Opera 7.20 for Windows fine-tunes speed and performance
Oslo, Norway – August 28, 2003
Opera Software today released Opera 7.20 for Windows Beta. The new release makes it truer than ever that Opera adheres to the its popular tagline “The Fastest Browser on Earth,” with Opera’s engineers having fine-tuned version 7’s development branch for maximum performance.
Opera 7 for Windows is Opera’s most successful version ever, with over 10 million copies downloaded so far just from www.opera.com. In addition to the copies downloaded from Opera’s homepage are the many millions more downloaded from other sites around the world.
With Opera 7.20’s added support for bidirectional languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, Opera is now a true global browser. At the same time, recent press reports indicate that IE is slowing down browser development and that development of Netscape has been largely abandoned. Microsoft will not develop the stand-alone version of Internet Explorer further, instead going for full integration in the upcoming ‘Longhorn’ operating system to be released in a few years time. Internet Explorer users thus need to buy a new operating system to get a new browser. This leaves Opera as the only major commercial player continuing to push browser development, offering a vast number of new users a continually up-to-date and enhanced Internet experience.
“Opera 7 has been greeted with cheers from users and press all over the world. By continuously listening closely to our users throughout Opera’s development cycle over the years, we have succeeded in creating the very best browser there is,” says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software ASA. “This technological lead is further expanded with today’s release. The feedback from our testers has been unison: Opera 7.20 significantly boosts speed and performance.”
Opera 7.20 for Windows has already been released in pre-beta versions not announced to the wider public. Opera’s Elektrans, the volunteer group that helps millions of Opera users get the very best Internet experience available in every release, has joined forces with a select group of power users that frequent Opera’s newsgroups and forums. This elite group has run Opera 7.20 through intensive stress-testing over the last few weeks to ensure that all critical bugs are found and fixed before the final release. The final Opera 7.20 for Windows will be released sometime later this summer.
See the changelog for Opera 7.20 for Windows Beta.
Enjoy Opera’s Happy Hour!
In conjunction with the launch of Opera 7.20 for Windows Beta, Opera’s “Happy Hour” campaign is now running. During two random hours every day for the next ten days, Opera is available with a discount of 25% for the special price of EUR 29.25/USD 29.25
Warning: Opera 7.20 for Windows is currently an early beta release, and will thus contain many errors. Beta versions should only be tested by advanced users. Opera recommends that beta versions are run from a separate folder from your regular Opera installation.