Opera 10 is now available to download for Windows, Linux and Mac platforms, less than a week after Opera Software spun out the release candidate version of the browser.

The Oslo, Norway-based company said the browser comes loaded with Opera Turbo, a compression engine intended to speed up slow web connections.

Other improvements include Google Gmail-like mail client tweaks and better thumbnail tabs.

Opera has also beefed up its customisable Speed Dial feature that shows more commonly visited web pages than previously. And there’s a spell check (for 51 languages) that can now be used in any text field within Opera.

Meanwhile, developers itching to play with code via the browser now have access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the outfit’s online dev tool.

However, some might argue a few key things are missing from this release.

Notably, Opera Unite is absent from Opera 10. The web-browser-meets-web-server contraption, which the firm unveiled in June this year to a lukewarm reception, hasn't been loaded into this version of the browser.

There’s also no sign of Opera’s new JavaScript engine that has been under development for a little under a year now.

Sadly the supposedly super-fast engine, code-named Carakan, doesn’t see the light of day with this release. Perhaps that kinda speed requires that Opera turn it up all the way to 11. ®

Related stories

• OpenMobileSummit Opera in top secret iPhone talks? (5 November 2009)
• Opera takes Unite for spin with browser beta release (14 October 2009)
• Opera Mini gets facelift, sprouts tabs (16 September 2009)
• Opera 10 hits release candidate status (25 August 2009)
• Opera to 'reinvent the web' in four days (12 June 2009)
• Opera 10 debuts with 'Turbo' boost (3 June 2009)
• Opera plans Turbo mobile peek (27 March 2009)
• Opera revs JavaScript engine of the future (5 February 2009)
• Norwegians spill Opera 10 alpha (6 December 2008)
• Opera 10 roadmap charts cross-platform support (31 July 2006)