Opera: Rewind The Web to 1996 (Opera at 30)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Interactive “Web Rewind” experience

  • Many users initially only see a spinning 3D cassette and are confused about how to proceed.
  • Progression requires holding or tapping the spacebar; on mobile there is a “hold to rewind” button, but some ad blockers hide the cookie/GDPR banner, breaking the flow.
  • Content per year ranges from simple text-and-image vignettes to small interactive scenes (e.g., a Windows 95 desktop with dial‑up simulation). Some find it neat but ultimately “pointless” or shallow.
  • Several describe it as “soulless,” like a slick marketing piece rather than a meaningful retrospective; others defend it as a well-executed, fun interactive experience.
  • Multiple warnings about unexpectedly loud audio and poor behavior on mobile.

Privacy, telemetry & Opera’s current reputation

  • Strong criticism of present‑day Opera as “Chinese spyware” and tied to predatory lending apps.
  • A linked analysis (in German) is cited as evidence of heavy telemetry, including sending all visited domains to Opera under “safe browsing.”
  • Some argue that users already tolerate extensive data collection by US companies; others push back, calling this whataboutism and stressing that data exfiltration is bad regardless of country.
  • Chrome is also criticized for limiting encrypted history sync, nudging users toward less private defaults.

Nostalgia for classic Opera & Presto

  • Many recall Opera 3–12 as fast, lightweight, and feature‑rich, especially on low‑end hardware.
  • Frequently praised features: mouse gestures, tabbed browsing on early Windows, strong dev tools (Dragonfly), instant back button, smart “next page” heuristics, text selection behavior, and local full‑text history search.
  • Opera Mini’s compression and proxy service were valued, especially on slow connections.

Shift to Chromium & alternative browsers

  • Multiple commenters consider Opera “dead” after switching from the Presto engine to Chromium; some switched to Firefox for a non‑Chromium option.
  • Vivaldi is often called Opera’s spiritual successor (same founder/CTO), with powerful UI, tab tiling, built‑in ad blocker and mail, but it inherits Chromium’s strategic constraints (e.g., Manifest V3).
  • Some users rely heavily on Vivaldi; others report serious, unfixed tab-switching bugs and call it unreliable.
  • Otter Browser is mentioned as a more faithful but seemingly stalled successor.
  • Concerns expressed about Chromium’s dominance enabling Google to shape web standards and limit innovation.

Open‑sourcing Presto & engine diversity

  • Several wish Opera would open‑source the Presto engine now that it’s unused, seeing it as fast and standards‑compliant.
  • A source leak reportedly exists, but contributors avoid it for legal reasons; without an official release, reviving Presto is risky.
  • One former Opera employee notes the company couldn’t afford to keep Presto competitive with Google.
  • Ladybird is cited as a promising new independent engine but not yet practically usable.
  • Broader worry that only Blink/Chromium, WebKit/Safari, and a lagging Firefox are “taken seriously,” reducing competition.

Miscellaneous notes

  • Some prefer oldweb.today for an authentic “old web” experience with actual legacy browsers.
  • Comments touch on image format evolution (JPEG/GIF → WebP/AVIF/JPEG XL) and curiosity about Opera’s stance on newer formats.
  • Historical details, like a missing MySpace “Tom” photo and inaccurate dial‑up sounds, are flagged as inauthentic by nostalgists.