[Brettison]

Opera 12



Faster than ever
Opera 12 gets you online in record time, with improvements that mean faster startup and quick page loading. Thanks to responsive tab loading sequences, you can start up or shut down in the blink of an eye. Pages also load faster while you’re browsing.

Easy to personalize
Make Opera yours with a whole new set of themes. Design your own or use one of the options we have ready. Change the look of the browser as often as you want — all it takes is one click. You don’t even need to restart!

Opera 12: Make It Yours Video!

Patch Notes!

[Zaptruder]

Every feature shown in that video... I've been using for a while now.

So what's new Opera?

[Brettison]

New hardware acceleration has been added in as well as WebGL Support. They added in support for the Do Not Track in this release. Refined their backend engine again. Worked on pumping out an even better version of Opera Turbo. Turning off Opera Unite and Widgets and moving everything to extensions which will work across their platforms both desktop and mobile. New themes without having to restart. New support for the drag and drop HTML5 stuff so you can pull stuff from your desktop to the cloud easily.

There's a ton more if you look at the patch notes!

[Rivyn]

I got three browsers now.

Safari
Opera
Aurora

This Opera version has got to be a lot better for me to ditch one of these.

[Lyphen]

I have a long 9 year history with Opera (buying it), but it's been a year and a half since the last full version and HW Acceleration is still experimental. I don't know if I'm going to bother trying this one out.

[littlerat]

I still don't see what the difference between the new themes and old skins are. The old skins didn't need a restart either.

[Cindres]

Hadn't been prompted to update yet but downloading now.

Probably not gonna use any themes or anything though, I love the default look. Just like it to keep getting faster.

[Steelrain]

What does Opera have that would pull me away from Chrome?

[Kamakazie!]

Best gets better?

[Enco]

I used to be a huge Opera fan but the switch to Chrome was brilliant.

:lol at the video. Can't see a single new feature that hasn't been in Chrome/FF since forever.

[Brettison]

I still don't see what the difference between the new themes and old skins are. The old skins didn't need a restart either.

These are suppose to be more lightweight.

You can read some about it HERE!

[Rivyn]

This is starting to sound like self promotion from an Opera employee on GAF.

[Damon Bennet]

This is starting to sound like self promotion from an Opera employee on GAF.

i wouldnt care as long as he proivides the useful information he does. opera is a great browser and i am enjoying it greatly

[red731]

What does Opera have that would pull me away from Chrome?

Yeah. What? I really do have all these things as extensions on my browser of choice.

[Steelrain]

I just want to know what features Opera has that would pull me away from Chrome. I've basically only used AOL, IE, and Chrome in my life.

[Izick]

Used to mess with Opera, but there's basically no need for me anymore since Chrome has become so good. Is it even worth the hassle still Brettison? Is 12 a big improvement?

[maeh2k]

Opera 12 is great. I prefer it to every other browser. Especially when it comes to using a lot of tabs and multiple windows. In my opinion it just handles the basics better.

It feels fast and handles a high number of tabs well. Out of the box it comes with mouse gestures (e.g. to easily open link in background tab or close tab), tab grouping, and IMO superior short cuts (activate single-key short cuts in the settings; e.g. '1'/'2' to navigate left/right between tabs). Also great session management.

At this point there are no special features to warrant a switch to Opera or from Opera to another browser. This version didn't add many features, but focused mainly on behind-the-scenes stuff.

[Brettison]

This is starting to sound like self promotion from an Opera employee on GAF.

Yes that's why I'm also the thread creator of a ton of other tech and/or programs threads around here like the Chrome OS thread or the Ubuntu thread. I guess I work at Google or Canonical too! LOL

You guys kill me sometimes GAF. Always looking for a conspiracy or something. LOL :P

[Cindres]

I always recognise Brettison as the guy with that avatar posting useful tech stuff :P

People always ask why I use Opera and I can't put my finger on it. Just feels very fast, lightweight, aaaand really that's all I want. Extensions never really fussed me.

[Copernicus]

Yes that's why I'm also the thread creator of a ton of other tech and/or programs threads around here like the Chrome OS thread or the Ubuntu thread. I guess I work at Google or Canonical too! LOL You guys kill me sometimes GAF. Always looking for a conspiracy or something. LOL :P

We all know astroturfing contracts are rotable.

Out-of-Process Plug-ins

Thank fucking christ. I hate when this thing comes to a crash because of some shitty site using silverlight.

HTML5 Drag and Drop

Yay!

[Brettison]

Used to mess with Opera, but there's basically no need for me anymore since Chrome has become so good. Is it even worth the hassle still Brettison? Is 12 a big improvement?

No reason to switch if you have what works for you already. I'd say that about all the browsers now. Opera is just keeping up with the feature complete stuff that everyone else is doing and keeping up with the HTML5 stuff that everyone's adding in.

People tend to have weird individualistic issues with browsers though where it just won't work for them. Happens with all of them. So this update just keeps Opera on par with the rest so if you want to use or you need to switch cause you are getting some weird FF/Chrome/IE/Safari bug you can.

Biggest thing this version does is it signifies the beginning of the end for Opera Unite and Opera Widgets as well as "heavy" themes. They have Unite/Widgets off by default now, and plan on taking them out all together by the end of the year moving people to their extensions instead. It also adds in the new light weight themes. I think in general they are trying to lighten up the code base, and they are trying to unify the code base more with their mobile products. Extensions should be something that could work on both for example.

Biggest reason to use Opera is still if you need a full featured browser on a shitty connection. Opera Turbo works wonders on shitty connections and/or hardware be it desktops/laptops or phones.

