14 DAY TRIAL // That’s it! The waiting for the last development milestone of Opera 10.0 is now over. Opera 10.0 final has been released to web and is currently available for download. Today, September 1st, 2009, Opera Software officially launched the RTM version of Opera 10.0 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The browser is available for download worldwide, and has been localized in no less than 43 different languages. Build 1750 is the final milestone of Opera 10.0, and the same build string as the release Candidate 2 of the browser, which was served to testers on August 28th, 2009.
“At Opera, we have always worked hard to innovate new ways to improve everyone’s browsing experience,” revealed Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “Opera Turbo is our newest innovation, and one we think everyone should try, because we all will face a slow connection at some point. Now, there is a solution, and it is absolutely free. We are excited to offer Opera 10 to the world, and we hope even more people discover what the 40 million people who have already made the switch know: browsing with Opera makes the Web a safer, more enjoyable and more interesting place.”
According to the Norwegian browser maker, there are three aspects of Opera 10.0 that continue to justify the label of the “world’s most innovative browser,” namely Opera Turbo, the overhauled GUI, and the evolution of the tabs.
Opera Turbo was introduced in February 2009, as a performance enhancement for users with slow connections. Essentially, opera Turbo is a compression technology designed to speed up browsing in a variety of scenarios, including netbook connectivity via 3G cards, sluggish Wi-Fi, or even crawling low-bandwidth. The promise from the browser maker is that, with Opera Turbo enabled, Opera 10.0 is capable of delivering to end users browsing experiences similar to broadband.
Users will also notice that, along with the improvements introduced under-the-hood, Opera 10.0 comes with a revamped graphical user interface. In this regard, the browser now also features a touched-up application icon, designed by Oleg Melnychuk, which integrates seamlessly with the Windows Vista and Windows 7 desktops. In addition to the redesigned GUI and Opera Turbo, Opera 10.0 now sports evolved tabs, capable of showing to end users thumbnails of the websites opened.
But at the same time, there are additional changes. The Norway-based browser make revealed that Opera 10.0 was no less than 40% faster than its precursor Opera 9.6 when it comes down to loading a webpage. However, this gain in performance is not delivered by Opera Turbo. Opera 10.0 will outrun Opera 9.6 by 40% on page loading even if Turbo is disabled.
For users keen on keeping their software up to date, Opera 10.0 will be updated with the latest releases automatically. The browser also offers users the possibility to super-size the Speed Dial and to correct their texts right from Opera 10.0 with the integrated Spell Checker, which supports 51 languages. In addition, Opera 10.0 features a built-in email client allowing users to leverage the browser not just for Internet browsing but also for email.
Opera Software did not forget developers. In this regard, the release of Opera 10.0 Final is accompanied by a new update to Opera Dragonfly. Offered in no less than 36 different languages, the Opera 10.0 on-board, Web development tools simplify the work of developers using the browser as a platform.
Opera 10.0 Final Build 1750 is available for download here.