Interview with Dmitry Korchagin (DG ~ SC), author of Opera Mini Mod

Opera Mini is a lightweight mobile browser with traffic compression through optimization on its servers.
The paradox is that the program has a modification of domestic development, which is far ahead of the original in a number of functions. We interviewed the author of Opera Mini Mod , Dmitry Korchagin  (DG ~ SC).



- Good afternoon. Please tell us a little about yourself.
- Good =). My name is Dmitry, I am 32 years old, I live in Balakovo. Married, has a child - daughter. I work at a brewery as a process controlmer, an electronic engineer, if in a simple way. In my free time I lead the Opera Mini Mod project.
- It’s strange that you do not hide your data, because in fact you are changing someone else’s software, is this not entirely legal? You know how we read licenses, scroll, agree and be happy. Did they even contact you?
- A long time ago there was a first contact on the Internet, and then they accepted the “gentleman's agreement” that I did not distribute information about the program, such as source codes, algorithms, etc., follow their recommendations, did not delete copyrights and other attributes, but for that I didn’t prosecuted under copyright laws. By the way, they invited me to work in Norway, but for family reasons I had to refuse ...

- Source codes of the program? I thought that your improvements are at the module level, which can be just text files. Are you a commando who made his way to the opera office, or are there still decompilers for J2ME? The first seems to me more real: D
- You can, of course, work with compiled versions, but the complexity is large. What I am doing is impossible without the availability of source codes. How they were mined, by whom, when and how dark the night was, the story is silent about this;)

- Good: D But the opera is developing, a new version has recently been released - Opera Mini (4.2) , new features have been added.
- Well, the mods are one version behind the official one. This is not casual. Or so that there is no competition in versions, or because of the technical feasibility it turns out, or just by accident ... Underline the necessary :)

- Obviously, it would not be profitable for the Opera that everyone would use your client, and not the official one) Although judging by the number of functions, they are far from your mod.
- By and large, this is one and the same mini opera, so there’s nothing much to upset them. And the fact that they have fewer functions, there are reasons for everything. How much time they themselves limited the program size to 100Kb. All in order to have more compatibility with phone models. I’m not limited to such a framework, and for someone who won’t work, I can only sympathize, but I won’t stop. It’s not difficult to add functionality to developers, but by complicating the product, you can reduce the audience of users and a lot of discontent in support if something is not working right or someone is using something wrong ...

- By the way, what other ideas are there for improvement? And is there? =) In many projects there are some “brick fences”, when there is nowhere to improve the program. Do you have such a problem?
- In fact, the opera already has a "exhaustion from the finger." Setting the time for pressing the stylus so that a context menu appears, for example. And sometimes it’s really necessary, such as multi-threaded upload of files =)


- But are there, so to say, competitors in the mod? Other mods? Does anyone else go to the opera offices at night?
- There are analogues of mini. Chinese ucweb . Someone likes him, someone mini. Here it is up to the user to decide. Specifically, there are no other mods.

- Yes, I have ucweb. After half an hour of trying to connect to my Chinese server, I knocked it out ... =)
- There are problems with that. And with the translation too. But people are spinning, tuning and working for them. And they even arrange holivars on the topic of who is cooler :)

- Is there any income from the project? 
- Revenue only from advertising. Nothing more is planned and the program, as it was, will remain free.

- Enough for hosting? And in particular, in Russia, is it possible to make money on the distribution of free mobile applications?
- Yes, I would not say that hosting was such an expensive pleasure ... I don’t know about making money. 

- Is there any planned new development, your own, so to speak?
- Not yet planned. This is a creative thing and to plunge headlong into one topic, and then abruptly reconfigure to another - I can not do it (or have not tried it). But I do not think that it is possible to “pull” several projects well without oppressing any of them.

- Have you heard that Mozilla will port his engine to mobile platforms?
“But there were no attempts, did it?” I recall some kind of program, what a terrible brake. It was on a WinMobile platform. But, it seems, they also released something on j2me . I do not remember. It left no impression, so it’s not worth it.
-And yet, people working there are no less serious, and for sure something interesting will work out for them. Will this be the “death” of the opera for the mini? Or will people use on the phone the same as on the computer (love of the brand, so to speak)?
- Perhaps I do not question their professionalism. I'm talking about what happened. The main thing is that the user does not feel dizzy from alternatives, and he would not understand that opera is always the best 8-)
- Mozill projects are open-ended, which allows you to develop such modes with high frequency and density, take a look or read , and say "opera is always better"? =)
- Openness is not always a plus. Everyone writes what a lot. And then users are tormented. And scolding whom? No one :) And then everything is clear. Or me or Opera Software ...
- Well, how is there no one - a mod developer.
“Who knows?” I wonder why I get so much attention. If I use the program, then I have no idea who its author is.

- What browser do you use on your mobile device?
- Last one. At the same time, I

’m looking at what’s not working and what’s really worth adding .. - And what are some ideas? Flash forward for fans, so to speak.
- Could you be more specific? :)

- For example, I would be interested in some kind of relationship with different services - it would be nice to have some kind of “widget” system ... which kit you choose during assembly. I love reading on the phone. A quick search on "lib.ru" and downloading a book, as an example of a widget.
- While there is no desire to become attached to services, if they themselves do not express their desire to cooperate ..

- And your daughter, uses your creation at school in boring lessons, for example?
- She is only 5 years old, she is no longer interested in studying :)

- How do you assess the degree of protection of personal data of mini opera users (including your mod)?
- Once a question was raised about this, to which it was replied that no one steals a photo of your beloved mother-in-law from the phone :) And the 3rd and 4th versions of the traffic between the program and the server are encrypted so that it does not make sense to intercept it. The server itself belongs to a company that values ​​its reputation. Of course, you cannot exclude the possibility of stealing some data, for example cookies for authorization on sites, from the Opera server. But this is without comment, because I do not know the degree of server security and other things. I’ll answer only for the program that there is no malicious code in it.
- Thank you very much for the interview, my questions are settled, let's follow the comments, maybe the users of Habrahabr and Treshbox have any questions for you?
- I will try to answer all the questions! :)