Opera used to be a fantastic web browser, with a custom high-performance Presto rendering engine and features like tabbed windows that didn't show up in competing browsers until years later. However, the modern Opera browser is a shadow of its former self, reliant on chasing trends and meme advertising to
  • IronKrill@lemmy.ca
    40·
    1 year ago

    TL;DR company shady

    The main 3 points seem to be: China-owned, predatory loan applications, and spreading themselves across too many concept/trend browser spinoffs. Honestly this is kinda old news and won’t stop anyone I know from using the thing. You can’t just say they’re “probably” harvesting your data for “nefarious” reasons and expect people to all jump to Firefox (as nice as that may be).

    • smeg@feddit.ukEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      I’d add a fourth main point: they have a documented history of creating browsers and then abandoning them, leaving any unaware users without security updates indefinitely

      • Zworf@beehaw.org
        6·
        1 year ago

        Please, yes!! If anything will make a chance, that will. Google keeps trying to subvert the internet with their FLoC and Topics crap. And the other thing recently with the “trusted” web environment thing.

        A lot of their plans get watered down but still…

  • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
    32·
    1 year ago

    This is a great read. Never knew Opera transitioned to an enshittified abomination of crypto spyware and bloatware.

    • dan@upvote.au
      9·
      1 year ago

      It used to be great… A truly innovative browser that had so many features that even browsers today don’t have.

      I switched away from it when they switched to the Blink engine, probably around 2012 or so? It’s been all downhill since then.

      • renard_roux@beehaw.org
        6·
        1 year ago

        Same, used Opera religiously back in the day, so much more functional than the rest. Switched to Chrome (yes yes, I know) when it started going downhill.

        Chrome still doesn’t have the ability to set a shortcut for “switch to previous tab”, have to use a plugin for that 🙄

      • w00@feddit.de
        3·
        1 year ago

        Try Vivaldi, it’s made by former opera Devs from before opera became Chinese

        • dan@upvote.au
          5·
          1 year ago

          It’s good but I don’t want to contribute to the HTML/Webkit/Blink monoculture. We need multiple browser engines in the world. That’s one of the reasons I use Firefox.

      • petrescatraian@libranet.de
        1·
        1 year ago

        @dan They did try to bring back some stuff in the later years, like an integrated RSS feed reader. But Firefox is just way better than anything else overall. Including the fact that it comes from an organization that puts privacy further up in the list of priorities.

        @BaroqueInMind

  • dan@upvote.au
    28·
    1 year ago

    Opera today is essentially totally different to the innovative browser from the 2000s. I miss the old Opera.

    Vivaldi is trying to become its replacement, but I don’t really want to contribute to the KHTML/Blink/Webkit monoculture.

  • Celediel@slrpnk.net
    6·
    1 year ago

    I quit using Opera when it became just another Chromium fork, and never looked back. It seems like that was an excellent decision, lol.

    • kfet@lemmy.ca
      10·
      1 year ago

      I have different experience with Vivaldi, been using it for years, and it’s amazing.

    • petrescatraian@libranet.de
      1·
      1 year ago

      @BarrierWithAshes Just use Firefox. There’s plenty of stuff that can be achieved just through add-ons and switching various settings in about:config. Only thing that’s missing is an integrated free VPN, but I guess there are better alternatives anyway if you want more privacy online.

      @corbin

      • BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I use LibreWolf and various Chromium clones. It’s good enough for me for now. I refuse to support Mozilla in any way past that.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    I don’t like that Opera now has an AI integrated.

    I don’t know that this article is compelling. Their main source of information was discredited in the article.

      • MNByChoice@midwest.social
        6·
        1 year ago

        I am, perhaps, too judgemental.

        Since Hindenburg directly profits from the company’s decline in stock, it’s not an impartial source of information, but the company’s other reports into companies like Nikola have held up to scrutiny.

        • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.oneEnglish
          5·
          1 year ago

          I wouldn’t consider them that terribly biased personally; as their livelihood (Money) is put into shorting whatever company is being reported on (Mouth). Literally they put their money where their mouth is…and if they make a horrible mistake in reading a company going under and doing really shady things; they’re going to basically go out themselves pretty quickly and lose a lot of credibility in the process.

          Is it maybe a little scummy? Yes. But as they’re calling out scumbags anyways; it looks more like a legitimate application of “taking a scammer to know a scammer”. It’s better that they’re legitimately profiting from calling out companies that are cheating everyone and reporting on it to benefit the public in the process.

        • corbin@infosec.pubOP
          4·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, Hindenburg isn’t like a team of journalists or anything, but if they cited other sources in their report and it seems to be pretty accurate. If there were big issues then Opera should have been able to point them out, and that didn’t happen.