Opera Browser Gains Native M1 Mac Support

[JippaLippa]

Has anyone tried the North Korean browser?

- CUT -

Looks wonderfully early 2000s ❤️

Jokes aside, I used Chrome until 5-6 years ago, when I started being a bit more privacy oriented and switched to Firefox.

I still believe Firefox is the best browser features wise, as it is packed with functionality and you can install lots of extentions, yet the company is big enough to be reputable and provide frequent updates.

Since this year though I switched fo safari and I just love the minimalistic experience, not to mention the seameless syncing with my iphone...as all the rest of the Apple ecosystem, it is just too good.
It has a few issues still, but provided those will be patched, it'll become the perfect browser for me.

With regards to Opera, I used it for years on my windows portable machine and it was pretty decent, but then I stopped using it about 2 years ago when I learned of the acquisition from a Chinese parent company.

Finally I'm testing Edge (out of curiosity) on my gaming windows machine and it seems nothing special. Kinda looks like chrome (being a part of the same ecosystem) and for now I'm not that concerned about the data collected as I barely browse the web on that PC.
I might go back to firefox though.

 

[Rob_2811]

I just don’t get why any regular Mac owner would shop for a different browser. If you’re a dev I understand you need to check compatibility, otherwise, really, it’s that important to you?

Yes because Safari is terrible.

 

[DanTSX]

I like Opera.

The “but muh China....” arguments are very inconsistent.

 

[Speed38]

People will happily download a US browser that is known to be riddled with spyware... but wont download a European browser because their parent company is Chinese on the assumption that they are spying on you...

An assumption which is a very logical one.

 

[Speed38]

Safari's got some issues happening with specific RAM intensive websites, until those are fixed I must use a different browser. Its my understanding that it may be fixed in one of the recent tech previews but I haven't checked myself yet.

I quite like Safari though and so I'm waiting patiently for it to be fixed. Until then, I'm messing about with Edge and FireFox.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe it is Safari that is broken, it's the websites that are not properly written so they will work with browsers from Windows/Macs/Linux, etc., that are the problem. All the major sites work just fine with Safari; it's the "cheapest Charlie" ones that don't.

 

[MrDerby01]

When a programmer writes code to be native to the M1, Would that mean there is no X86 code?

 

[ruka.snow]

When a programmer writes code to be native to the M1, Would that mean there is no X86 code?

Code is rarely written architecture specific these days. The bulk of it is written in a architecture agnostic high level language that is then compiled or interpreted.

 

[xalea]

As if it matters what browser one uses. Check out Project PRISM sometime. The government/NSA etc. get a copy of everything you view.

If you're seriously that concerned about privacy, the only real recourse is to stop using the Internet.

 

[cakeloverpro]

Opera just sitting on it's opening "Speed Dial" page.
This seems hugely inefficient.

View attachment 1751988

This^^^^^^

Electron apps, and chrome have way to many resources used just to open a single web page. I counted 25 with opera. I immediately uninstalled. It did not get a feature look or speed test.

We already have a sprawl of Chrome based processes in the OS. I am sick of an editor taking up 1.25 gigs of ram. I am looking at VSCode & Intellij. Sublime Text 4 is at least fast and efficent. I think I reached the point I need to do something to STOP chrome from spawning more processes , and force it to use threads.

I know the reason why was security, but whoever decided process based security, GOT IT WRONG. be smarter than this, WE are smarter than 25 processes.. lets do better.

JBinATL.. you nailed it.

 

[ruka.snow]

We already have a sprawl of Chrome based processes in the OS. I am sick of an editor taking up 1.25 gigs of ram. I am looking at VSCode & Intellij. Sublime Text 4 is at least fast and efficent. I think I reached the point I need to do something to STOP chrome from spawning more processes , and force it to use threads.

Still using Textmate 2 myself, it is much quicker than VSCode and of course it is native.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Oprah has an Internet browser? What the?

 

[Rob_2811]

Oprah has an Internet browser? What the?

If she did Apple would've commissioned a documentry about it.

 

[Bawstun]

Considering it's a Chinese browser...

No it isn’t.

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

Considering it's a Chinese browser...

And considering TikTok that is Chinese and it is a spy app...

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

I just don’t get why any regular Mac owner would shop for a different browser. If you’re a dev I understand you need to check compatibility, otherwise, really, it’s that important to you?

I’m always going to use Google or Bing.

 

[ImaginaryNerve]

I may be wrong, but I don't believe it is Safari that is broken, it's the websites that are not properly written so they will work with browsers from Windows/Macs/Linux, etc., that are the problem. All the major sites work just fine with Safari; it's the "cheapest Charlie" ones that don't.

Sadly, the issue only causes problems with Safari and not other browsers. I don’t have an issue streaming Disney+ on older Safari versions on my older Intel iMacs, just my two devices running Big Sur and the newest public release of Safari. Edge and Firefox are fine. Same goes for websites like Reddit and Facebook (which I only used to test the issue in Safari) that auto-load as you continue scrolling.

