The days when major browser updates were few and far between are
over. Nowadays, it’s de rigeur for browser manufacturers to speed up
development, which means opening up less stable builds to the masses in
order to get them bug-checked as quickly as possible.
It may only enjoy a fraction of the market share afforded to rival
web browsers, but Opera is by no means a poor relation to the likes of
Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. In many ways it’s been a
pioneer – Opera was the first major browser to use tabs and provide a
speed dial for its home page, and it has always been one of the quickest
browsers out there thanks to a lightweight footprint, something its
rivals are only now starting to embrace. Another unique feature is a
built-in mail client enabling you to combine browsing and email in one
application.
Opera isn’t afraid to utilise the best bits of other browsers either –
version 11 saw the debut of a slimmed down user interface pioneered by
Chrome and also copied by IE9 and Firefox 4. It also brought third-party
extensions to the table for the first time, along with a handy
bookmarks bar.
But if Opera is to maintain its image as a true web pioneer, it can’t afford to sit still.
New 12.0 is a major upgrade after months of development. The primary
improvements are speed enhancements. The key headline new features are:
- Faster startup with many tabs
- Out-of-Process Plug-ins
- Experimental Hardware Acceleration and WebGL
- opera:cpu
- Improved loading performance
- Improved performance on secure connections
- RTL
- Improved HTML5 support
- Improved extensions support
- 64 bit Windows and Mac
- Do Not Track
- Improved address field suggestions
- Out-of-Process Plug-ins
- Experimental Hardware Acceleration and WebGL
- opera:cpu
- Improved loading performance
- Improved performance on secure connections
- RTL
- Improved HTML5 support
- Improved extensions support
- 64 bit Windows and Mac
- Do Not Track
- Improved address field suggestions
