Introducing Opera 102
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Livorno last edited by
@celticcross I tried Vivaldi and found it difficult with the settings. Now, I use Avast Secure Browser. I am happy. I do hope Opera gets it together but I won't go back to them.
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A Former User last edited by
@livorno Well, it's a shame, that Opera is going south at the moment. I generally like the new approach with the with the new design, including tab islands and AI (but even that isn't enabled in a new install - really weird.
But the main point is, that I can't settle with any alternative easily. Firefox now is my choice, but it feels dated and I run into compatibility issues on websites.
Yes, Vivaldi is a clear overload, simply too much of it and therefore prone to having bugs either.
Chrome is a privacy threat, Edge is too pushy about everything Microsoft. Brave is too much crytpo even when disabling. I don't trust the three of them.
I wouldn't trust Avast either. They were convicted of stealing user data.
Safari is Apple-only. But I don't like their design either. There are compatibility issues as well.
DuckDuckGo browsers are too simple and without sync. And Arc isn't ready for Windows and there are no localized versions yet, AFAIK.
And forks that are maintained by only a handful or even only one person are a security threat.
So, I hope that Opera will be on track sometime and Firefox will survive as the only major browser with its own rendering engine. -
Livorno last edited by
@celticcross I've read that Firefox is heading for the last round-up. I used it years ago and liked it. You seem to know your browsers but what can we do? A few months ago Yahoo Finance changed their look and the users were outraged. It was a dreadful mess that was approved by the higher or is it lower-ups. Yahoo quickly went back to the former format. Yahoo listened to their viewers. Why does Opera still continue their stubborn refusal to appease their viewers? Any way I am pleased with Avast but I do long for the earlier days of browsing, simple and responsive.
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A Former User last edited by
@livorno I've made my decision. I'm going to Edge, which has most of the features that Opera has. As in Opera, you have to disable some annoying self-related features. But it's a smooth, fast and rather enjoyable experience.
If Opera had done things well with the One updates, I'd loved to stay, because in theory it's more pleasant than Edge. But the reality is, they've messed the whole thing up, maybe in an ungodly rush to come out with the new design with version 100.
So, Opera, farewell. It was a nice year. But I'm moving on. -
paul-durham last edited by
@livorno Mozilla has a unique mandate in the browser world which makes life a little difficult for them financially. However, I believe they will be around for a long time to come. This relates to Firefox as well as their Thunderbird mail client. Have a look at their full product list here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/
PS. I am not a Firefox user but their browser is a solid product.
PPS. I wouldn't use anything from Avast (or AVG) because of their shady history. -
paul-durham last edited by
@celticcross I understand how you feel. For me its specifically Opera's stability that has worsened with the 100.x+ updates. The current stable release feels like a Beta release instead. I put the blame for this at quality control. Except for fixing the more serious bugs right now, Opera needs to take more time fixing the moderate & minor bugs and tweaks before moving on to more major changes.
I do use Chrome & Edge to a small degree (e.g. Edge when Microsoft admin sites won't work properly with other browsers), but I still enjoy Opera enough that I can find a way to live with the issues. For now. Session Buddy is probably the most important tool in ensuring I can recover from the numerous crashes.
Edge is a solid & fast browser, but with just a little too many features for me. I have heard Microsoft is set to remove some of the features to lessen the bloat.
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xb70 last edited by xb70
FWIW, I do update Firefox and Edge both manually, but Opera is still my default browser, if anyone cares. I do not use Vivaldi (mentioned by some here as well) on Windows nor Safari (on Windows) which I do not manually update, but I do have obviously on my iPads, speaking of other browsers. This is not any endorsement of any browser by me. The reason that Opera is my default browser, is that it is the one browser with which I can still use a particular extension, which will remain unnamed, which neither Firefox, nor Edge work with properly (nor Safari, FWIW).
PS I do not use Chrome anyplace, and Firefox is my default browser on Android, FWIW. -
beorn1 last edited by
@celticcross What means "more buggy than .."? Amount of issues? Amount of severe issues? ...? For me it could have thousands of "whatever issues", if it fits my needs and I can work with it, as i expect it should do. Ok, sometimes I have a crash, but one of the most exciting feature is, when I start Vivaldi again, all my workspaces and tabs are there - and as we all know, not every browser can manage this!!
