Opera has released a beta version of version 10 of its desktop browser.

"HELSINKI (Reuters) - Norway's Opera Software released on Wednesday the first test version of Opera 10, the newest version of its browser, promising faster downloads, new design and new features.

Opera is the world's third-largest browser maker, but is far behind Microsoft and Mozilla Foundation.

Competition in the browser market has escalated lately after Google launched its own Internet browser, Chrome, in 2008.

"Your Web browser is the most important piece of software you will ever use," Opera's Chief Executive Jon von Tetzchner said in a statement. "We think Opera 10 will redefine how you can enjoy the Web."

Opera said the new browser is more than 40 percent faster than its previous browser on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, and adds features like full thumbnails of all open tabs.

Companies usually release several successive test versions of their browsers so they can incorporate user feedback in a series of improvements before their final launch.

Microsoft launched its latest IE8 browser in March after a year of public beta testing.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is used for about 60 percent of global Internet traffic, Mozilla's Firefox has about 30 percent, and Opera is at 4 percent, just ahead of Google and Apple, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

Opera, Mozilla and Google have protested Microsoft's dominance in the browser market to the European authorities.

Microsoft has run afoul of U.S. and European antitrust regulators for bundling its browser with its operating system, which competitors say is an attempt to drive them out of the market.

In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers.

Opera has a small share of the desktop browser market, but its mobile browser is the most widely used browser on handsets."

I am using Opera to make this post. I wanted to visit Opera's website to investigate their Beta 10 browser.

Soooo, I clicked on the Hyperlink >> Opera << ! This brought me directly to the M$ download page for IE8.

Now, how in the world would anyone mistake that for unfair business practices !!

What? The only thing hyperlinked is the word "beta" and it goes to http://www.opera.com/browser/next/ where you can get more info and download the beta. I dunno where you got this IE8 link from.

Anyway TS have reported this news on the frontpage now. As I see you have commented.

"SkitsoZac has posted this as well, but in "old front page news". One assumes by accident.

Mods, time to merge the threads.

Edit: He's not sure if it's time to merge the threads, the topics, or do nothing at all! He said, now beginning to refer to himself in the third person"

I dunno what is going on here but the forum topic group thing is called "News and Links from Around the Web" for me so it looked like the appropriate place to post this.

Oh and you spelled my name wrong (well my online alias wrong) hehe.

OK, I didn't say you put in the hyperlink, but rest assured the word "Opera is hyperlinked both in Opera and here in IE7. The hyperlinks are inserted via script, by the site, and the advertisers also.

"Spelt", is that some clever conjugation of "spell", that you derived from watching "Deliverance" one too many times.

Besides, how many "Opera released a beta 10 browser" threads are you of the opinion we need? Just yours, I suppose.

BTW, I actually thought yours was more informative.

Is this post first person enough for you?

Hmmm, I think I know the advertising hyperlinks you are talking about, but they seem not to be showing for me.

Spelt, I could of sworn it was a real word and the correct term I was looking for, sleep deprivation must be getting to me. Upon consideration I should of used the word 'spelled' and shall edit my other post.

I don't get these at all in FF with "No Script", not only that "Vibrance" ads are non-existent!

Well, you can if you like, but I thought that made the reply funnier, sort of fighting misspelling with misspelling.

The dictionary does offer some of those "ends in t, not in ed" past tenses as valid, but I believe that they're either archaic, or not preferred. Still, "spelt" did have a certain rustic charm.

I don't really know what's going on with this hyperlink business, but I think Opera 10 beta is a great browser! After 9.5, Opera seemed to get slower in all of my experience, but I think it's actually faster in this iteration! I haven't noticed any memory leaks from the flash plugin usage either. In Opera 9.5 I would usually see 188MB+ memory usage with the flash 9 plugin active. All in all, it's good. I might replace Firefox 3.5 with it.

OK, now I'm going to help you Obi-Wan.......
The hyperlink was inserted by outside sources into skitso_zac's post, by outside sources. The word "Opera" was hyperlinked to the Internet Explorer download page! Now, if that's not stifling competition, I don't know WTF is!

Try it for yourself. Go to the first post in this thread, with a browser with script and hyperlinks active, then click on ""Opera". and then get back to me.

what makes opera decent?

what makes opera better than firefox?

post 3 ....silly forums

post four...this is tiring.......................................................

last one....so sorrry

Plenty of things. The host of great features that originated with the browser springs to mind.

Quite a few things in my opinion. Having a complete package download (not having to file through countless extensions to make it user friendly and enjoyable to use) also springs to mind.

Use the edit function

You'd think after the third bump you'd have given up.