Posts made by DerSchlingel

@canadagoose4everreturns At the end of the day it boils down to the question: Can I really use the browser I like in good conscience, although it is owned by a Chinese billionaire? Zhou Yahui holds roundabout 70% of Opera Ltd‘s stakes which is a controlling majority giving him access to strategic development of the company. So Opera, the browser may be headquartered in Norway, traded on NASDAQ, still Opera Ltd is registered on Cayman Islands and other stakeholders won‘t have any say in the development of Opera. These are facts, not speculations.
The browser is mainly developed in Poland (desktop) and some other European countries as Sweden (mobile). So on that front, it doesn’t seem there‘s something going on behind the scenes. So, again, how much does ownership control your feelings about a browser, that at its core is made by people in central Europe?
I still have no answer to that. I like Opera on desktop, Android and iOS. It looks modern, has some nifty features, works more than well enough, but still there‘s this uneasiness about who owns the company.

@canadagoose4everreturns I have the same sentiments like you. I‘m in an on/off relation towards Opera. Main point like yours, is the Chinese ownership something to worry about?
I‘m glad they’ve been addressing the issue on their blog and on social media along with some other concerns as how they make money. If they were owned by a major European investor, I‘d be a lot more confident. Yet in my case I still really really like the browser.
Out of these concerns I‘d been trying different alternatives, sticking mainly to Firefox lately. I tried Brave but if you ask me you can’t trust them as well. It’s not the browser but the way they make their money with the crypto stuff and the libertarian world in their background. I also tried Vivaldi which may be the alternative that mostly resembles Opera itself. But at this point, I‘d say they are too much a power users’ browser. What I need and want to use, isn’t anything that Opera doesn‘t already have. And I think their mobile versions are not that good either.
I don’t actually believe that Opera is spyware in any sense. If they were, we would already know. I wouldn’t believe they‘re stealing any data for the Chinese government, but they‘re collecting quite more data than Firefox, Vivaldi and maybe even Brave. They have to make some money nevertheless, especially when you turn off all promotional stuff that’s turned on by default.
Otherwise if you go for Inside Opera on Instagram or to jobs.opera.com you‘ll see a lot of smart young people working for them in many different mostly European locations. They actively publish on their blogs about releases and changelogs. Would they do, if they were shady? I haven‘t found any report about the browser that would be really troublesome. But you can find some irritating reports about its mother company Kunlun and their owner. Is there a difference between the browser and those who own it?
People use Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google and Microsoft but avoid Opera? Every major news site works with trackers. So, why is it a problem with Opera having ads? Newest Firefox will also have Suggest, promotional bookmarks and settings to open Firefox on start. They also offer VPN now, which isn’t nothing more than a proxy. Why is Opera criticized for doing the same, but Firefox not?
No, I haven’t settled on the question yet. Using both Firefox and Opera, with the former given me more peace of mind and the latter more fun and better workflow.