Finally, Opera Developer version released

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 8, 2013
Updated • Aug 8, 2013
Opera
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17

If you have followed the news surrounding Opera's move from the company's own Presto engine to Chromium / WebKit / Blink, then you may remember that the company wanted to provide users and interested third parties with three different channels.

Opera released versions of the new browser to the stable and next channel up until now. Today, the company has released the first developer version of the Opera browser which you can download from the Opera Desktop Team website.

Lets take a quick look at the three channels and how they compare to those offered by Mozilla and Google:

  • Opera Stable: this is the most stable build of Opera intended for productive environments and users who only want tried and tested features in their browser. It is comparable to Firefox Stable or Chrome Stable.
  • Opera Next: this channel gets frequent updates and features before they land in the stable version of Opera. It is comparable to Firefox Beta and Chrome Beta.
  • Opera Developer: the cutting edge channel that gets updates first. It is comparable to Firefox Aurora and Google Chrome Dev / Canary.

Opera 17, the first Opera Developer version, introduces several new and requested features to the browser. Opera distinguishes between features that are active immediately when you start the browser, and features that are disabled but can be enabled via the opera:flags configuration page.

New features in Opera 17

  1. More startup options: you can now select to load the last session, the start page, or a specific page or set of pages. You find the preference in opera://settings.
  2. Tabs can now be pinned in the browser. Just right-click a tab to do so.
  3. New extension API features for bookmarks, commands, omnibox, webNavigation.
  4. You can now manage search engines in Opera 17. Add shortcuts for your favorite search engines and change the default search engine that Opera uses when you type in the address bar.

opera search engines

Features disabled by default

Opera 17 launches with three features that are integrated in the browser but disabled by default. You can enable them on the opera://flags page.

  • Theme support: What's interesting here is that the theme engine is backwards compatible. This means that you can load Opera 12 themes in Opera 17 as well as themes that have been created specifically for Opera 17 or newer versions of the browser. Seems to be limited to themes that change the wallpaper though in regards to backwards compatibility.

opera themes

  • Camera and Microphone support on Windows via getUserMedia. This is not working on Macs currently.
  • HiDPI Support on Windows. Get a better experience on high definition screens.
  • Quick Access Bar: Once enabled via the Opera menu after you have turned the feature on under opera://flags, you have access to a bookmarks bar once again. It does not appear to work fully yet though, as you cannot add items to it.

The company notes that users can expect many more features to land in Opera in the near feature. Mentioned specifically in the blog post are:

improved tabs handling: vertical tabs, visual tabs, tab cycler, move tabs between windows, quick access bar (aka bookmarks bar), synchronization.. We've planned further bookmarks enhancements, further synchronization development, site preferences, and more.

No word yet on a Linux version though. Opera Developer installs and runs without interfering with Opera Stable or Next installations.

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Comments

  1. Patrick Dreier said on September 2, 2013 at 12:18 am
    Reply

    Hello!

    Opera Stable: this is the most stable build of Opera intended for productive environments. My Idea let the liberty from Users for Opera Presto Core or Opera Webkit Core.
    first Opera Presto Maintenance work renamed folder C:\Program Files(x86)Opera Stable\
    Do not minigrate from Webkit Engine do not forcing let the choice for Engines realy liberty of all.

    With king regards!

  2. Patrick Dreier said on September 1, 2013 at 10:11 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    Opera Stable: this is the most stable build of Opera intended for productive environments. My Idea let the liberty from Users for Opera Presto Core or Opera Webkit.
    first Opera Presto Maintenance work renamed folder C:\Program Files(x86)Opera Stable\

    With king regards!

    1. Patrick Dreier said on September 2, 2013 at 12:13 am
      Reply

      Hello!

      Opera Stable: this is the most stable build of Opera intended for productive environments. My Idea let the liberty from Users for Opera Presto Core or Opera Webkit.
      first Opera Presto Maintenance work renamed folder C:\Program Files(x86)Opera Stable\
      Do not minigrate from Webkit Engine do not forcing let the choice for Engines realy liberty of all.

      With king regards!

  3. Patrick Dreier said on August 30, 2013 at 10:50 pm
    Reply

    Opera Stable: this is the most stable build of Opera intended for productive environments. My Idea let the liberty for Opera Presto Users C:\Program Files(x86)Opera Stable\Presto Engine\
    and for Opera Webkit Users C:\Program Files(x86)Opera Stable\Webkit\
    Do not minigrate from Webkit Engine do not forcing let the choice for Engines realy liberty of all.

