Mass Media & Technology

Opera Next

Opera goes WebKit (June 2013)

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WP
WillPS
opera.com/next

Been very excited about this since it was announced at the beginning of the year; finally a consumer preview is available. For as long as I've known it, Opera has been developing features years ahead of their appearance on other browsers (tabbed browsing, speed dial, extensions, minimal UIs). Until recently the Presto engine was easily the best available in terms of reliability, efficiency and compliance. Although I don't think there's much between Presto and WebKit as things stands, WebKit tends to do a better job with crap code; and I'm sure it would have leaped ahead of Presto given its exceptional development over a short period of time.

Although there are some things which stop me moving from Opera 12 for the moment (notably Opera Link); the experience is very promising. As usual, Opera has come forward with a killer built in feature which I expect everybody will say is an awesome new Firefox/Chrome feature in a few years time - this time it's Stash which is perfect for people like my girlfriend who leave a crazy number of tabs open with outfit/furniture 'inspiration' - adding a bookmark (then managing/deleting them) would be cumbersome but just clicking 'heart' and then getting it from the stash (hitting X to delete when necessary) seems perfect.
BA
bilky asko
Of course, they will be joining forces with Google's fork of WebKit, Blink. I think giving their expertise on implementing web standards, whilst having the sheer might of Google's development teams, in combination with their superior UI and browser features, means that Opera's future should be assured.

If Opera's team can improve Chrome by just a bit with their input, then it's worth it.

I will report my findings once I've had a go.

EDIT: The updated UI is good, and the renderer differences are irrelevant for the usual browser.
Last edited by bilky asko on 3 June 2013 2:29am
DJ
DJGM
bilky asko posted:

I think giving their expertise on implementing web standards, whilst having the sheer might
of Google's development teams, in combination with their superior UI and browser features,
means that Opera's future should be assured.


Superior UI? Are you referring to that of current non-beta versions of Opera (up to 12.x), or of Google Chrome?
If it's the former, then yes, that indeed has a superior UI, with it's high levels of customisation and flexibility.
If it's the latter, then absolutely NO! A dumbed down uncustomisable UI is not superior!
BA
bilky asko
DJGM posted:
bilky asko posted:

I think giving their expertise on implementing web standards, whilst having the sheer might
of Google's development teams, in combination with their superior UI and browser features,
means that Opera's future should be assured.


Superior UI? Are you referring to that of current non-beta versions of Opera (up to 12.x), or of Google Chrome?
If it's the former, then yes, that indeed has a superior UI, with it's high levels of customisation and flexibility.
If it's the latter, then absolutely NO! A dumbed down uncustomisable UI is not superior!


Definitely the Opera UI.

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