Surprise: Opera 12.18 has been released

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 16, 2016
Updated • Feb 16, 2016
Opera
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Opera Software has released version 12.18 of the classic Opera browser two years after the latest update has been made available.

When Opera Software switched from the company's own Presto rendering engine to Chromium/Blink, it was clear that this was the end of the classic Opera browser.

Users who still run the classic version of Opera may receive an update notification that version 12.18 of the browser is available.

They can then use it to upgrade their version of the browser to the new version. The notification may come as a surprise as Opera Software uses it to promote the Chromium version of the browser regularly instead.

Opera 12.18

The new classic Opera version installs or upgrades fine, and you can check that you are still running classic Opera by selecting Opera > Help > About Opera.

There you find listed the version of the browser and build number. It is interesting to note that Windows 10 is not recognized by the browser but listed as Windows 8 instead.

Opera Software has not made available a changelog for the version. A user posted what he thinks has been updated on the Vivaldi forum.

I hate to repeat myself, but 12.18 is a security update. They removed a few protocols that are considered unsafe, added some which were not in 12.17. and enabled TLS 1.1 and 1.2 by default. And yes, there's an update for Mail too. No, no Linux or Mac versions yet.

According to him, Opera Software removed protocols that are not considered safe anymore, and enabled TLS 1.1 and 1.2 by default. Mail was updated as well, but he does not mention what exactly.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the Windows version of Opera 12.18 is currently the only one that is offered, but that was the case for Opera 12.17 as well. It is unlikely that a Linux or Mac version will be released by Opera Software considering that Opera 12.16 is the last version for both systems.

Windows users can download Opera 12.18 from the official download page on the Opera website.

The update is a maintenance update and not a sign that Opera Software has restarted development of Opera Classic.

The company concentrates its efforts on the new Opera browser, currently at version 35. Opera fans who like classic Opera but not the new one may want to keep an eye on Vivaldi, a browser developed by former Opera employees.

Beta 2 of Vivaldi was released recently. A stable version will be released this year, but it is unclear when exactly.

Summary
Surprise: Opera 12.18 has been released
Article Name
Surprise: Opera 12.18 has been released
Description
Opera Software has released an update for classic Opera. Opera 12.18 has been released for the Windows operating system only.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on April 4, 2018 at 3:44 pm
    Reply

    No chance, only if somebody send you the extension

  2. GeXeS said on February 6, 2018 at 9:39 am
    Reply

    Some time has passed, huh? I still use my beloved Opera 12.18, but I also enjoy the still better Vivaldi browser. Recently, I’ve upgraded my system to Win 7 and had to reinstall Opera. Now I wonder – where can one get extensions for the Presto engine? Of course, the “add extensions” button only takes me to the official support site, where there are extensions for Blink engine. Stuff it. Any ideas on a useable Ad-block for Opera 12.18, for example?

  3. GeXeS said on February 6, 2018 at 8:28 am
    Reply

    Some time has passed, huh? I still use my beloved Opera 12.18, but I also enjoy the still better Vivaldi browser. Recently, I’ve upgraded my system to Win 7 and had to reinstall Opera. Now I wonder – where can one get extensions for the Presto engine? Of course, the “add extensions” button only takes me to the official support site, where there are extensions for Blink engine. Stuff it. Any ideas on a useable Ad-block for Opera 12.18, for example?

  4. Velde said on July 17, 2016 at 3:11 pm
    Reply

    IS a good browser, IS the best browser. Still, and likely for many more years. I’m on 12.17 and only have troubles with two sites, bank being one of them. I did manage to get in until a month back, but barely. Had to reload site many times and it often procured site errors. It is a testament to opera’s supremacy, where it shouldn’t work at all, but still does even with security like that an E-Bank have. Though I don’t really expect 12.18 to work much better, opera x64 is not in the club, question is if it’s devs have been able to write their own invitations to the club..

    Security is fine when 99% of cookies are declined unlike 100% accepted like in every other browser and most sites don’t even recognize what browser you are using, among the many built in extremely good security features, like content blocker. The real security issue is with IP tracing, google and their FB friends and alike fanatical desire to know more about you than you know yourself.

