Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Opera sells open-source Chromium browser for $600m to Chinese bods
The Register ^ | 18 Jul 2016 at 20:07 | Shaun Nichols

Posted on 07/19/2016 8:24:53 AM PDT by snarkpup

Opera will sell its web browser technology to Chinese investors for $600m after a larger sale worth $1.2bn fell apart.

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: cybersecurity; palemoon; privacy
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last
I normally use FireFox, with several security extensions, and with "shields" generally set to maximum. I also like to have a second browser (in its own "sandbox") with less shielding so that I can log on to websites like my bank and a few trusted e-commerce sites that would otherwise require extensive whitelisting.

I have been using Opera as the second browser. I have heard that the sale to China was coming; but it now sounds like it's immanent. I have therefore uninstalled Opera.

I have replaced it with Pale Moon. It takes most of the same security extensions as FireFox (NoScript, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger). I've been using it for about a half-hour now and it seems OK.

I thought of installing Chrome; but I have qualms about using a browser associated with a company whose business model is based on harvesting people's personal information and selling it.

Comments (particularly from anyone with more experience with Pale Moon)?

1 posted on 07/19/2016 8:24:53 AM PDT by snarkpup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: snarkpup
I thought of installing Chrome; but I have qualms about using a browser associated with a company whose business model is based on harvesting people's personal information and selling it.

But no qualms about using Firefox, a company that fired its CEO for making a private contribution to a political group that opposes gay marriage?


2 posted on 07/19/2016 8:26:39 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

bttt


3 posted on 07/19/2016 8:26:51 AM PDT by ptsal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

China will fill it with every nasty known to China


4 posted on 07/19/2016 8:27:16 AM PDT by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog; snarkpup
But no qualms about using Firefox, a company that fired its CEO for making a private contribution to a political group that opposes gay marriage?

I have a similar setup with Waterfox (64 bit Firefox). I have qualms about Mozilla's behavior, but Google's appropriation of data is personally serious, and the people running it are as bad or worse. Safari is worthless for PCs and Tim Cook isn't any good either, and even if Microsoft were good (it isn't), Edge is unusable, and IE is IE.

Sometimes, even with qualms, you wind up taking the best of available bad choices.
5 posted on 07/19/2016 8:32:21 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (VThere's no salvation in politics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog

Tried Opera for a while, no great shakes. Just uninstalled it. Wasn’t using it anyway.


6 posted on 07/19/2016 8:33:34 AM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF (ABM - Anyone But McCain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup
I have been using Opera as the second browser. I have heard that the sale to China was coming; but it now sounds like it's immanent. I have therefore uninstalled Opera. I have replaced it with Pale Moon. It takes most of the same security extensions as FireFox (NoScript, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger). I've been using it for about a half-hour now and it seems OK.

I have been using Pale Moon for years. It's a solid browser. It diverged from FireFox a few years ago. It has all of Firefox's best features but leaves out some of the trendy missteps. It is actively maintained by a dedicated programmer. I can recommend it highly. ((By the way the word you want here is "imminent"))

7 posted on 07/19/2016 8:34:32 AM PDT by Blennos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buckeye McFrog
"But no qualms about using Firefox, a company that fired its CEO for making a private contribution to a political group that opposes gay marriage?"

That was my thought, too. But not everybody knows that and I think the memory hole is in operation.

8 posted on 07/19/2016 8:35:02 AM PDT by Truth29
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

So just to clarify, Opera has sold their *Chromium-based* Opera browser. Not the actual Chromium project itself.


9 posted on 07/19/2016 8:39:39 AM PDT by Little Pig
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana

Waterfox?

Why not just run 64 bit Firefox?

It’s been out for a while.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/


10 posted on 07/19/2016 8:42:00 AM PDT by ltc8k6
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

Opera hasn’t been the same (i.e. fast, good, etc.) since version 12. They essentially “sold out” and re-packaged Chrome after this. I stopped using it, as it became too slow and bloated; which was too bad since I have used it since version 3, on both windows and unix platforms.

The original developers quit and started up their own company to create a more modern browser that was based on the older Opera. It is called Vivaldi and I think it is now available for download. I cannot say how good it is, as it is Windows only, and I have now totally moved off Windows...


11 posted on 07/19/2016 8:43:17 AM PDT by LaRueLaDue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ltc8k6

Because when I installed it the 64 bit Firefox wasn’t released yet, and I’ve had no reason to change over.


12 posted on 07/19/2016 8:43:26 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (VThere's no salvation in politics.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Little Pig
So just to clarify, Opera has sold their *Chromium-based* Opera browser. Not the actual Chromium project itself.

That's what I assume.

"Opera's browser software has essentially been a wrapper around the open-source Chromium, the basis of Google Chrome, since 2013."


13 posted on 07/19/2016 8:46:08 AM PDT by snarkpup (Socialism causes the worst people to become in charge - if they aren't already.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

PFL


14 posted on 07/19/2016 8:48:36 AM PDT by Batman11 ( All Muslims are not terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslim!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LaRueLaDue
Some of the comments at the article suggest that Vivaldi is not yet ready for prime time.
15 posted on 07/19/2016 8:50:17 AM PDT by snarkpup (Socialism causes the worst people to become in charge - if they aren't already.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

Ah... Too bad. I was hoping that they would be able to “revive” the spirit of the older version of Opera... It was a darn good browser back in the day.


16 posted on 07/19/2016 8:52:01 AM PDT by LaRueLaDue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: LaRueLaDue
Ah... Too bad. I was hoping that they would be able to “revive” the spirit of the older version of Opera... It was a darn good browser back in the day.

I originally got interested in the Opera browser because I heard that (at least at the time) it was the most compliant with W3C HTML recommendations and should therefore be useful for testing website coding. I also obtained (and will be retaining) a copy of Opera Mini. I don't know if it's still supported, but I use it on my desktop computer for testing what my websites will look like when linearized and displayed on variously-sized small screens.

17 posted on 07/19/2016 9:01:19 AM PDT by snarkpup (Socialism causes the worst people to become in charge - if they aren't already.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Blennos
I have been using Pale Moon for years. It's a solid browser.

OK, thanks. Sounds like a keeper.

18 posted on 07/19/2016 9:11:13 AM PDT by snarkpup (Socialism causes the worst people to become in charge - if they aren't already.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Truth29

I dumped Firefox a few years ago for that very reason.
Though prior to that I had a lot of issues with various plugins crashing.


19 posted on 07/19/2016 9:30:02 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: snarkpup

Chromium is a virus. I had to go through my registry and search for and delete every line with the word “Chromium” in it to get rid of it.


20 posted on 07/19/2016 9:38:10 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-31 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson