Opera 10 and earlier News and Release History

Martin Brinkmann
Sep 1, 2009
Updated • Mar 27, 2014
Opera
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Note: This is a news and release history for all Opera browser versions that we have reviewed in the past here on the site. It covers all major versions of Opera as well as smaller updates. All of the versions mentioned here are not supported anymore. You can download the latest version of the Opera browser from the official website.

Major release notes

This is a list of important release notes that you can load for reference. They all point to the Opera website where they are available.

Opera 9.0

Opera 9.1

Opera 9.2

Opera 9.5

Opera 9.6

Opera 10

Opera Release History

Norwegian company Opera Software launched Opera 10 back on September 1st, 2009. It marked the browser's jump to a two-digit version number, and introduced several important features to the browser.

Included in Opera 10 was an automatic update feature to download and install updates automatically on supported systems.

Other features of interest included the inclusion of Opera Turbo, a compression service for low bandwidth connections to speed up the loading time of websites, improvements to Opera's Presto rendering engine, an inline spell checker, visual tabs, improvements to Opera Mail, and additions to the browser's developer tools.

Opera 10

Opera 10 final is apparently the same build (except for a few minor changes to standard files and a few new folders) as the Opera 10 Release Candidate 2 that was released last week. It is still recommended to upgrade to the final version of Opera 10. Downloads are available for Windows, Linux and Mac at the Opera ftp server.

The Windows version of Opera 10 is currently the only one that is being offered in additional languages next to English. The Linux and Mac version are currently only available in English.

Major changes:

  • Opera Turbo
  • Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine
  • Auto Update
  • Inline spell checker
  • Crashlogging tool
  • Visual tabs
  • Skin elements
  • Opera Mail rich text message compositing
  • Regular expression engine
  • Speed Dial configuration options
  • Improved web standards support
  • Passes Acid3 test

Opera 10.10

opera1010

The Opera desktop developers have released the final version of Opera 10.10 after releasing several beta builds in the past weeks. The final build is exactly the build that was released as a beta on Saturday, users who have installed that build are still encouraged to download and install Opera 10.10 from the Opera website.

Opera users who have already been working with beta versions of the release will not find many (if any) changes to previous builds in this final versions. That's however different for Opera users who have been waiting for the final version release before making the switch.

Opera 10.10 has Opera Unite build in. Opera Unite is probably the biggest change to previous Opera versions as it makes it possible to use the Opera web browser as a web server to use it for things like file sharing, photo hosting, media streaming, file synchronization or chatting. More than 30 applications for Opera Unite are already available and Opera is getting the community involved by running a competition for the best Opera Unite application where developers can win prices.

Opera 10.10 does make use of Opera Turbo as well, a compression based data transfer option to retrieve websites faster which works quite well for users with slow Internet connection.

Opera 10.20

The Opera development team has just released version Opera 10.10 with full support for the Opera Unite feature which makes it possible to use web server features in the Opera web browser. A glimpse of things to come is now available in the form of Opera 10.20 alpha which has just been released by the seemingly never sleeping devs.

The main feature of this release will be the new widget behavior. Here is a short explanation if you are not familiar with Opera Widgets. Widgets to Opera are what add-ons are to Firefox. The main difference so far was the fact that widgets had to run in their own web browser window while add-ons did not. The other prerequisite was that Opera had to be open at all times for the widgets to show up.

This behavior changes with this new release of Opera. It is now possible to run widgets without Opera being open, pretty much the same way that widgets are used in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Opera calls this Opera widgets for desktop.

opera widgets for desktop

Concentration on this new feature becomes apparent on the first start of Opera 10.20 alpha. The welcome page displays a Twitter and Google Translate gadget which will redirect the user to the Opera widget repository. Launching a widget will now install it on the computer system. An icon will be placed in the start menu of the computer and it is now possible to run the widget without Opera running.

google translate

Opera needs to be installed on the computer system but it is theoretically possible to install and use the widgets without running Opera afterwards at all. This is however just a first implementation of the widget for desktop feature. Widgets can be installed to every location of the computer system. The announcement over at the Opera desktop team blog contains all the changes and known issues of this Opera 10.20 alpha release. The comments are worth reading as well. The blog post does contain download links for all supported operating systems as well.

