I've tried nearly every browser out there and these are my top 6 (none are Chrome)
I've tried nearly every browser out there and these are my top 6 (none are Chrome)
If you're finally ready to leave Chrome behind, these are my top recommendations and when to use them.
The title is err, not correct because the top 2 alternatives Opera and Arc are based on Chromium engine. I have seen tons of people swear by Arc, but I am seriously asking (since as a Linux user I can't use it), how much good can a browser be in this day and age if ultimately it's ad blocking breaks and it will since Manifest v2 will go soon(unless Arc folks have a solution for it)
The rest alternatives are Firefox, Zen (FF fork but honestly Atleast this was something new I learned from this article) and Tor (which is weird since it is not meant for normal web browsing and using it will not only be slow but put additional strain on the nodes, correct me if I am wrong).
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Opera is and always was trash.
I beg to differ, when Opera had its own engine and wasn't Chinese owned - back in the early '00s.
Opera also was a good alternative on Symbian phones right or whatever OS Nokia used before they switched to Windows Phone, I think.
Opera mini was also great when I had very little MBs of internet traffic in my plan. Nowadays I have pretty much infinite traffic, so I haven't used it in ages
I think I remember Opera Mini's layout though I didn't much use it. It was a great alternative especially on mobile more than a decade back.
But yes especially after changing ownership, switching browser engines and years down the line; things have changed.
I think I gave their desktop variant a try sometime ago but didn't find it compelling enough. I haven't even used their Android fork. I keep using a Firefox fork only :p.
this era of the internet was such a fun time.
I suspect that we may be looking back with rose tinted glasses, but the main stream internet is pretty crap atm
Opera was so good. Disable images, force custom CSS, gestures! Stuff no one else had at the time.
And the ability to switch browser engines on the fly. That was a great feature.
And it has some options to interpret data following strict W3C standards. Which was incredibly helpful when learning, as it encouraged me (and a lot of others) to don't go down the IE/Netscape and later Chrome "specialities" road. (Yes,I am that old....I still remember MS fucking FrontPage)
I remember that! Standards mode vs compatibility mode. That was a great feature, too. Opera was unique.
User agent spoofing, tabs back when nobody had them, sidebar...
gestures!
Still the reason that 20+ years later the second thing I install on any browser is a gestures extension (the first one is always uBlock Origin, obviously).
Yeah I was 100% Opera on desktop and mobile until they switched to chromium and broke everything from before. Still pissed about that, lost all my bookmarks and notes at one point.
Opera Corp. is Norvegian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_(company)
As someone who used Opera 2002-2013 (Presto era), I quibble with the "always".
But I do not quibble with the "is".
I loved opera back then.
Exactly. I loved Opera and bailed when they abandoned their engine.
Yeah, me too. Never used it since.
So I was glad when Opera co-founder von Tetzchner announced Vivaldi, and I did use it for a couple of years. But I don't want to become dependent on something not completely FLOSS, so lately using mainly Firefox mods like Floorp, Zen and Firedragon.
My history w/ browsers:
- IE - everyone started here
- Firefox - switched once I heard about it
- Chrome - when it came out, it was fast, which was cool
- Opera - switched as soon as I heard about it; was about as fast as Chrome
- Firefox - switched when Opera became a Chromium browser
Since I came from old IE days and started my career having to backport stuff to IE, I care a lot about engine competition, because IE owning everything made everything worse. So that's still my #1 concern today, hence why I use Firefox.
I do dabble with Firefox forks though. I use Fennec on my phone, am trying out Mullvad on my laptop, etc. But I'm going to stay within the Gecko-family of browsers until a viable alternative to Blink (Chrome's engine) emerges (e.g. Servo or LadyBird).
Same for ZDNet.
Many sites have become worse. I think stuff like Cnet, PCMag (which still has a digital magazine I think)were much better in the previous era.
Yep. Dont use Opera. They are known for being an incredibly scummy company that has done illegal things. Im 98% sure opera gx is spyware
It was an excellent standalone install porn browser for a couple of decades. God seed Opera.. God speed.