Browser Wars

[Abandon]

Right, we are all agreed that Internet Explorer is a pretty feeble browser. But which one to choose instead???

Please - no rants and rambles.. .. This is just getting a bit of final data so that we can make a simple answer for the upcoming FAQ.

My brief assessment:

Internet Explorer

Still good for basic use as most web pages are optimized for it. Lack of tabbed browsing (see below for description) and virus/malware targetting it are downpoints

Maxthon http://www.maxthon.com/

Sanctioned by M$ as MYIE2, this browser has tabbed browsing, and lots of extra options, as well as good adblocking and safety features built in. Easiest upgrade as it uses the IE engine, and regular settings/favourites are in the same IE options window

Avant http://www.avantbrowser.com/download.html

Another IE based browser including the features listed for Maxthon. (not used it personally for a long time - anyone with experience?) Now includes tabbed browsing.

Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all.html

The latest rave in browsing. Developed along with Netscape, excellent features in addition to tabbed browsing and adware control. Still very safe from virus/malware. Hundreds of downloadable extensions make it the first choice for those who like to tinker and adapt. Some sites however will not open with it, and adapting it requires choosing and installing 'extensions'. Bookmarks are seperate to favourites (unless using a syncronisation extension) which can be a headache for non techies.

Netscape http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp

Freshly released last week and free, netscape was once the definitive word in Browsers. Developed along with mozilla firefox - anyone tried it yet ??????

Opera http://www.opera.com/

Also offering the basic upgrades from Internet Explorer anyone tried it yet ??????

Any Others ????

**tabbed browsing - this allows you to open multiple sites and flip between them without opening/closing new windows. Actually, it's very easy and once you try it you will definitely never want to go back to the old IE. Now offered by all decent browsers.

[waldwolf]

.......we are all agreed that Internet Explorer is a pretty feeble browser........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don't recall being asked!

Actually, I think IE5-6 are quite good and IE7 is even better.

[Abandon]

Good point. Can I postumously ask ...

IE is good for most in fact, not everyone wants to seek out added features in alternative software.

[Wolfie]

Actually, I think IE5-6 are quite good and IE7 is even better.

Try opening the same page in FireFox and IE

Firefox loads the page about 3-4x quicker in most cases

Not flameing IE, just pointing out some differences

[slimdog]

I found using two browsers to be the simplest option. For me this is Opera/Ie. Whilst I haven't downloaded Firefox, I have been taking a keen interest in what people have been saying. One hope is that in future versions of browsers, the programmers will consider what firefox has done (Simple browser, ability to add -on additional features as users want) rather than simply make each additional version more feature rich than the last.

[cdnvic]

I was the biggest proponant of IE at one time, and was so up until about 4.0. After that I found it way too bloated for me. I thought IE3.02 was awesome, and kinda regret upgrading as it was the last slim, agile IE version.

What kept me in the IE camp through 5.0 was not how great it was, but how unstable I was finding Netscape and Opera at the time. Now that Netscape and Firefox are reliable I prefer their more user friendly features.

As for a website that can only be viewed with IE, why on earth would a business site turn away money because of what browser someone is using? That's like a grocery store only selling food to people wearing grey shoes. These businesses are taking a financial hit to promote IE for Microsoft, and paying through the nose for Frontpage to do it. I'm not going to change browsers to view anyone's site, I'm just going to move on to the next guy.

My sites are made to be viewed with Lynx (text only browser) because thats exactly how Altavista/Yahoo and Google look at them.

cv

[Gary A]

I downloaded the latest and greatest Firefox. I used it for a couple of weeks and have to say that it is faster and has some advantages but the shortcuts not showing in favorites, having problems with some websites and shortcomings of the feeble spell-checker sent me right back to IE.