Opera 10.50

A recent announcement of the Opera Desktop Team about the forthcoming public release of Opera 10.50 Alpha made Opera fans cry out of joy. The developers remained mysterious and simply hinted that the new release would be about speed which most Opera users attributed with the inclusion of Opera's new JavaScript engine Caracan which is said to boost the web browser's JavaScript performance closer to that of the other web browsers.

A pre-alpha of Opera 10.50 leaked a short time ago and is now available publicly. It was linked in various comments and forum threads over at the Opera website like this one.

Everyone thinking about downloading this pre-alpha version of Opera 10.50 should note that this is a pre-alpha version. It is not intended for public release and installation in a productive environment. Users who want to install that version anyway should install it into a separate directory and not in their default Opera directory (if the web browser is installed on the system).

The pre-alpha version does not ship with Caracan. It does however offer other improvements including the layout engine Presto 2.5.18 (Opera 10.10 shipped with Presto 2.2.15). But that's not the only change in this new version.

Opera has added Windows 7 support to the pre-alpha version which now supports thumbnail previews, Aero effects and jumplists (which display the speed dial pages).

Opera 10.50 introduces several layout changes as well. The menu is now a small icon in the upper left corner of the screen, the file menu header seems to be a thing of the past. This reduces Opera's header area leaving additional room for the websites that are displayed in the web browser. It is still possible to display the menu bar which is an option in the new menu.

Another new features is the option to open tabs in privacy mode which Opera calls private tabs. Those tabs will open in the same browser window. They are displayed in a light green color to visually distinguish them from the other tabs.

Opera will automatically forget everything that the user did when the tab is closed. This is a tad more comfortable than the solutions provided by Google Chrome and Firefox which open the private browsing mode in a new browser window.

Opera 10.51

Opera 10.51 was released less than three weeks after the release of the Opera 10.50 milestone release. Three public release candidates were released in rapid succession before the final version of Opera 10.51. The new version of the popular web browser fixes many user interface inconsistencies and bugs that have made their release in Opera 10.50, a release that many users thought to be rushed out by the developers to meet the browser ballot screen introduction in the European Union.

Opera 10.50 increased the performance of the web browser by a lot. The Opera browser is now one of the fastest web browsers available on the Internet and the developers promise that Opera 10.51 increases the speed further by up to 27% in the Peacekeeper benchmark compared to Opera 10.50.

opera10.51

The developers have published a post that details more speed and JavaScript improvements in Opera 10.51, for instance the fact that Opera 10.51 passes the Sputnik test of Google Labs better than any other web browser.

Opera 10.51 additionally fixes two security issues making it a recommended update for any Opera user.

Opera 10.52

Opera Software has just released an update of their popular web browser Opera for the Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh operating system. Opera 10.5x installations should pick up the update automatically. Users who do not want to wait for that to happen can check for updates manually by clicking on the Opera icon in the left corner, selecting Help and then Check for Updates from the menu.

Users who are not running the Opera 10.5x branch yet can download the browser directly from the Opera homepage for their operating system.

Here is a selection of the most important changes in Opera 10.52:

  • Improved various aspects of the Carakan JavaScript engine
  • Fixed several cache issues
  • Improved security information dialog entries
  • Fixed flash videos flickering, disappearing, or being corrupted after scrolling
  • Fixed multiple connection attempts failing over a proxy
  • Fixed links from external applications not opening in Opera
  • Fixed first Opera Link synchronization not properly syncing modified bookmarks
  • Fixed slow scrolling when using page search (when page is dimmed)

Opera 10.52 is a recommended stability upgrade according to the changelog posted on the Opera website.

Opera 10.53

The Opera development team has just released Opera 10.53 for Windows and Macintosh in response to a reported crash that might have been a security vulnerability as well. The release candidate of the new version of Opera was already available yesterday and there do not seem to be any additional changes in the final release.

Opera 10.53 fixes three issues in total of which one is the reported security vulnerability. The two remaining fix a freeze of the web browser on Google Maps and and change the way the dialog.ini file is located and loaded in Opera.

Opera 10.54

Not every Opera user has the cutting edge snapshots of the upcoming Opera 10.60 browser installed. The latest public version of Opera is 10.53 and users of that or an earlier version are asked to updated to Opera 10.54 immediately to close several security vulnerabilities in those Opera versions.

The announcement at the Opera Desktop Team blog does not go into detail, stating that Opera 10.54 is a "recommended security update" for Mac and Windows systems.

The change log for Windows lists the fixed security vulnerabilities, among them an extremely severe issue.

