@operast Thank you for your kinds words! I'm just trying to help out. I do feel a bug report is best to call their attention to this issue - historically, the devs rarely if at all, respond to the forum.

Additionally, (in terms of a toggle) I would think it's rather easy to either make a toggle function (Search for Open Tabs / Search Recently Closed Tabs) or allow for another button that represents the "Menu->History->Recently Closed" list and the ability to disable/turn off the "Search in Tabs" button.

In this way, the devs can have their new functionality and the end user can opt to enable in the tab bar a Recently Closed button. The functionality is clearly in the browser, so I would think no "major" source code rework would be needed.

Heck, I'd even opt for an extension if needed (again, since the recently closed stuff is still in the browser).

@leocg I wholeheartedly disagree. The flag that allows for the "Recently Closed" functionality no longer works, nor is present. Without noting it in a change log or new installation notes, I would strongly argue that it is a bug.

That is the problem with Opera Devs (and really, also an industry trend) right now. There is no public official change control or documentation when these major/minor/micro releases occur. They just update and there is no notification of what changes were made. As this is a core browser function that many, many people rely on (just look at this thread for example) and also understanding that the flag used to work and now does not, easily rises to the level of a bug (without documentation or official statement, there is no other conclusion).

Another rather frustrating issue is that Opera (again, the industry as a whole) lumps together bug fix updates with new/different functionality. If they were separate and if they were documented each properly, a lot of end user issues could be addressed before they hit these forums. Perhaps developing in a vacuum, not publicly discussing up-and-coming changes and not documenting changes in a public change log is not the way to keep people informed?
One other point: a truly open and transparent bug system would allow for the client and Opera to track the progress of submitted bugs. In the manner by which they bug track, it does not allow for the creator to track the issue (as far as I can tell, but I could be wrong). This is just as frustrating and problematic as this forum; no official commentary from the devs.

Perhaps someone from Opera will see these things as issues and hopefully becomes the catalyst for change. I remain hopefully, but as a realist, I have serious doubts.

@sgunhouse Just for some clarification, I did what you suggest and checked out their blog. Yes, you are correct, there is a section discussing the "Recently Closed" functionality, touting the "usefulness" of the addition of the new feature. However, this blog looks to only highlight some of the major changes; it does not correspond or even attempt to look like a proper change log. Additionally, the shear magnitude of negative comments regarding this new feature makes me wonder if the devs truly do respond to the community. The comments are overwhelmingly negative and plead with the devs to just rollback this function to what it was. In any event, thank you once again for your help and information.

Until Opera reverts the disastrous changes to the "Recently Closed" button, there is a far better solution. It closely resembles what Opera took away from the toolbar. It's in the Chrome Store and it's an extension called "Tab Restore" by Banana Sonna. It is almost identical to the old Opera function; it seems to work exactly as the old "Recently Closed".

I think that what the devs just don't get is that taking the user from a quick pulldown (that doesn't shadow out your current tab and window) to this new implementation, is what part of the problem is. They pull the user away from the tab they're on, shadow grey out the whole browser to show you the list is just too different to use like the old way.

I hope this helps!

@azrael78 I'd love to do this, but I can't seem to find an official installation of Opera 69. Is there such a place to download?

@azrael78 I'd love to do this, but I can't seem to find an official installation of Opera 69. Is there such a place to download?

@leocg Yeah, I am very familiar with the closed source mindset. The fear of allowing people to see the good and the bad could make the "shareholders" nervous.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write about this. Unfortunately, we will have to rely of the benevolence of the devs and Opera to be a little more forthcoming and open about these changes. Perhaps they will even provide clear justifications to the people that actually use their software, why and how these changes come to be.

Until Opera reverts the disastrous changes to the "Recently Closed" button, there is a far better solution. It closely resembles what Opera took away from the toolbar. It's in the Chrome Store and it's an extension called "Tab Restore" by Banana Sonna. It is almost identical to the old Opera function; it seems to work exactly as the old "Recently Closed".

I think that what the devs just don't get is that taking the user from a quick pulldown (that doesn't shadow out your current tab and window) to this new implementation, is what part of the problem is. They pull the user away from the tab they're on, shadow grey out the whole browser to show you the list is just too different to use like the old way.

I hope this helps!

@leocg Also, as I mentioned, there is no context to the changelog. There is no way to look up the ticket or history of any item in the changelog. In some cases, there is no way to understand some of these one-liners at all. So although I can decipher some of the issues/feature changes, a lot it remains clouded.
Having the ability to look at a particular items ticket or history would be greatly beneficial. Bugzilla would be a great example of what I'm talking about.

@leocg I see. So if I wanted to see a changelog for an older build, I'd have to dig through the blog, find the corresponding post, open the post, find the link for the changelog and take it from there? Talk about convoluted!
Although the severe inadequateness of posting changelogs is out of your control, I do want to thank you for this information.

@leocg Thank you for this information!

However, I do have a followup question: How did you find this information? I've been to the root blogs.opera.com/desktop and can not find a link to all change logs.

Also, this change log lists identifiers for different changes, yet no way to lookup each identifier to explain in detail, what these issues/changes are. Is there a way to do this? It would be really helpful for the public (at least the people that have to support this browser for a company) to look up any given issue to see the history and understand how it was resolved. Case In Point: (Example) the changelog lists "DNA-87863 Parameter placing issue in all languages" - there is nothing more explaining this. What is this? What was effected? How was it fixes?

Seeing the ticket details would help in understanding these things.

@sgunhouse Just for some clarification, I did what you suggest and checked out their blog. Yes, you are correct, there is a section discussing the "Recently Closed" functionality, touting the "usefulness" of the addition of the new feature. However, this blog looks to only highlight some of the major changes; it does not correspond or even attempt to look like a proper change log. Additionally, the shear magnitude of negative comments regarding this new feature makes me wonder if the devs truly do respond to the community. The comments are overwhelmingly negative and plead with the devs to just rollback this function to what it was. In any event, thank you once again for your help and information.

@chewy Case In Point: I just closed and opened opera to discover there was yet again another "micro" update, from 70.0.3728.106 to 70.0.3728.119. No documentation, no "readme.txt" and no mention in the "blog" what exactly changed. This is the kind of thing that frustrates and bewilders people.

@sgunhouse Thank for this information. I had no idea that Opera had a blog, only these forums. Although, if the blog is the place where proper change log documentation is kept, IMHO, that's really ridiculous. Thank you for this information though, it's appreciated!

@SymphonicPoet I'm glad you were able to find that Vivaldi works for you. As a long time "PC guy", I absolutely love Vivaldi for it's ability to customize. You can absolutely go nuts changing the look and feel of the browser to meet your needs (I'd say its the most customizable browser out there, hands down, especially compared to Opera). It's also far more compliant with internet standards than Opera (there are a few sites that come up "wonky" in Opera that firefox or chromium based browser work fine on). My only reason I stick with Opera is it's boot up speed (Opera definitely has an edge here, as well as it's responsiveness). As an owner of an older Quad Core AMD system with 4GB of ram, Opera performs the best in this regard. However, all other browser has the "Recently Closed" functionality, right where Opera used to have their button (it's a trash can in Vivaldi vs. the Opera magnifying glass).
In any event, if you have a more modern PC, the transition to Vivaldi is rather trivial and you shouldn't notice the lag in boot up. Good Luck To You!