Opera 24 for Linux released on the Developer stream


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Opera 24 for Linux released on the Developer stream

 

We?ve said many times that when a Linux version is ready, we?d let you know. Today, we?re delighted to announce our first Chromium-based Linux version is ready for download on our Developer stream. Go ahead and download Opera Developer 24 for Linux.

 

linux-23-1024x707.jpg

 

Many of us at Opera use Linux as our primary platform. It?s great to be able to try out the newest developments of Opera on Linux once again.

 

Adding Linux to our browser line fulfills an important part of Opera?s vision to shape an open, connected world. We want everyone to have fast and safe access to the web. Adding Linux opens up that possibility to more machines running the open-source operating system.

 

Linux is highly secure and performs well, even on machines with limited memory or suboptimal hardware. Not all of us can afford the latest Mac or Windows machines, not all of us want proprietary operating systems, and some of us simply love using Linux. But, everyone agrees that they should have access to a beautiful browser.

 

Now, Linux users around the globe can get the newest Opera features, including:

- Discover
- Stash
- A wide selection of extensions and themes

 

? not to mention the vastly improved Speed Dial and Opera Turbo.

 

To provide the highest quality, we?ve been testing on one particular platform right now ? Ubuntu Linux 64-bit with Unity or Gnome Shell. It may work on other platforms, but that?s not guaranteed. As our development progresses, we?ll look into other potential platforms to support.

 

Releasing to the Developer stream means that all the usual considerations regarding Developer builds also apply to this one. With all that said, many of us have been using Opera for Linux as our default browser, and find it to be pretty robust.

 

Take it for a spin and tell us if anything breaks. We hope you enjoy using it.

 

Cheers!

 

- All of us on the Desktop team

 

P.S.: You may notice changes to how tabs behave on Windows and Linux. We?ll post more details about this tab improvement soon, along with Mac support information. For now, let?s keep the discussion about Linux.

 

Source: Opera Desktop Team blog

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It's hard-coded to use the Ambiance theme with window widgets on the right. It won't use my Ubuntu theme or place the window widgets on the left.

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This is hilarious. After Opera GAVE UP on a Linux version. Too little too late. Terrible browser, now it just rides on Chromium and the work for Linux based was most likely already done. What a bunch of tools.

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I am downloading. I don't have ubuntu so no ambience theme. only gtk2 theme i have is oxygen-gtk2. let us see what happens.

I haven't used anything but firefox in years.

 

I am interested in seeing how it behaves :). The screenshot shows no rounded corners ;)

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They never gave up on a linux version, they've been saying that one is coming every since the new chromium based opera was released.

Do your research. One minute in Google you get tons of results proving what I said is correct.

 

"It doesn't take a Columbo to figure out that the 'previous employer, a small browser vendor that decided to abandon its own rendering engine and browser stack' is referring to Opera in this comment answering the question 'Do you actually use the product you are working on?' It appears to originate from Andreas Tolfsen, a former Opera developer who is now part of the Mozilla project. From releasing a unified architecture browser including Linux support since 2001, Opera decided to put Linux development on indefinite hold, communicated through blog comments, and focus on Windows and Mac for their browser rewrite centered around the Blink engine that had its first beta release last spring. The promise to bring back the Linux version in due time was met with growing skepticism as the months went by, and clear answers have been avoided in the developer blog. The uncertainty has spawned user projects such as Otter browser in an attempt to recreate the Opera UI in a free application. Tolfsen's statement seem to be in line with what users have suspected all along: Opera for Linux is not something for the near future."

 

 

One sec, I'll Google for more of the obvious answer.

 

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1) Opera for Linux already existed a long time ago, so I'm guessing they dropped support for a while and are just now picking it back up?

2) If it's Chromium based, why not just use Chromium/Chrome?  I'm not saying they shouldn't use the rendering engine, if they like webkit then keep webkit, but saying "Chromium Based" leads me to believe they're just trying to ride off Google's work to avoid being innovative themselves.

 

I could be mistaken though.  I'll give it a shot.  Since Google removed NPAPI support from Chrome for Linux ahead of other platforms, I can no longer use my Java plugin, and I do use it for some things, and while I do like Firefox, the Linux version of Firefox has always been noticeably slower than Chrome for me.

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Using it right now.  Looks alright.  I'll play with it for a few minutes and post my observations here.

 

It did pick up all of my saved passwords and login sessions from Google Chrome, which is a bit weird and interesting.  Will post some photos and maybe even a video.

 

It allows you to add search engines, but I can't figure out how to set another one as default.  I like to use DuckDuckGo, and I've even installed the official addon for Opera, but all it does is add a button next to the address bar for you to click on for accessing a DuckDuckGo search bar.  It did add DuckDuckGo to the "Search Engines" area in the "Settings" dialog, but when I mouse over it the option to "Set as Default" does not appear; it only appears for the search engines that are in there by default.

