Opera Changes Its Mind, Will Use Blink Instead Of WebKit
Tune in tomorrow when Opera switches to Trident.
It looks like Apple is about to lose a yet another contributor, at least in the long term. After Google’s announcement that they will be moving away from WebKit, Opera Software announced that they too will contribute and use Blink to power their web browsers.
According to Opera’s Bruce Lawson, “a lot of people were worried that there would be less diversity on the Web once Opera Presto was retired, and the forking of WebKit into Blink restores that balance.”.
Guess we will have to wait and see but as far as user experience goes, anything is better than Presto.
Update: Looks like Opera knew about Blink all along.
[Thanks, Blake]
About (Author Profile)
Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism career back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.
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Go home Opera, you are drunk!
What? Opera switch to Chromium, not to pure webkit. So when Chromium move to Blink, Opera automaticly do it also. They not changed their mind, you should think before write.
You realize that Chromium is a browser and Webkit is an Engine, don’t you?
Of course. Opera 14 will be Chromium with redesigned ui.
And some unique features. But still Chromium.
Like all native Windows apps are just Windows?
Something like that. Now, they’re going to be a domesticated Chrome this time.
Chromium is set of features, which Opera may or may not reuse. And they will for sure add their own.
They do not want to loose differentiation factor.
> http://business.opera.com/press/releases/general/opera-gears-up-at-300-million-users
> 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
> 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
Opera Mobile uses Chromium. Opera desktop uses Chromium. Opera ICE apparently uses WebView (webkit) because Apple doesn’t allow third-party engines.
How has Opera changed its mind? It’s was using using everything from Chromium everywhere except on iOS where it’s using WebView, and it will be in the future.
Poor choice of headline.
Chrome for iOS uses iOS WebView so in the end we could say Opera was using also using Chromium even on iOS.
No one touched the ICE browser to know for sure anyway.
You can’t say that Opera is using Chromium on iOS when Chromium doesn’t exist on iOS (remember, webkit in Chromium is not the same as other webkit versions).
Of course one can know for sure that ICE wasn’t using a custom engine because that isn’t allowed on iOS.
Chromium doesn’t exist in iOS? What’s this??
https://itunes.apple.com/app/chrome/id535886823
I know it isn’t a custom engine.
It’s Chrome, but not based on Chromium. It’s a UI on top of iOS’s webview.
I know…
It’s Safari dressed up to look like Chrome…
Apple ensure nobody can plan on a level playingfield. Google can’t use V8, they can’t even use Nitro on iOS, just the basic Webkit webview without JS acceleration.
It’s the only way Microsoft and Apple survive, neither can exist on a level playing field, they have to stack the tables.
I know, but can you tell me wether this Safari dressed up like Chrome is part of Chromium project?
They were planning to use Blink from the start, they just couldn’t say that before Google officially announced the tech. That’s why they did it on the same day and why Lawson started his post with “It’s great to be able to talk publicly about Blink”.
Chromium STILL use Webkit (parts of)… So when they mention Webkit thay may mean Webkit used in Chromium.
Opera use Webkit WITH changes Google applay to it in Chromium.
Correct.
Opera was always using Chromium and not WebKit.
http://techie-buzz.com/browsers/opera-presto-chrome-engine-change.html
http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/300-million-users-and-move-to-webkit
Also, Opera was aware of Blink when it announced the change.
http://techie-buzz.com/opera/opera-google-blink-rendering-engine.html
“It’s great to be able to talk publicly about Blink”
This means they already knew this internally. Which means it has been the plan all along. They didn’t change their minds, they just couldn’t speak public about it.
Even if they hadn’t known, nothing really changes for Opera. They’re still using Chromium and whatever comes with it. And it’s not like Chromium is getting a new engine overnight. The first Blink version will just be Webkit with another name.
Regardless, claiming that Opera has changed its mind is just wrong.
“as far as user experience goes, anything is better than Presto”
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that. Actually I don’t understand the point at all. In what way did Presto cause a sub-par user experience?
Scroll lag and broken sites come to my mind when I think about Presto.
Bad, but genuine
I only have scrolling issues with the 2 last Opera versions on Facebook but it hapens only With hardware acceleration enabled..
Instant back (with no form reload), proper text wrapping, doesn’t crap out with 200 tabs, etc. Presto certainly had several advantages.
Don’t give importance for this, this blog went from web browser news to a public personal whining diary of the author about web browsers.
Countless issues in countless websites, to the point all elements in a given site DONT work!! Im talking from experience, it is really annoying when the whole page becomes like a static pic and sometimes reloading will fix it, sometimes stop wasting your time and get another browser to do the job.
And it happens just too very often to take it anymore.
why opera forcing me 64 bit opera, why don’t they give option to download 32 bit opera ?
http://get.geo.opera.com/pub/opera/win/1215/int/
thanx.
Hmm, now I wonder if Opera will ditch 64 bit support on Windows since there is no Chromium build for that
This could be the big jump or could be the big fail for OPERA. Just need to wait
It’s not even a jump. The big jump was Webkit. Blink is just Webkit with a new name at this point.
The big jump is that now Apple doesn’t control the game and they’ll be able to remove the bloat from WebKit to make Blink. *-*
“anything is beter than Presto”
Really? YOu are Drunk.
Vygantas is really embarrassing himself now. Opera have only ever stated they were usiing Chromium base, which AT THE TIME was Webkit, and this is NOW Blink.
Quite clearly Opera knew Google’s plans, but weren’t able to say anything, and idiots like yourself just filled in the gaps and made yourself look rather silly.
You really out to pack this in, you are an embarrassment,. You fanboyism whilst originally hilarious is now embarrassing.