Opera 15 arrives with Chromium core, ditches the mail client | Apps and Software | Geek.com
The preview release of Opera 15 is now available for download. It’s the first version built atop Google’s Chromium code, but Opera has made a number of other changes, too.
One of the most noteworthy: the removal of Opera’s built-in mail client. That piece of software has been turned into a standalone mail app, and Opera says that user feedback figured heavily into the decision. Shedding the additional code also results in a smaller footprint and reduced memory usage for the browser.
With the switch to Chromium, Opera 15 is faster and more standards-compliant than its Presto-powered predecessors. Like Chrome and Chromium (and heck, even Internet Explorer), Opera has also made the switch to a unified navigation bar. There’s no longer a separate address bar and search box.
Opera 15 also doesn’t have favorites or bookmarks. Instead, URLs you want to save are now put into your “stash.” Your collection is displayed as part of the three-paned Opera start page, which also includes its trademark Speed Dial and the recently-introduced content discovery page.
The bandwidth-saving off-road mode still features in Opera 15, though it appears incomplete in this preview build. In a brief test, I had trouble getting pages to load with off-road turned on — so it’s possible that Opera has not yet wired up the new version of its browser to talk to the Turbo proxy servers. Then again, it’s also possible that the influx of Opera 15 testers has put additional strain on the system and it’s having trouble keeping up.
One other feature that’s not ready to go just yet is Opera Sync. There’s an entry on the Opera 15 app menu that will take you to your web-based Sync page at link.opera.com. For the time being, however, there’s no way to actually synchronize your existing Opera profile data with the new browser.
Both Opera 15 and the new standalone mail client are available for download now. If you’re running Windows or OS X and want to give either app a try, scroll to the bottom of Opera’s announcement post and click away. Sorry, Linux users, there’s no Opera 15 preview version for you just yet.
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The preview release of Opera 15 is now available for download. It’s the first version built atop Google’s Chromium code, but Opera has made a number of other changes, too.
One of the most noteworthy: the removal of Opera’s built-in mail client. That piece of software has been turned into a standalone mail app, and Opera says that user feedback figured heavily into the decision. Shedding the additional code also results in a smaller footprint and reduced memory usage for the browser.
With the switch to Chromium, Opera 15 is faster and more standards-compliant than its Presto-powered predecessors. Like Chrome and Chromium (and heck, even Internet Explorer), Opera has also made the switch to a unified navigation bar. There’s no longer a separate address bar and search box.
Opera 15 also doesn’t have favorites or bookmarks. Instead, URLs you want to save are now put into your “stash.” Your collection is displayed as part of the three-paned Opera start page, which also includes its trademark Speed Dial and the recently-introduced content discovery page.
The bandwidth-saving off-road mode still features in Opera 15, though it appears incomplete in this preview build. In a brief test, I had trouble getting pages to load with off-road turned on — so it’s possible that Opera has not yet wired up the new version of its browser to talk to the Turbo proxy servers. Then again, it’s also possible that the influx of Opera 15 testers has put additional strain on the system and it’s having trouble keeping up.
One other feature that’s not ready to go just yet is Opera Sync. There’s an entry on the Opera 15 app menu that will take you to your web-based Sync page at link.opera.com. For the time being, however, there’s no way to actually synchronize your existing Opera profile data with the new browser.
Both Opera 15 and the new standalone mail client are available for download now. If you’re running Windows or OS X and want to give either app a try, scroll to the bottom of Opera’s announcement post and click away. Sorry, Linux users, there’s no Opera 15 preview version for you just yet.