Opera has just released the first stable version of their revamped browser and will be proceeding at a rapid pace going forward. There is also news concerning the three development streams they will maintain along with news of an update for the older 12.x series for those who are not ready to update to 15.x just yet.

The day is full of good news for Opera users whether they have already switched to the new Blink/Webkit Engine version or are still using the older Presto Engine version. First, news of the new development streams…

Opera has released details outlining their three new release streams:
• Opera (Stable) – Released every couple of weeks, this is the most solid version, ready for mission-critical daily use.
• Opera Next – Updated more frequently than Stable, this is the feature-complete candidate for the Stable version. While it should be ready for daily use, you can expect some bugs there.
• Opera Developer – A bleeding edge version, you can expect a lot of fancy stuff there; however, some nasty bugs might also appear from time to time.

From the Opera Desktop Team blog post: When you install Opera from a particular stream, your installation will stick to it, so Opera Stable will be always updated to Opera Stable, Opera Next to Opera Next and so on. You can choose for yourself which stream is the best for you. You can even follow a couple of them at the same time!

Of particular interest is the announcement of continued development for the 12.x series. A new version (12.16) is due to be released soon to help keep the older series up to date and secure while the transition process from 12.x to 15.x continues.