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http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2013/02/13/

Opera Software today announced reaching the milestone of 300 million monthly users across all its browser products on phones, tablets, TVs and computers.

"300 million marks the first lap, but the race goes on," says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "On the final stretch up to 300 million users, we have experienced the fastest acceleration in user growth we have ever seen. Now, we are shifting into the next gear to claim a bigger piece of the pie in the smartphone market."

To provide a leading browser on Android and iOS, 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.

"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," says CTO of Opera Software, Håkon Wium Lie. "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."

The first look at what Opera is bringing to the smartphone game as a result of this switch will be shown at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month, with a preview of its upcoming browser for Android.

"Opera is also experimenting with WebKit in several research and development projects, and many of you got a peek of one of them, codenamed ‘ICE’, last month. As a leading innovator in browsers, we are very excited that ICE received such great buzz. We will provide more information about ICE and other exciting R&D projects in the future, but as we are also really proud of our new browser on Android and our Opera Web Pass operator offering, those products will be the main focus at MWC," says Wium Lie. "The shift to WebKit means more of our resources can be dedicated to developing new features and the user-friendly solutions that can be expected from a company that invented so many of the features that are today being used by everyone in the browser industry."

Not sure about how I feel about this. Presto has been super reliable for me and has never let me down in all the years I've been an Opera user.

Now, how long until Mozilla makes the jump from Gecko to Webkit?

 

[Alx]

Hm, so what could be the consequences for us Opera users ? Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

 

[TUSR]

My brain is having troubles comprehending Opera hitting 300m users/month.

 

[Zaptruder]

Hm, so what could be the consequences for us Opera users ? Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

Sounds like better compatibility for Opera users, and better reliability for webkit/chromium based OSes.

 

[moniker]

As a web developer, I say this is a good thing.

 

[Lagspike_exe]

My brain is having troubles comprehending Opera hitting 300m users/month.

There's a bunch of people with old Nokias.

 

[grumpy]

Hm, so what could be the consequences for us Opera users ? Is it a good thing or a bad thing ?

Thanks to iOS and Android and the fact that Chrome is the dominant web browser on PCs, all modern websites are created with webkit compatibility in mind.

 

[TUSR]

Thanks to iOS and Android and the fact that Chrome is the dominant web browser on PCs, all modern websites are created with webkit compatibility in mind.

Opera is losing its GIF playing ability?

 

[MrGreencastle]

Opera is losing its GIF playing ability?

Lol. So true. I use IE10 to browse gaf just because Chrome can barely handle the GIFs.

 

[moniker]

Opera is losing its GIF playing ability?

It's probably a Chrome issue and not a Webkit issue since GIFs are fine in Safari as far I know.

 

[ClosingADoor]

So we have Webkit, Gecko and IE left. Seems good to me. I think three is enough. Not too little to risk losing competition and innovation and not too much to make it unworkable for developers.

 

[volturnus]

They should be focusing on fixing memory leakage; I had to downgrade back to 11.64 for this reason.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Opera has a lot of very cool features and is easily the best-looking browser but it's hard to customize and lots of things I like in Firefox just don't exist with Opera (drag and drop to save pictures, odd tab behaviour, etc.)

 

[bbyybb]

Whilst it is a shame for them to lose their own engine, perhaps this will be better for them in the long run.

I wonder when this will be available on the desktop also.

 

[DieH@rd]

I'm a faithful Opera user for 5+ years now, best browser.

 

[Somnid]

I still use -o- css properties and js functions but I imagine most weren't (since every tutorial is about Chrome) and Opera was just getting the shit end of the not-really-standard-but-we'll-use-it-anyway types of cutting edge web design.

 

[NekoFever]

It's probably a Chrome issue and not a Webkit issue since GIFs are fine in Safari as far I know.

I've been having problems with garbled GIFs in Safari pretty much since Mountain Lion came out.

 

[AFollowerNotALeader]

I've been using Opera for a long time now and don't really mind them switching rendering engines so long as browser features like per site preferences stay in.

 

[IceCold]

The only people I know who use Opera are Russians.

 

[FyreWulff]

Still amazing to me that so many browsers are essentially Konqueror/Safari now.

 

[Kinky John]

I've been using Opera since v5; I even paid to remove the ads back then. It's sad to see it become Justanotherwebkitbrowser™.

