PDA

View Full Version : Opera Is Dead, Desktop Browser Replaced with Chromium, WebKit on Mobile



mips
February 13th, 2013, 05:50 PM
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Opera-Is-Dead-Desktop-Browser-Replaced-with-Chromium-WebKit-on-Mobile-329052.shtml


February 13th, 2013, 09:13 GMT · By Lucian ParfeniBLOG
Opera Is Dead, Desktop Browser Replaced with Chromium, WebKit on Mobile

Opera has called it a day. After almost two decades in the browser business, Opera has officially quit.

The company announced that it is going to adopt the WebKit engine for all of its browsers on mobile platforms, something not particularly surprising, but also that it is stopping development of its desktop browser and will start supporting Chromium, the open source version of Chrome.

Basically, this means that Opera will no longer be developing its own HTML layout engine, Presto, and that it will slap an Opera label on Chromium and call that its desktop browser.

There aren't many details, but what is there is enough to know what comes next. Opera as we've known it is dead; the move may turn out to be a great one for the company, but it won't be the same company.

Without its own engine or even its own desktop browser, Opera is now just another company that rebrands Chromium and calls it its own browser, on par with Yandex which makes its own Chrome clone, for example.

In the mobile space, it will be just another company that takes the WebKit engine and slaps some UI elements on top of it. There are now only four major browser makers in the world, Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and Apple, and just three layout engines, Trident, Gecko and WebKit.

Sad...

linuxyogi
February 13th, 2013, 06:27 PM
Really very sad news.

kc1di
February 13th, 2013, 06:42 PM
Sad to hear :(

stinkeye
February 13th, 2013, 06:43 PM
Been using Opera since it had banner adds in the free version.Started using on windows.
Is WebKit just the rendering engine?
Will the ui and features stay the same?

MadmanRB
February 13th, 2013, 06:48 PM
That is a shame, but Opera has itself to blame here as its presto engine was proprietary.
Still it would be nice if opra could keep its old looks but still use webkit instead of becoming just another face lift of chrome/ium

LarsKongo
February 13th, 2013, 06:58 PM
"this year Opera will make a gradual transition to the WebKit engine, as well as Chromium, for most of its upcoming versions of browsers for smartphones and computers."
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/13/

I hope by "transition" they mean that they will keep the UI and settings. If not I'll go mad if I have to port all my scripts, styles and stuff to Firefox or any other browser. Also, there are no other browser that have as smooth mouse gestures as Opera. Last time I tried Chromium it leaked memory, froze the whole UI, was very buggy, and that was only about a year ago.

sdowney717
February 13th, 2013, 07:13 PM
This story is not sad, IMO.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57569106-93/opera-embraces-webkit-in-browser-brain-transplant/

They already talking about how their value adding to the collective.


Opera's chief technology officer, Håkon Wium Lie, described the company's motives for the change in a statement:

The WebKit engine is already very good, and we aim to take part in making it even better. It supports the standards we care about, and it has the performance we need. It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open source communities to further improve WebKit and Chromium, rather than developing our own rendering engine further. Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches: to improve multi-column layout.

I think they hit a wall in development-direction and decided to join forces.

Paqman
February 13th, 2013, 07:26 PM
Writing had been on the wall for a while really.

Dry Lips
February 13th, 2013, 07:47 PM
Opera could have gone the route that Microsoft has chosen, trying to educate Web developers (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/microsoft-begs-web-devs-not-to-make-webkit-the-new-ie6/) and providing tools to make cross-platform testing and development easier (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/microsoft-continues-html5-push-with-modern-ie-compatibility-initiative/), but perhaps the company was familiar with Norwegian king Cnut the Great's demand to the tide that it cease rising, and felt that asking Web developers to stick to standards was similarly futile.
Mozilla developer Robert O'Callahan expressed disappointment (http://robert.ocallahan.org/2013/02/and-then-there-were-three.html) with Opera's decision, saying that it was a "sad day for the Web" and suggesting that Opera might find its ability to influence Web standards reduced. He also said that it makes Mozilla's job harder, as that group too is endeavoring to promote Web standards over "coding to Webkit."


source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/hey-presto-opera-switches-to-webkit/

Yes, WebKit is open source, but I still think it's kind of sad in a way. What if they had open sourced Presto instead?

timbuck
February 13th, 2013, 07:54 PM
Awe... I'm using opera now too! Why are they quitting, or not using presto anymore? It seems to work great, and with the opera turbo feature!!! OH it's GREAT on mobile phone speed connections!

