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Opera sends 90 out the door

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Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#21

Post by thomasnno »

btipling wrote: post #3
justinschuh wrote: post #2

Good browser engine devs are very hard to come by. I expect they won't have too much trouble landing on their feet.

Difficult to make it out in the translation but if they laid off engineers good enough to work on Presto they must not be a technology company any more. They must be transitioning to something else entirely, as your technical team is an asset and browser engine engineering requires some skill so you if you had to downsize you probably wouldn't want to get rid of those guys. Although I guess they can't be cheap. But I…

Remember that the low unemployment in Norway means that it can make sense to take a severance package, and get another job immediately, and thus get 2x pay for months.

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#22

Post by wilhelm »

It's worse than the article describes. Those laid off are terrified to say anything publicly. From what I can gather, the total may be double the quoted number. In addition, morale is at rock bottom, with a number of people leaving on their own. Opera as we knew it is gone.

I worked for Opera for seven years, three of them managing the core testing team. I left a year ago. It breaks my heart to see how the current management treats some of the best engineers I've ever met, loyal to the company for a decade, like disposable rubbish. Here's your ten-year watch, now fuck off.

In the 2010 downsizing (described by the HR VP as "rightsizing"), they at least tried to make the decisions look good internally, blaming the economic downturn. The last two rounds they didn't even bother. No explainations, just individual talks - and a wave of fear.

The only good news is that there's plenty of fantastically skilled engineers available. I've hired one myself. If you need anyone, drop me a line, and I'd be happy to recommend someone for your open position. My loyalty is to my old team and the technology - not the current mismanagement. /c:

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#23

Post by dagw »

0x0 wrote: post #17
Supermighty wrote: post #16

I wonder how many of these Mozilla will pickup on the cheap. Browser rendering engine seems such a specialized skill, where else could these people go?

Oh come on. It's not like these guys went to Browser Rendering U, and that's all they know!

No, but several of them have been working on rendering engines since before Mozilla was founded.

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#24

Post by vdoma »

Just curious, how do browser-only companies like Opera or Mozilla make money? I know Opera Mini used to be shipped with phones, but what other sources of revenue do they have?

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#26

Post by rrreese »

vdoma wrote: post #24

Just curious, how do browser-only companies like Opera or Mozilla make money? I know Opera Mini used to be shipped with phones, but what other sources of revenue do they have?

Mozilla makes money by setting Google as the default search provider: http://allthingsd.com/20111222/google-will-pay-mozilla-almos...

I assume Opera makes some money this way, along with the Opera Mini deals you mention.

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#27

Post by aw3c2 »

vdoma wrote: post #24

Just curious, how do browser-only companies like Opera or Mozilla make money? I know Opera Mini used to be shipped with phones, but what other sources of revenue do they have?

They default the user to search engines. And add default bookmarks.

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#28

Post by mccr8 »

vdoma wrote: post #24

Just curious, how do browser-only companies like Opera or Mozilla make money? I know Opera Mini used to be shipped with phones, but what other sources of revenue do they have?

Roughly speaking, search engines pay browser vendors (including even Apple) for traffic.

See for instance some analyst's speculation about a Google-Apple deal here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5206764

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#29

Post by yareally »

vdoma wrote: post #24

Just curious, how do browser-only companies like Opera or Mozilla make money? I know Opera Mini used to be shipped with phones, but what other sources of revenue do they have?

Opera sells to hardware OEMs that want an embedded browser for their devices (Nintendo Wii, Feature phones, etc). Lots of feature phones have Opera Mini.

That as well as the search revenue that was already mentioned.

Re: Opera sends 90 out the door

#30

Post by blaabjerg »

gcp wrote: post #15
runarb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A culture crash may have contributed to that so many are leaving. According to the Opera CEO, iOS and Android are the future for Opera now[0]. One could argue that Opera now are in more need of 25 years old iOS developers, that 40+ C++ specialists. 0: http://translate.google.no/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=...

One could argue that Opera now are in more need of 25 years old iOS developers, that 40+ C++ specialists. To do what, make more Angry Birds clones? Engineers that spent 15 years working on every possible mobile device aren't suddenly magically unable to start working on a new one.

Engineers that spent many years working on challenging problems in highly performance-critical areas of the core engine might not be all that interested in doing UI design on iOS.
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