Opera plans continued support for classic extensions in the browser
Opera Software released Opera One R2 this week. The new stable version of Opera comes with a large number of new features and changes.
This includes the new dynamic themes feature, tab splitting and recent tab highlighting, more AI functionality, and something that is easily overlooked in the long post on the Opera Software website: continued support for Manifest V2 extensions.
Here is what Opera says about extensions support: " In addition to that, Opera R2 will continue supporting Manifest V2 extensions, allowing you to continue using your favorite ad blocking and privacy-enhancing extensions just like before".
The post links to another one on the Opera website that provides additional details.
Opera plans to support Manifest V2 extensions independently of the development of Chromium, the source of Google Chrome and other browsers.
This means, that Opera users may continue to run and install Manifest V2 extensions, like uBlock Origin, in the web browser.
Now, the post is not very clear on the details. Opera Software mentions that it plans to contact extension developers to "determine the best and safest way forward".
Continued support would be remarkable at this point, as Google will remove code from Chromium next year. Up until then, policies exist to keep on using Manifest V2 extensions in Chromium-based browsers.
The removal of support of Manifest V2 has already started in Google Chrome for users who have not set the policies.
Up until now, only Brave Software announced that its browser, Brave, would support a few Manifest V2 extensions going forward.
Opera's commitment to all Manifest V2 extensions, if it is feasible for the company, ensures that users can continue using their favorite extensions and new Manifest V3 extensions. This would work similarly to Firefox, which also supports both Manifest V2 and V3 extensions.
Opera Software has one advantage over Brave Software and most Chromium-based browser makers (with the exception of Microsoft and Google). It operates its own extension store. While Opera users may also download and install extensions from the Chrome Web Store, users may also download and install extensions from the company's own store.
Brave Software does not operate its own store, which is probably the main reason why it decided to support only a few extensions. Google will remove Manifest V2 extensions from its web store next year when the policy option runs out.
Closing Words
Two Chromium-based browsers will continue to support Manifest V2 extensions by mid-2025 at the time of writing. That's Brave, which supports only a few, and Opera, which plans to support all of them.
It remains to be seen how this will work out and if other browser makers are also jumping on the bandwagon that separates them from main Chromium in a key aspect.
Have you tried Opera recently? What is your take on the company's plan to continue supporting Manifest V2 extensions after Google's deadline in mid 2025? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
oh my so much bul@$#¤! lets celebrate, this chrome new expansions have bugged me out of using it. Opera here!!
RE: The OPERA Browser
W A R N I N G:
Hello Everyone – –
On a previous post I had to inform this forum that I had to UNINSTALL the Vivaldi Browser as my Firewall informed me that it had to Block this Browser; refused it access to my system (after using it for a few days)!
No Problem I did Uninstall it and NO remnants were left!
It was a Clean Uninstall.
HOWEVER, Not with Opera!
Again, as with Vivaldi I Uninstalled it as I did not feel comfortable knowing Opera was Blocked by my Firewall.
I removed the Opera program but when I went to double check that it had been thoroughly removed . . . there were still pieces of it that remained in my computer system.
These were removed successfully. However, when I inserted my USB drives in a dedicated hub the computer did NOT recognize any of these!
SO I did a System Restore – – and wouldn’t you know it – – The hub functioned once again!
The computer once again said drives!
WHAT A RELIEF!
This behavior indicated to me that the Opera program had Latched on to said hub.
The reason I really don’t know . . . was it to monitor my activities remotely??>
I do NOT know – – Or Care at this point!
In any case, I checked my system again and it was revealed that I still have Six (6) remaining Opera program fragments in my computer SO EMBEDDED that these Refuse to be removed from my system.
These are the remnants’ Name:
opera.browser
opera.browser
opera.browser
opera.browser
opera.browser
opera.browser
@Jenny85
This is getting boring and looks like SPAM.
Spam isn’t boring, it’s absurd, it’s nonsense and so it is funny.
Monty Python – Spam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
Opera 114.0.5282.115 and Opera Developer 116.5326.0 appear a long way from prime time and I uninstalled them.
That’s not possible
Nope, the features from Opera Developer came into the stable version with that update
Opera looks interesting since it has its own web store, but what it doesn’t appear to possess is an about:config menu like the one in Firefox. I have a whole host of about:config settings which I use on Firefox.
I went through the Help files at https://help.opera.com/en/latest/web-preferences/, but didn’t see any reference to something like that although those kind of settings might be found by exploring Opera’s settings in depth after installing it.
Also, Opera appears to have its own built-in VPN, but I woud prefer to use the one I’ve been using for the past five years or so (Mullvad) together with the independent Wireguard app. These kinds of settings are easily accessible out of the box on Firefox.
If Opera is anything like other Chromium based browser, you can try:
opera://flags.
But there are not as many options as with Firefox.
