The Opera Web browser got a boost today with the release of version 12. The update brings a number of new features, improved performance, and enhanced support for modern Web standards. It also offers a preview of several experimental features, such as full hardware-accelerated rendering.

Opera 12 has a lot to offer Web developers. The new version includes preliminary support for WebRTC, an emerging standard that is being drafted by the W3C Web Real-Time Communications Working Group. WebRTC will eventually enable standards-based audio and video chat in Web applications. There is also support for the WebRTC media capture APIs, which allow Web content to capture live media streams from the user’s microphone and webcam. As some readers might recall, we first wrote about that functionality last year when it arrived in the Chrome developer channel.

The WebRTC getUserMedia API works out of the box in Opera 12 and can be used by any website. Due to the potential privacy and security implications, the user is automatically prompted by the browser before the feature is allowed to be activated. All we had to do to get it to work with our standard getUserMedia demo (which had previously only been tested in Chrome) was remove the WebKit prefix on the API call.

In addition to the WebRTC features, Opera also added support for CSS3 animations and transitions, and CSS generated content for paged media. The latter introduces features like a footnote value for the float property and other capabilities that are useful for specifying the presentation of printed content.

Another noteworthy addition to Opera 12 is support for the Do Not Track header. When the user enables the Do Not Track feature, the browser will append a flag to every HTTP request to inform servers that the user wants to opt out of behavioral tracking. The efficacy of this feature is predicated on the voluntary compliance of advertisers.

Do Not Track is not yet universally supported, but is steadily gaining momentum. Opera users can enable the header by clicking the “Ask websites not to track me” checkbox in the Security section of the browser’s preference dialog. The feature is a welcome addition for privacy-conscious users.

Opera 12 has added process isolation for plugins, a long overdue improvement that will considerably boost the browser’s stability. According to Opera, plugins like Flash account for approximately one-third of the browser’s crashes. Moving the plugins into a separate process will help address that issue.

The Opera developers are working on bringing hardware-accelerated rendering to the entire browser, including the user interface. This is a major undertaking that will require more time to complete, but experimental support is available today in Opera 12. Users who want to test the feature can enable it by following the instructions that were posted on the Opera desktop blog earlier this year.

Because the hardware-accelerated rendering is still a work in progress, it won’t uniformly increase the browser’s performance at this time. There are some conditions in which it will actually make performance worse than the efficient software rendering mechanism that the browser uses today. Alongside hardware acceleration, Opera 12 has also gained preliminary support for WebGL, allowing it to render 3D graphics in an HTML canvas. The WebGL support requires hardware acceleration, so both features must be enabled in the opera:config panel in order to work.

In version 12, Opera has extended its rich theming system with support for simple wallpaper-like themes. This lightweight theming mechanism, which works alongside traditional Opera themes, is a bit like the Firefox feature that was formerly known as Personas. Opera has a public gallery of browser wallpapers that users can choose from, including simple patterns and textures, nature imagery, and renderings of cartoon characters.

In the interest of keeping the browser svelte, several unpopular legacy features have been removed in the newest version. The biggest casualty is Opera Unite, the browser’s built-in programmable Web server. First introduced in 2009, the aim of Unite was to give users the ability to share content on the Web without having to cede control of their content. Unite was a fascinating concept, but it proved to be too esoteric and impractical to attract a large audience. Another major feature that was removed is support for desktop widgets, miniature HTML applications that float over the user’s desktop.

The accelerated pace of development from leading browser vendors has led to increased competitive pressure in the browser landscape. Opera continues to provide a compelling alternative to its more mainstream rivals.

The browser’s core feature set and standards support have remained strong while its configurability and surprising assortment of built-in tools (including a BitTorrent downloader and IRC client) have helped it retain the devotion of its small but loyal fan base. Users can download Opera 12 and check out the release notes at the company’s website.