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
  • @bramblepatchmystery@slrpnk.netEnglish
    23•5 months ago

    As somebody whose wife just downloaded opera onto the family computer I am horrified.

    She’s been complaining that the internet is slow and has blamed it on protonvon, so has resorted to turning the vpn off when using the internet or discord.

    I remember after Twin Peaks season 3 came out, showtime was stating left and right how profitable the show was, and then accusations started flying that the show was so profitable because showtime was taking over the browser while people were watching and mining bitcoin in the background without telling people they were doing so.

    I trust Opera about a thousand times less just because I had never hears of them until a week or two ago.

    • @Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      25•5 months ago

      Opera has been in the web browser playing field for a long time at this point, but haven’t been super relevant until the last couple years due to GX

      • The Menemen!English
        11•5 months ago

        It was somewhat hyped to a degree in the mid 2000s. It had a lot of features other browsers hadn’t and many things just worked better, especially using tabs worked much better with them. They also had a linux version when that was not a common thing. Was kinda sad to see them fall.

        • megane-kunEnglish
          5•5 months ago

          Yeah, I remember the IT department at work back then (circa 2006) recommending Opera to me. It had features that are more or less mainstream now, like tab reloading on a timer, and all that while running smoothly than any other browser I’ve used at that time.

          Since then, I’ve tried a lot of browsers like Vivaldi and Maxthon, but for some reason or the other, like being bloated, or being taken over by entities I don’t trust, had found a reason to move to a different browser. Currently using LibreWolf, and I hope I won’t have any reason to switch browsers anytime soon.

    • ElbrarEnglish
      9•5 months ago

      I used Opera way back in high school over 2 decades ago. The name has been around for a long time, but I don’t know how related the current company is to back then… The product certainly isn’t related anymore since it’s just another chromium clone.