As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And when it comes to user interfaces, beauty is not a word that usually comes up. Unfortunately for Opera Internet browser users, the interface of the latest version, in my eyes, is no beauty.
Opera 7.5 went gold yesterday. As usual, the ThunderingHerds(tm) were at the trough feeding so it took awhile before I could download the latest version. I was eventually able to get in and I'm underwhelmed. No, let me take that back. I think I'm astonished at this step backwards.
Opera has taken this point upgrade opportunity to change the user interface by moving many of the most used buttons to a panel on the left side of the screen. I don't know why they did this but the first thing I did was to change things back, as much as possible, to how I like it to look.
Also, be aware that the install goes into its own directory, leaving your present version in place. This surprised me as most programs install into directory being used by the current version. Doing it Opera's ways requires you to manual un-install the old version. Not very user friendly unless you are afraid that most people will want to keep the old version?
I don't know if you'll like the changes in 7.5 but feel free to take a look. As for me, I'm using Mozilla Firefox more and more so I guess it doesn't matter that much anymore.
