Opera 16 Stable is out now

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 27, 2013
Opera
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Norwegian company Opera Software has just released Opera 16 Stable, a new version of the browser that is now based on the Chromium engine. You may recall that the company made the switch to Chromium some time ago which irritated part of the browser's user base. The core reason for that is the lack of features of the new Opera browser. While it does offer a faster rendering engine and better web standards support, it lacks many of the features that made Opera special in the eyes of users.

When Opera 15 launched, it was clear immediately that it was bare-bones at best, and missing essential features such as bookmarking.

The company pushed out two new channels, Opera Next and Dev, that offered an outlook of things to come.

Opera 16

Today's release of Opera 16 stable introduces some new features. While that is a move in the right direction, it still lacks many features that users have come to expect from Opera.

The Opera Desktop Team blog has listed the top changes in Opera 16 when compared to Opera 15:

  • Upgrade to Chromium 29 engine.
  • Opera:flags support to enable experimental features.
  • W3C geolocation API now supported.
  • A form auto-filler has been integrated into Opera.
  • Windows 7+ users benefit from jump list support, Mac users for support of the presentation mode.
  • Performance improvements.
  • And lots of bug fixes.

You can download the new version from the desktop team blog directly.Opera 15 has no built-in option to manually check for updates yet. Users can restart Opera which should be enough to apply the new update to the browser.

The company has added a manual check option to Opera 17, which users can access on the opera:about page.

Please note that a Linux version is still not available, and that there has been no news regarding the release of Opera for Linux. Opera confirmed that it will be released for the operating system eventually, but did not disclose a version or date when this is going to happen.

Linux users for now are stuck with the old version of Opera that is still available and somewhat supported by the company.

Users on the Next and Developer channel can expect that their versions will be updated in the near future as well, with both going up a level to version 17 and 18 respectively. According to Opera, Next will be moved to Opera 17 in the coming one to two weeks. This is likely the same time frame that Dev requires to be moved to version 18.

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Comments

  1. DC Sleeper said on August 29, 2013 at 3:49 pm
    Reply

    I run Opera 11.64. Ver 12 removed several features that I use daily and am not willing to give up.

    Opera really screwed themselves. What a shame. It was the BEST browser in my opinion.

  2. Elis said on August 28, 2013 at 1:25 am
    Reply

    I’ve been running Opera Next for two weeks now (at first I refused to try it at all) and I must say I like it. It works well on all sites where I couldn’t go with Presto (youtube, facebook, etc.) True, lots of things are missing but I am sure Opera team will surprise us with some ‘out of this world’ goodies as always.

    Stash combined with Speed Dial is kinda all right but if they come up with folders option within Stash it will be better than the classic bookmarks.

    Password manager is OK and plugins that I care about are working with no issues. Trouble is I am too lazy to go through hundreds of bookmarks and insert them selectively by hand to the new browser and that’s the main reason why I keep old Opera next to the Next :)

    1. anon said on August 29, 2013 at 3:13 am
      Reply

      What have you done to your install that make youtube refuse to work?

      I’m testing the latest developer’s version and it’s still far too crippled for my normal workflow, so whatever.

    2. toto said on August 28, 2013 at 4:52 pm
      Reply

      We’re in 2013 and you mean to tell me that there’s no bookmark export/import functionality???? on top of that between different versions of the same browser?????

  3. Nebulus said on August 27, 2013 at 8:53 pm
    Reply

    I have only one thing to say, that I will repeat every time a new Opera version will come out: “Opera 12.16”.

  4. SubgeniusD said on August 27, 2013 at 6:02 pm
    Reply

    I think you meant “Linux users can continue to use the excellent, fully featured 12.16 version of Opera that is still available and somewhat supported by the company.” ;)

    I see poor little Opera has been demoted to a GHacks archive item along with IE! I can understand IE but that category bar just looks strange without Opera on it.

    Btw – New site design and layout is nice and very easy to use. A huge project – hope it hasn’t been too big a headache.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 27, 2013 at 9:19 pm
      Reply

      Well it has been quite the challenge to get the site to this point, and I’m far from the end. Still lots of things to do in regards to improvements.

      1. Jim said on August 27, 2013 at 9:29 pm
        Reply

        I agree w/SubD Martin. It looks better and works better for me too. Nice job!

  5. Zeus said on August 27, 2013 at 5:36 pm
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    And I though this was a comments section, not an inane comments section.

  6. pd said on August 27, 2013 at 5:16 pm
    Reply

    I thought this was a news site, not an irrelevant site.

  7. iron2000 said on August 27, 2013 at 3:49 pm
    Reply

    Opera joins Maxthon, Comodo, CoolNovo, Iron etc in the Chromium party :P
    Feels like it losing personality and blending into the Chromium blob.
    Obscure to more obscure?
    Well, just my opinion.

    Same situation with all the other browsers in Android, they have somewhat similar start page.

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