The loud history of the Opera browser

At a time when the open spaces of the Global Network were plowed only by selected users, ordinary citizens didn’t suspect that in a couple of years they would be told: “Welcome to the club!”. Companies that believed in a bright future, tried to quickly draw them into the great web.

One of these companies was the Norwegian Telenor (until 1995 - Televerket). Its employees Stephenson von Techner and Geir Ivarsoy developed a special system for collecting and processing ODA data. However, in 1993 they switched to a new task - the creation of a personal website for the company. For that time it was quite a bold and innovative solution.
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In the process, they actively used the Mosaic Internet browser, which was the most popular at the time. Soon, Techner and Ivarsoi concluded that it was not suitable for surfing the Web. The development team initiated the creation of a new browser that would allow to solve several of the most urgent tasks at that time:

• Correct viewing of pages and documents;

• Fast speed of receiving information from the Network;

• Ease and convenience of work;

• Small size of the program and installation package;

• Minimum resource requirements;

• Massive use.

The management of the telecommunication company turned out to be rather far-sighted and approved a non-profile, but very promising project.

From MultiTorg to Opera Software

The zero version of Opera's browser can be considered MultiTorg, which appeared in 1993. This browser was just designed for the needs of the company Telenor, and not for mass distribution.

However, MultiTorg has become a good base for Opera. The source code of the browser was written in C ++ without the use of third-party APIs, the system requirements were minimal even for machines of that time.

MultiTorg Opera 1.0 was introduced in 1995, after which experts predicted a great future.



Inspired by favorable reviews, on August 30, 1995, Jon Stephenson von Techner (left) and Geir Ivarsøy (right) left Telenor and created their own, Opera Software AS. Their transition took place without any particular difficulties, since they had exclusive rights to the development. The first release released within the walls of the new company was given at the mercy of trusted professionals.

Releases

In 1996, the next release appeared. Opera 2.1 came out as shareware. Users had 90 days to evaluate the functionality of the program for free. For the further use of the program it was proposed to pay a certain amount.

Such a proposal was not greeted with hostility, since the browser did an excellent job with fast loading of web pages, which was at that time the main sign of success.
In the past century, the problem of downloading sites was the cornerstone of the entire Internet industry.

The third version of the browser turned out to be more reliable and undemanding to resources. PC 386 and 6 MB on the hard disk was enough to freely use all the functions of the browser. In addition, Opera 3 has the opportunity to work in multiple windows, auto-complete forms and support for the TSL security protocol.

In the fourth version, the settings system was improved, an e-mail client appeared, and, most importantly, cross-platform functionality was implemented.

In 2000, the company released Opera 5.0. The browser has added support for the IRC client.

Another innovation was the mouse gestures. For that time, this was a completely new technology. Since the fifth version, the support of the Russian language has been added. The terms of the shareware license were replaced with the obligatory display of banners with advertising. The browser has become completely free.

By the time of the sixth release, Opera was already considered a worthy competitor to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Among the main innovations of the sixth version were Unicode support and user panel modification.

In 2003-2004, the confrontation with Microsoft reached its apogee. Just at this time, the seventh version of Opera was released with the new Presto engine, improved support for CSS, client scripts and the DOM interface. In addition, support for dynamic layers and a master password have been added to the browser.



In August 2004, limited alpha testing of Opera 7.6 began. The list of executable web standards has been expanded, voice control and VoiceXML support added.

Conflicts with Microsoft

It all started back in 2001, when Microsoft blocked access to MSN.com for users running third-party browsers, including Opera. Access to the site was open only to Internet Explorer users. After a wave of indignation from anti-monopoly organizations, Microsoft removed this restriction.

In 2003, MSN.com was configured to distort the display of site content for Opera users - as if they worked under older versions of Internet Explorer. The remaining browsers received an adequate image corresponding to the display of pages in the latest version of Internet Explorer. The outdated markup code caused some important page elements to be shifted 30 pixels to the left. The impression was that the reason for this lies in the browser errors.

Opera developers turned to Microsoft for help, but received no response. Then they publicly accused the corporation of misbehavior, but Microsoft rejected all charges of malicious intent.

In response, Opera Software released build 7.02 Borg Edition, which normally displayed all sites except for MSN.com, the menu of which was distorted and unreadable.
After that, Microsoft made the necessary changes on its servers, and Opera seventh version began to display pages in the same way as the latest version of Internet Explorer.



