Farewell Opera?

Opera released its first version of Opera 15 via the OperaNext channel. This release was supposed to be the first one with WebKit/Blink as its rendering engine instead of Opera's own Presto engine.

But, as some have feared, it has become clear that Opera developed a completely new browser with a new UI missing almost all the features that made Opera unique. The overwhelming majority of the >1000 commenters on the release post http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/opera-next-15-0-released has big problems with the decisions.

Contrary to what many first thought, this is not a "tech preview" or "Alpha" release - it's the (feature complete) beta of Opera 15. Opera employees make that clear:

  • Haavard stated (https://twitter.com/opvard/status/339429877784670209): "Opera 15 is not the final version ever. Future versions will have new features as well." (i.e. this version will not)
  • Another employee responded to a user's comment "I want all my features of opera 12 back" with: "I can say for sure that that is not going to happen. Have you seen some of the new stuff? The downloads experience should be much better now, for instance. We’ve focused on the core experience of web browsing."

I (not in any way affiliated with Opera) want to find out more about whether people are really ditching Opera, and if so, why and to which browser they switch.

Results are publicly available
Estimated answer time

Are you currently using Opera Desktop as your main browser? ✪

Are you going to upgrade to Opera 15 (with its current features only) ? ✪

How important are the following features in Opera (without extensions) to you?

Must haveVery importantNice to haveIrrelevantDon't know the feature
Integrated RSS-/Feedreader
Integrated Mail Client (M2)
Bookmark handling (Folders, keywords)
Button/toolbar customization
Full skinning (i.e. not just background themes)
Advanced click handling (Middle-Click, Shift-Click, Chift-Ctrl-Click)
Tab bar placement
Tab grouping
Tab pinning
Tab thumbnails
Private tabs
Recycle bin for Tabs (Recently closed tabs)
Panels/Sidebars
Start bar
Advanced status bar
Site preferences
UserJS
URLBlocker
Wand
Link
Notes
Spatial navigation
Customizable keyboard shortcuts
opera:config
MDI
Sessions
Advanced privacy controls
Advanced network settings (proxy etc.)
Appearance rendering settings (Fonts, minimum size, default zoom)
Customized searches
Rocker gestures (hold right mouse button, press left to go back (and vice versa))

If you switch: Which browser are you going to use in the future?

If you used M2 for Mail and switch, which E-Mail client are you going to use in the future?

If you switch: How many Opera installations are you going to replace?

If you switch: How many people would follow your example / recommendation and switch, too?

Since when have you been using Opera as your main browser?

Under which name(s) have you been active in the Opera newsgroups and forums? (completely optional!)

If you switch: Your farewell message to Opera