Well as long as it's still opera and has most of the same features I think we will all be okay.

Merk42
February 13th, 2013, 07:55 PM
Opera isn't dead, Presto is. Yes it's switching to webkit, but that's what Safari and Web (Epiphany) are. Would you call them Chromium? A browser is more than just its rendering engine.

mips
February 13th, 2013, 09:48 PM
Would you call them Chromium? A browser is more than just its rendering engine.

Well the article does say they are going to rebrand chromium for the desktop...

koenn
February 13th, 2013, 11:00 PM
sad, but inevitable.
Browsers have become a commodity - you get them included in an OS, or as a free download. Rendering engines are commodotized as well, in open source.
To continue competing against that with proprietary code is an enormous, and costly, duplication of effort. Otoh, it makes perfect sense to build upon existing open source engines - the 3rd alternative, making their engine open source in an effort to attract a developer community (as in Netscape -> Firefox), would only work if there's a surplus of interested developers.

By using an open source engine, they benefit from distributed development and they can focus their own development effort on what to lay on top of it. They may be planning to "just rebrand Chrome" to still have a stake in the desktop segment, and have a webkit based mobile Opera as their flagship, or something along those lines.

smellyman
February 13th, 2013, 11:49 PM
why don't they GPL their software?

tgalati4
February 14th, 2013, 12:33 AM
They should have open-sourced Presto, then get some momentum behind their open source efforts and keep their browser (and Opera branding) distinct from the other big players.

ikt
February 14th, 2013, 04:32 AM
Last time I tried Chromium it leaked memory, froze the whole UI, was very buggy, and that was only about a year ago.

Were you running the Chromium daily or the Alpha/beta?

Chrome has been stable for me and everyone I know since the beginning, I can't think of more stable, more quicker, less buggy piece of software.

In regards to Opera it's sad to see them go, but these days with Chrome being essentially 'the web' and Firefox being great for addons and customisation, and Internet Explorer for people who don't know any better there was never a lot of room for Opera sadly.

screaminj3sus
February 14th, 2013, 05:08 AM
I'm sure they wont simply slap an icon on chrome and call it a day, I'd imagine they would implement opera's most popular features that made the desktop version stand apart in the new browser (opera mail, speed dial etc...)

alexan
February 14th, 2013, 03:16 PM
I am proudly Opera's user from the version 4.x

I can't define how much it's epic it's this news to me since basically mean that Opera turns Open Source. :KS:KS

forrestcupp
February 14th, 2013, 03:53 PM
I'm sure they wont simply slap an icon on chrome and call it a day, I'd imagine they would implement opera's most popular features that made the desktop version stand apart in the new browser (opera mail, speed dial etc...)

That's the only possible way this could make sense. Why would anyone ever care to download Chromium that just has an Opera label on it? The only way it makes sense is if they plan on taking Chromium and adding some of their features to it.

BrokenKingpin
February 14th, 2013, 04:09 PM
I did not use the browser, but it is still sad to hear.

They may still have a future though. They could take webkit and still make a really nice browser that has benefits over Chromium. I find Chromium getting a bit memory hungry, so if they made a browser with essentially the same features and light, that could be quite appealing.

That being said it is going to be hard to compete with Chromium because it already has a huge user base and an insane amount of plugins. They could keep comparability with Chromium, but then you take all the baggage of Chromium, so what is the point.

doorknob60
February 14th, 2013, 08:05 PM
That's too bad, Opera uses WAY less RAM than Firefox and Chrome do. As fast as Chrome is on a modern computer, it's a RAM hog. When using very old computers with little RAM, Opera runs significantly faster than either Firefox or Chrome do. When they start rebranding Chromium, that's likely not going to be the case anymore. While I don't have any computers old enough for that to be an issue, I know many that do, and it's unfortunate.

tgalati4
February 14th, 2013, 09:03 PM
Chrome is a memory hog because each tab is a jail. So when a tab crashes, it doesn't take down your other 10 tabs. Opera doesn't have this architecture. It has been streamlined and it does run fast. I will miss that browser performance. And yes, it will probablly be as much of a RAM hog as regular Chrome. I don't see any way around that.

