
Opera 12.15 source code - randomerr
https://github.com/OtterBrowser/otter-browser/issues/1238
======
antr
It has been taken down, but there is a mirror in Bitbucket:
[https://bitbucket.org/prestocore-
fan/presto/](https://bitbucket.org/prestocore-fan/presto/)

~~~
superkuh
Bitbucket has been taken down but someone made a torrent/magnet of
opera12v15presto.tar.gz,

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:C34ZPHM4A27XDGR5QYMZHPIBNYJ5A6EAC34ZPHM4A27XDGR5QYMZHPIBNYJ5A6EA

~~~
Mithaldu
And another mirror:
[https://notabug.org/141243/presto](https://notabug.org/141243/presto)

------
captainmuon
While I doubt this could be spun into a usable browser - legal issues aside, a
lot has changed on the modern web, and the opera devs probably abandoned the
old engine for a reason - I still greatly enjoy this leak. Even just out of
defiance. I am a very defiant person ;-). I also long for the days where a
browser fit on a floppy, and a small team could implement one from scratch.

~~~
pmlnr
The browser part I don't care. I want the mail client natively on linux from
it :)

~~~
StavrosK
I would pay for that.

~~~
walkingolof
[https://vivaldi.com/](https://vivaldi.com/)

Will pretty soon add a email client to their browser.

~~~
StavrosK
I'm already using Vivaldi, hopefully the mail client will be good. Vivaldi
isn't as fast as Opera was, but the web isn't what it used to be either...

------
akmittal
It is taken down by github now. Opera will be taking legal step.

There is mirror at [https://bitbucket.org/prestocore-
fan/presto/](https://bitbucket.org/prestocore-fan/presto/)

~~~
blauditore
Quite interestingly, most files have a git timestamp from June 1995. Why is
this?

~~~
gsnedders
It's odd; my first guess was Opera 1.0 release date, but that's in April. When
it comes to arbitrary dates to use as the commit date, I have no idea why that
was chosen. Maybe it'd make sense to someone with the actual VCS history!

~~~
spencerhakim
There are only a handful of actual commits on the repo: two from 1995, and the
rest from 4 days ago. It would seem that someone had a tarball of the source
and specifically choose to backdate the commit, for whatever reason.

------
falloutx
Its fascinating that author `prestocore` posted this on Feb 11, 2016 and it
remained un-noticed for about a year.

~~~
akmittal
That's kinda weird, If anyone leaks won't he post it on HN/Reddit immediately.

~~~
niutech
FYI: The leak first appeared on Reddit on Jan 12, 2017:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/comments/5nk69m/presto...](https://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/comments/5nk69m/presto_engine_source_code_available_on_github/)

------
patall
Maybe this is not the right point to ask this but are there any (even) bigger
leaks of close-source software that have appeared? I always wondered what
would happen if parts of Windows or Google search engine became public.

~~~
mid-kid
Usually it's old software that gets leaked. Windows NT4 source code has leaked
before, amongst others. It doesn't have much of an impact at that point,
except for enthousiasts.

------
StevePerkins
So much salty hate for Opera in this thread! Personally, I think it's current
incarnation is pretty awesome. I'm a bit uneasy about the Chinese company that
bought it, and I'm keeping my eyes open for bad behavior, but right now I love
the direction that the actual browser has taken.

Old-school Opera fans say that it's just Chrome with a power-user skin slapped
on top. Well... yeah, exactly! It has none of the compatibility issues that
dogged old-school Opera for years, but it's a million times better than plain
Chrome. Plus, the bookmarks and settings sync service doesn't flake out once a
month like Google's and Firefox's does. Easy sync between desktop and mobile,
and Opera is by far the most performant mobile browser.

I totally get that there's a hardcore audience who liked the old built-in
desktop email client, or some of the UI quirks that differ from Chrome or
Firefox. However, surely you have accept that these are fringe minority
preferences (even Mozilla spun off its integrated email client, and keeps
talking about dropping support altogether). Besides, if you really want those
things then Vivaldi is re-implementing them anyway.

~~~
paxcoder
One hour after you've posted this comment, I went through every single comment
in the thread and found 1 (one) negative comment about Opera. Considering
that, wouldn't you say it's fair to say that your comment is bait?

~~~
StevePerkins
This probably should have been a reply underneath "akmittal"'s top-level
comment, since I'm referring to two or three replies he received.

His comment was one of the first things posted. So at the time of MY comment,
that was very much the tone of this thread.

The direction of the conversation has changed since then, which probably
explains why my comment has gone from 15 upvotes to zero. However, it was
clearly not bait at the time.

~~~
paxcoder
Under drinkjuice's reply to akmittal yes, that's the one comment I'm referring
to. But one does not "so much" make.

~~~
StevePerkins
Sigh.

