Opera Mini was first released in 2005 as a web browser for mobile phones, with the ability to load full websites by sending most of the work to an external server. It was a massive hit, but it started to fade out of relevance once smartphones entered mainstream use. Opera
  • @Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
    5•1 month ago

    I used this! It was a godsend for people like me on a metered MVNO plan with only access to 3G towers and no home Wi-Fi (when you’re extremely poor, you make sacrifices).

    That’s cool that it’s still available, and I bet there will be a resurgence of dumb phones in the coming years that would be glad to use it.

    • L3ft_F13ld!English
      3•1 month ago

      Opera Mini isn’t what it used to be. Became an absolute resource hog with all the spyware and extra shit stuffed in. Back then it was a solid option for those of us that couldn’t afford all the mobile data needed to surf the web. Now it’s just a personal data hoovering POS.

  • Rikudou_SageEnglish
    6•1 month ago

    Loved that browser, it was so amazing compared to all the half-assed default browsers. Good old days of J2ME.

    I also used its bigger brother on Symbian because it rendered the web better, but it was way too memory-hungry.

  • SkaveRatEnglish
    28•1 month ago

    Installing Opera Mini on my Moto Razr and using it to surf the “real” web (instead of some weird wap version) felt so futuristic. It was amazing

  • @narc0tic_bird@lemm.eeEnglish
    9•1 month ago

    I used this primarily on a Palm (with Palm OS, not webOS).

    I think it was v4 that introduced the view with the full desktop website zoomed out where you could then zoom in to an area.

  • ThurstylarkEnglish
    3•1 month ago

    This was the shit back in its hey day. It was a niche time where we could use it to punch through the school’s web filters that weren’t prepared for BYOD, because IT wasn’t prepared for little shits like me who could figure out a way onto their hidden network :D