Sorry not to have been back until now – I got run off the road by a drunk driver :-(. Opera hasn't released an update since I originally posted. Now I have Firefox behaving oddly; if I click a link that opens a PDF, FF tells me I have to install a JRE v.6 something if I want to open Dreamweaver. I don't have DW. Sigh...

Please, Opera, get your act back in gear. This is no way to run a business.

...and going back to Firefox.

I've used Opera since version 5, on Windows then Mac, but last year I switched to Firefox after seeing Opera so thoroughly borked it was unusable.

I was doubtful I'd ever use Opera again, even if it was fixed, now that it uses Google's Chrome rendering engine; after all, we all know about Chrome's security problems and Google's predatory attitude to users' privacy and data, don't we? I've had my own experiences with Google that I wouldn't want to risk repeating.

So last night I checked in my installed version of Opera whether it was up to date, to be told that I was using version 12.16, which I knew, and it was the latest version. Er... really? I tried to log into my account here with the password I stored in the Mac's keychain, only to be told it or my user name, wasn't recognised. I asked for a password reset but the email never arrived, it's been more than 24 hours now. I've opened a new account. I downloaded what was presented to me on the Opera website as the latest version for Mac, only to find it was a beta version of Opera Next. WTF? I'm not a beta tester and I didn't ask for a beta version. I found the link to the latest stable version and looked for bookmarks, surely that problem had been fixed by now. Evidently not, and a comment in one of the forums said it's not even being worked on. Someone said they're using Speed Dial as bookmark storage, but how? I'm o.k. with the idea, but I've tried right clicking on folders on the bookmark bar and adding them to Speed Dial, but it doesn't work. I've tried dragging folders to Speed Dial, that doesn't work. I have over a thousand bookmarks nicely organised in Firefox, I'd need to get those into Opera to be able to use it, but again, how? I clicked on Opera Help, repeatedly, and got a 503 error message every time.

I've been browsing with Opera for a day now, and it doesn't freeze as often as it used to but still enough to make it unusable. I'm using OS 10.9.2. and the Mac has just come back from servicing which fixed a software problem so I think the problem is Opera and not the computer or OS.

I could go on. I couldn't even find a link to these community forums in Opera, I had to get here by searching for the address in Firefox. Honestly, I've never seen a piece of software so thoroughly wrecked by its developer as this one, not even the page layout software I used before InDesign (name starts with 'Q'), and they're real masters of breaking their own product.

I'm sorry to see Opera go this way. I was using it when it had to be paid for, it was worth it. I'll stick around and follow what happens, but I don't see myself using Opera again until they stop the browser being little more than a front end for Google.