  • Prevented Opera from being used as a vector for a font issue in the underlying operating system, as reported by Microsoft's security team
  • Fixed an extremely severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
  • Fixed a highly severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
  • Fixed a moderately severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.
  • Fixed a less severe issue; details will be disclosed at a later date.

Opera 10.60

Opera 10.60 final has been released by the Opera developers, less than three days after the release of the first out of three release candidate builds.

Opera users can expect improvements in all areas but most noticeably in browser performance and web standard support.

The final version of Opera 10.60 continues to shine in web browser benchmarks like Peacekeeper often surpassing other fast web browsers like Google Chrome.

opera1060 speed
opera1060 speed

Opera 10.60 is one of the fastest web browsers available. This is confirmed by benchmarks but also by the subjective impression of page loading times in the browser.

opera1060
opera1060

The browser scores 100 of 100 in the Acid 3 test and has added several HTML5 features and elements to its arsenal.

Opera 10.60 now supports for instance HTML5 video (WebM), offline web applications, geolocation and web workers. Take a look at Opera 10.60 Beta Released, Fastest Browser Gets Even Faster for an in depth review of Opera 10.60.

opera html5 video
opera html5 video

It is now possible to join the Youtube HTML5 beta to view videos on the popular video hosting site without Adobe Flash installed.

Interface elements have been improved slightly, the menu button has been changed to make its functionality clearer to the user. Several icons have been changed or added as well but the design of the browser is overall pretty similar to that of the Opera 10.50 branch.

Search suggestions have been added for selected providers, improving the search experience of Opera users. Google Search is still the default search provider in Opera but Bing has been added to the list of available providers to offer users additional choices.

Opera 10.61

Opera has just released a new version of their Opera web browser. Opera 10.61 is now available for download after releases of three release candidates. Opera considers the new version a security and stability update, which makes it an essential update for all Opera 10.60 users.

The release notes of the new Opera version list several changes since Opera 10.60, among them three security fixes that prevent the execution of arbitrary code, programs and the automatic subscription to news feeds in the preview feed view.

opera 10.61
opera 10.61

Several additional fixes have been introduced to the display and scripting functionality of the browser. This includes Google Calendar compatibility, something that many Opera users have been waiting for. Other fixes in this category include fixing disk cache not working properly in turbo mode, proper handling of binary files (which have been handled as plain text files), widget changes so that they will all run and have network access after restarts, and blocking Opera Unite from listening on UDP port 1900 if UPnP service discovery has been set to off.

Finally, changes have been introduced to the Opera user interface as well, most notably a fix to prevent high CPU usage when loading animated png images in the browser, preventing Opera Windows from overwriting saved search preferences during installation and changing the default cookie behavior to accept all cookies.

Opera 10.62

Opera 10.62 is a security and stability update, and therefor recommended for all users of the 10.6x branch. This release fixes for instance the recently discovered dll hijack vulnerability in Windows. The majority of enhancements improves the stability of the browser. The team has fixed several issues where Opera would unexpectedly close, for instance when searching on websites or while viewing bodyless documents in accessibility mode.

The team has also fixed the missing images bug in free previews and added fastmail and hotmail UK to the email auto configuration in Opera Mail.

Opera 10.63

Companies who develop web browsers often work on multiple strains of a web browser at the same time. Google does that for instance by maintaining three different builds of the browser. Mozilla does it as well, and so does Opera. Opera has been working on Opera 10.63 as well as Opera 10.70 for a while now. The plan was to introduce bug fixes, security updates and stability enhancements to Opera 10.63, and on additional features in Opera 10.70 (the latest public snapshot got web socket support for instance).

Opera Software has released Opera 10.63 a few minutes ago. The new web browser release is a recommended upgrade offering security and stability enhancements. This falls in line with the classification of the two development strains.

Opera 10.60 users are asked to update to the latest version of the web browser as soon as possible to fix the security and stability issues.

The easiest way to update is to click on Menu > Help > Check for Updates and follow the onscreen instructions from there.

opera1063
opera 10.63 update notification

Interested Opera users can take a closer look at the fixes introduced in Opera 10.63 at the official changelog page.

Opera 9 and earlier

Opera 9.0

This is a major new version of the web browser. Among the features that it introduces are the following:

  • Content blocking
  • Support for torrent downloads
  • Widgets
  • An editor for search engines
  • Site preferences
  • An integrated source code viewer
  • opera:config to access advanced configuration options
  • A new mail storage format.

