Opera GX on Linux gets a lot right, but there’s one flaw gamers can’t overlook

https://www.xda-developers.com/opera-gx-linux-flaw/

Publish Date: 2026-03-26 08:30:00

A little while ago, Opera GX was released for Linux. From what I could see, the reception was very mixed; in one camp, you had the people who really wanted to use Opera GX on Linux, and were obviously elated to see it arrive on their favorite OS. In the other camp were people who didn’t use or care for Opera GX, who had some scathing things to say about it.

So, as someone who likes to get stuck in and figure out an opinion for themselves, I downloaded Opera GX on my openSUSE Tumbleweed install and made it my daily driver for a bit. And while I definitely see the appeal of the browser, there was one sticking point with Opera GX on Linux (that only seems to happen on Linux) that I think will be a huge problem for gamers.

Opera GX does a lot of cool things right

I really enjoyed what it wanted to achieve

A few days before Opera GX’s launch on Linux, I had a lovely interview with its product director, Maciej Kocemba. We got to discussing the launch of Opera GX on Linux, and he gave me a few pointers for using the browser when I got my own hands on it.

Kocemba said that Opera GX is the only browser he knows where slow performance is a good thing. This is because you can throttle how much of your hardware the browser uses. You could set it to load webpages at a snail’s pace if you wanted to, which sounds impractical on paper. However, when you have the browser open for a walkthrough while you game on your main monitor, you don’t want to sacrifice performance just to keep the window open.

Kocemba also mentioned the browser’s background music feature, which plays a nice ambient track as you browse. Whenever you leave the browser alone, the music dips down in intensity. When you begin opening tabs and typing up a storm, the music ramps up again. I really enjoyed using it, even if it was more of a fun novelty than a productivity…

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