In November 2004, Opera Software sent an e-mail to a Microsoft office complaining that Opera’s owners receive an incomplete JavaScript file on the Hotmail mail service. This led to the fact that users could not empty the basket of unnecessary correspondence. Following this, Opera Software sent a regular letter to Microsoft.

However, the corporation did not respond to these requests and did not make corrections to the Hotmail service.

Dawn

On April 19, 2005, Opera 8.0 was released, which to this day is considered the best of all versions of this browser: a new kernel, improved JavaScript support, the ability to download from torrents, voice control.

Version 8.0 introduces support for SVG 1.1 Tiny. Opera has become the first browser compatible with this graphic format. Also there was a presentation mode (Opera Show), in which you could view an HTML or XML document in full screen without displaying the program interface elements.

With the release of Opera 8.5 (September 20, 2005), Opera Software has announced that the browser will be completely free and ad-free. Among the innovations: security fixes and the ability of the user to correct incorrectly rendered pages.



In the ninth version, the developers paid great attention to security, reliability and privacy. Thus, in Opera 9.0, anti-phishing protection was enhanced, the kernel was reworked, work stability was improved, and dangerous vulnerabilities were eliminated.
In Opera 9.x, thirteen vulnerabilities were identified. All thirteen developers managed to eliminate.

When you visit protected pages, Opera encodes the information received and transmitted using high-security protocols: SSL 3 or TLS. Information about enabling protection is displayed in the address bar of the browser. The user can click on the button that appears there and check if the page is not fraudulent or created for phishing. The user can turn on automatic page checking for “phishing”, but by default this option is inactive.

And the Arche Twist group even released the OperaTor software bundle, intended for anonymous surfing the Internet. It includes the Opera browser, the Tor anonymous client and the Polipo virtual proxy server. Anonymized work on the HTTP and HTTPS protocols.

Decline in popularity

In the 10th version, there was a new design of the browser, visual tabs, Opera Turbo. In the 11th version, support for extensions was implemented. In the 12th version of the improved technology of working with the camera. Moreover, Opera 12 was the latest version, which was implemented on the engine Presto.

Then began to experience some decline in popularity. The world has entered the era of “fast Internet”, and the speed of loading pages and the ability to view them until full load (Opera’s main trump cards) have ceased to play a decisive role.


From the 13th version, browser developers switched from Presto to Chromium, after which they significantly reduced their staff.

All subsequent versions came out already on the basis of "non-native" Chromium. According to popular belief, since that time Opera has lost its individuality.

There is life in the old dog yet

In September 2016, Opera released a desktop browser with a built-in VPN function. This contributed to the growth of the audience: the browser received two million new users, which was an absolute record for the company.

“If people knew how the Internet really works, I’m sure they would all use a VPN. By making our browser-based VPN free and easy to use, we hope that VPN will become an indispensable feature for users, ”said Christian Colondra, senior vice president of Opera.

According to the developers of the browser, the most pressing issue when creating a new version was the protection of personal information in the network. That is why they have built free and not collecting VPN logs into the browser, saving users from unnecessary costs and difficulties associated with installing and configuring third-party VPN.



In order to confirm the demand for the built-in VPN service, the developers conducted a global survey of ten thousand Opera users:

Chinese partners

In July, a consortium of Chinese companies led by Qihoo 360 acquired Opera browser and a number of other assets, including the brand name, for $ 600 million. Qihoo 360 is known in China for its online store of mobile applications and antivirus software. The consortium also includes Kunlun and Golden Brick and Yonglian investment funds.



Earlier this year, the Norwegian company tried to sell the entire consortium of all the assets for $ 1.2 billion, but the deal did not take place. According to the new agreement, a large part of the company, the mobile and desktop versions of the famous Opera browser, which occupies 10% of the mobile market, comes into the ownership of the consortium.

The company has two ecosystems: Opera Apps & Games and Opera TV. Of the 1669 personnel, 560 employees will remain.

The Opera TV division brought the company revenue of $ 616 million per year. According to Opera, this represents three-quarters of all revenue. Be that as it may, Opera’s browser was the company's flagship product.

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After the transition of Opera to the Chromium engine, it appeared that this browser has no future. However, it is still evolving. Perhaps the direction of development has changed, but its history continues.