Technology The new Opera browser

[masta247]

It's the shit. It's based on Chromium, but is actually faster..!

http://theunhivedmind.com/UHM/opera-15-next-vs-palemoon-x64-internet-explorer-10-and-chromium-28/

What you actually get by downloading the new Opera is a faster version of Chrome, with a better UI (although it's an early version so most crucial Opera's features are still missing) and Opera's improvements such as the off-road mode which is super useful if you're using tethering from your phone.

 

[Pittsey]

I don't think I want to leave Chrome.

I used Opera a few years back. When the choice was that, or a Nokia Browser. But Chrome ticks all my boxes. Including syncing across all my devices.

 

[masta247]

Opera offers syncing too, and I guess the mobile Opera is better than mobile Chrome (at least on phones).

Now the desktop Opera is basically like Chromium - it even runs Chrome's extensions. Just the UI layer is Opera's, and I think it's better than Google's.

The bad side so far is, that most Opera's features are yet to be implemented. They took Chromium, optimized it and added basic UI removed of most Opera's features that they're yet to add.

I use Opera and Chrome, Opera was slower but I thought it's features and UI were much better. I hope a few revisions from now it's going to be the best of both worlds.

 

[Shadows]

Gonna try and use opera probably on my new phone.

Dolphin browser is starting to get on my nerves

 

[masta247]

I have it for a few days already and I really like it. Enough to make it my main browser, despite the fact that key features are yet to come.. including bookmarks, lol! There's speed dial to make up for it, and "Stash", which basically holds chosen open sites to prevent too many open tabs.

It's really fast though. It's basically like Chrome stripped of everything except of the engine and replaced with lightweight UI written in native code. On my laptop it works even faster than Chrome, and launches instantly, which made me stick with it.

 

[Pittsey]

I'll check it out when it's finished. No way I am using it when it's lacking bookmarks.

 

[Shadows]

I'll check it out when it's finished. No way I am using it when it's lacking bookmarks.

made me not want to use it either.

 

[masta247]

Yeah, it's really hilarious to me, because on the Opera developer blog there's a huge discussion - they said that they wanted to make the new browser very simple and since most people don't use bookmarks they wanted to leave it as an extension oO There was a huge outrage, and looks like they'll be adding them in an update soon.

And it made me wonder why they're releasing a stable release without bookmarks, considering there are some more advanced features implemented.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Just downloading it now.

 

[Preach]

I remember the old Opera being really bloated. Did they start over again because of that, or will they be trying to stay a "clean" browser?

 

[masta247]

I remember the old Opera being really bloated. Did they start over again because of that, or will they be trying to stay a "clean" browser?

Yeah it was bloated and had a slower rendering engine. They made a new browser because they changed the engine and everything old was incompatible with it, so they thought that it's so awesome and fast when it's clean that they're going to keep it that way. They pay a lot of attention in writing everything anew with clean, native code so everything they add doesn't slow it down.

The new Opera is super clean and they're willing to stay that way, just introducing some basic Opera signature features (but no bloat like torrent clients, RSS readers, built in email clients etc.). Also, the rendering engine is tweaked Chromium, so at this stage it resembles Chrome with more intuitive UI.
That said I still miss some behaviors of old Opera that imho worked better than in Chrome. The download manager was much better, keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures were cool etc. So far they only brought back mouse gestures, but the download manager looks like slightly improved Chrome download manager, which I don't like as much as it doesn't give any kind of control over downloads.