Opera desktop browser upgraded

The Register reports.

Users can get Opera 12 for Windows, Mac and Linux, CNET notes. There's nothing explicitly wrong with it. In fact, version 12 makes a number of good improvements.

Most importantly is an overall focus on speed. Quirky features such as Widgets, Unite and Voice have been killed off, which means there's less bloat in the browser. But no doubt those executions were performed also because of a lack of user interest. After Opera's April announcement that it was sunsetting the feature, an online petition to open source Unite's code could only muster 258 signatures out of its goal of 1 000, as of press time.

One thing that Opera 12 is still working on that competitors have moved forward with is hardware acceleration, which is when the browser uses the graphics processor to render animations faster and more smoothly. It's in the browser, but you must manually activate it - a change from the Opera 12 alpha.

Jan Standal, VP of desktop products for Opera, explained this was because Opera has not been able to get the performance gains expected.