14 DAY TRIAL // The stable version of the Opera browser has finally been released for the Linux platform and it looks like Google Chrome and Firefox will get some serious competition.
The Linux version of Opera took a long time to make an appearance, but now it's finally here. Users got to play with the development releases for a few months and they started to get really anxious about getting the stable treatment, especially since the previous stable release skipped the Linux users. There was no previous indication that Opera for Linux would be updated as well, but the 26.x branch is a very important milestone.
The last stable Opera version prior to this one was 12.16, which seems to have happened ages ago. In fact, it was made available on July 4, 2013. It was still using the old engine and the Linux iteration was not ported to Chromium along with the other ones. That's changed now and Linux users are first-class citizens, once more.
Opera 26 for Linux shows great promise
All the Opera versions are now the same, no matter the platform used. That means that users will get the same kind of features on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, which is not a small feat. Getting parity in apps, across platforms, is a very difficult thing to achieve even if the application uses the same Chromium base.
Opera 26 brings a feature that users won't find anywhere else, and that is the ability to share the bookmarks with other people. This might not sound like much, but it's actually quite useful and it's a great addition. In fact, Opera has been responsible for bringing numerous features that were actually adopted later by Firefox and Chrome, so their role of innovators is very well known.
Answers to some questions about the Linux version
The Opera devs have also provided some Linux-specific queries and answers. For example, it's good to know that the project has packages built for Ubuntu, although other distributions might carry the Opera packages as well, but that is up to the maintainers for those platforms. Also, the browser only has a 64-bit release and there is no indication that a 32-bit version is in the works. People with 32-bit systems have been advised to use Opera 12.16.
The project also prides itself with the best HiDPI support for the Linux platform, but that is something that the users have to discover for themselves. You can download Opera 26 for Linux from Softpedia and give it a try. Don'y be shy and let us know what you think about it in the comments below.
