opera Opera Next 16

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Opera Next 16
 

Yesterday we pushed a candidate for Opera Next 16. I?m not surprised that many of you have figured it out already yesterday. 

Features that we?ve added for this build are

• support for W3C Geolocation API,
• form auto-filler,
• support for jump-lists on Windows 7/8,
• presentation mode is now available also on Mac,
• opera:flags ? you can play with experimental features there. Please remember that this game might be dangerous (and bite),
• Opera 16 is based on Chromium 29.

Please feel free to test and leave us comments ? if you are not on the Next stream yet, go ahead and download it from attached links.

Opera and Opera Next run as separate installs so you can still use Opera 15 while running Opera Next 16 side by side to try out the new things. Opera Next 16 will also automatically update itself so you'll always have the latest build.

Usually, the first few comments are about the roadmap, so here are the features we?re currently working on: bookmarks, synchronization (Opera Link), enhancements in tabs handling (ie pinning and visual tabs) and themes. Our new rapid release cycle means that you should see the first cut of some of these in a few weeks? time.

 

Source: Opera Desktop Team blog

Downloads:

• Opera Next 16 for Windows
• Opera Next 16 for OS X

(Sorry, Linux users. No luck for you.)

[DJGM]

Looks like they're still not bothering to bring back the features that most people want. It's still dumbed down junk.

[Jub]

It isn't dumbed down junk at all. They still offer version 12 to people who such features while they develop the new versions. They are brining the features back, but they're started from scratch. It'll take a while.

[Buendia]

Even though it is named Opera 15/16, it should be considered as Opera 1.0 at the time being, since they have started from scratch and will take some time to develop new features. 

Take into consideration how long it took Chrome to develop features it has now.

 

I'm liking it so far. It's already faster at launch than Chrome.

[Marshall Veteran]

Granted I don't have any extensions installed yet, this is a very snappy browser! As soon as they add back needed features such as bookmarks, I might use it as my default browser.

[ViperAFK]

Glad to see they will be re-implementing bookmarks and proper tab management features, steps in the right direction. I do really miss opera 12's smooth scrolling though. Chromium has ridiculously bad smooth scrolling (doesn't work on all pages, and doesn't work at all with middle click autoscroll) and its still behind a flag, and the chrome/chromium developers don't seem to be making any efforts to improve it. I really wish opera would do some work in this area, opera 12 had/has fantastic smooth scrolling. At least in the opera 16 build the crappy flag is available, better than nothing :p

[UVSoaked]

Looks like they're still not bothering to bring back the features that most people want. It's still dumbed down junk.

 

Looks like it to me from the last paragraph of their post.

 

 

 So here are the features we?re currently working on: bookmarks, synchronization (Opera Link), enhancements in tabs handling (ie pinning and visual tabs) and themes.

[grayscale]

Does the Next branch auto-update? or do I have to just install v16 over v15?

[Marshall Veteran]

Does the Next branch auto-update? or do I have to just install v16 over v15?

 

Version 16 will install separately from 15 and yes automatic updates are set as default on 16.

[grayscale]

Version 16 will install separately from 15 and yes automatic updates are set as default on 16.

I mean, I have Opera Next 15 currently, not the stable one. Can I just install it over this or will it auto-update?

[+Zlip792 MVC]

I mean, I have Opera Next 15 currently, not the stable one. Can I just install it over this or will it auto-update?

 

It will auto update to version 16.

[hagjohn]

I hope they are careful with what they add. I like the speed the browser has. Other than a few small things (bookmarks, smooth scrolling, etc...), everything else should be an extension, so you can choose what you want your browser to be. I never used 1/2 the stuff they had in the old browser.

[Yogurth]

I hope they are careful with what they add. I like the speed the browser has. Other than a few small things (bookmarks, smooth scrolling, etc...), everything else should be an extension, so you can choose what you want your browser to be. I never used 1/2 the stuff they had in the old browser.

 I think that is the wrong way to do it for a number of reasons. Extensions are unsupported, which means one day they work the next day they don't since the browser has moved on and extensions haven't (just look at Firefox extensions woes). Extensions add to cpu/memory usage, security potential security problems and these are never a good thing....etc. On the other hand built in features, like in Opera 12 and before, do not add to bloat unless activated, since the browser does not use them unless specifically requested. Built in features are completely supported by the dev team in features, security and stability. Look at the massive ammount of fetures that Opera 11.x/12.x had and it was still the lightest and most efficient browser on the market. You could open up more than 100 tabs and it would still work as it should. Try doing that in WebKit, Gecko or Trident browsers. 

 

I don't think Opera Blink will ever be a match for old Opera, can only hope that either Opera will release Presto's source code or old Opera devs and CEO will start completely new browser development.

[villiansv]

I hope they are careful with what they add. I like the speed the browser has. Other than a few small things (bookmarks, smooth scrolling, etc...), everything else should be an extension, so you can choose what you want your browser to be. I never used 1/2 the stuff they had in the old browser.

I disagree, because having extensions simply means your security goes down (extensions have access to a lot of browser info, and unless you audit the source code of all extensions you can never be sure what's happening with e.g. your browsing history). Not to mention extension authors dropping support for various reasons. I don't mean to demean your stance on extensions vs builtin functionality, however we already have browsers that have the barebones + extensions model. I wish Opera didn't just become another Chrome clone, but sadly it seems that way.

 

In case what I said about security doesn't immediately make sense, here's what could happen: http://snarkybrill.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/shameful-spyware-in-smooth-gestures.html

This was (and still is) one of the most popular mouse gesture extensions for Chrome. Yeah, it may get caught fairly quickly but this is what you risk with extensions.