What would be really interesting is to have a switch in Opera--Old-style single-thread, low-footprint, fast performance, or Chrome/chromium compatibility mode--several threads, memory hog, slower, but compatible with all of google's services.

monkeybrain2012
February 14th, 2013, 09:09 PM
I liked it when I was on 10.04 and 10.10 but after that Opera never works properly, something or other seem to be always broken and problems never got fixed (opera version 11.xx and 12.xx?) I used Firefox and installed Chrome instead as a second browser. I was using Opera less and less and was surprised when I got an Opera update in Precise maybe a few months ago, I have completely forgotten that it was installed. But still something was not working correctly (can't connect to localhost, greasemonkey scripts not working, hardware acceleration broken, sites not rendered correctly) I was so fed up that finally I uninstalled it.


EDITED: Midori is probably the closest thing to Opera in terms of feel and style.

Dry Lips
February 15th, 2013, 02:07 PM
I am proudly Opera's user from the version 4.x

I can't define how much it's epic it's this news to me since basically mean that Opera turns Open Source. :KS:KS

Question: Okay, they'll now use WebKit, a rendering engine which is open source... But does this mean that all of Opera will be open sourced? I mean, a browser is more than a renderer, right??? :-k

prodigy_
February 15th, 2013, 03:58 PM
If it were up to Netscape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator#Origin) and Opera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_%28web_browser%29#History), we'd have to buy browsers today.

Nothing is forgotten, good riddance.

forrestcupp
February 15th, 2013, 04:22 PM
Question: Okay, they'll now use WebKit, a rendering engine which is open source... But does this mean that all of Opera will be open sourced? I mean, a browser is more than a renderer, right??? :-k
Wow. I don't know what will happen. I just found out that the Google portion of Chromium is under the BSD license. Technically, they could take it, rebrand it, and make it proprietary. BSD is a lot more lenient than GPL.

fontis
February 15th, 2013, 06:21 PM
if it were up to netscape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/netscape_navigator#origin) and opera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/opera_%28web_browser%29#history), we'd have to buy browsers today.

Nothing is forgotten, good riddance.

+1

Paqman
February 15th, 2013, 10:26 PM
Question: Okay, they'll now use WebKit, a rendering engine which is open source... But does this mean that all of Opera will be open sourced? I mean, a browser is more than a renderer, right??? :-k

Even nominally open source browsers like Firefox do often contain some non-open source components (even if it's just branding).

dmn_clown
February 16th, 2013, 07:44 AM
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Opera-Is-Dead-Desktop-Browser-Replaced-with-Chromium-WebKit-on-Mobile-329052.shtmlSad...

Yeah it's sad that Opera will suddenly start displaying webpages the way they were meant to be seen and javascript will suddenly work. How dare they!

:popcorn:

TenPlus1
February 16th, 2013, 12:43 PM
I suppose that supporting webkit will make it easier to view and create websites on a single platform although using Opera's own front-end to browse the internet is what I enjoy, the internal browser doesn't bother as it is the GUI itself which I enjoy using :)

axel668
February 16th, 2013, 01:13 PM
Think that's good news, actually. Opera may have a good HTML / Javascript engine but honestly, nobody out on the web cares about Opera, so there are always compatibility issues. Switching to Webkit / V8 will solve these problems once and for all, every website which supports Chrome or Safari (which is about EVERY website) will run in Opera without issues. You might be able to use the Chrome "Pepper" Flash player on Linux (even if you have to extract it from a Chrome installer).

So by switching to a Webkit / V8, Opera will improve in performance and compatibility and at the same time free up developers to create the new innovative features we all love Opera for.

alexan
February 17th, 2013, 04:54 PM
Question: Okay, they'll now use WebKit, a rendering engine which is open source... But does this mean that all of Opera will be open sourced? I mean, a browser is more than a renderer, right??? :-k

If they comply to GPL rules, they can't compile render and opera features together. Render and "opera feature" must be separated... yeah, this does mean you can't have the source code of everything "around" the render engine (mouse gesture, irc, torrent etc.) but this is still good becouse:


1. Opera team engine will work on the same project (webkit) that keeps busy both Google and Apple engineers (and many people around the world)
2. You can alter Opera experience with ton of opensource code (OSS developers have full and complete control to what's showed IN opera)

Sableyes
February 17th, 2013, 10:10 PM
Gah! gutted! operas been my fave browser scince forever! won't feel as special being another chromium face. my anti google / chromium sentiments are kicking in.... Not sure I'll continue using opera if they continue on a chromium path.

