Interview with Dmitry Korchagin (DG ~ SC) by Opera Mini Mod

Opera Mini is a lightweight mobile browser that compresses traffic by optimizing on its servers.
The paradox is that the program has a modification of domestic development, which is far ahead of the original in a number of functions. We interviewed the author of the program Opera Mini Mod - Dmitry Korchagin (DG ~ SC).



- Good day. Please tell us a little about yourself.
- Good =). My name is Dmitry, I am 32 years old, I live in Balakovo. Married, have a child - a daughter. I work at a brewery as a process engineer, an electronics engineer, if in a simple way. In my free time I am working on a project Opera Mini Mod.
- It is strange that you are not hiding your data, because, in fact, you are changing someone else's software, is it not entirely legal? You know how we read licenses, scrolled, agreed and happy. Have they even contacted THEY?
- It has long been the first contact on the Internet, and then accepted the “gentlemen's agreement”, that I do not distribute information about the program, such as source codes, algorithms, etc., follow their recommendations, do not delete copyrights and other attributes, and for that I don’t prosecuted under copyright laws. By the way, they were invited to work in Norway, but for family reasons they had to be abandoned ...

- Source code of the program? I thought that your improvements go at the level of modules, which can be just text files. Are you a spetsnaz who got into the office of the opera, or are there still decompilers for J2ME? The first seems to me more real: D
- You can, of course, work with compiled versions, but the complexity is great. What I do is impossible without the availability of source codes. How they are mined, by whom, when and how dark the night was, the story is silent about it;)
')
- Good: D But the opera is developing, a new version has just been released - Opera Mini (4.2) , new features have been added.
- Well, the mods are one version behind the official one. It is not casual. Or that there was no competition for versions, or because of the technical possibility, it turns out, or just an accident ... The right to emphasize :)

- Obviously, Opera would not be profitable, so that everyone would use your client, and not the official one) Although judging by the number of functions, it is far from your fashion.
- By and large, this is one and the same mini opera, so much they have nothing to be upset about. And the fact that they have fewer functions, there are reasons for everything. How much time they themselves limited the size of the program to 100Kb. All in order to be more compatible with phone models. I am not limited to such a framework, and whoever does not have something to work with, I can only sympathize, but I will not stop. It is not difficult for developers to add functionality, but by complicating the product, it is possible to reduce the audience of users and a lot of dissatisfaction in support, if something is not working like that or someone is not using something like that ...

- By the way, what are some other ideas for improvement? And is there any? =) In many projects there are some “brick fences”, when there is no place to improve the program. You do not have such a problem?
- In fact, in the opera there is already a “sucking from the finger”. Setting the time of pressing the stylus so that a context menu appears, for example. And sometimes it is really necessary, such as multi-threaded file upload =)


- Are there, so to say, competitors for fashion? Other mods? Does anyone else go to the offices of the opera at night?
- There are analogues of mini. Chinese ucweb . Someone like him, someone mini. Here is up to the user. Specifically, other mods - no.

- Yes, I have ucweb. After half an hour of trying to connect to my Chinese server, I knocked him out ... =)
- There are problems with this. And with the translation too. But people are spinning, setting up and working with them. And even arrange holivary on the topic, who is cooler :)

- Is there any income from the project?
- Income from advertising only. Nothing else is planned and the program, as it was, will remain free.

- Enough for hosting? And in particular, in Russia, is it possible to make money from distributing free mobile apps?
- Yes, I would not say that hosting was such an expensive pleasure ... I don’t know about making money.

- Is there any planned new development, own, so to speak?
- Not yet planned. This is a creative matter and to plunge headlong into one topic, and then abruptly re-tune to another - I cannot do it (or have not tried). But I do not think that it is possible to “pull” a few projects well, without oppressing any of them.

- Have you heard that Mozilla will port its engine to mobile platforms?
- And there were no attempts, was it? Some program is remembered, what a terrible brake. It was on the WinMobile platform. But, it seems, they also released something on j2me . I do not remember. Did not leave impressions, it means not worthwhile.
- And yet, people work there no less serious, and surely something interesting will work out for them. Will this "death" opera for mini? Or will people use the same things on the phone as they do on the computer (the love of the brand, so to speak)?
- Perhaps I do not question their professionalism. I'm talking about what was. The main thing is that the user does not feel dizzy from alternatives, and he would never understand that the opera is always the best 8-)
- Mozillian projects are openly open, which allows you to develop such modes with high frequency and density, will you take, or see, read, and say “opera is always better”? =)
- Openness is not always a plus. Everyone writes in that much. And users then suffer. And scold anyone? Nobody :) And then everything is clear. Or me or Opera Software ...
- Well, of course there is no one - the developer of the mod.
- And who knows? I wonder why I get so much attention. If I use the program, I have no idea who its author is.

- Which browser do you use on your mobile device?
- The last one. At the same time and see what does not work and what really would be worth adding ..

- And what are the little ideas? Flashforward for fans, let's say.
- And can you be more specific? :)

- I, for example, would be interested in some kind of interconnection with different services - it would not be bad to have some kind of “widget” system ... you choose a set of kotor when assembling. I love to read on the phone. Quick search on "lib.ru" and downloading a book, as an example of a widget.
- While there is no desire to be attached to services, if they themselves do not express their desire to cooperate ..

- And your daughter, uses your creation, at school in boring lessons, for example?
- She is only 5 years old; she is no longer interested in studying :)

- How do you assess the degree of protection of personal data of users of mini-opera (including your mod)?
- Once a question was raised about this, to which it was answered that no one steals a photo of your favorite mother-in-law from the phone :) And 3rd and 4th versions, the traffic between the program and the server is encrypted so that it does not make sense to intercept it. The server itself is owned by a company that values ​​its reputation. Of course, one cannot rule out the possibility of stealing some data, such as cookies for authorization on websites, from the Ops server. But this is without comment, because I do not know the degree of security of servers and other things. I will answer only for the program that there is no malicious code in it.
- Thank you very much for the interview, my questions are exhausted, let's follow the comments, maybe the users of Habrahabr and Treshboks have any questions for you?
- I will try to answer all the questions! :)