The mess that is 'default browser'

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, 7 Nov 2021 at 10:38, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Just out of interest, you do realise that Opera is now owned (and
> controlled?) by China, don't you?
>
> Some years ago, the Norwegian Opera company/organisation sold Opera to China.

This is true.

Some of the company founders now offer a new browser, Vivaldi. Both
are based on the Google engine from Chrome, though, as is MS Edge, now
available for Linux too.

> Thence, I stopped using Opera.


Your choice. You might like Vivaldi, then.

> Previously, I had understood Opera to
> be the safest web browser.

I'm not aware of any particular reason it should be, but it was a good
browser. Never my default since I used a 486 but a solid tool.

> So, I suppose, if you are happy being a servant of the Chinese
> government, then that is your choice.

That does not follow. My phone is Chinese (Umidigi: superb value for
the money, and a very plain unmodified Android built). Previously, my
go-to Windows antivirus for a while was Total 360. I have also dabbled
with Deepin Linux, which is probably the most polished desktop I've
seen in many years.

China is one of the main manufacturing economies in the world now. It
is very hard to totally avoid it, but I see no particular reason to
want to. Others may, that's fine and that's their choice. But using
Chinese tools does not mean "being a servant of the Chinese
government" in any way at all.

-- 
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