  5. MiNDYaBiZiNeSS said on April 12, 2016 at 6:05 am
    Reply

    Well, I didn’t expect this Opera update, that’s for sure. As for it’s security, if they just made security updates, there’s nothing about old Opera that should make you worry. It’s secure as most other browsers out of the box but most browsers have the same vulnerabilities to attacks unless there are built in security features that the browser boasts to deal with some specific threats like Citrio. All of the top browsers are going to likely need addons to button up all the holes and make it secure. You want HTTPS, a script blocker, a cookie management suite, something that does what self destructing cookies do and ghostery on every browser is a must. Those are more than enough options to build a security barrier for any browser.

    Opera is nothing short of a miracle because of it’s wonderful user interface. But firefox is probably the most amazing customizable user interface I’ve ever seen. But it is the slowest browser when loaded with alot of extensions. A good browser can run extensions without lagging. Not many do. And as for Opera, it does not have all the features I require out of the box because I got a very good education about securing my web browsers and not one, I repeat, not one is gonna meet minimum standards out of the box. I prefer a browser allows me to customize the user interface and the rest is add ons for security. No browser gives an add on that maximizes the ability to customize the user interface worth talking about and that is why old Opera is so awesome. User Interface modifications are just so intuitive. But firefox has it too. If you are one that wants to have complete control over how your browser looks and runs, Old Opera and Firefox got great U.I. functionality.

    Vivaldi is using blink rendering but it is far from being a clone of chrome browsers. I’m testing Vivaldi daily and report back to Vivaldi whenever I discover any issues or bugs. I think once Vivaldi gets the user interface to where the old Opera user interface is, the game is over. Once Vivaldi steps into the ring I seriously think old Opera fans are going to cheer.

    I always wondered if the guys at Vivaldi wish they could use the Presto source to pickup where they left off. I think they may have lot all rights to it but I wonder if they could have evolved with old Opera. I think there was more potential due to the minds at work to be honest.So whatever they were able to do with old Operas can be done the source they are currently using. Looking at the ABOUT menu in Vivaldi they make mention of Mozilla, & Apple Webkit. I wasn’t sure what that meant but it does not even seem like the browser is Chromium at all. The settings menu looks more like firefox, and the menu bar across the top is much like Safari or even IE. No chrome browsers I’ve seen are using the good old horizontal menu like that. Vivaldi may not be completely perfect yet, but they are on to something good I tell ya. I sense an old Opera revival and it’s likely going to be Vivaldi.

    So all of you who have any good words to spread around about what you like in the old Opera, do so on the Vivaldi forum where they are allowing users to make suggestions as to what they would like to see as a feature in the new Vivaldi browser. They are releasing updates sometimes a few times weekly and they have a snapshot version with future enhancements. It’s being run much like in the days of old Opera so I think it’s so worth getting on board. If nothing else, just take a look at the fact that they made Vivaldi because of the overwhelming response when many former old Opera users rejected the new Opera and pleaded for the original features. You got a great shot at a new up to date version of old Opera by checking out Vivaldi.

  6. goro said on March 18, 2016 at 5:21 am
    Reply

    I have downloaded update file multiple times. When I launch it, nothing happens.

    1. Yuhong Bao said on March 31, 2016 at 8:55 pm
      Reply

      If you are on Vista, install https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/2763674 to fix this

  7. e-jambon said on March 1, 2016 at 3:39 pm
    Reply

    12.18 is available for mac

  8. hahaha said on February 28, 2016 at 4:09 pm
    Reply

    Martin,

    I couldn’t download Opera 12.18 from your link.

    Nothing happened if I press “Free Download” button.
    Nothing was found if I looked for it in Opera Archive.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 28, 2016 at 6:16 pm
      Reply

      Something must block the download, it is working on my end.

  9. hirobo2 said on February 19, 2016 at 11:55 pm
    Reply

    OMG r u serious? I’m typing this post on Opera 12.17. It’s my primary browser for most things except the newer YT video formats and a few Google websites, for which I use Opera 35…

  10. o_O said on February 18, 2016 at 8:31 pm
    Reply

    Was a good browser. R.I.P.

