Norwegian browser maker Opera on Thursday released the third beta of its namesake version 8 for Linux.

Beta 3 of Opera 8 for Linux includes a revised Preferences dialog, improved handling of e-mail attachments, fixes and enhancements to how the browser handles RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds, and several security fixes to stymie hackers who may try to spoof URLs using IDN (International Domain Names) characters.

Opera 8 for Linux first went into beta in early January, when Opera said that the final would release "early in 2005."

In the U.S., Opera has a miniscule share of the browser market. According to monitoring and metric provider WebSideStory, Opera accounts for less than 0.2 percent of U.S. usage. Firefox, on the other hand, is used by about 5.5 percent of those on the Internet, while Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer holds down 92.2 percent.

Beta 3 can be downloaded for free from the Opera site.