 

[FyreWulff]

I've been using Opera since v5; I even paid to remove the ads back then. It's sad to see it become Justanotherwebkitbrowser™.

Now the User Agent string is even MORE useless!

 

[Black Republican]

went from firefox to opera and never looked back

thank you based god

 

[moniker]

I still use -o- css properties and js functions but I imagine most weren't (since every tutorial is about Chrome) and Opera was just getting the shit end of the not-really-standard-but-we'll-use-it-anyway types of cutting edge web design.

The could have just dropped the prefixes for the usual stuff if that was a big problem.

 

[MrCunningham]

Woah... I almost forgot that Opera existed... let alone hit the 300 Million user mark.

Switching to Webkit can't be a bad thing though, it will definitely help make web designers lives a little easier.

 

[pants]

Are they at least going to open source presto??

 

[soundahfekz]

i got through 75% of this story reading "oprah". what the fuck is wrong with me

 

[quaere]

I'm relieved Opera Ice doesn't appear to be the primary browser for Android. Not at all sold that gesture only is the most efficient interface for a mobile browser.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Lol. So true. I use IE10 to browse gaf just because Chrome can barely handle the GIFs.

have you done this?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502191

 

[pestul]

have you done this?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502191

Yeah, I've done it and it still isn't as good as Opera for gif performance (on a low spec netbook or something that is).

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Misread it as Oprah; changes the entire meaning.

 

[Polari]

Makes sense. Not sure how much benefit there is in developing and maintaining their own engine. Hopefully this means WebKit will see some substantial improvements too. Kind of nuts when you think about how it started out as a minor component of the KDE desktop on Linux, and now it's being actively developed by Apple, Google, Opera and Blackberry among others as well as being shipped on hundreds of millions of devices.

 

[samus i am]

I might be switching back to opera soon.

 

[Bullza2o]

Opera is my main browser, but I do have Chrome, IE10, and FF installed, each with its own specific purposes.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Semi mixed feelings about this but I'm at least glad Opera is trying to stay relevant.

 

[WickedCobra03]

My brain is having troubles comprehending Opera hitting 300m users/month.

They are more popular in europe I think. Anyway, I definitely use opera probably on a daily or bi-daily basis.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Further reading and reactions:

QuirksMode
Bruce Lawson (Opera)
Christian Heilmann (Mozilla)
John Resig (jQuery)

 

[Why would you do that?]

Ugh I don't like WebKit. It always finds a new way to let me down. It's the big reason why I prefer Opera over Chrome, actually.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Ugh I don't like WebKit. It always finds a new way to let me down. It's the big reason why I prefer Opera over Chrome, actually.

Good news! WebKit will get even better now!

 

[Galang]

I misread this as Oprah somehow. Completely forgot about this browser

 

[kehs]

I retired oprah about a month ago.

Fucking Google and their god damn locking me in to their god damn services.

rip mouse gestures =(

 

[ThatObviousUser]

I retired oprah about a month ago.

Fucking Google and their god damn locking me in to their god damn services.

rip mouse gestures =(

All according to keikaku.

 

[Why would you do that?]

Good news! WebKit will get even better now!

Not feeling too optimistic since it didn't seem to get much better after Chrome, but here's hoping...

To be fair, the web sites it fails me on haven't been updated in years, but it still pains me every time I use it.

 

[injurai]

Wow, I may switch back to Opera. Been rooted into chrome for a while, can't stand IE and Firefox (not speed, just shortcuts and usability) but I think I could get used to their gestures again.

 

[JaggedSac]

So we have Webkit, Gecko and IE left. Seems good to me. I think three is enough. Not too little to risk losing competition and innovation and not too much to make it unworkable for developers.

Agreed. As long as WebKit follows W3C standards, it should not be an issue, but we don't want another IE problem where devs target a rendering engine instead of a set of standards.

 

[Barkley's Justice]

Man, thank goodness.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Opera is the best. I love mouse gestures and the speed dial.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Not feeling too optimistic since it didn't seem to get much better after Chrome, but here's hoping...

Erm, standards support got a fair bit better.

 

[Little Old Man]

Opera Turbo was a lifesaver when I was stuck on a 3G dongle for several weeks. Saved so much money in data usage.

Dat speed dial!

 

[injurai]

Do we have an ETA on this implementation?