I've just found this thread because I was forced to upgrade Opera at work, where I was using it because Internet Explorer is crippled due to group policy restrictions and because I preferred it, due to the extra features it came with, such as being able to set the proxy, right click to show images, enable javascript on that one page - both of which are turned off on my work machine, and super customiseable on the about:config. I have used Opera for years, since it was a paid for application, because it was so different from all the others, light, nippy and I didn't have to search for a gazillion extensions to get all the features I wanted. I'm even using Opera Mail at home, and I've used the chat client when I needed to talk tech to someone I know on IRC and didn't want to contaminate my work machine with extra software.

No more. Why? Why did you break the only complete browser available? The Opera 24 now on my work machine is comprehensively broken, just like Internet Explorer, I can't set the proxy, because it tells me to talk to my system administrator as it's using the Internet Explorer settings (which is actually me, I can get at it if I log on as an admin, but it's a pain to switch users to do it). The only browser I've got now, which will obey me, is Firefox! Congratulations, your browser is now a clone of all the others, with less functionality.

No I'm not going to search around for extensions, I'm not going to introduce more risk on my work machine by installing third party applications, Opera at work, for me, sadly, is now in the past.

I can't believe this decision was made, I've defended my use of Opera to everyone, promoted it, and now I'm in mourning for a very beloved friend :(.