  11. Herman Sherman said on February 17, 2016 at 10:46 pm
    Reply

    I’ve said for years that Opera (into Opera 12.xx) out of the box is so good it’s practically transparent, meaning it’s very straightforward, etc. Firefox, Pale Moon, et al, require a lot of plug-ins in order to match what old Opera does.

  12. John said on February 17, 2016 at 6:46 am
    Reply

    Well, as mentioned this appears to be a security update.

    Certain HTTPS sites have recently started refusing to load with Opera 12.17, but they are now working again with 12.18. Unfortunately there is no update for Mac, so it’s Vivaldi all the way.

    For me, Opera 12’s UI is still way better than even the latest Vivaldi snapshot (390), and on older sites with only smallish Ajax ‘enhancements’, Opera Presto is still faster than any other browser I’ve used, except for Lynx :p

  13. Exley said on February 17, 2016 at 5:53 am
    Reply

    I still use 11.52, as v12 was bit hungry and unstable
    but as time goes some sites refuse Opera classic, so now I’m on Pale Moon or Sea Monkey

    I was looking hope in Otter browser, but its too buggy, and Vivaldi is just another Chrome monster with damn fugly UI

  14. Daria said on February 17, 2016 at 5:52 am
    Reply

    I hope the Chinese Company that acquired Opera would restart or maybe even “Open Source” the Presto Engine development… Fingers crossed.

  15. Darrius said on February 17, 2016 at 1:09 am
    Reply

    Best email client. Ever.

  16. Jackson said on February 16, 2016 at 8:44 pm
    Reply

    I was seriously trying out Opera, mainly because it ran smooth as butter on my machines. And then they threw everything out and started again and just became another Chrome clone, and as such I was out.

  17. S2015 said on February 16, 2016 at 7:36 pm
    Reply

    One thing about this old browser program brand confuses me: a user often run into issue uninstalling Opera (Stable), according to Google Instant Search.

    If you are having the same ‘difficulty’, view this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6y8suQ4D18 – you perform the following before taking actions:
    * save or export your Opera profile like your saved bookmarks.
    * exit Opera completely – run WTM to check that.

  18. Pete said on February 16, 2016 at 4:37 pm
    Reply

    Nothing, NOTHING compares to good-olde-Opera. If you haven’t used it, you don’t know shit about browsers. :)

    But you should know that now it’s outdated and very probably not safe to use. :( Best browser ever. It’s saddening to see the continuing dumbing down of everything, software especially.

    1. Chris C. said on February 9, 2017 at 11:51 pm
      Reply

      Hear, hear! I guess us diehards will die of a broken heart remembering the good old days… I also completely agree with you in how bad operating systems in general and software applications in particular have become.

      As for Opera, I have still not found a replacement that works as well as old Opera and I would sure still be using it if so many sites hadn’t stopped working on it.

    2. Rick said on February 16, 2016 at 7:10 pm
      Reply

      The ciphers have been updated though, and that was the problem with secure sites.

      As for general security, Opera 12 is far and away the most obscure browsing engine. No Trident, no Mozilla, no Webkit, etc. Who would bother to target the less than 1% when they have all those?

      1. hirobo2 said on February 20, 2016 at 12:24 am
        Reply

        Precisely why I type this post on O12.17 (glad there’s a new update for it now). My first foray into Opera was in the late 2000’s when I started getting many viruses thru IE. Been happy with Opera ever since…

    3. Joel said on February 16, 2016 at 5:04 pm
      Reply

      @Pete,
      Not safe to use as in using it with websites that require LOG-INs and entering personal data, or generally not safe to use as a program that’s installed and runs on my system?
      :)
      I basically need a browser to sometimes use, for quick search\browse or flash files playing….
      Because I’ve disabled flash\java on my main chrome and it also consumes too much ram, as I always have like 50 or more tabs on it…

      Cheers =]

      1. Pete said on February 16, 2016 at 8:31 pm
        Reply

        Is JavaScript safe with this old browser? That comes to my mind first. And is everything related to other web-technologies up-to-date and fixed?

