I gotta weigh in here. Been using Opera for years, and quite happy with it. Now on 12.18. I was kinda curious when I saw references to v16 or v15 or whatever, but when prompted by Opera to upgrade I did so - it never got me off the "12" track. Updated several times this year - 2013.
A web print issue sent me to the "current" version, which turned out to be 18.0.+++. Installed it. Unlike every other Opera version update/install, it didn't "overwrite and update," but installed as a second instance of Opera. Instantly, no Bookmarks. And the sparse look of Chrome, which I'd already have if I wanted it. No visible home page. No obvious place for clicking on Settings - even 12.18 has buried some of that stuff, to my unhappiness. I already spend enough time playing "puzzles" on computers - how do I do this or that - I don't need to add my browser to that list.
I promptly uninstalled it - didn't want the hassles of learning a program that has been mostly visually intuitive in the past. No ax to grind. Gave it a two minute trial and didn't at all like what I found. If I wanted changing "locations+" WITH NO EXPLANATION OF THE CHANGES, I'd do Microsoft programs. (Oh yeah, with every OS change - changes with no critical documentation provided to users.)
Then my "loyalty" to the program made me come here. What have I missed? Where were the dang bookmarks? And I find that Opera made huge changes with no "upfront" explanation to users. No wonder "we" are upset! It like Microsoft Word introducing the Ribbon with no info - suddenly you can't even do what you used to do. Admittedly, some users wrote "poorly." But for Opera moderators to get snippy with them for not finding new, unintuitive, unfamiliar ways to do "old" things that were simpler is not going to win friends nor users.
If you are going to radically change the way to do things, you really ought to plan on explaining it and making it easy to change. It appears Opera has not done that. Having to come to a Forum or do detailed, repeated searches for an "old, simple" task is not what a typical user expects.
It's good that old versions are still working, and that there are alternatives.