It looks like the Opera development team didn't spend too much time celebrating after the browser chalked up 150 million users. After only three weeks, a beta and three release candidates, the latest version of the eponymous browser is ready for public consumption as the stable version of Opera 11 is now available for download.
This release brings a number of new features, the most interesting of which is tab-stacking. This allows tabs to be grouped together to save space and make managing workflows much easier, while visual previews make jumping back to what you're doing pretty painless.
Opera 11 also introduces extensions to help expand the browser's basic functionality. The developer community is still relatively small, and the number of available add-ons is fairly limited, but all of the basics should be present, and the selection is sure to expand pretty quickly.
The last big addition is the inclusion of visual mouse gestures. Opera's gesture-based navigation is a powerful tool, but it's a bit like learning a new language to anyone who isn't familiar with it. The graphical interface will help users to learn the commands, hopefully resulting in a speedier and more enjoyable browsing experience.
Having tried the beta version of Opera 11, we found it to be suitably impressive. The speedy browser managed to keep up with the best of the competition, and the interface and design tweaks - especially tab stacking - made for a refreshing web experience.
If you're in the market for a change of browser, you owe it to yourself to give Opera 11 a look. Details on all of the changes, along with download links, can be found on Opera's site.