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xb70 last edited by xb70
@livorno I had hoped that this would be a venue where folks reported their experiences with Opera, so that certain versions which people were having issues with, such as the migration issues noted above--loss of extensions, etc.--could be found, but that apparently is not happening, despite troubles. I have 102....51 working now, but am loath to try anything later, or perhaps there isn't anything later yet. I do not know. I did have to go all the way back to 101....58 to get my extensions back, when I first installed 102....51, and I couldn't even get 102....46 or 29 to work, after uninstalling 102....51, then 46. Ugh. Maybe there aren't enough people using Opera, or maybe there aren't enough having issues. Who knows?
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paul-durham last edited by
@xb70 The latest release is 102.0.4880.56, which is later than what you have installed.
Opera mentioned they have temporarily disabled the mechanism that was messing up Opera profiles, so this upgrade shouldn't give you the same issue.
What I have done in the past when my Opera installation has been in a real mess is the following. If you feel up to it and if its worth the hassle to you, perhaps give it a try. The process doesn't rely on Extensions or other software to do the work, other than somewhere to save results:
Preparation:
- Ensure Opera Sync is enabled and that all categories you are interested in are enabled.
- Export your Bookmarks (even though they should be synced). You can also use this export to import into other browsers if you wanted.
- Document all the extensions you have in use. Use a spreadsheet for this so you have a permanent record.
- Document your enabled Workspace names.
- Record your open Tabs, one Workspace at a time. Click on the first tab, hold down shift and click on the last tab. Right-click on any of the now-selected tabs and click "Copy page addresses". In a spreadsheet paste the results (Ctrl-v). The URLs for all the tabs you selected will be in the result.
- In Opera, Help, About Opera, in the "Paths" section, record all 3 paths listed. You'll need this information after you uninstall Opera, so paste it in a spreadsheet too.
- Document anything else about your Opera setup that you wish to record.
The Clean-up
- Uninstall Opera
- Delete everything in all 3 "Paths" you recorded above.
- Download & install a fresh copy of Opera. https://www.opera.com/
- Enable Opera Sync & check that your bookmarks are back (might take a minute to sync).
- Install only the Extensions you need.
- Enable & rename your Workspaces.
- Create new tabs (one at a time) based on the list of tabs you saved above.
I am sure there are other parts of an Opera installation others can suggest documenting too, but the above covers all my bases.
Good luck.
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Livorno last edited by
@paul-durham Thanks for the detailed installation process. I will try it at a later date.
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xb70 last edited by
@paul-durham I would refer to this as the manual method. In my case, simply uninstalling and going back to 101....58, then going forward seemed to work.
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xb70 last edited by leocg
There are two ways to download and install opera of which I am aware: (1) In the browser click on Update & Recovery (which used to NEVER work for me, but has started working mysteriously recently, from 102....46?), and (2) the manual download method in which one goes to: https://www.opera.com/download and follows the instructions there, picking the desired version, first Managing Cookies (in which one has to unclick the default acceptance of them), then after downloading the newer version (presumably, as desired, which is shown in the downloaded file name, the version), one has to yet again disallow by unchecking four boxes the acceptance of cookies, but about all this--aside from my continuing wonder at Opera's attempts to foist cookies on us--if folks want to award them cookie revenue, why not simply have a place to select the degree of revenue desired to make available to them, by opting in to the amount of cookies which the user doesn't mind, in order to keep Opera afloat, rather then this back door method of them attempting to place cookies?
Anyway, back to the question: Does it make any difference which method of download and installation one chooses, (1) or (2) above? Particularly with respect to the likelihood of a mis-migration of one's data from one version to the next?
Can anyone opine as to whether 102....56 is okay, is anyone losing stuff after upgrading from 102....51 to 102....56? Or is that issue finally resolved now?
Also, does anyone know why/how my post is showing up in this format--black background with green, white, yellow italicized, and red text, seemingly randomly so?--I did not do this, on purpose! Ugh! WTF. I cannot figure out why the preview looks like this, or how to turn this off. -
raphaelbm last edited by leocg
@xb70 Ways to download... There is a 3rd & 4th way I use FWIW
The 4th way is to just wait till Opera does auto update.To download Opera: The 3rd way...
a. Click Menu...Help...About
b. Opera will tell you its up to date (A bug - reported many times)
c. Click Refresh and Opera downloads and installs the latest version complete with a restart request. -
xb70 last edited by xb70
@raphaelbm I was not aware of the Help/About means. As to the auto updating, I thought that that had been turned off. I guess not. Nor do we have control over it, right? Anyone? Plus I now see that my post went through correctly, but to see what I was complaining of at the end of it, see the previous one, for a hint.
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Livorno last edited by
@raphaelbm Thanks for the info. I will still sit on the sidelines until Opera gets it together, if ever.
