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The source code to one of TPFC's beloved browsers is now on some code sharing sites. Opera Presto v12.15 (not v12.18) has been leaked, probably by a disgruntled, former Opera employee.

Read more about it on BleepingComputer:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... ks-online/

Amazing. Was wondering if such a thing would happen. According to the the user's Github profile the repo was updated 2016-02-24, so it's possible it's just been sitting there for a year unnoticed.

Patches: https://github.com/PrestoXen/openopera-patches
Issue Tracker: https://github.com/PrestoXen/openopera-issues/issues
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/WV9s9uw
IRC Channel: #NuOpera on irc.shadowfire.org
Webchat: https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.shad ... g/#NuOpera

@Zero3K
Thanks for the useful links!

May sound exciting to Opera 12 fans like me. But what could be the actual use of the leaked code? Making good ol' Presto compatible with state-of-the-art web technology might be a lot of work. Last but not least, hosting the code and even using it in a software release would be illegal.

Emka wrote:... Last but not least, hosting the code and even using it in a software release would be illegal.

• 

• 

Midas wrote:

Emka wrote:... Last but not least, hosting the code and even using it in a software release would be illegal.

• 

• 

I agree with that quote.

Yeah, well. Not that I consider this leak inherently and morally evil. Hope that's clear. Still, according to the news mentioned in the first post, lawsuits were already filed. So I think the question what the actual use of the code will be is appropriate - regardless of what I or you or we consider freedom - as long as Opera Software ASA holds certain rights it can exercise - no matter if I or you or we consider that appropriate/justified/whatever.

I guess my interest is if someone or a team of hacker enthusiasts can reverse-engineer the Presto code so it can be brought up to current web standards, Opera Presto would still be a viable, alternative browser in a small package.

Although, Firefox is probably the best browser as far as customization goes and for security and privacy advocates like myself.

freakazoid wrote:I guess my interest is if someone or a team of hacker enthusiasts can reverse-engineer the Presto code so it can be brought up to current web standards, Opera Presto would still be a viable, alternative browser in a small package.

It's unlikely. Implementing support for all the new web standards Presto doesn't support requires much more manpower than a team of hackers would have. Just look at how badly Pale Moon is struggling: they suffer for severe compatibility issues because they're too far behind Firefox, and websites detect PM as Firefox and attempt to use features which Firefox has but PM doesn't.

Note: this problem wouldn't exist if the sites used feature detection instead, as they should. Quoting Pale Moon release notes page:

Moonchild wrote: HTML offers plenty of ways to do proper feature detection; site owners should use them.
Seriously people, it was a bad idea 20 years ago, and it's a worse idea in 2016.

SYSTEM wrote:Note: this problem wouldn't exist if the sites used feature detection instead, as they should.

• Just a note to point out that -- although intended for Gecko based browsers -- there is something agreeing with you at http://geckoisgecko.org/...

emka wrote: ... what could be the actual use of the leaked code?

It might be something developers can draw from since it's probably some extraordinary work that inspired the kind of love I saw for Presto. Even a cursory look at our site reveals Opera was the favorite program of at least 5 of our regulars for years.

emka wrote: Making good ol' Presto compatible with state-of-the-art web technology might be a lot of work.

SYSTEM wrote:Implementing support for all the new web standards Presto doesn't support requires much more manpower than a team of hackers would have.

Agreed. It would be very difficult and expensive, which is why Opera switched to Blink. Software is hard and the web is not simple.

emka wrote:... hosting the code and even using it in a software release would be illegal.

I hope so but from what I understand about the legal bits behind it, I don't think this has much shot of finding a lasting home.

• Copyright is very well-established legal ground and even if Opera walked away from Presto in every other way, they still own copyright and I'd be surprised if anyone would risk going into a court over that.
• Even if Opera *specifically* announced they didn't care, that wouldn't be the end of it: there's very likely intellectual property in Presto that they had to license, which adds to the legal complexity.

Here is a link to a custom made 32-bit build of Opera 12.15 with some patches applied to it:

REMOVED

1. Here's a link to a newer custom made build:

REMOVED

2. I made a Discord Server for it. You can join it by going to https://discord.gg/WV9s9uw.

Would be good to know what has been patched or modified.