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Stop using Opera Browser and Opera GX (www.spacebar.news)
submitted 10 months ago by corbin@infosec.pub to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[-] IronKrill@lemmy.ca 41 points 10 months 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.uk 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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

[-] beefcat@beehaw.org 38 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Also, Stop Using Brave Browser

[-] zzzzz@beehaw.org 12 points 10 months ago

Also Chrome...

[-] Zworf@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months 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...

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

I only use Brave if I need a Chrome based browser. Otherwise I use Firefox.

[-] DuskyHeaps@beehaw.org 7 points 10 months ago

Sticking with Vivaldi if I need a Chrome fix

[-] zzzzz@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago

Consider using Ungoogled Chromium on desktop or Cromite on Android.

[-] BitOneZero@beehaw.org 3 points 10 months ago

if I need a Chrome based browser

I don't think Chromium has "gone bad"? They make a WIndows and macOS build too, not just Linux: https://chromium.woolyss.com/download/en/

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 10 months ago

I try to avoid Chromium based browsers as a rule because I don't like Google being the de facto standards group by controlling Chromium.

[-] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 34 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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

[-] dan@upvote.au 9 points 10 months 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 points 10 months 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 points 10 months ago

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

[-] dan@upvote.au 5 points 10 months 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 points 10 months 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

[-] perishthethought@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

I did, but yes, great to read all the details again now.

:thumbs-up

[-] dan@upvote.au 30 points 10 months 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.

[-] Thann@lemmy.ml 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Stop using proprietary bullshit altogether

[-] Celediel@slrpnk.net 6 points 10 months 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.

[-] BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago

Man I wish there was a good similar alternative. And not Vivaldi that sluggish crapfest.

[-] kfet@lemmy.ca 10 points 10 months ago

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

[-] DaleGribble88@programming.dev 8 points 10 months ago

Vivaldi has been my browser of choice for years as well. Fantastic product in my experience. I've sadly forced myself to start using firefox and librewolf in an attempt support alternatives to chromium based browsers. Firefox and co. are fine, but I'm still reaching for features and options from vivaldi that just don't exist in firefox without a maze of incompatible and poorly maintained plugins.

[-] Aelis@beehaw.org 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No need to support firefox, they get 1/2 a billion dollars each year from Google :D

We're at a point where most of the browsers are just rotten sadly, now it's just a question of what is less worse than the others. With the coming of manifest v3 I don't know if Vivaldi will still be worth it to me, I hope it will because even if I'd really like to use librewolf or another good fork of firefox..it's just so lackluster compared to what Vivaldi offers, especially since I use a lot of its features.

[-] Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago

Stop with this bullshit. They aren't influenced by Google in any ways that actually matter. Google is effectively paying to make sure that there is a competitor.

[-] Aelis@beehaw.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I never said that, actually just said exactly what you did : that Google pay them to still have a competitor.
But that's a big problem, because that make them competitors just in name, and using their browser won't change that sadly. Another problem is the lucrative part of Mozilla that have made a number of bad decisions over the years with firefox, and are partly to blame as to how it fell out of favour.

To be clear Firefox is far from being the worst browser out there, it's not what I am saying, and it can have forks, we can also edit most of the crap out of it wich is great. But it would be silly to consider it a spotless software run by saints. That's all I am saying.

I would even go back to it or (better) a fork of it if I could get the features I use in Vivaldi without using countless and broken (or non savy) extentions, because I'd still find that better than using something based on chromium (even if there is a dedicated and seemingly good intended team behind it). But I would still not find it ideal, not without that lucrative side of Mozilla hanging onto firefox and that damn Google pay.

[-] petrescatraian@libranet.de 1 points 10 months 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 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months 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.

[-] GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

Stop telling people what to do.

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 4 points 10 months 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.

[-] corbin@infosec.pub 9 points 10 months ago

What was discredited?

[-] MNByChoice@midwest.social 6 points 10 months 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@lemmy.one 5 points 10 months 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.pub 4 points 10 months 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.

this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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