Whilst I am not a fan of Opera as a browser having the sense to create and maintain an extension store is important and should be applauded as it also provides an avenue for developers to release extensions that were not allowed on the chrome webstore.
Having less dependency upon the google web store is a good thing and if they can manage to do a better job of it than google has then all the more power to them.
This investment on their part also suggest that they are interested in maintaining manifest v2 more so than anybody else in the realms of chromium based browsers and to be honest I would have assumed that Brave would have been the company to do it but I guess not.
The more things web browsers do to separate themselves from google the better. In fact I would have preferred if Opera was still Opera and Google was still just trying to peddle their garbage as a toolbar Foistware/PUP.
Great Martin, now you got all the Brave fanboys triggered. Shouldn’t have mentioned Brave uses Google’s extension store. Now all we get to hear is how terrible Firefox is, even though Firefox is not mentioned in the article at all.
@Anonymous
Your comment is really weird… nobody is getting ‘triggered’.
IF the only extension people are crying about is uBlock Origin and it exists in Github which means you can just sideload it, then a store is not an ‘advantage’. Plus Brave already offers easy installation of uBlock from settings page, and that means getting removed from Extension Store will not matter if they can just use Github one.
But anyway, Adguard and ABP transitioned their extensions from MV2 to MV3 and most people didn’t even notice the difference, that means it was uBlock developer’s fault for not transitionining their users to uBlock Mv3.
I can’t blame the dev though, supporting Mv2 and Mv3 is not what he wants, but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t have done it like others have.
So is Opera extension store good to have? yes, but Opera extension store has never been that popular, it misses tons of extensions, and I doubt this will make Opera extension store more popular among developers, because most extensions are Mv3 already and developers will just keep doing the same thing, making it available in Chrome store which Opera users can use.
Your comment is really weird… nobody is getting ‘triggered’.
except you
People like you really need to get over it and stop stirring. You are giving Firefox users a bad name with your attitude by developing and constantly pushing your ridiculous Brave derangement syndrome.
I also noticed that while all the so called “Brave fanboys” seem to have quietened down and left people like you just can’t help it. This site is already a ghost town and your constant atrempts at seeking an argument is driving more people elsewhere.
I also noticed that while all the so called “Brave fanboys” seem to have quietened down and left.
Are your serious?
People like you really need to get over it and stop stirring. You are giving Brave users a bad name with your attitude by developing and constantly pushing your ridiculous Firefox derangement syndrome. I also noticed that while all the so called “Firefox fanboys” seem to have quietened down and left people like you just can’t help it. This site is already a ghost town and your constant attempts at seeking an argument is driving more people elsewhere.
@Alex
You just let your Brave fanboy flag fly. Kind of ironic how you ranted about “Firefox users” and “Brave derangement syndrome” just like anon predicted.
““Brave fanboys” seem to have quietened down and left”
You sure about that? There are more people talking about Brave than Opera in an article about Opera.
“Brave derangement syndrome”
Posts in every browser related article to bash any browser not named Brave, bash every user that does not worship at the alter of Brave/Google. You are exhibit A.
“You are giving Firefox users a bad name ”
I am using Opera.
Definitely triggered.
Brave fanboys are as good as Firefox fanboys, there is nothing to hide even not the shame.
The worst way to get rid of an enemy is to make him invisible.
This browser is becoming a pure joke. It’s amazing that it’s still alive.
Please enable registered nicks in this site.
IMO: it’s a quite good browser since a couple of years, the versions between 2016 and 2020 where crappy. Now I kinda like that.
Your comment is a real pure joke. Please enable IP in this site!
Ah-ha! Enable IP? Even not the hackers are so suspicious to ask for such kind of info!
@MTLD… “Your comment is a real pure joke. Please enable IP in this site!
Not here, better registered nicks than VPN users.
Good but I wouldn’t use this browser anymore. The new design is so horrible.
Nope, I love it
Why should it matter if Brave has an extension store or not? uBlock, which is the only Mv2 people are always complaining about and bringing up, is available on Github, and that should be okay until Mv2 gets removed completely from every Chromium browser.
Any other extension is either not available in Opera and won’t be available in Opera because developers never cared to do so, or was already opted to be Mv3.
Actually Brave has the advantage of having a real team behind it, and therefore their Adblocker is getting closer and closer to full parity with uBlock, which means you won’t need an extension to block ads in Desktop, Android and iOS (even if webkit is inferior, until Apple allows Blink/Chromium).
1. Brave already has Procedural Filtering in Nightly and maybe beta, it is not complete but it does the job, of course Procedural Filtering is something that shouldn’t be used unless it is like the last resort but it got the support.
2. And currently, Brave has the PR, which should be merged next week, to allow Custom Scriptlets right in the Custom filters page, you create the scriptlet, add the JS core, save and then use the name for the scriptlet in a custom filter. Which means, Brave will get the same in Android and eventually in iOS.
