Looking it up online, the subject of Opera being chinese spyware seems to be debated pretty thoroughly, but with no definitive consensus (that I could find at least). Any articles on the subject I could read up on?

I use Firefox myself, so it wouldn’t really impact my internet usage, but I’m just curious about what’s going on with Opera.

Funnily enough, I think the last time I used Opera was the Internet Channel on the Wii way back when, which was powered by Opera lmao

For me, I mostly rationalize my piracy as something generally unethical that I choose to partake in anyways. People often cite piracy as an issue with the service being provided, but there’s just a lot of instances where I’d rather pirate something than pay for it, not because the service is bad, but because “Why pay for something when I can just get it free, eh?”

Though I think there is one specific case where I’d undoubtedly consider piracy ethical, which is for products that are not being sold on the market currently. Take a retro video game for instance. If it isn’t being sold by any company, then there is no way to legally play the game apart from getting a secondhand copy. Either way, the company that owns the rights to it won’t derive profit, and they aren’t involved in secondhand markets whatsoever, so pirating the game effectively results in 0 negative consequences for any party, compared to legally acquiring it.

It’s a choice between 2004 and 2019. As overdone as minimalist designs can be at times, I find the simple, fiery gradient in 2019 to be gorgeous, along with the smooth curves. A really detailed logo in this day and age would look a bit out of place. 2017 and 2019 go for a similar aesthetic, though I believe 2019 pulls it off better.

That being said, I still enjoy the look of 2004, and think it’s the best from 2004-2013. I find the tail in 2005 to be a tad too yellow, and I don’t like how the outer parts of the blue globe can be seen beneath the tail in 2009 and 2013. 2004 is just sublime.

Not sure what 2002 is doing, because that sure as hell aint a fox xD

Others mentioned ways to remove the sponsored links, though while on the subject of home pages, I’d like to shout out Tabliss. It’s the home page that I use, and is fairly simple. Gives me a background I can choose, as well as widgets for time, weather, etc.

free-mp3 is the one I use myself

The link may sound shady af, but it hasn’t given me any problems

Snappy interface, quick downloads, definitely gets a recommendation from me