Opera 10 was released last week! I was using the beta so the release didn’t bring any surprises, but now that the new version is ready for primetime I can plug it to the masses.
Opera 10 is an ultra light full-featured web browser. There are faster browsers out there and there are browsers with more plugin support, but as a simple, fast, secure web browser that’s fun to use and requires few tweaks, Opera is at the top of the game.
Opera is significantly faster than the notoriously bloated Internet Explorer, is less annoying with updates than Firefox, follows the CSS and HTML standards very closer, and comes with a handful of standard features the other browsers only have as plugins or outside additions. Opera’s Dragonfly is a built in firebug. Speed Dial is a standard feature with Chrome, but Opera has a better interface. Opera has a built in torrent client, which isn’t standard fare on any major browser. Opera also comes with a poorly named turbo mode that routes traffic through Opera’s servers. They condense the data for better access on slow networks. It’s not that big of a deal on a home network, but trapped on a slow public wireless connection that’s great.
The Opera 10.10 update is going to be really exciting. They are building a small web server (called Opera Unite) into each browser that developers can take advantage of to make even more expansive and useful updates. That update isn’t available yet, but now is a perfect time to get into Opera with the newest 10 release.
