5 ms·

Opera, please open source the discontinued Opera 12!

by rawland 12y ago

rplnt 12y ago
I'm still sticking with 11/12. It's pain to use any other browser. Performance is worse, ux is worse, basic functionality is missing, weird bugs everywhere. Now I use combination of Opera, Firefox and Chrome (for js heavy apps like gmail). Eventually want to switch to Firefox. It's really sad they let everything go and made just another dumbed-down featureless browser.
- anoother 12y ago
  Precisely. I just tried this out. + It opened all the tabs from my Opera 12 session - It lost all my tab groups: seems it doesn't support them - It ate up RAM to the point I had trouble moving my mouse cursor I, too, still use Opera 12 everywhere it's still usable, and Chromium for the rest. I don't need a Chromium replacement. I need an Opera replacement, preferably with all the shiny new features (in terms of compatibility, standards support and performance) that Chromium has. Opera 12 isn't perfect, but if it had been in development for the period of releases 12-24, it certainly would be the only browser I'd need to use. It's a shame Opera themselves can't be motivated build a worthy upgrade to their own browser. Without Presto, and the same innovative spirit that brought us tabs, speed dial, mouse gestures, Opera Link, etc., etc., what exactly is their USP?
  - rplnt 12y ago
    I think they were bought by someone (an UA or PL company I believe) and many of the core people left (or were let go). But don't quote me on this, I've just read in a random discussion as you do now.
    - tagawa 12y ago
      They weren't bought but in the past few years the CEO and founder left the company and they did make some acquisitions, including in advertising (mobile in particular) which is where a significant portion of their revenue now comes from.
  - jlarocco 12y ago
    Ditto. I don't care what's underneath. If the new chrome based opera had all the features of the old opera, I would still be using it on osx, and waiting for it on linux. At this point, though, I've got so used to chrome I'm not sure I'll switch back at all.
- pandler 12y ago
  I jumped ship around the time 12 came out. All I remember is that despite all the cool features and my general love of the browser, the one thing it didn't seem to do well was browse a number of popular websites that I would frequent. That was the deal killer for me. What good is a browser that can't browse?
  - baldfat 12y ago
    > What good is a browser that can't browse? That is the reason why they switch engines from Presto to Blink. This also caused issues with us having a Linux option.
  - rplnt 12y ago
    This is true. They couldn't keep up. I've used Chrome as a side-browser for quite some time already. I understand the need to switch the rendering/js engines, but I don't understand why they couldn't give it some time and keep around what made Opera - fast and responsive full-featured browser out of the box with the ability to customize almost everything.
    - tracksmer 12y ago
      They did keep it around, though. Opera 12 is still being maintained with security fixes.
      - rplnt 12y ago
        There were only two updates I believe (in over a year). Hearbleed (update to library) and an expired certificate. I wouldn't call that maintenance or security fixes really.
        gsnedders 12y ago
        It is security fixes --- there are no known security bugs in Opera 12.17 currently.
- easytiger 12y ago
  I know there is some third party code in there but this, if released in a timely fashion, is the only humane thing to do. Saved blender, for a a similar nordic oss success story
jccalhoun 12y ago
The "about" page in Opera 12 lists a lot of 3rd party stuff so even though a lot of that stuff is open source software it seems unlikely they would be able to open source everything.

Opera, please open source the discontinued Opera 12!

by rawland 12y ago

Opera, please open source the discontinued Opera 12!

rplnt 12y ago

I'm still sticking with 11/12. It's pain to use any other browser. Performance is worse, ux is worse, basic functionality is missing, weird bugs everywhere. Now I use combination of Opera, Firefox and Chrome (for js heavy apps like gmail). Eventually want to switch to Firefox. It's really sad they let everything go and made just another dumbed-down featureless browser.

anoother 12y ago
Precisely. I just tried this out. + It opened all the tabs from my Opera 12 session - It lost all my tab groups: seems it doesn't support them - It ate up RAM to the point I had trouble moving my mouse cursor I, too, still use Opera 12 everywhere it's still usable, and Chromium for the rest. I don't need a Chromium replacement. I need an Opera replacement, preferably with all the shiny new features (in terms of compatibility, standards support and performance) that Chromium has. Opera 12 isn't perfect, but if it had been in development for the period of releases 12-24, it certainly would be the only browser I'd need to use. It's a shame Opera themselves can't be motivated build a worthy upgrade to their own browser. Without Presto, and the same innovative spirit that brought us tabs, speed dial, mouse gestures, Opera Link, etc., etc., what exactly is their USP?
- rplnt 12y ago
  I think they were bought by someone (an UA or PL company I believe) and many of the core people left (or were let go). But don't quote me on this, I've just read in a random discussion as you do now.
  - tagawa 12y ago
    They weren't bought but in the past few years the CEO and founder left the company and they did make some acquisitions, including in advertising (mobile in particular) which is where a significant portion of their revenue now comes from.
- jlarocco 12y ago
  Ditto. I don't care what's underneath. If the new chrome based opera had all the features of the old opera, I would still be using it on osx, and waiting for it on linux. At this point, though, I've got so used to chrome I'm not sure I'll switch back at all.
pandler 12y ago
I jumped ship around the time 12 came out. All I remember is that despite all the cool features and my general love of the browser, the one thing it didn't seem to do well was browse a number of popular websites that I would frequent. That was the deal killer for me. What good is a browser that can't browse?
- baldfat 12y ago
  > What good is a browser that can't browse? That is the reason why they switch engines from Presto to Blink. This also caused issues with us having a Linux option.
- rplnt 12y ago
  This is true. They couldn't keep up. I've used Chrome as a side-browser for quite some time already. I understand the need to switch the rendering/js engines, but I don't understand why they couldn't give it some time and keep around what made Opera - fast and responsive full-featured browser out of the box with the ability to customize almost everything.
  - tracksmer 12y ago
    They did keep it around, though. Opera 12 is still being maintained with security fixes.
    - rplnt 12y ago
      There were only two updates I believe (in over a year). Hearbleed (update to library) and an expired certificate. I wouldn't call that maintenance or security fixes really.
      - gsnedders 12y ago
        It is security fixes --- there are no known security bugs in Opera 12.17 currently.
easytiger 12y ago
I know there is some third party code in there but this, if released in a timely fashion, is the only humane thing to do. Saved blender, for a a similar nordic oss success story

jccalhoun 12y ago

The "about" page in Opera 12 lists a lot of 3rd party stuff so even though a lot of that stuff is open source software it seems unlikely they would be able to open source everything.