JDShu
February 17th, 2013, 10:34 PM
Why is this sad? Most of you won't even notice the difference, and it means that Opera can focus on more distinguishing aspects like the UI.

As long as IE and Firefox exist, we won't be limited to a Webkit world, and even Webkit itself has different versions used by Chrome, Safari et al.

alexan
February 17th, 2013, 11:16 PM
With the come of html5 make a web render engine it's no longer the same thing you could had be done 10 years ago.
Today you're supposed to run native html5 application in your browser... it's like run a real-time source code compile and run like Android's Dalvik and not just format your text, place picture or look for plugins.


Opera choice it's the most natural thing to do... currently only Microsoft can afford the money waste with their personalistic closed render engine (they still hope to return monopolist of the web)

iamkuriouspurpleoranj
February 20th, 2013, 08:43 PM
If it were up to Netscape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator#Origin) and Opera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_%28web_browser%29#History), we'd have to buy browsers today.

Nothing is forgotten, good riddance.

Internet Explorer has always been bundled with Windows. It was not provided for free, in the days when we people paid for things like that. Netscape on the other hand set up Mozilla, which was the start of free browsers.

Mikeb85
March 7th, 2013, 05:15 PM
Well, just downloaded the Webkit-based Opera Beta for Android, and I must say, it's easily the best mobile browser I've ever used. The UI is great, it has some awesome features for sorting bookmarks and a Flipboard-like 'Discover' feature, and the performance is on par is not slightly better than Chrome.

It definitely has me excited to see what their desktop browser will be like, as their previous desktop browser was one of my favourites, but just had some rendering issues and other minor gripes...

woxuxow
March 8th, 2013, 05:53 PM
The only none-free program i have installed on my ubuntu is OPERA
It`s fantastic and will be better than before with webkit

rewyllys
March 8th, 2013, 06:22 PM
Although I have long used Firefox as my default browser, I have recently encountered problems in using it on a few Websites. As a result, I tried using Opera to interface with such Websites, and I found that Opera handles them just fine. As a result, I may be shifting to using Opera as my default browser.

In particular, two of the Websites that cause me problems in Firefox are: (1) these Ubuntu Forums, which scroll agonizingly slowly in Firefox, but scroll speedily in Opera; and (2) the Website of the Stanford University MOOC in Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, which refuses my password when I submit it in Firefox but accepts it from Opera.

Because of these problems, I cannot help but suspect that Opera clings closer to HTML standards than does Firefox.

For the record, I'm currently using v. 4.0.1 of Firefox and v. 12.14 of Opera.

sam-c
March 8th, 2013, 08:07 PM
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Opera-Is-Dead-Desktop-Browser-Replaced-with-Chromium-WebKit-on-Mobile-329052.shtml


.


Not True
Opera works on anything!:confused::ma33d:

sam-c
March 8th, 2013, 08:12 PM
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Opera-Is-Dead-Desktop-Browser-Replaced-with-Chromium-WebKit-on-Mobile-329052.shtml


.

8 Not true
Not True
Opera works on anything!:confused::ma33d:

Mikeb85
March 8th, 2013, 08:14 PM
If the new webkit-based Opera is anything like the new Android Opera Beta, it'll easily be the best browser on the market. They may not be reinventing the rendering engine or javascript interpreter, but I've always found their added services to put them ahead of the others...

dustinedan2
March 14th, 2013, 05:42 AM
Many people choose their web browsers based on speed and ... The other browsers (Chrome, Safari, Opera) all scored 100 on the Acid ... Safari being a contender is no surprise as it uses the same Webkit rendering engine that Chrome is.





---------------
Dustin Edan
cd duplication (http://www.xpressduplicationcentre.co.uk)