Opera 9.02

Opera 9.02 has been released yesterday; head over to the official website to grab a copy and update your existing version of Opera. If you are not using Opera it is time to try it, it is in my opinion as good as Firefox and it's always a good idea to have a second browser installed (A web designer should have at least all three major ones). So what's new in Opera 9.02?

The changelog lists some general changes like "lots of stability fixes" and "Several fixes to saving of images". Other changes include site specific fixes for Flickr, fixed functionality for the new Flickr Organizer and on Last.fm, fixed crash with Last.fm. For a complete list of changes take a look at the changelog on the release website.

  1. Fixed high CPU usage while downloading big emails
  2. Fix for playing sound clips on Amazon
  3. Improved handling of Web site logins on slow connections.
  4. Fix for attaching read-only files in mail.

The official homepage still lists version 9.01 for download but this will change soon I suppose. I hope they post a detailed changelog soon on the main homepage with more information about those general fixes. Opera is running very stable and I'm really wondering what they mean with stability fixes.

Opera 9.10

This is a smaller release that introduces Fraud Protection to the Opera browser. Apart from that it includes several security fixes and improvements to various browser features.

Opera 9.20

The new version of Opera introduces Speed Dial and Developer Tools to the web browser.  Apart from that it is also fixing several security issues and making modifications to other features of the browser.

If you enter more than one word in the address bar for instance, your input will automatically be recognized as a search and not a web address that you try to enter.

Opera 9.5

Opera fans rejoice. After a seemingly endless series of Beta versions and one release candidate the Opera developer team has finally uploaded Opera 9.5 final to the ftp site. The release is available in English and for International users and cannot be downloaded from anywhere else currently. The homepage still states coming soon which will probably change later this day.

The build number of the Windows release is 10063. It comes a bit as a surprise after the recent release of the first release candidate of Opera 9.5. There cannot be a lot of changes between this version and the release candidate earlier this week. As always there is no information yet on the changes, think we just have to wait a bit longer for the official release announcement.

Important changes:

  • Opera Link introduced
  • Quick Find added
  • Redesigned address bar drop down
  • Speed Dial improvements
  • Alternative tab closing methods
  • Content blocking improvements
  • Accessibility improvements

Opera 9.51

The latest version of Opera has been released today and is available for download at the official Opera website. The new version introduces several changes to the user interface that has been introduced in Opera 9.5 as well as several security and stability fixes that makes the new version an urgent download for everyone running Opera 9.5.

The release notes list four security fixes and several stability issues that have been fixed, most notably probably a stability issue with Yahoo Mail, menus on Deviantart and the TinyMCE editor. Noteworthy changes include:

  • Improved drag/drop of tabs.
  • Fixed a stability issue when printing or when in print preview.
  • Corrected a stability issue with User JS.
  • Fixed an issue where <canvas> functions could reveal data from random places in memory.
  • Fixed an issue where registering Opera as a protocol handler could allow it to be used to execute arbitrary code.
  • Security status is now correctly set when navigating from HTTP to HTTPS.

Opera 9.51 is as usual available for all supported operating systems including Windows, Linux and Apple Mac. Users who already have the RC3 of Opera 9.51 installed do not need to upgrade because both versions, the RC3 and the final version of 9.51, are identical.

Opera 9.52

Several security vulnerabilities have been lately discovered in versions of Opera prior to Opera 9.52. The security vulnerabilities are classified as highly critical and include possibilities to bypass security, spoof, expose sensitive information, DoS and provide system access to an attacker.

The Opera 9.52 changelog contains information about the security vulnerabilities. Each one of the listed alone would be serious enough to be fixed immediately, all of them make the matter even more pressing. At least one vulnerability is only affecting computers running Windows but most affect all versions of Opera.

The most important fixes and changes are listed below for your convenience:

  • Fixed a problem with POP accounts where message bodies were not downloaded.
  • Added work-arounds for problems with various POP servers.
  • Fixed a problem updating signature when switching accounts.
  • Fixed a startup crash that could allow execution of arbitrary code.
  • Sites can no longer change framed content on other sites.
  • Fixed an issue where certain characters could be used to allow cross site scripting.
  • Custom shortcuts no longer pass the wrong parameters to applications.
  • Prevented insecure pages from showing incorrect security information.
  • Feed links can no longer link to local file.
  • Feed subscription can no longer cause the wrong page address to be displayed.
  • Fixed a problem where Gmail would not load

The update is deemed a security and stability update. Next to the important security fixes many changes to various aspects of Opera have been made. The changelog lists more than 30 fixes for various problems that could arise while using Opera.

