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The Browser support page is now* updating to show the latest versions of the various web browsers — that is, except for one: Opera. Opera 102 & 103 are listed, but in fact the latest version of Opera is 105.

Can this be rectified?

* This is my third in a series of posts, simply requesting that the browser support page list the latest versions of the browsers that are supported (or to not list version numbers at all).

For reference, the previous two posts:

  1. Supported browser versions needs update
  2. Supported browser versions needs updating
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    Well the bug is not in SE side, which just reads from external source. In this case the source is the data behind caniuse.com and as you can see there, the Opera version is indeed outdated, while other browsers appear to be fine. Does it justrify finding a different source, more reliable? Perhaps, up to SE staff to decide. Edit: found the reason will post it in an answer.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 18, 2023 at 7:01

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TL;DR: the root cause for this is that not enough people are using the latest versions, see below for details.

While this is a bug, it's not directly on SE side this time. They read the data for the browser support page from an external source, which is the data behind caniuse.com, and as you can see there, the Opera version is indeed outdated while other browsers appear to be fine.

After some digging, looks like I found the reason: not enough people use the latest versions of Opera, so it falls below that site's radar, so to speak. See here under "Browsers not included on site":

The following tables display the browsers logged by StatCounter that are not accounted for on the caniuse.com website.

And the table indeed showing Opera 104.0 with only 0.009% users. 105 isn't even showing meaning less than 0.001% of the people monitored by StatCounter are using the latest version of Opera.

So while technically a bug, fixing it would require either manual update by SE itself which isn't feasible, or finding a more reliable source, which update in some other way, not based on user stats.

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    In theory, the other, simpler option is dropping opera as an 'officially' supported browser and doing best effort support for it. I've run Vivaldi - another chrome fork for years with no issues, and unlike every other browser, its neither a major default nor a unique/major browser
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Nov 18, 2023 at 7:33
  • The browser support page claims to list the latest versions of various browsers. However, it relies on data from some other site that only lists the most popular browsers. But browsers are updated quicker than users adopt them. So by design, the list will always be out of date.
    – Elements In Space
    Commented Dec 9, 2023 at 13:47
  • @ElementsInSpace well that's true, but doubt SE can find a better alternative. This appears to be the "lesser evil", i.e. still much better than what used to be before which is manually updating the list, which can take long weeks until someone notice and edit. That said, maybe worth asking to change the wording so it won't be confusing and make it clear those are not the latest, and might be off.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 9, 2023 at 18:01

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