@letmein3-0 Opera is based on the chromium code base, as are many other browsers. With chromium deprecating its support for a now-obsolete OS like Win7 or 8.1, it means various new chromium API's can and will be added to its code base that are compatible only with later OS versions like Win10 and 11. It also means that specific code in the chromium code base that may refer only to the now-obsolete OS's will be removed without warning whenever it suits the chromium developers. That, in turn, means those code incompatibilities will ripple through to the Opera browser as soon as it incorporates the newer versions of chromium - as Opera must do in order to stay current with chromium security patches that are responses to ongoing security vulnerability discoveries.
The Opera PM's statement is not a "lie" since if Opera were not to include new chromium updates because of risks of incompatibility with older OS's, then it couldn't keep up with the security updates included in those chromium updates. The only alternative for Opera would be for Opera to 'manually' patch the underlying chromium code itself for each and every new chromium update to include workarounds for any incompatibilities introduced therein, assuming such workarounds could even be found or be satisfactory. The effort and cost, particularly for exhaustive testing, would ultimately be considerable. This is something Opera is indicating they are not willing to do in their free browser.