Opera 9.6

The release is a security and stability update that did introduce several new features. Since it is a security update it is a recommended update for all Opera users.

Many of the new features have been introduced to Opera Mail which now features a low bandwidth mode for Pop3 and IMAP which is great when using Opera on the road. Another new addition is the feed preview mode that displays RSS news feeds in magazine style preview mode which is extremely convenient for widescreen monitors.

The screenshot below outlines the mode using the Ghacks feed. The mode places feed in magazine style next to each other. The feed preview is unfortunately not available after subscribing to the news feed which is something that the Opera team should think about delivering.

opera feed preview

Another interesting addition are scroll markers. Scroll markers show the user where the last page ended after scrolling down to give a better indicator where to continue reading. That option is turned off by default and needs to activated.

opera scroll marker

The best option to enable the feature is to open the Opera config pasting opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableScrollMarker into the Opera address bar. The parameters are 0 for off, 1 for showing the scroll marker when reaching the bottom or top of the page and 2 for always showing the scroll marker when scrolling.

The release notes contain a list of all changes made since the release of Opera 9.52. Will probably only a matter of time until the other browsers will add the features as well.

Opera 9.61

Opera 9.61 is a recommended security update which is already distributed by Opera's internal update checker which alerts user if new versions of Opera get released.

A total of three security issues have been fixed in this version of Opera. The first issue fixed a security bug where the History Search function could be used to reveal browsing history. The second fix prevents Fast Forward from allowing Cross-Site scripting while the third prevents news feed previews from revealing contents of unrelated news feeds.

In addition to those three security fixes two user interface changes have been implemented in the latest version of Opera. The image toggle button on the status bar was changed to a normal button instead of a menu. Finally a issue with Opera Link was corrected which could generate duplicate bookmarks during synchronization.

Opera 9.62

The new version of Opera is a recommended security upgrade which fixes two security issues. The first fixes an issue where History Search could be used to execute arbitrary code while the second ensures that the links panel no longer allows cross-site scripting. The only other addition is the incorporation of the Opera Presto 2.1.1 user agent engine.

Opera 9.63

A new version of the Opera web browser has been released on the last day of 2008. Opera 9.63 is an update to the current official release version of Opera. The update is a recommended security and stability upgrade.

List of security changes and improvements:

  • Manipulating text input contents can allow execution of arbitrary code
  • HTML parsing flaw can cause Opera to execute arbitrary code
  • Long hostnames in file: URLs can cause execution of arbitrary code
  • Script injection in feed preview can reveal contents of unrelated news feeds
  • Built-in XSLT templates can allow cross-site scripting
  • Fixed an issue that could reveal random data
  • SVG images embedded using  tags can no longer execute Java or plugin content
  • Opera now imports .p12 private certificates

Opera 9.64

The official changelog describes the update as a security and stability upgrade which means it is recommended to update the web browser as soon as possible.

The security issues that are fixed in the latest version could be used to execute arbitrary code and allow cross domain scripting. Besides those fixes several additional updates have been implemented, many of which relate to certificates. This includes untrusted rootstore capabilities, preventing security information documents from being written to disk or fixing a problem that could cause the incorrect calculation of Certificate IDs.

This version of the Opera web browser added support for platform specific features, namely Data Execution Prevention in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 and Address Space Layout Randomization in Windows Vista. There have also been several miscellaneous updates like fixing a problem with a blank inline search or adding an external source viewer to the Opera web browser.

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Comments

  1. Rob R said on September 3, 2009 at 12:21 am
    Reply

    I found the installation process to be very slow which was quite off putting maybe they were just very busy that day with downloads.

    I also found the oversized play buttons which you get for flash movies when the Turbo option is enabled quite amusing.

    http://blog.strictly-software.com/2009/09/opera-10.html

  2. Techbabu said on September 2, 2009 at 6:57 am
    Reply

    Opera is a good browser, especially when we talk about mobile phone based browsers, Opera is excellent.

  3. Tobey said on September 1, 2009 at 1:53 pm
    Reply

    Thanks for the delightful news coming from far abroad. :-)

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