Transition from the old Opera (Presto) to the new Opera (Chromium)

  • 1 November 2013
  • 5 replies
  • 39 views

Userlevel 7
Hi folks,
 
As many of you know I am a huge advocate of the old Opera browser (Presto based). Needless to express my disappointment when Opera SAS resigned on Presto and moved to Chromium (Blink) with the initial release of Opera 15 that was the most naked and stripped browser ever. In the old Opera I was used to use all in-built modules like M2 e-mail client, RSS reader, IRC chat, Donwload and torrent manager etc. On the positive side, though, the new Opera seemed very fast.
 
Therefore I gave a try the latest stable build (Opera 17). It works fine and contrary to the initial release there are already a few features added what makes browsing a little bit more convenient, e.g. quite decent speed dial & bookmarks (yes I know it is quite a controversial topic), opera:flags etc. Nevertheless I dearly missed some fundamental modules I was used from the old Opera and without them I wasn't even willing to think that I could use the new Opera regularly.
 
These most important modules for me are.
- RSS reader
- the full e-mail client (I hate to work in native gmail)
- Reload all tabs at once
 
So I searched for decent Opera and Chrome extensions. Having tried many of them I ended up with these extensions:
 
- RSS reader - "Smart RSS" including "RSS detector" - the both from Opera addons
- Gmail - "Google Mail Multi-account Checker" from Chrome store - you can add many gmail accounts and this extension has also own interface so you can work with mails without necessity to go to the native gmail application
- Reload all tabs at once - "Reload all tabs" from Chrome store
 
It's worth noting that if you want to use Chrome extensions in Opera, you have to install "Download Chrome Extension" from Opera addons site. This extension will let you install Chrome's extension in Opera.
 
Yeah, honestly it isn't perfect yet (it is really far to perfection), I miss IRC chat and the full customization from the old Opera and a few others but at least it resembles the old Opera now and I feel quite comfortable to work with the new Opera.
 
Icing on the cake is that you can have installed the new WSA Web shield and password manager.
 
So now, as I have tweaked the new Opera a bit I will be using it for a while to see how it goes and how it suits my habits. The old Opera is obviously at my full disposal, in case the new one fails but honestly after two days I didn't need to even open nor to work with the old Opera.
 
Yes, one downside is RAM and CPU usage of the new Opera. It is much much heavier than the old one.
 
I wrote this thread exactly for those users like me who are unsure about the new Opera because they couldn't even imagine their life without the good old Opera. Yes I understand you but I say now ... I could imagine to swap the old for the new Opera. Time will tell ...
 
Sorry for so long reading.
 

5 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +36
I am trying out the new Opera 17.0.1241.53, but do miss the Bookmarks Bar far more than anything else. Never liked Speed Dial & Stash isn't much better. As you mentioned it is very fast, but then so is Opera 12. 
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
I do miss the Bookmarks Bar far more than anything else. Never liked Speed Dial & Stash isn't much better.
Sure, it is question of personal preferences but especially speed dial & stash bothers me the least. Actually I like them.
 
@ wrote:
As you mentioned it is very fast, but then so is Opera 12. 
Fully agree. Opera 12 is still very fast comparing to others.

Testing Opera 17 more and more I have to really complain on CPU and RAM usage. It is so heavy on my system that I feel it really markedly. The impact on PC performance is incredible. Opera 17 eats cca 2,5 GB of RAM and uses cca 70% of CPU!!! It is really mess. On the other hand the old Presto Opera is very light, cca 0,6 GB of RAM and cca 4% of CPU!!
 
Anyone else noticing such terrible performance impact running Opera Chromium?
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I'm staying away for as long as I can I will stick with 12.16 as my primary browser is Firefox 25 and I don't know why Browsers need so much Memory these days Firefox is using 250MB at this time I'm not so worried as I have 16GB of RAM but do they feel who cares most users have lots of free Memory.......... :@
 
Daniel
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
Hi folks,
 
As many of you know I am a huge advocate of the old Opera browser (Presto based). Needless to express my disappointment when Opera SAS resigned on Presto and moved to Chromium (Blink) with the initial release of Opera 15 that was the most naked and stripped browser ever. In the old Opera I was used to use all in-built modules like M2 e-mail client, RSS reader, IRC chat, Donwload and torrent manager etc. On the positive side, though, the new Opera seemed very fast.
 
Therefore I gave a try the latest stable build (Opera 17). It works fine and contrary to the initial release there are already a few features added what makes browsing a little bit more convenient, e.g. quite decent speed dial & bookmarks (yes I know it is quite a controversial topic), opera:flags etc. Nevertheless I dearly missed some fundamental modules I was used from the old Opera and without them I wasn't even willing to think that I could use the new Opera regularly.
 
These most important modules for me are.
- RSS reader
- the full e-mail client (I hate to work in native gmail)
- Reload all tabs at once
 
So I searched for decent Opera and Chrome extensions. Having tried many of them I ended up with these extensions:
 
- RSS reader - "Smart RSS" including "RSS detector" - the both from Opera addons
- Gmail - "Google Mail Multi-account Checker" from Chrome store - you can add many gmail accounts and this extension has also own interface so you can work with mails without necessity to go to the native gmail application
- Reload all tabs at once - "Reload all tabs" from Chrome store
 
It's worth noting that if you want to use Chrome extensions in Opera, you have to install "Download Chrome Extension" from Opera addons site. This extension will let you install Chrome's extension in Opera.
 
Yeah, honestly it isn't perfect yet (it is really far to perfection), I miss IRC chat and the full customization from the old Opera and a few others but at least it resembles the old Opera now and I feel quite comfortable to work with the new Opera.
 
Icing on the cake is that you can have installed the new WSA Web shield and password manager.
 
So now, as I have tweaked the new Opera a bit I will be using it for a while to see how it goes and how it suits my habits. The old Opera is obviously at my full disposal, in case the new one fails but honestly after two days I didn't need to even open nor to work with the old Opera.
 
Yes, one downside is RAM and CPU usage of the new Opera. It is much much heavier than the old one.
 
I wrote this thread exactly for those users like me who are unsure about the new Opera because they couldn't even imagine their life without the good old Opera. Yes I understand you but I say now ... I could imagine to swap the old for the new Opera. Time will tell ...
 
Sorry for so long reading.
 
Wait until Opera 18. It is going to have some major improvements, including sync. It will be able to sync with your Presto Opera data, as well as have the ability to sync Chrome data if you have signed in to a Google account. 
Userlevel 4
Hi Pegas 😃,
 
I too have Chrome installed. You wrote in your message: "Icing on the cake is that you can have installed the new WSA Web shield and password manager". How did you do so? Please explain to me how i can do the same for Opera if you don't mind. Thanks.
 
Cheers,
Herve

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