 

Here's something cool that Chrome/Firefox don't do.  If you mouse over another tab, it will show kind of a full screen preview of what is on that other tab.

post-125978-0-12610700-1403899316.png

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Here's something cool that Chrome/Firefox don't do.  If you mouse over another tab, it will show kind of a full screen preview of what is on that other tab.

Firefox does it on the taskbar (Windows, not sure on other OS's) and the panoramic view out of the box, and can be added to tabs easily enough too. Not sure on Chrome, I think you can add that to it as well but don't quote me, rarely use it.
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It does not support Java.  I'm guessing because it is Chromium based, and Google dropped support for NPAPI plugins in Linux as of Chrome 35.

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Do your research. One minute in Google you get tons of results proving what I said is correct.

 

 

 

 

 

One sec, I'll Google for more of the obvious answer.

 

 

They didn't abandon a linux version, they gave priority to shipping the windows/mac version. Its pretty clear that they resumed work on the linux version after shipping it for windows/mac, because they've just released a linux version.

 

 

1) Opera for Linux already existed a long time ago, so I'm guessing they dropped support for a while and are just now picking it back up?

2) If it's Chromium based, why not just use Chromium/Chrome?  I'm not saying they shouldn't use the rendering engine, if they like webkit then keep webkit, but saying "Chromium Based" leads me to believe they're just trying to ride off Google's work to avoid being innovative themselves.

 

I could be mistaken though.  I'll give it a shot.  Since Google removed NPAPI support from Chrome for Linux ahead of other platforms, I can no longer use my Java plugin, and I do use it for some things, and while I do like Firefox, the Linux version of Firefox has always been noticeably slower than Chrome for me.

1. When they switched to chromium, they basically had to re-write the entire browser. The new chromium based version didn't have a publically released linux version until now.
 
2. Its still got a few good features (speed dial, mouse gestures, stash, turbo). The chromium based version has only been in development for a year or so, I'm sure there will be more features to come. Right now it is rather bare bones though. I also prefer its interface to chrome's, and find the UI is more 'native' on windows (no hardcoded flat menus and scrollbars)
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In light of trying out new browsers, I decided to give Midori a shot.  Added the PPA and installed the latest version.  It's actually pretty nifty.  The interface is a bit old school feeling, but it has the speed and responsiveness of Chrome, supports Java AND lets me use DuckDuckGo as a built-in search engine.  I think I've found a winner, :P

 

 

They didn't abandon a linux version, they gave priority to shipping the windows/mac version. Its pretty clear that they resumed work on the linux version after shipping it for windows/mac, because they've just released a linux version.

 

 
1. When they switched to chromium, they basically had to re-write the entire browser. The new chromium based version didn't have a publically released linux version until now.
 
2. Its still got a few good features (speed dial, mouse gestures, stash, turbo). The chromium based version has only been in development for a year or so, I'm sure there will be more features to come. Right now it is rather bare bones though. I also prefer its interface to chrome's, and find the UI is more 'native' on windows (no hardcoded flat menus and scrollbars)

 

 

 

Yeah, I like the interface.  It seems pretty fluid, and the discover tab is a nifty ad free way of browsing news headlines.  It's at least a lot better than manually going to 15 different news websites so you can take a peek at the top two headlines since they're the only ones not surrounded by celebrity highlights.  Overall I think it's a pretty decent setup, but there are certain things I want in a browser and I'd really rather not have to keep a whole bunch of them installed just so I can get work done on all the websites I visit.

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So apparently if Google Chrome is not installed, it won't pick up and use the Adobe Flash Player libraries installed on the system.  I've tried putting symbolic links to libflashplayer.so in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera-developer and even created a folder in there called plugins and still no success.  I also put a symlink to it in /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins since the one located in there is actually named "flashplayer-alternative.so", and still not working.  Will poke around a little bit and see if I can get it working.

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In light of trying out new browsers, I decided to give Midori a shot.  Added the PPA and installed the latest version.  It's actually pretty nifty.  The interface is a bit old school feeling, but it has the speed and responsiveness of Chrome, supports Java AND lets me use DuckDuckGo as a built-in search engine.  I think I've found a winner, :p

 

 

 

Yeah, I like the interface.  It seems pretty fluid, and the discover tab is a nifty ad free way of browsing news headlines.  It's at least a lot better than manually going to 15 different news websites so you can take a peek at the top two headlines since they're the only ones not surrounded by celebrity highlights.  Overall I think it's a pretty decent setup, but there are certain things I want in a browser and I'd really rather not have to keep a whole bunch of them installed just so I can get work done on all the websites I visit.

If you like midori, have you tried midori-gtk3? Got it working on a raspberry pi (wayland) earlier, though it did keep crashing but it did look nicer.

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