If the Opera 8 browser is downloaded one million times by 4:00am on April 23 (Eastern Daylight Time), then Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner vows to swim from Norway to the United States.  "There will be only one stop-over for a cup of hot chocolate at his mother's house in his home country, Iceland," the company said in an official statement. 

Opera's new Web browser, Opera 8, was released Tuesday, with  600,000 downloads reported in the first 48 hours. "A lot of people had great difficulties downloading Opera 8 on Tuesday because the traffic on the servers was simply too high," says Carsten Fischer, VP Desktop, Opera Software. "When download numbers reached 120 per second one hour after the release, our servers had serious problems dealing with all the requests. We had prepared for heavy traffic, but this exceeded our wildest dreams."

Opera has now installed additional servers with increased capacity, prompting von Tetzchner's promise.  "I am not sure he realizes how cold the Norwegian Sea is in April," says Anne Stavnes, Human Resource Manager, Opera Software. "However, having seen Jon in his red beach attire before, I am not sure if swimming to the U.S. is scarier than exposing people to this sight." SYS-CON's attempts to reach the White House to determine whether von Tetzchner would be greeted by the U.S. Navy or Coast Guard were unreturned at the time this article was posted. A Department of Homeland security volunteer spokesperson had no comment.

SYS-CON.TV has contacted Opera Software, promising to cover the CEO's swim live. SYS-CON.TV has stated it will need some advance warning so that it can procure a helicopter to record the event, as the company's cameraman has evinced some trepidation about swimming alongside von Tetzchner. The cameraman has been dispatched to Eastport, Maine for cold-water survival training, but may not be ready in time for the swim. (Water temperatures in the area are in the range of 39-40 degrees F, approximating conditions off the coast of Norway.)

On a more serious note, Opera 8 has been launched under the campaign heading "Speed, Security, Simplicity" to position Opera as the fast, secure and easy-to-use browser, according to Opera Software. Visitors may go to  www.opera.com to download the browser and help enable the swim. 

Opera Software ASA is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with development centers in Linkoping and Gothenburg, Sweden. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA.