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Opera software in a press release posted last Wednesday announced that their entire line of browsers will switch rendering engine from its own proprietary Presto engine to the open source Webkit one, used currently by Chrome, Safari and quite a few mobile browsers.
The change to Webkit will occur slowly and gradually, starting with Opera Mobile and Opera Mini, and will eventually hit the desktop versions of the browser.
The move caused mixed reactions both to Opera fans and competitors. While everyone agrees that this decision is a good strategic move for Opera that currently holds 3.72% of the global desktop browser market share, the thought that this convergence to webkit will impact the way browsers adhere to web standards negatively, is prevalent. The prospect of webkit becoming the de-facto standard engine brings back bad memories when Internet Explorer 6 was the engine that people considered to be the standard, creating a chaotic environment regarding web standards.
On the other hand, developers welcome the change as it will make their jobs easier when building desktop and mobile websites by having one less engine to test upon. That, coupled with Opera Software's promise to maintain their rigid stance towards a more standards compliant web universe, has also sprung excitement among fans and specialists. As javascript guru John Resig said in his twitter page, "Don't worry that "everyone moving to WebKit causes stagnation". Apple created WebKit, Google made it awesome. Opera will make it better!".
As I've been a die hard Opera user for the past 13 years, I cannot but lament a bit for the outgoing Presto engine, but knowing the boatloads of innovation that Opera Labs have unleashed upon the web and web browsers, which are now considered to be standards among many browsers, I'm looking forward to the webkit powered Opera.
