Opera’s Chief Standards Officer Leaves The Company

By | June 15, 2012 | 34 Comments

Opera’s Chief Standards Officer Leaves The CompanyJust after the Opera 12 release.

Charles McCathieNevile (or Chaals), the CSO of the Opera Software and the guy who have worked at W3C for more than 6 years, will be leaving the company.

There is no official statement yet from the Chaals himself, however, we have just received the following email:

Charles McCathieNevile has announced that he will be leaving Opera as an employee and has thus also resigned as an employee representative at the Board of Directors of Opera. Deputy employee representative Christian Uribe will replace McCathieNevile as an ordinary member of the Board following his resignation.

We will keep you updated.


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Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • Yoyo

    and the plot thickens .. may be he is not happy about final product standards ……

    • MarkG

      Opera 12 is REALLY good here.   All software has bugs, Opera 12 is better, faster and more bug-free than Opera 11.6, and that’s all that matters.
      Nothing would ever get released if everyone waited for the pet bugs to get fixed.

      Clearly there will be a Opera 12.01 to pickup the most serious issues, i’m guessing in parallel with 12.5

      • Dan7960

        Opera 12 is a BIG step in the wrong direction! Their implementation of OOPP is buggy and premature; no HWA; Still awful scrolling performance on some websites; Right click menu on drop down bookmark menu is broken, AGAIN! basic website compatibility is still.. well, not good. And a whole world of other issues. I would be embarrassed to call myself an Opera employee right now…

        • hotteamix

          -no HWA
          You’re simply wrong there.

          As for the other issue, never encountered those, lucky me I guess?

          • Dan7960

            I don’t think I am, actually.
            HWA was promised in version 12 but is disabled by default.

            You’ve never encounters website compatibilty issues or laggy flash? Do you even use Opera?!

          • hotteamix

            Yes because having it disabled by default mean they don’t have one.

            I was on older beta build, it was resolved in the final release.

          • apád anyád

            @hotteamix:disqus “Yes because having it disabled by default mean they don’t have one.”

            That is like saying: “The lights on the car are turned off, therefore the car has no headlights at all!”
            Only difference is, most people know how to turn on the lights on a car, because they were taught how to do it (it’s a pity there is nothing like browsing licence).

          • hotteamix

             @google-282547cd52b6a3698fe1516b5541e490:disqus 
            Sarcasm man, learn it well. It’s good for you.

        • RichardCurtis

          No website compatability issues here.  Opera renders things perfectly for me.    The only time I see a problem is when a website uses UA sniffing to deliver crappy code to Opera.   masking as Firefox has ALWAYS sorted that out for me.

          No scrolling problems here either, everything is silkly smooth, much smoother than other browsers.

          OOPP is working fine too, but I only really use YouTube, but never seen a single problem.

      • Yoyo

        I am actully surprised to be honest. Used stable and so far so good. I do know all softwares have bugs but there are old bugs Opera do know more than years old still alive.
        Stability is the Opera stongest thing and this build is stable.
        Off-topic
        Compatibility is bad I do know that web sites owned by microsoft and google on purpose do not provide compatibility but Opera got to do something about it.

    • jayjam

      Somehow I think he is involved in far more far-reaching things than simply releasing a new version of the PC browser. You seem to ignore the fact that most of Opera isn’t even doing PC stuff anymore. Mobile is Opera’s main market now.

  • http://twitter.com/stevefaulkner Steve Faulkner

    It is a real shame, Chaals is a force in web standards and web accessibility,  he was a major hope for convincing Opera to take accessibility seriously.

    • frank

      After bashing his head against the wall so many times over many years requesting the active implementation of accessibility in Opera, I am surprised he still has something left between his shoulders. He, and many others have left, I being one of them.

      • http://www.favbrowser.com FavBrowser.com

        What made you leave? Management ignorance?

        • frank

          On the topic of accessibility, you get my drift. When I interviewed four and a half years ago for the tech writer position, Chaals was one of the staff inspecting and testing me. My respect and admiration for him, especially regarding his work with web accessibility, was well established long before that. 

          However, regardless of Opera’s policy on accessibility, I always implemented it in my work. Chaals knew this. Ironically, even though assistive technologies found it impossible to work with Opera products, my work could be interpreted by them through other AT friendly browsers. 

          After three and a half years of living and working in Oslo, I ran out of money. My salary could not provide a normal way of life for myself and family. It began costing me money to continue as we were, and I decided to finally accept an offer back home here in the States. As an employee, I was not alone in that situation.

          I loved working at Opera Software. The collegiality of the development staff is like none I have ever been involved with before. This was the ultimate environment for a tech writer to produce deliverables quickly, accurately, and efficiently. I had the creative opportunity and time to build new topics regarding Opera products and the Presto rendering engine. IMHO, it is some of the best work I have ever done.

          On the topic of management I will never comment, regardless of the company I work with. That’s an etiquette I have always employed, and I will continue to do so.

  • http://twitter.com/joshueoconnor joshueoconnor

    I agree with Steve. Opera has a lot going for it as a browser but is really not supporting the needs of people with disabilities in a substantial way. Chaals was the best bet to effect any lasting a11y support in Opera so its a pity to see him (an other a11y folk) go. But c’est la Guerre..

  • Armin

    So Opera is being bought by Facebook, huh?

    • frank

      Really? I’m still a shareholder and have not been notified with any official warning as is necessary in these matters. Please stop spouting rumors you cannot defend.

      • Armin

        lolwut? No need to be so serious.It was more of a sarcastic nod towards all the recent news regarding Facebook and Opera being interested in one another.

        • frank

          Yeah, understood. I’ve just had enough of people running around in circles with this rumor mill churning speculative info.

      • RichardCurtis

        LOL, you bought Facebook shares????

        What a tool.   It surely should have been obvious is was massively overvalued.

        • frank

          Tool? I own Opera Software shares. Next time before you open your gob make sure you know what you’re talking about.

  • Guest

    Rats leaving the sinking ship as Facebook gobbles it up.

    • frank

      Same to you as I said to Armin above – you’re looking rather silly without any proof.

      • Firefoxer

        Ok, if the stuff about Facebook is a rumor, what about Opera’s looking for a potential buyer? It this a rumor too?

    • http://chaals.com/ chaals

      Oi! Who are you calling a rat? ;)

  • Mike Paciello

    Absolutely shocked and dismayed! Opera, you do not know what you’ve lost. Chaal’s, best wishes mate! 

  • http://twitter.com/johnfoliot John Foliot

    Opera is losing a rock start, but take heart, the Mighty Chaals won’t just disappear – just wait and watch. (I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but trust me)

    Chaals, enjoy some time off before taking on the next round of Dragons friend.

  • Chaals

    So, here is an official comment to be going on with… “Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I’ve still got a couple of weeks of work to do, so I’ll be getting on with it for now” ;) So for more news you’ll have to wait a little while. Sorry, but like Josh said, “c’est la guerre (au moins des navigateurs)”

  • Iheni

    Well I’m properly excited to see where you’re headed Chaals and wish you all the best. I feel sad for Opera but, well, head banging gets dull after a while.

  • Swapnil99pro

    “There is no official statement yet from the Chaals himself”

    It was posted a day after. https://twitter.com/chaals/status/214006169205874688

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