Your story is pretty interesting, thanks a bunch. I have been using Opera for a long time, also, perhaps more than 6 years (since version 8, when they made it free) and I hanged to Opera 12 for a while until I found Opera 24 or something was as good as 12. I still use Opera Mail.

My story is very different: I have three laptops only, no smartphone, one of them a very light Windows 7 Home computer (I have no idea what processor it has, but it was dirt cheap), a very potent Windows 7, rather old laptop with an i7 and NVidia, and I received at work a couple of weeks ago a Windows 10 ASUS, also an i7 with Nvidia with a fresh OS installation.

In all those systems I have had no freeze or compatibility problems. The little laptop I mentioned is the one that surprises me more: with a very light RAM and a very poor processor, Opera shines over Firefox or Chrome, specially if you install in those browsers the equivalents of all the bells and whistles Opera has accustomed me to.

I checked some of the pages you mention (most I haven't heard about) and I found no problems, probably because I just browsed them quickly without delving into them. I'm curious and probably will check again in depth, because I still have to find a page with lack of compatibility since I moved up from Opera 12. I imagined that the lack of compatibility problems happened because now Opera has the same engine as Chrome, so your story is quite a surprise to me.

I conccur with you on one thing: I also think that the communication between users and developers is very limited and that's an issue that perhaps could be solved in other way, maybe by including some kind of reporting system that is readily visible and solves problems for people in your situation.

Frankly, Opera has always been a time saver for me instead of the pit of despair any software becomes when it takes your time away.

Opera has been, to me, a quick and rock solid way to browse the Internet. I wonder if I'm lucky or perhaps I don't use the browser so intensively as you, although I'm a developer for a GIS leader internation company. This means I routinely extract till the last drop of graphic capabilities the browser has.

I program in JavaScript and Python and I have to use all the console tricks there are. I also have to create maps that use RAM in a huge way, with tons of objects and pretty heavy interaction with users.

However, I work as a Solutions Engineer, which means I have to diagnose the situation of potential buyers of the GIS we sell at our company. This had make me aware of, when you want to earn market share, how important is to take care of customers listening to them and reacting quickly to issues that become viral, like the ones mentioned in this thread (i.e. lack of compatibility in Win7/10 updates). This has to be dealt off quickly.

My experience about time wasted in Opera is very different: I'm used to other fellow workers watching occasionally how I use Opera and 5 out of 10 times the question is always the same: "how do you do that?".

I also wanted to comment that, although Opera is not that relevant in market share of PCs, that situation is not entirely true in smartphones, AFAIK, as it has half the users of Android Browser and way more than Firefox or IE (and the future is in that market, apparently).

So, I guess in life "everything is of the colour of the crystal you use to look at it", as Calderón de la Barca said.

I wonder what browser you will be using from now on. Could you tell us and, perhaps, in a few days comment about site compatibility? As they say, nobody (and no browser) is perfect.

Another question I have: have you experienced the same problems in Opera Mini as in Opera for PC?

Thanks in advance for any comments about Mini: I'm planning on buying a smartphone next week, after years of not needing one.

Well, you could try this: http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-tech-support-scam-popups/

It recommends you to:

1. Stop the process of the browser.
2. Start the browser without allowing it to reload the last opened page
3. Run ADWCleaner
4. Run Junkware Removal Tool
5. Run Malware Bytes Antimalware
6. Run Hitman Pro
7. Reset internet options

It's definitely an injected ad-extension, or so I think.

Well, I also tried to upgrade to Opera 12.17 and fell into this page.

It's funny to see Leushino making the rounds still having lots of time to ensure no criticism of Opera new version goes unpunished...

It would be interesting to analyze the many posts he makes daily: it seems astounding and let me tell you I moderate a forum that's into Alexa's top 1000 for the last 10 years, so I know users.

I rate him with legendary fans like the guy that offered the actor that plays Draco Malfoy to adopt him and take him to live in a mansion he had designed for "Draco", called "Malfoy Manor" (and I'm not making this up: http://www.realbollywood.com/2010/09/hardcore-fan-spooks-harry-potter-star-tom-felton-adoption-scheme-home.html ).

Am I exaggerating? I don't think so: when fans are involved nothing is too extreme. I can remember the guy that threatened his parents with self immolation if he could not watch in person all the cricket India's team matches (yeah, since 2003, he has gone to all of them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudhir_Kumar_Chaudhary).

So, I say, let's leushino show all of us how you can be in love... with a browser.

Hey, I have nothing against Leushino: this is a free world (I hope) and I'm in favor of any kind of marriage, even if you marry with a browser. Actually, I only oppose heterosexual marriage, it's the doom of most men. However, I digress.

I think Leushino is kind of entertaining, at least to me: he seems a certified retired guy that has no other thing in life to do, with all due respect, which is not a lot of respect, having seen how he treats users.

He (and now Mr. Lem729) is the worst "new Opera" public relations "official", if you follow my drift.

That's a lot to be said, given the fact that Opera has made a terrible work of explaining to customers what are its goals, or better yet, has ignored them insistently.

I guess that's what characterizes teachers that do not work in research: they love theory and abhors deviations from official positions.

Anyway, I just checked Opera 26, it's still not there and, I believe, for at least half the users of Old Opera will never be: we are waiting for something else.

I guess that's why so many times we read a guy that claims that "BrowserSoft 3.1" is the best thing he has found: we are still waiting for a new "Messiah", like the Chosen People do.

Why?

Well, if you want to keep reading (which I doubt... :)), Opera is a niche browser, the only deal they made was for Nintendo, so it is the browser of the 2%.

The new browser has split the community: I'd say power users (1%?) are still attached to the features they needed for work and learned to rely on security provided by an obscure and very well protected engine.

Users that used Opera just for the bling changed happily to a non secure engine, surely they do not have the tools or the knowledge to realize what has happened to their computers: they claim Opera is better than Chrome and shares its characteristics.

In that, they're right. They do not need secure environments (I fail to see how a person that requires security would use Blink) and they have plenty of time in their hands to spend clicking around and downloading link by link, as the time they have spent in these threads show.

So, Opera achieved its goal: they renounced to create a quality browser (they did not have the market share because they never played the market, like Firefox tried or Chrome, IE and Safari achieved) and they are chugging along, happy with users like Leushino, that make enough noise so there is no consensus on what is needed for quality, so their transferred to their browser and allowed the company to halve the number of workers.

It's exactly like Social Security.

Happy New Year, people, I resume my search for Opera 12.17 and let you enjoy Opera 26 or whatever is the number of the iteration that still tries to catch Chrome (hahaha, nice one).