance!
PS: Opera, give us back the normal-looking speed dial, people want tiles, not screenshots! The websites look all the same, there's no use in screenshots, who even could think that it's a good idea? OMG!

dev versions can be downloaded from the desktop team blog, here's the latest one: http://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2015/03/sidebar-extensions-speed-dial-syncing-customizable-shortcuts-opera-developer-29/
The new speed dial in the dev version allows you to customize the thumbnail from the heart menu (so you can choose a full website screenshot, the coast style text based tile etc... for each dial, like you can already do with the bookmarks manager thumbnails)
Here's some examples: http://imgur.com/a/kIwnK
I think the new sd is coming along nicely

But it's not showing the website's favicon like it used to, and where's the nice sidebar? This WebUI bar at the bottom is an abomination.

It never occurred to me to take a screenshot of the speed dial, but I mean if you were to add 9Gag to your speed dial, it wouldn't show a screenshot, and it wouldn't show text, it would show a nice square icon, with the 9Gag logo on it.

The way these tiles are formatted now is like the stash/bookmarks. Which reminds me, it was interesting that Opera didn't have a proper bookmark feature since 12.xx

lando242

lando242

But it's not showing the website's favicon like it used to

No one claimed that it would.

and where's the nice sidebar

Did you read the documentation? You can turn it on either with Ctrl+Shift+S or Opera Menu > Extensions > Sidebar. Just remember its not a 'sidebar', its 'sidebar extensions. Since the release has been out for like 3 days and its still only a test there are only a handful of extensions that use it. Thats the price of being on the bleeding edge.

A Former User

But it's not showing the website's favicon like it used to

No one claimed that it would.

So you're basically suggesting something that doesn't even solve the user's issue? Don't bother to do that!

and where's the nice sidebar

Did you read the documentation? You can turn it on either with Ctrl+Shift+S or Opera Menu > Extensions > Sidebar. Just remember its not a 'sidebar', its 'sidebar extensions. Since the release has been out for like 3 days and its still only a test there are only a handful of extensions that use it. Thats the price of being on the bleeding edge.

I'm pretty sure he's referring to the bottom WebUI bar that used to be a sidebar in the experimental start page (top in the regular one). Probably Opera killed the flag or code to rollback to this sidebar.(?)

lando242

lando242

So you're basically suggesting something that doesn't even solve the user's issue? Don't bother to do that!

I never said it would solve his problem. I said "Take a look at the Speed Dial in Opera 29 for a taste of whats coming." Then creagon said he wanted to try it out but couldn't find it to download it. Then he couldn't get the heart menu to work because he didn't read the release notes. Then he couldn't change the icon because he still hadn't read the release notes after being told to do so twice by two different people. Now hes complaining that Opera 29 isn't Opera 26. Well, what can I say about that? At no point did anyone claim that it would solve his problems. Only tankietopera1907 made any claim that it was 'better' than 27-28 and even then he said it wasn't quite like 26, only better than 27-28.

sutamatamasu

sutamatamasu

agree developer must make more diferent for new start page. maybe add some 3D effect ??

but i think it's not bad. it have modern view. also you can change for width and height. is better than other browser who look very ugly and cannot costumized. also this start page is work great on HD monitor.

A Former User

Then he couldn't get the heart menu to work because he didn't read the release notes. Then he couldn't change the icon because he still hadn't read the release notes after being told to do so twice by two different people.

He knows how to do it, he was just expressing how a PITA it is.
When he said he has to bookmark every page again to change its thumbnails it's just a way to say he has to use the heart menu in each page individually to fix his SD (only because Opera decided to change everything for the third time and remove options from the browser). = It's a PITA.

Opera surely isn't being sensitive enough to have this "we know what's best" attitude, they're removing functionality (experimental tiled start page was not behind a flag, it was a link the use clicked to use it basically as an option!) at their will and making rolling back either impossible or a PITA.

I was one of the people who were against this new experimental tiled Speed Dial for some reasons but I never asked for it to be removed, I wish Opera would have improved it instead (it was beautiful and light and only needed some adjustments in the thumbnails mechanism), but they decided on their own to remove it completely and replace with a version very similar to the old one but much uglier covered with white at the bottom with the title of the item and that messes with all the icons/thumbnails users were used to before. How to customize/restore the icons/thumbnails you want? A nightmare: access each page individually and hit the heart button! Not only that but completely ignored many people giving feedback about the bottom navigation bar WebUI in the Speed Dial saying that the sidebar one was preferred pointing to valid reasons, and now the flag to disable that hideous bottom WebUI isn't even available anymore in Opera 29. Do you think that's nice?

jokke60

jokke60

Lando242,
don't blame the users. The Opera team seems to have a new habbit, to cause trouble to the users by screwing up the modifications people have done on the Speed Dial. There is a saying full of sarcasm: "No-one is as wise than an engineer". There is a better way to manage updates. My son deleted his Opera already and I'm pretty close to it too.

A Former User

I have to say whether it's experimental or not, Opera still make the best startpage of any browser. Some of the browsers only display the recently visited websites in their speed dial equivalent. Chrome is also one of the worst.

paulcan

paulcan

I Loved speed dial - the name says it all, I just had to click on something & I was away. The simple uncluttered Experimental page was even better as my humble user brain quickly started recognising what it was I wanted to click on based on the URL and happy colour scheme.

The current implementation is a train wreck - a definite step backwards - I now have a speed dial bookmarks folder for every machine I thought I was syncing to - unless my machine has gone mental it does not synch the speed dial page at all, simply duplicates the contents into the bookmarks per machine..

In order to use the sync ability, I have to navigate somewhere and then click twice as many times to get what I once had immediately in front of me. AT one time this morning, I even had TWO identical folders claiming to be the machine I was working on.

This is not the productivity tool I have grown to depend on.

Oh, and it's started crashing if I type anything into the address bar. Stable? No.

jaspevik

jaspevik

Hei. Jeg plages med nettleseren deres. Veldig ofte kommer ikke sidene som jeg søker på ikke opp, selv om jeg klikker på oppdater. Det er ingen slike problemer på de andre nettleserne, kun på Opera. Det finnes heller ingen norske sider på hjelpe sidene. Kun Engelsk. Trodde at Opera var norsk. Hvis jeg ikke får orden på det, må jeg bare slette nettleseren og gå over til andre.

paulcan

paulcan

I agree Jaspervik, something odd has happened with the whole Opera ethos. Once, I literally wore the T-Shirt.

creegah

creegah

I want my colorful tiles back!! NOW!

videogame57

videogame57

Stop blaming me for not reading the documentation, there is no such documentation I'm running Opera 28 stable.

lando242

lando242

I wasn't talking about you. Anyway, there is no extensions sidebar in 28. The extension sidebar is only in the development release, which is 29.

A Former User

lando242, manage your attitude. You're blaming users for not reading the manual, and you said that opera team knows better what need to be changed, because it does research. Hell no it doesnt know what's better. They cut off a lot of functions in bookmarks, and people flamed opera for that. Opera responded that it knows better, and new opera will be better. And what do we have now? Opera is starting to return all its destroyed functions! Duuuh, because users know better what's better for them.

And I dont want to read a god damn manual to a god damn BROWSER. Netscape and opera - the only browsers that I have used for the last 15 years! It must not be so complex.

creegah

creegah

The "heart" method of choosing the look of the speed dial tile does not work in version 28.0.1750.40, correct? I can scroll through the possible choices but when I select the color tile version it does not "stick" but reverts to a screenshot of the web site.
If I'm wrong, could someone direct me how to do it?