Opera Is Dead, Desktop Browser Replaced with Chromium, WebKit on Mobile

[doorknob60]

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]

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]

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]

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.

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???

[prodigy_]

If it were up to Netscape and Opera, we'd have to buy browsers today.

Nothing is forgotten, good riddance.

[forrestcupp]

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???

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]

if it were up to netscape and opera, we'd have to buy browsers today.

Nothing is forgotten, good riddance.

+1

[Paqman]

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???

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

[dmn_clown]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Opera...e-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!

[TenPlus1]

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