Opera Million Downloads: CEO Swims Atlantic

Opera had recently released the Opera Version 8 web browser. Often claimed to be the fastest browser on earth, the new version incorporates more speed and security. The chief executive officer of Opera Software had said he will swim from Norway to the United States if 1 million copies of the company’s latest browser are downloaded within four days.

The Mozilla Foundation’s free Firefox browser, which was launched late last year, saw an estimated 2.5 million downloads in just two days. Two months earlier, the first preview release had reached the 1 million mark within five days. So Opera had to live up to the competition.

And now Opera has been downloaded >1million times in the last 4 days! Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner has begun his cross-Atlantic swim after the browser beat its download target.

CNET reports - Tetzchner entered the “freezing Oslo fjord” on Monday and started swimming toward the United States, the company said. Opera’s public relations manager, Eskil Sivertsen, is rowing an inflatable boat alongside Tetzchner “as an act of guilt after making the CEO’s statement public,” according to the Opera Web site. It remains to be seen whether the CEO will actually complete the ambitious journey. A map of the executive’s planned route features a stopover in Iceland for “Mum’s hot chocolate.”

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