    With king regards!

  4. Patrick Dreier said on August 30, 2013 at 1:25 am
    Reply

    Browser The Norwegian software maker Opera has fired one of its employees in the course of the transition of its browser on the same WebKit engine. As the company announced now lost nearly 10 percent of employees their job.

    Like Opera’s annual report for the fourth quarter of 2012 ( PDF apparent), a total of 91 employees were laid off, what is justified, according to the paper with “organizational restructuring”. About half of them had been previously involved in the development of the browser, it says. Opera has generally managing claims to costs of approximately $ 7.8 million in connection with the conversion of its browser-house, proprietary Presto Engine built on Webkit. By changing the now redundant specialists would simply no longer needed. , the company has paid a compensation to the terminated employee, in most cases, and supported them in addition also in the search for a new job within the IT industry. In general, one wants to grow again in the coming months, after the company had already hired additional employees in the last year to the beginning of the transition.

    Through the acquisition, which specializes in cloud solutions company SkyFire takes the number of employees in the near future to again. A portion of the previously employed to work on Presto developer has now also moved to other positions within the company, to work on specific products. operators no longer need to apply by switching to WebKit much of its resources to improve the Presto engine but needs “only” a fraction of it to participate in the open source community around WebKit, the company said. Financially, Opera really good, but you could continue to rise, so the sales also increased the number of users.

  5. Patrick Dreier said on August 30, 2013 at 1:21 am
    Reply

    WebKit changes: Engine developers that Norwegian software maker Opera has in the course of its eponymous browser switching to the WebKit engine released part of his staff dismisses Opera. The company has now announced that nearly 10 percent of the employees lost their job. As Opera’s annual report for the fourth quarter of 2012 (PDF), a total of 91 staff were dismissed, what be justified according to the paper with “organizational restructuring”. Approximately half of them has been involved so far in the development of the browser, it says. Cost of $7.8 million Opera has according to own total to cope, which arise in connection with the conversion of its browser from the in-house proprietary Presto engine WebKit. Through the Exchange, the now dismissed specialists would simply no longer needed. The company has paid an indemnity to the employee in the majority of cases, and supported also in the search for a new employment within the IT industry. Generally it intends to grow again in the coming months, after the company already in the course of last year until the beginning of the transition had recruited more personnel.

  6. Patrick Dreier said on August 28, 2013 at 10:53 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    It is right the comments off Newoperatrash it is Waste.

    With king regards!

  7. Newoperatrash said on August 28, 2013 at 4:34 pm
    Reply

    This new opera is complete trash! Guess by the looks of things Google buttered their pockets or something. Time to look for another browser that is not complete trash.

  8. Patrick Dreier said on August 24, 2013 at 7:48 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    Liberty of Webbrowserengines by Users.

    With king regards!

  9. Patrick Dreier said on August 24, 2013 at 7:28 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    Liberty of Webbrowserengines by User.

    With king regards!

  10. Patrick Dreier said on August 24, 2013 at 7:07 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    I will have Opera developers make Presto open source for new Opera version based on Presto Search Engine, making lighter and faster.

    With king regards!

  11. Patrick Dreier said on August 24, 2013 at 7:01 pm
    Reply

    Hello!

    Long live Opera 12.16. Opera is not dead. You can programming Websites from Opera Presto Engine.

    With king regards!

  12. anon said on August 9, 2013 at 11:21 am
    Reply

    Call me again when they actually make this miserable chrome clone reach feature parity with the old opera (i.e. probably never).

  13. nixdagibts said on August 9, 2013 at 9:06 am
    Reply

    Long live Opera 12.16

  14. Nebulus said on August 8, 2013 at 1:05 pm
    Reply

    Easy solution: Opera 12.15 with additional security measures on the computer. It will probably be viable for a few years. After that, who knows?

    1. ACow said on August 8, 2013 at 8:49 pm
      Reply

      I guess it depends on what your definition of viable is as far as web browsers go… The reason they’ve decided to drop Presto is because the browser wasn’t fully viable even in its up-to-date state.

      Even though I had to switch to a different browser every now and then to view some crappy website, I was a perfectly happy Opera user for many, many years (far before it became a free product). How anyone could think that what the world needs is another Chrome clone completely escapes my comprehension.

  15. smaragdus said on August 8, 2013 at 10:43 am
    Reply

    Opera is as dead as a dodo. I’m done with Opera. All I want is that the developers make Presto open source. But this will never happen.

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