Apr 11, 2011 13:14 GMT  ·  By

It was clear since the first Release Candidate of Opera 11.10 codenamed Barracuda became available for download last week that Opera Software was extremely close to wrapping up the successor of Opera 11. When RC2 was launched, a member of the Opera Desktop team made sure to emphasize the fact that the final release was just around the corner.

However, it appears that Opera 11.10 required just a tad more work. Over the weekend, Opera Software made available for download no less than three RC3 development snapshots of codenamed Barracuda.

Opera 11.10 RC3.1 was “a quick update for Barracuda RC3, which included an incomplete fix (a small part was left out by mistake). This caused a crash that triggered when enabling fullscreen mode, using visual tabs, and various other things,” a member of the Opera Desktop team revealed on Saturday.

On Sunday, Opera Software provided testers with Barracuda Release Candidate 3.11.

“This build removes the need for a processor with SSE support. If you've been experiencing startup or installation crashers, please try again with this build,” the Norway-based browser vendor stated.

Obviously, both RC3 updates were only minor refreshes offered for very small glitches that survived past RC2 and the initial release of RC3.

Had it not been for the new bugs needing to be resolved, Opera Software would have already launched the final version of Opera 11.10.

It does appear that end users will have to exercise their patience a little longer, but I continue to believe that Opera 11.10 Final will be offered to the public in the coming days.

Judging by the fact that Opera Software preferred to ship RC3 updates rather than new Release Candidate development snapshots, it’s clear that the work on the next version of Opera has almost been finalized and that users should prepare for version 11.10.

UPDATE: A new RC of Opera 11.10 has been released, the fourth release candidate.

Opera 11.10 codenamed Barracuda Release Candidate 4 (RC4) is available for download here.