        I wouldn’t trust this old browser. Sadly, because I still LOVE it. Best browser so far.

        Currently with my main browser Firefox, I have many many times shooked my head of how much addons I need that provide “basic” functions that old Opera had from the get go. In fact, with old Opera, I did not need ANY addons. Here’s my addons in FF:

        – 2 Pane Bookmarks = Old Opera (OO from now on) had it.
        – Add-on Update Checker = why can’t I get just check&notify for addons in vanilla FF?! No, it’s just no update (and no notification either) or automatically, stupid.
        – Add-ons Manager – Version Number = this is stupid, I need an 3rd party addon for this because FF hid the info.. stupid.
        – Click to Play per-element = Why isn’t this part of vanilla FF?! OO had it.
        – Close Button (Adds a Close Tab button to the toolbar) = once again, how stupid to need an addon for this, OO could be customized like hell.
        – Drag-Select Link Text = I got this only because Netflix in its wisdom changed their website to crap -> could not select movie/series title text and select “search IMDb” from context menu.
        – FireGestures = OO had this.
        – No Close Buttons = and again, one of stupidest moves by FF, they removed about:config setting for removing close buttons from tabs, what harm that setting did?! OO customization was super.
        – Omnibar = started using this because FF URL bar had a strange bug/problem that added many seconds delay when searhing from the URL bar. Added bonus is search suggestions.
        – S3.Google Translator = first in the list that is not about defeating bugs or design stupidity, great addition, even OO did not have this functionality.
        – SearchIMDB = with OO one could customize context menus for everything.
        – Super Start = better Speed Dial, OO had good one.
        – Tab Scope (show tab thumbnails when hovering) = OO had this.
        – Tile View = OO had MDI (Multiple Document Interface) that handled this need.
        – uBlock Origin = 2nd actually useful addon, OO did not have this much and easy blocking system (though I managed to make it automatic with wget and batch file).
        – UAControl = OO had this too.

        So, almost ALL of the addons I have in Firefox are because FF doesn’t like to put great features in vanilla browser and their current crusade of dumbing down everything.

  19. Joel said on February 16, 2016 at 4:17 pm
    Reply

    Soooo….
    What’s better: this one? version 35 one, or maybe the published “dual-engine web browser Polarity”?
    Looking for a secondary browser [not firefox\portable chromium], stable one.
    I have opera at it’s 33rd version, it crashes often… [might be my PC issue, but still looking for a replacement…]
    Cheers

    1. Andrew said on February 16, 2016 at 7:10 pm
      Reply

      I would recommend Vivaldi, it’s pretty stable imo, or Edge if you’re on Windows 10

      1. Stan said on February 16, 2016 at 8:48 pm
        Reply

        Opera 35 is quite stable for me. Vivaldi it looks like it’s going to take them a year more to be stable and UI lags…

  20. Remco said on February 16, 2016 at 2:20 pm
    Reply

    http://www.opera.com/blogs/security/2016/02/opera-12-and-opera-mail-security-update/

    That has all the details. The security protocols available in the browser were changed and there will be no versions for mac/linux.

    https://download.r3m.co/security-protocols-opera-12.18.jpg is the screenshot of the security protocols I made this morning, for the people that are interested but don’t have 12.18 installed.

    1. michal said on February 18, 2016 at 8:47 am
      Reply

      There were user comments in the first link you provided. Not very flattering to Opera’s release info or Opera politics regarding v12. There were, because today there are no comments at all. And that’s how Opera shows incompetence and shame – by deleting critical opinions.

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on February 16, 2016 at 2:32 pm
      Reply

      Thanks Remco, that is a useful link that confirms what the user on the Vivaldi forum revealed.

  21. insanelyapple said on February 16, 2016 at 1:08 pm
    Reply

    Perhaps that’s the last call before that Chinese company will finalize buying them. It’s a really missed opportunity that they didn’t released source code of original Opera.

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