Opera Software Releases 4.0 Beta

New version boasts significant enhancements

Oslo Norway – Mar. 19, 2000

Opera Software ASA is proud to announce the beta release of Opera 4.0. This new version boasts significant enhancements. A short list of Opera’s features include: E-mail, fast rendering speed, small size, low resource requirements, plug-in support, standards compliance, 128 bit encryption, TLS, SSL 2 and 3, CSS1, CSS2, XML, HTML 4.0, HTTP 1.1, WML, ECMAScript and JavaScript 1.3.

With the advent of 4.0 Opera is easily ported. The core technology in Opera is platform independent, enabling the browser to be more easily ported to any operating system. Opera’s small size and extremely low resource requirements make it an obvious choice when integrating in environments where resource consumption and a small footprint are a must.

Opera 4.0 is standards compliant. While implementing the latest technologies Opera has taken the care and forethought to integrate to web standards. Standards compliance means ease of use and allows developers to ensure their sites conform to the reference standard. Opera has strong compliance with the standards for the Web as laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, the governing standards authority for the Web). Opera Software is one of the contributing members to this Consortium through its technical director Hakon Wium Lie, an internationally respected and award winning technology architect.

“Opera 4.0 is a great step forward for Opera Software. Our users have long asked for an e-mail client, which this version includes. This, along with the technological enhancements and innovations that are in the browser, firmly places Opera as the premiere browser in the market today,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software.

Opera merges standards compliance with sophisticated features and simple design while implementing the latest technologies in a very small package. Opera continues to ride the forefront of browser technology with its Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) implementation. Opera’s recently top-rated CSS implementation has been expanded in Opera 4.0 to include CSS2. Opera 4.0 also includes XML, and WML plus expanded JavaScript and ECMAScript. The added support of XML and style sheets in Opera 4.0 means that the browser is now capable of tapping into the next generation of technologies that are being developed in the Web and intranet marketplace.

Opera 4.0 is faster. Opera’s code is proprietary, and not based on other browser code. Opera programmers are constantly finding more effective means of presenting HTML to the user. Because of this, pages loaded in Opera are displayed faster. Opera 4.0 exhibits a significant increase in rendering speed giving viewers a more integrated experience. Opera Software continues to focus its efforts on efficient coding while providing full functionality.

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About Opera Software

Opera Software ASA is an industry leader in the development of Webbrowsers for the desktop and embedded markets, partnering withcompanies such as IBM, AMD, Symbian, Canal+ Technologies, Ericsson,Sharp and Lineo (now a division of Embedix). The Opera browser hasreceived international recognition from end users and the industrypress for being faster, smaller and more standards-compliant than otherbrowsers. Opera is available on Windows, Mac, Linux/Solaris, OS/2,Symbian OS and QNX. Opera Software ASA is a privately held companyheadquartered in Oslo, Norway. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com.