Use of an alternative browser is common practice by IT professionals today. In this blog post, IT Jedi Rick Vanover highlights the new features of Opera version 10 release candidate.

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For many reasons, the use of alternative browsers is a good idea. Before Internet Explorer 7, one of the best reasons for using a different browser was to have tabs. I have long been an Opera user for most of my Web surfing. I use other browsers at times, including Mozilla Firefox. I also use Internet Explorer when needed, as some sites specifically require it for certain functionality to work.

Opera has long been regarded as one of the fastest Web browsers available, and that was the driving factor that initially made me interested. Version 10 of the alternative browser is now available as a release candidate, and I’ve been using it happily since early on in the public beta.

With version 10, Opera releases a number of new features. Among them are:


Inline spell-checking: All text fields within the browser are checked, making webmail or Twitter posts look better.

A visual-tabs display: For super-high resolution screens, a nice view of all open tabs can be displayed at the top of your browser. Figure A shows this new feature below:

Figure A

(Click to englarge)


Re-open closed tabs: How many times have you closed a tab inadvertently? Opera 10 has a new feature to open tabs that have been closed in the current session.

Automatic updates: Opera users have the option to allow the browser to check for and install updates to itself.

Opera version 10 also supports the widget plug-ins that allows small applets to be run within the browser. This can include games, social networking, news, weather, and other small applications that run from the browser. Opera 10 also supports the new Unite feature that allows a Web server to be hosted within the browser.

Even though I prefer to do all my Web browsing within a browser such as Opera, I do not make that my directive for the enterprise IT environments. While we could all have an additional browser available and use Internet Explorer as needed, the support model would not work with most mainstream IT environments.

Opera 10 release candidate is available now for a free download.