In February, Opera announced that its web browser was going to switch from using its own in-house Presto engine to the WebKit-based Chromium engine that Google uses for its own Chrome web browser. In April, Opera stated that it would follow Google's lead and use its offshoot of WebKit, Blink, as its new web browser engine.
Today, Opera announced that the first public beta of its Chromium-based web browser is now available for download via the Opera Next channel. The beta is available for Windows and Mac platforms, with a Linux version to come later.
Besides the switch to Chromium, the new Opera web browser has a new user interface and a number of new features, some of which Opera added to its Android web browser earlier this year. One is called Discover, which Opera says " ... allows you to lean back and get fed with new articles from your country, or whatever region you want to get inspiration from, right in your browser - all in one place."
Opera also announced that the web browser's mail client has now been removed and is now available as a stand alone program. Opera said it made this change due to feedback from users and will allow the web browser to take up less memory and space on a PC.
Source: Opera | Image via Opera
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