[1] " _' They' are not even 'they' anymore. At this point, Opera is pretty
much just a brand name making a mockery of the former program._"

[2] " _That the fork will outcompete current Blink-based Opera?_ "

[3] " _they would risk competitor using 1 /4 memory, loading instantly, and
with zero UI latency(load 40 tabs in anything Chromelike and then try
fullscreening YT video- takes almost one second)._"

Again, at the time of my comment there were only 7 or 8 in the thread
altogether. So... "so much", then.

If you wish, you could quibble over whether these are sufficiently "salty". I
don't care if our opinions differ. Regardless, you're implying that a positive
counterpoint to negativity over Opera is out of place here, and that's
nonsense.

------
akmittal
Just wondering what Opera will loose open sourcing it? They are not using it
anymore.

~~~
wazoox
As often with proprietary source code, it may include some third-party code or
libraries that they have no right to redistribute, for example. To "free" a
repository, you must first audit the code for 3rd-party code and check the
legal status of this code, and you may need to replace it with a free
replacement, and find a license compatible with all the code. That may
represent a significant effort, with associated costs...

~~~
Asooka
But if it was taken by a third party, Opera aren't distributing anything, are
they?

~~~
xeromal
They probably have to do their due diligence to get it back or they are held
liable. Who knows though.

------
niutech
This leak first appeared on Reddit on Jan 12, 2017:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/comments/5nk69m/presto...](https://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/comments/5nk69m/presto_engine_source_code_available_on_github/)

------
citrusui
Very interesting! Though I can only think of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U as
products that still use the Presto engine.

~~~
gsnedders
The 3DS and Wii U use some WebKit fork; they don't use Presto.

Opera Mini still uses Presto, and there are some TVs which in principle are
still supported that use Presto.

~~~
Spinfusor
Both consoles use NetFront (from Access)

~~~
gsnedders
Which is nowadays based on some fork of WebKit.

------
mschuster91
Only 110 MB of _source_ code. Google Chrome _binary_ weighs 60.5 MB (OS X
version).

That's what I call a difference.

~~~
abc_lisper
Don't know if you are joking, I remember in 2006, Opera was 3.5 MB download,
and 5MB including mail client.

I haven't used Opera recently, but AFAIK it was the smallest browser, by far.

~~~
zymhan
Their point is that the compiled version of Chrome is barely half as big as
all of Opera's source code. Meaning Chrome is very big.

~~~
abc_lisper
Hmm. I am not following. Binaries are typically much larger than source
code(because libraries etc). Am I wrong here?

~~~
ezdiy
The answer is - it's sorta comparing apples and oranges - libraries, or
general C++ inlining cruft can inflate the binary size a lot indeed.

A much fairer comparison is to compare source side by side. Chromium source is
about 4x larger than operas, when not counting any 3rd party dependencies.

Or even better, compile times. Chromium build (or firefox) is half a day job
on mid-range laptop (especially with 4/8G memory).

Opera builds in about 20 minutes. I was also pleasently surprised the codebase
is not particularly bitrotten, and both VS2015 and modern gcc could cope with
it.

~~~
gsnedders
Opera used a relatively small subset of C++ for compatibility with some
diabolical compilers for embedded devices, so in a sense it's less surprising
that modern compilers had no problem: there's very little complex going on.

------
nialv7
Obviously we cannot modify this code base and then redistribute it.

But what if we only distribute the patches? Would there still be legal issues?

------
nkkollaw
If opera did a good job syncing extensions, I would switch right away.

Opera Neon is an awesome experiment. There are a few things I don't like, like
no full path in the address bar, and no shortcut to switch tabs (I might have
missed it, though), but how often do browser innovate the way Opera Neon has?

~~~
campuscodi
Innovate...?!?! It replaced tabs with circles and moved the sidebar from the
top to the right. Under the hood, it's still a Chromium browser.

~~~
nkkollaw
The experience is totally different, and very polished.

------
integricho
Would it be possible, despite the licensing issues to resume development on it
by the community, now that the source has leaked?

~~~
tazjin
Probably not. Any fork developed out in the open would be targeted by Opera's
lawyers.

~~~
niutech
Unlike developing patches (eg. using `diff -e`), which do not contain
copyrighted code.

------
unexistance
ha

Using Opera 12.xx I can download the zip from bitbucket bypassing the captcha

I love the 12-series Opera, hate it when they jump to Chrome-engine, tho
understandably T_T

------
rasz_pl
Did YC get DMCA too? because this story vanished from /news (checked all 11
pages)

~~~
grzm
Unlikely, given you just commented on it. It may have received flags from
users, which will cause it to go down in the rankings, even prior to receiving
a '[flagged]' tag.

As of this comment, it's ranked 308, on page 11:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/news?p=11](https://news.ycombinator.com/news?p=11)

------
inthewoods
I've actually been testing Opera on my 2015 MBP because Chrome was draining my
battery in about 2 hours and Safari doesn't work for me for a variety of
reasons. I've found Opera to be the most power-efficient browser short of
Safari, and miles ahead of Chrome and Firefox - but I'm curious if others have
this same experience.

~~~
KORraN
The Opera you talk about is not the Opera that was leaked (unless you
installed quite old version on purpose).

