The days when major browser updates were few and far between are over. Nowadays, it’s de rigeur for browser manufacturers to speed up development, which means opening up less stable builds to the masses in order to get them bug-checked as quickly as possible.
It may only enjoy a fraction of the market share afforded to rival web browsers, but Opera is by no means a poor relation to the likes of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. In many ways it’s been a pioneer – Opera was the first major browser to use tabs and provide a speed dial for its home page, and it has always been one of the quickest browsers out there thanks to a lightweight footprint, something its rivals are only now starting to embrace. Another unique feature is a built-in mail client enabling you to combine browsing and email in one application.
Opera isn’t afraid to utilise the best bits of other browsers either – version 11 saw the debut of a slimmed down user interface pioneered by Chrome and also copied by IE9 and Firefox 4. It also brought third-party extensions to the table for the first time, along with a handy bookmarks bar.
Note that this is the legacy Opera 12.
Verdict:
Opera 12 is faster than ever and it's good to see that the developers spend time creating a worthy upgrade, rather than scheduling minor updates every 6 weeks, like their competitors.
Your Comments & Opinion
Anyone who follows the browser knows that major revision 11 was not any paring down of the browser, nor were any features copied from other browsers - that was saved for revision 15, as the remaining programming team at Opera ASA is unable to continue the coding of Presto, which has led many to surmise that they are the junior programmers from previous years, now out of their depth.
Opera was once the leader in development of new, and useful, features. That is no longer, as the programming team uses a stripped down Chrome, and then "adds in" features which serve to portray them as busy with things in order to justify their existence.
This version of the browser is of no use to anyone who uses browsers in this decade [perhaps 2 decades ago it would pass for something useful, but then, all browsers 2 decades ago had working bookmarks, which the Opera dev team purposely eschews, as ostensibly an unfriendly middle-finger gesture to those who thought that a company should cater to the wishes of the user-base.]
That this is put out as a FINAL release speaks volumes about the integrity of those left at Opera ASA.
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Get an early look at the next version of Opera without affecting your stable installation
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