No, Opera Mini doesn't use Safari. The reason for this is that with Opera Mini, the rendering engine isn't on the browser - it's on the server. This is what enables Opera to ship Mini as a tiny client, on a wide range of different devices.

There's a bit more info about this here: http://www.opera.com/mobile/specs/

In particular, "The rendering engine is on Opera’s server."

On HN I'd rewrite the last part of the statement "but it's only a big deal if Microsoft does it".

Around here, Apple can be as abusive and monopolistic as it likes, and nobody will raise their eyes from their MBPs at all.

How long have you been on HN? I assure you that a colossal amount of virtual ink has been spent complaining about Apple's closed OS, their opaque app store policies, etc. Stories about iOS apps getting rejected dominated the front page for many weeks.

I'd say the community here is far more understanding of Microsoft than, say, the Slashdot crowd.