Not sure if it’s specific to Safari on the M1 or not as my Intel macs aren’t able to fully update to Big Sur and I’m way too lazy to find a workaround to do it. But like I said, I’ve seen reports of it being fixed in some tech previews so once it’s released I’ll be happy enough to use it as a daily driver. Will still keep FF and Edge as alternatives though just in case.

 

[iAssimilated]

I am in the minority here, but I love Opera, it is my main browser and it has features I miss when I use other browsers. Yes, some of those features are now in other browsers, but they weren't when I started using Opera almost twenty years ago.

 

[drdudj]

People will happily download a US browser that is known to be riddled with spyware... but wont download a European browser because their parent company is Chinese on the assumption that they are spying on you...

those same people don't eat Chinese food because there are micro chips hidden in the kung pao chicken that will track your every move, and every "movement." lol

 

[Apple_Robert]

No Opera for me, my baritone is not what it should be.

 

[SactoGuy18]

While Opera is a very nice browser, it still uses the Chromium base code used by Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. As such, much of its functionality is more reminiscent of Chrome in recent years.

 

[jive turkey]

WebKit and other KHTML derived engines are the standard. If your airlines site doesn’t work properly with the global standard then tell them to hire proper web devs.

Chrome’s Blink engine is also a fork of KHTML.

The "standard" for anything is what is most in use and widely accepted at any given time. That is why some laws that are on the books are never enforced and why words in the dictionary dramatically change meaning over time. Peruse used to be "to read carefully," now it is "to skim over" (some dictionaries even list these contradictory definitions side-by-side). Scan was once "to look at carefully" and now is "to look at quickly but not thoroughly." Why? Because people began using the word differently. Today, no one would expect you to carefully study a document that you were told to scan over. At the same time you would never accept an airport radar scanning for anything less than every plane in the sky, or a document scanned to your computer to be less than a perfect replication.

Companies are not going to bend over backwards to cater to 10% of the market when they can keep the other 90% perfectly content in a cheap and efficient manner. Especially when the other 10% has a free solution to incompatibly problems. Basic economics says it is cheaper and easier for the few who have problems with a few websites to download and use an alternative browser for a few moments, than it is for every company to break their neck to support every browser, regardless of what anyone claims to be the "standard." Standards are determined by usage, not by eggheads sitting around a table making decisions.

 

[coolfactor]

I just don’t get why any regular Mac owner would shop for a different browser. If you’re a dev I understand you need to check compatibility, otherwise, really, it’s that important to you?

Each browser brings different features to the table, and different selling points. Sometimes people are just so die-hard about a browser, they can't see how any other browser could possibly be as good. Look at the Chrome fantatics. The Firefox fanatics. Personally, Safari is my preferred browser, because it just "feels" right. And I use iCloud Keychain extensively. Firefox renders slightly differently and buttons don't feel as "native", at least in older versions.

So there's many reasons someone might lean more towards one browser over another.

Thankfully, the days of most people thinking that "Internet Explorer" IS the internet are behind us. Now Google holds that crown.

 

[coolfactor]

Safari won't open a number of websites. I'm forced to use another browser because after so many years Apple is still not able to provide us with a decent browser.

Prove it. Give us some links.

Keep in mind that it may be the site's fault, not the browser's. Sometimes a site author will do a terrible job of coding a site, and some browsers may handle that bad code more gracefully. Firefox and Chrome have been known to handle edge cases better, and while Safari has been more "strict". That doesn't make Safari a less decent browser.

 

[cocoua]

WebKit and other KHTML derived engines are the standard. If your airlines site doesn’t work properly with the global standard then tell them to hire proper web devs.

Chrome’s Blink engine is also a fork of KHTML.

Web development os quite complex. Html5 is not really a standard thing, and browsers, no matter if the are webkit based, must support specifically some protocols. So developers trend to put the effort in one or two browsers (in the past iexplorer, now a days chrome and firefox)
Many goverment sites outside USA works only with those last browser, due that macs are a very minority outside USA.
Even firefox and safari desktop version are close in share, sites are builded long ago and support keeps in one direction.

 

[cocoua]

Prove it. Give us some links.

Keep in mind that it may be the site's fault, not the browser's. Sometimes a site author will do a terrible job of coding a site, and some browsers may handle that bad code more gracefully. Firefox and Chrome have been known to handle edge cases better, and while Safari has been more "strict". That doesn't make Safari a less decent browser.

There are tons. As I said above, outside USA macs are minority and desktop and mobile are quite different things.

here you have an example, but there are tons and I cant rememeber all them.
Macros and stuff that doesnt works well as you hace to code them for every browser. There is not a standard HTML5 protocol, so each browser makes and takes what they want (more or less, is comolex), but there are further problems as extensions required or java/javascript.

i work for web and is a chaos, sometimes you just focus in 2 browers for desktop and 2 for mobile.

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