Opera adopts Webkit engine and fires 91 employees

Posted on Tuesday, February 19 2013 @ 14:51 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Opera logo
Opera Software announced its future browsers will no longer use the company's self-made Presto render-engine. Instead, Opera will adopt Webkit, the same engine used by Chrome, Safari and other browsers, and V8 as its JavaScript engine. One of the implications though is that around 91 people were let go:
“It makes more sense to have our experts working with the open source communities to further improve WebKit and Chromium rather than developing our own rendering engine further,” said Opera chief technical officer Håkon Wium Lie.

“Opera will contribute to the WebKit and Chromium projects, and we have already submitted our first set of patches to improve multi-column layout.”

While some developers were sacked in the switch, others working on Presto chose to leave of their own accord when their skill sets and job descriptions became less than useful to the company.
Source: VentureBeat


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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