This dependency likely comes from the underlying Chromium engine that both Chrome and Opera use. Even though Opera brands itself as a non-Google browser, it still shares code with Chromium, which integrates with Google services. Unfortunately, this can lead to performance issues, especially when privacy-related bugs or JavaScript problems appear. A good workaround might be to try using Opera's "Lite" version or look for alternative browsers that don’t rely on Google infrastructure as heavily.

You're right—Opera for Linux doesn’t bundle the full libffmpeg .so due to licensing issues. A practical fix is to symlink or copy the full version of libffmpeg .so (from Chromium or chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra) into Opera’s lib directory after each update. To automate it, you can write a simple shell script and add it to a post-install hook or run it manually after updates. This avoids doing it manually every time.

@screenTapper Appreciate the upvote! Yeah, Opera Mini does feel closer to the old-school Opera experience, though it's more limited. I get what you mean about the Chrome rebrand—it’s frustrating when browsers rely too much on Google’s infrastructure. As for your next questions, feel free to tag me in that thread, and I’ll try to chime in when I can. Always good to discuss alternatives!

This dependency likely comes from the underlying Chromium engine that both Chrome and Opera use. Even though Opera brands itself as a non-Google browser, it still shares code with Chromium, which integrates with Google services. Unfortunately, this can lead to performance issues, especially when privacy-related bugs or JavaScript problems appear. A good workaround might be to try using Opera's "Lite" version or look for alternative browsers that don’t rely on Google infrastructure as heavily.