Opera Software releases first Linux build of new Opera

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 23, 2014
Updated • Jun 23, 2014
Opera
|
12

When Opera Software announced that it would switch from its old trusted Presto engine to Chromium, it became clear quickly afterwards that many popular features of the old client would not be available initially in the new one.

The new Opera can best be described as bare bones. While it offered anything that you could possible want in terms of rendering web pages in the browser, many of the features that made Opera unique or comfortable to use were missing.

This included proper bookmarking support, a lack of customization options or the removal of many preferences and settings.

Among the missing features was a version for Linux. Opera Software released new Opera versions only for Windows and Macintosh and it took the company more than a year to change that.

The first public preview of Opera 15 was released on May 28, 2013 by the company. Opera Software today announced that it has released the first public build for Linux.

Before you go ahead and download the build be aware that it has been released to the Developer Channel only. This is Opera's cutting edge channel that receives updates first. The downside here is that it is also the least stable channel because of this.

opera for linux

While the Developer version is fairly stable, like Firefox Nightly or Chrome Canary, it is not really suitable for productive environments.

Opera for Linux can be installed alongside any other browser you may be using right now. Opera notes that the company has tested the browser for Linux on a 64-bit version of Ubuntu with Unity or Gnome Shell only.

While it is unlikely that it won't run on other Linux distributions, it is not guaranteed by Opera Software that this is indeed the case.

It appears that the version is identical to developer builds for Windows and Macintosh.

While not mentioned explicitly, it is likely that the Linux version will be released for other channels in the near future. If that is the case, Opera 24 may be released to the stable channel soon as well so that it can be used in productive environments.

In other news: a new tab peek feature has been integrated in Opera 24. When you move the mouse cursor over a tab it is displayed as a preview after a while now.

tab preview

This way it is easy to check the contents of a page open in Opera without activating it. A click displays brings the tab to the foreground as usual, but this time with a nice effect that feels really snappy.

Summary
Opera Software releases first Linux build of new Opera
Article Name
Opera Software releases first Linux build of new Opera
Description
Opera Software has released the first version of Opera for Linux.
Author
Advertisement

Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. joe said on June 24, 2014 at 1:56 am
    Reply

    Before, my primary browser in Win XP was Firefox,
    until they came out with Version 29 – Australis.

    The new UI in FF 29 was not bad,
    except that the browser started to become unstable
    and other problems.

    I then tried the PaleMoon browser .

    I now mostly use the PaleMoon browser
    for Linux Ubuntu 12.04.
    It’s the most popular Firefox-derivative browser.

    Love it! Stable and fast.
    All my Firefox addons work fine in PaleMoon.
    UI the way Firefox used to be…

    Try it here:
    PaleMoon.ORG (Windows / MAC / PM4Linux),
    and let us know your opinion…

    1. Lucky Limat said on June 24, 2014 at 11:12 am
      Reply

      i am also using palemoon for one year. Best alternative for firefox. Yesterday Palemoon for android developer edition was released.

  2. Zeus said on June 24, 2014 at 1:23 am
    Reply

    Reading about the newer versions of Opera is like looking up an old friend on Facebook and seeing that they aren’t doing very well…

    1. anon said on June 25, 2014 at 10:13 pm
      Reply

      Or an ex-wife who got beaten by her new lovers and frequently went through multiple plastic surgery and got worse each time. By this point I just don’t care anymore and here just to *oops*.

  3. theMike said on June 24, 2014 at 12:17 am
    Reply

    opera’s not even relevant anymore. all the posts i see about any opera update has 0 comments. no one reads the post, they just don’t care anymore…
    i read this post hoping something new might have happened. again, i was wrong

    1. vux777 said on June 24, 2014 at 12:49 pm
      Reply

      https://www.ghacks.net/?s=opera&submit=
      there is a comment number on the right :P
      even this article right now have 7 comments
      And something new did happened
      Linux build + tab peek

      1. anon said on June 25, 2014 at 10:11 pm
        Reply

        did you read those comments?

  4. pd said on June 23, 2014 at 6:44 pm
    Reply

    Snore

  5. EuroScept1C said on June 23, 2014 at 4:13 pm
    Reply

    I’ll never understand why Linux’ UI is so damn ugly. I know I’m off-topic, but… It’s such a no-go for me.

    1. anon said on June 25, 2014 at 10:10 pm
      Reply

      Depend on the distro, some went to great length to beautify their distribution, some just don’t care. But it’s not universally ugly unless you’ve tried them all.

    2. InterestedBystander said on June 23, 2014 at 8:03 pm
      Reply

      Which UI? Gnome 3, Cinnamon, XFCE, Unity, KDE, FluxBox, or one of the others? Linux offers many different user interfaces. With OpenSUSE I’ve chosen a touchscreen-tile type UI; with Ubuntu I chose Unity with appliction docks as well as menus; with Mint I use Cinnamon (menu-driven); with Salix I use XFCE.

      But I agree with pd: Snore.

      1. guest said on June 24, 2014 at 7:26 pm
        Reply

        Which UI? All of them lol.

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.