[claviertekky]

While the patch notes say that Opera runs plug-ins now as separate processes (finally), does the browser itself create multiple ones like Chrome and IE do?

[Brettison]

While the patch notes say that Opera runs plug-ins now as separate processes (finally), does the browser itself create multiple ones like Chrome and IE do?

I honestly didn't even check. I can do that later when I get back home though. :P

[moniker]

Opera finally supports Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (which has been in Firefox since 3.5 and Chrome 4, if not earlier).

[brumx]

I like Opera alot

[Copernicus]

While the patch notes say that Opera runs plug-ins now as separate processes (finally), does the browser itself create multiple ones like Chrome and IE do?

Creates a separate process, this is with about 5 youtube windows open:

Does Opera handle flash in the same way as Chrome (i.e I don't need to have Flash installed on my machine)?

Not yet.

[Cerebral Assassin]

Does Opera handle flash in the same way as Chrome (i.e I don't need to have Flash installed on my machine)?

[TruthJunky]

Used Opera since it launched. Stopped about six months ago. Any reason to go back?

[msv]

Why won't they get rid of the damn options thingy in the top left. There's no damn need for it to be as huge and obtrusive there. Looks ugly as well.

[Zoibie]

Why do they leave so much empty text space to the right side of tabs now? I know it's only a minor thing but it makes browsing many Gaf thread at once more annoying than it was.

[SRG01]

I used to be a huge Opera fan but the switch to Chrome was brilliant. :lol at the video. Can't see a single new feature that hasn't been in Chrome/FF since forever.

That's because other browsers have been ripping Opera features for years.

Yeah. What? I really do have all these things as extensions on my browser of choice.

Well, for one, Opera actually has MRU built in. But having said that, Opera's core program actually supplants what you get as extensions on other browsers.

[Izick]

Thanks Brettison.

Oh and I can't believe someone tried to call you a corporate shill or something. You seriously always have the up on tech news and got new software threads on lockdown, I guess endorsing a product (or just not shitting all over it for attention) these days makes you automatically a patsy though. Next time be more negative! Yeah that's what we want, more negativity!

[SRG01]

By the way, Opera's memory management improved significantly somewhere during 11.6x. I find its performance to outclass Chrome in most cases.

[thomaser]

Installed 12, and it works great. Except that it suddenly won't play youtube videos. They are just black, with no sound. Now that's a little embarrassing.

[Zoibie]

One thing not mentioned in the patch notes is the addition of screen tearing when browsing Twitter. Guhh. I hate to ask, but is there any way to downgrade, I'm really not liking 12.0.

[SPDIF]

One thing not mentioned in the patch notes is the addition of screen tearing when browsing Twitter. Guhh. I hate to ask, but is there any way to downgrade, I'm really not liking 12.0.

If you really want to downgrade then go here, and you can downgrade all the way to version 8 if you want.

[sca2511]

I love Opera and Firefox. I switch between both browsers constantly, I can't make up my mind on what to stick with. The single reason why I couldn't stick it out with Chrome is the way it handles passwords.

[Zoibie]

If you really want to downgrade then go here, and you can downgrade all the way to version 8 if you want.

Ah, thanks. Didn't expect they'd have an archive.

[Copernicus]

One thing not mentioned in the patch notes is the addition of screen tearing when browsing Twitter. Guhh. I hate to ask, but is there any way to downgrade, I'm really not liking 12.0.

Not just twitter, I'm getting it randomly on gaf.

[Enco]

That's because other browsers have been ripping Opera features for years.

Haha that's true.

Shame Opera is lagging now.

[Snarfington]

This is now the fastest browser on my PC. Faster than Chrome even! In the time it took for Chrome to load TheVerge (infamous source of slow loading for me) I was able to boot up Opera 12, type in the URL and load the page on there. Really impressed.

[claviertekky]

Creates a separate process, this is with about 5 youtube windows open: Not yet.

Thanks.

[peakish]

It just upgraded for me, seems nice. But I'm curious to see when they will launch a new, must have feature again instead of just these regular improvements. This support for actual pages looks very interesting, but is probably super far away, if it ever actually catches on at all.

[Hypnotoad]

Really great update, insofar as the websites where I needed some kind of plug-in not integrated into Opera before now work fine. It's always my preferred browser, but I didn't like that I had to switch for some websites. This is good progress.

[awm8604]

The best gets better. I've used Opera as my main browser for years. Love it.

[Babalu.]

i've always used opera and loved it. I tried firefox and chrome and just had to go back to opera. It did everything better and faster and every little thing is customizable.

And no other browsers seem to have rightclick then leftclick to go back a page...for some reason i got in that habbit and now neeeed it.

will download now, thanks for the headsup.

[DieH@rd]

For over 5 years opera is my main browser.

[Despera]

This is a strange coincidence.

Both Firefox and Chrome started acting up on me for the last 2 days. Text would disappear in Firefox and Chrome would frequently crash. I tried a lot of shit to remedy the situation but with no luck. I didn't want to bother wasting more time so I decided to switch to Opera.

This is the first time I've ever used this browser, and I'm loving it.

I only have one question, Where can I find an equivalent to Flashgot and IDM CC for Opera?

[spyshagg]

did they solve the multiple clicks bug to go to the previous page?

Or the horrible experience within hotmail website?

[Plywood]

How do I know if hardware acceleration is enabled or do I have to enable it?

edit: Enabled it, had to set in opera:config these settings:

Enable WebGL 2
Enable Hardware Acceleration 2


2nd edit: HA is definitely still beta material.