You can easily grab many extensions code or userscripts and add them as scriptlets for uBlock or Brave to use, but this feature will make everything easier for Brave users.
Brave already allowed to easily mod the adblocker by modifying files to allow custom scriptlets and turn off default lists and use custom lists and all that.
So, as you can see, there is no need for an extension, and there is still at least until June 2025 for Brave ot keep making their adblocker better, unlike Opera, which can’t even make a good adblocker with cosmetics.
Opera’s cosmetics is so bad it adds everything in the Stylesheet element in the page, and that’s why people have mentioned that many adult sites and illegal sites have been added to important documents when they saved HTML to send it for work or school.
So yeah, next time maybe the author of the article can actually check the reality of the browsers world. An extension store doesn’t matter, Opera already was missing tons of extensions, and uBlock would release their updates sometimes 2 weeks after Chrome store got it, and only becuase they can easily keep MV2 uBlock (again, because this is the only one people complain about) doesn’t mean Brave can’t just install the one from github and allow updates and all that.
Take care.
Brave is worst than Vivaldi in some several ways that we would need at least ten articles to explain them all. Brave is the worst masterpiece of invasive ads and invasive crap ever done in the browsing software history ever. Just read about the privacy scandals and then go on with the rest of issues. There is no enough articles to describe how bad Brave really is. Just search the net and find the truth. I stopped using Brave so time ago that everything about Brave seems a complete joke.
What are you talking about? I do not see any ads in Brave on PC. You can out-out of ads, you know. And you do not need to use Brave Start Page. I use third party extension for Start page without ads. I also have Brave on Mobile and unless you are interested in Brave News, you can opt out of ads there too.
One thing I have to admit, Brave on Android is much more buggy than Brave for Windows. I also disabled Brave autoupdate on Windows through hosts file and Startup Manager. If I see no bug reports a week or two after the official update, I install a new version.
I don’t see any reason to use the Opera browser nowadays. Brave or Vivaldi should have to be more than enough for almost all the experienced users that need more useful privacy terms. I could even find reasons to use Edge or Chrome considering their features, but not for Opera. Firefox is another one that will bite the dust, time to time (unless it turns chromium, of course).
I see several reasons, if you’re not an anti-AI freak the new updated gives you a wide selection of useful tools to make work be done in seconds not minutes. When it comes to “privacy” I would dig deeper. Opera has to follow the same privacy laws as Vivaldi, they’re both from Norway and have to comply to GDPR, Brave – nope!
@Bradley
Brave is open source, Opera is not, same as Vivaldi. So… you can just look at the code if you want to see everything Brave does in the background, you can even build it yourself.
If you talk about ‘privacy’ and ‘choice’, Brave for example is working on a PR that will easily allow users to specify a URL for their sync chain so you can easily self host it and assign it to mobile devices (it can be done in desktop by starting Brave through terminal with it), so you don’t even need to use their servers for it.
About (non)Artificial Intelligence? you can already add your own model in Brave, even local ones, so you don’t even need internet connection.
You can also easily disable filterlist and use your own custom lists if you want to avoid Brave servers completely too. And also, unlike others, Brave will proxy connections to google servers which means you don’t make direct connections to Google, while you do it with Vivaldi and Opera. Edge is the only one that did the same, but they completely use their servers and store data in Microsoft servers.
Saying this, I believe Privacy is a marketing scheme, but I don’t think Opera is truly bad for privacy anyway, but their way of doing things is really awful, like for example, they don’t allow users to change the default search engine to a non-partner one, you can add them, but that means you have to manually switch to it every query you want to make, and if you modify the file that is reposible for that the browser will brick and ‘needs a reinstall’… well, do you want to support that? I don’t even like Vivaldi and their custom web technologies crappy UI, but Opera is really all about non-user’s choice, and just about money when they push their search and bookmarks partners above users’ interest and choice.
@Holomacus The models are also available in Opera.
I would, however, point out that Brave marketing model is based on writing hundreds of comments under articles and videos about FireFox, Vivaldi, Opera or Mulvad. Comments praising this browser to the skies are especially visible on Twitter, where accounts with right-wing and even racist content are liked by the official Brave account and their ambassadors. This is getting boring and looks like SPAM.
I noticed that too. I recently watched a review of librewolf on youtube and in the comments I saw about 15 identical “USE BRAVE” posts, then I turned on another video about Vivaldi. In the comments section there were another 10 “USE BRAVE” comments. A few days later I watched a video about firefox on tiktok and what do I see in the comments section?? 3 comments saying: “USE BRAVE” with over 100 likes. No one’s gonna tell me that is organic! That has to paid or auto-generated. Huh?
Good work Opera!
Yes, good work giving more reasons to use other Chromium browsers…