Veterans say that “Opera hasn’t been the same since founder Jon S von Tetzchner left”.

So I guess this is it? After almost 20 years, Opera is moving away from their in-house rendering engine. And just to confirm what was already a well-known fact, Norwegian browser maker has begun firing core employees, including veterans like Yngve Pettersen, André Shultz and Lasse Magnussen.



According to Digi.no, 90 people have already left the company with 50-70 taking severance packages in January, 2013.

However, giving some credit to Opera, the company handled transition pretty well, according to Lasse Magnussen, who have worked for Opera for 14 years and 8 months, “The process, from Opera’s side, was done, IMO, very professionally and the severance package we were offered was voluntary as well as substantial, just what [he] needed to take the plunge”.

On a different side note, people have already created a petition, asking Opera Software to open source its core engine. As of today, it has been signed by 1,659 supporters with 48,341 to go.

Guess by the time we make another browser tribute video, it will be quite different from this one:

Eh… It is what it is.

[Thanks, Blake, Tibor]

[Via: TechCrunch, Digi, Twitter]