Presto engine

[vikingen]

vikingen last edited by

Originally posted by blackbird71:

Originally posted by Vikingen:

I'm thinking that it would be better to give away the source code instead of burying it. Opera Software lose either way.

Think it all the way through. If Opera were to give away Presto to be open source, what would it accomplish? Gain the undying gratitude of what it currently believes is a small component of the market's user base? Perhaps. But for sure and for certain, it will cause to come into existence new browser (and other kinds of software) designs from a variety of directions. And, whether good designs or not, those will act to compete in the marketplace for the marketshare that Opera is already trying to increase with its Blink browsers and remaining Presto products. Apart from a sudden burst of altruism, why would any company freely release code it had spent years and lots of money to develop with the only real prospect of that being increased competition for that company's remaining products? This is one of the key reasons Microsoft has never released any of its old operating systems into the public domain - not even DOS.

Opera has to compete with other browsers regardless. If other companies moved to Presto, at least Opera would compete on a platform they know. Perhaps competing on the Presto platform wouldn't be an advantage for Opera, but at least the best platform would win.

Microsoft and DOS is different. Microsoft never had the choice between releasing DOS or converting. Microsoft have no reason to release DOS because DOS is obsolete. And Microsoft would lose money if they released old Windows versions because some people would use them instead of buying win 8. Opera Software don't offer a new browser for money so they would not lose money by releasing Presto. Presto is not technically obsolete, it's going obsolete only because no one will continue to support it.

By the way, are Blink and WebKit related?

[frenzie]

frenzie last edited by

Originally posted by Vikingen:

By the way, are Blink and WebKit related?

For pretty much all intents and purposes, Blink is still a variety of Webkit. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(layout_engine)

[greekonsun]

greekonsun last edited by

Originally posted by booBot:

If they bury the Presto/Caracan - it will be the silliest thing to do ever!

more like dumbest thing

// to others above
at least Open sourcing would allow people to have branched off version of Opera
just like other browsers based on Mozilla branched off Firefox which is another disaster now

if they gonna throw it away, why waste it when can be saved and blossom in something great ?
unless Google payed them off somehow to do it on purpose

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

Originally posted by Vikingen:

...Opera has to compete with other browsers regardless. If other companies moved to Presto, at least Opera would compete on a platform they know. Perhaps competing on the Presto platform wouldn't be an advantage for Opera, but at least the best platform would win.

Microsoft and DOS is different. Microsoft never had the choice between releasing DOS or converting. Microsoft have no reason to release DOS because DOS is obsolete. And Microsoft would lose money if they released old Windows versions because some people would use them instead of buying win 8. Opera Software don't offer a new browser for money so they would not lose money by releasing Presto. Presto is not technically obsolete, it's going obsolete only because no one will continue to support it. ...

You're mixing two different issues: whether Opera should release Presto to open source, and whether Opera should continue basing its browsers on Presto.

If Opera attempted to somehow make it more economical to maintain Presto as a browser base by releasing it to open source, Opera would then have to sit back and wait for "other companies to move to Presto" to gain anything... which could take eons (in "Internet-years") to achieve. But with Opera remaining in the Presto game, a major incentive for others to enter that game would evaporate, since they would be starting "behind the curve" compared with Opera's Presto experience. In the meantime, Opera would lose any revenue they receive from licensing Presto to customers for other apps. Moreover, to release Presto into public domain with any hope of gaining adherents that could contribute meaningfully, Opera would likely incur significant overhead costs (documentation especially). Managing open-source code (and all the ensuing forks) has its own costs, downsides, and compatibility nightmares.

Microsoft and DOS are not different, in terms of how a company that expends resources to develop code views it. Companies, in writing and testing solid code at great expense, develop algorithms and techniques that are proprietary to them. Some of that resides in the limitations of the codebase being written, but some of it lives on in the general way a given technique unfolds and becomes grafted-in to a new codebase, should the codebase be changed. Moreover, codebase transitions are rarely "instantaneous"... Windows, after adopting the GUI interface, used DOS elements for many years embedded within. This was just one aspect of proprietary techniques having a life well beyond their original paradigm. Companies understand this quite well, at least companies that survive for very long.

Opera makes money from its browsers in several ways. By licensing pre-load versions to phone makers, by renting out preferential positioning (for search engines, Discover content, SpeedDial defaults, etc), and by licensing use of its code. The greater the market share of its browsers, the higher the rates it can charge and the greater the usage-related payments. So anything Opera might do to increase competitor browsers will act to decrease their own market share and revenue, regardless of whether or not the browser is free. It's how the free-browser market actually works. In some cases, companies that have gigantic business bases in other arenas may offer free browsers for publicity purposes or to enhance their other business areas, but Opera has never been one of those companies... it has to deal with the realities of its own position in the browser markets.

In any case, the reality is that Opera has moved away from Presto in its browsers. That is an essentially irreversible business decision. Whether it ever releases Presto to open source obviously remains to be seen, but I seriously doubt it will ever happen, simply for the economic reasons I've noted.

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

Originally posted by greekonsun:

...at least Open sourcing would allow people to have branched off version of Opera
just like other browsers based on Mozilla branched off Firefox which is another disaster now

if they gonna throw it away, why waste it when can be saved and blossom in something great ?
unless Google payed them off somehow to do it on purpose

Unlike the original Mozilla Foundation, Opera is not in a business of developing code and giving it away free for the world to use. As with all private-enterprise, for-profit companies, it's in the business of making money for its investors (without which there would be no incentive for investor folk to have risked their money in the first place). As such, Opera has to look at things from the perspective of what decisions and actions will enhance its economic and financial positions and offer the best chances of achieving gains for its stockholders.

We may disagree with choices Opera makes in carrying out its business objectives, and we may believe we have very good reasons for disagreeing, but we have not been charged by Opera's owners (its stockholders) with performing financial diligence with their investment. That battle, if any, lies between Opera's stockholders and Opera's business managers. Put simply, it is none of our business, unless we are stockholders.

[vikingen]

vikingen last edited by

Originally posted by blackbird71:

Originally posted by Vikingen:

......

........

Thanks for replying, I get it now. You understand it better than me it seems.

[d1sasterp1ece]

d1sasterp1ece last edited by

Originally posted by RoadHazard:

Moving to Webkit/Blink was a good idea, it will ensure great compatibility and allow the Opera devs to focus on browser features rather than engine development. They just need to get the features back in there.

That has proven to be wrong for now - five versions later we still have an almost featureless browser. A pinch of this, a pinch of that, that red icon over Chromium and presto! (pun intended), they call it Opera.

[greekonsun]

greekonsun last edited by

IE 6 and "new" Opera should share same place for being one of worst apps ever made