[lopburi3]

I have tried Firefox for a month and then a few months but have gone back to IE. There are far too many sites that do no display right (and often with no indication) when using Firefox. I never could get the tab business to work the same twice and can open a new IE in a second and not lose display real estate. The speed is not a factor with ADSL and seemed to be that Firefox started display prior to full download rather than real speed.

[cdnvic]

I have tried Firefox for a month and then a few months but have gone back to IE.  There are far too many sites that do no display right

This is part of why I won't use IE just on principal. Microsoft wants sites built that only work with IE so that people will only use IE. I don't feel like playing into someone's hands. That the site does not display well in other browsers isn't the fault of the other browser, its the fault of Frontpage, and a web author who plays Microsofts game for some inexplicable reason. Does it not bother people to be led around by the nose?

As for Firefox I do have some complaints. The online documentation is hit & miss, the download manager is poor, and when you don't use it there's absolutly no idicator of your download's status. The auto-update has never worked for me.

On the good side, Firefox has never, ever, ever crashed on me.

cv

[Phil Conners]

I concur with your view on MS predatory strategies.

I never use browsers documetation, what you need that for?

Never had a problem with Firefox's download manager, which problem?

Auto-update has always worked fine for me. Used it from the last preview version to 1.0 -> 1.0.1 -> 1.0.2 no problem, ever.

It does crash on me from time to time tho, maybe 3-4 times since I've used it.

I just downloaded Netscape 7.2 just for fun. (It's a 10MB download, downloaded with 7KB/s over GPRS). I don't see it offer any value over Firefox though, just a lot of value-added fluff, links to news, pictures, AIM messenger and such. I'm staying with Firefox.

Edited March 30, 2005 by madsere

[LivinLOS]

  The speed is not a factor with ADSL and seemed to be that Firefox started display prior to full download rather than real speed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Its precisely on a broadband connection that the rendering engine is the factor rather than the dialup being the bottleneck..

[Abandon]

So, anyone tried the latest avant, netscape, or Opera?

[slimdog]

Still using Opera 4.01

I have looked at later upgrades but have not seen anything new which I would use. Love the tab function, ability to enable/disable java on the run,enter proxies easily, except all cookies and discard them when I close the browser, and general ability to do what I want with history,cache etc.

Has a fairly reasonable download manager which does on occasion allow for interupted downloads to be resumed (25% of the time), but not as good as a download manager like getright,Download accelerator etc

The only real advantage of later versions was the ability to identify function was extended to cover later versions of Netscape and Ie, although I have not had much problem with just keeping to the Mozilla default.

[stumonster]

http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net

lightweight browser based on the gecko engine

bloatware should not be encouraged - bells , whistles and pretty colours are for little girls

[sniffdog]

I use a combination of IE and FireFox.

IE often hangs or behaves peculiar. But it has the best layout (it is almost 100% compatible) unlike Firefox. Maxton is based on IE, so also has the same behaviour as IE.

I designed sites in Dreamweaver MX without any particualr tags. The page looks great in IE, not so in Firefox.

Firefox has a nice set of extentions (my favourite is SwitchProxy).

Loading times? Don't know actually. Firefox begins immediately showing the page, while IE first loads the page in cache and then spits out the whole page.

Don't have an idea one is faster than the other .....

And then the Netscape 8 Beta looks/works also fine ... but three is a little too much.

Edited March 30, 2005 by sniffdog

[waldwolf]

cv - One could always go back..........maybe

...and for those with excess time on their hands........browser testers wanted, here.

Ain't putt'n fun!

[cdnvic]

Thanks Waldwolf. I have an old box I use for running old games on, maybe I'll load some of these in for nostalgic purposes and take it for a run and see if its all I remember.

I think the only reason I upgraded was because a mate of mine did a site that used active a and ms agent and I needed 4.x to view it.

cv

[kreon]

after firefox, gone to maxthon, works great and is faster than firefox

love the ad blocker in just 1 1/2 hour 418 ad's blocked

[Phil Conners]

How can Maxthon be faster than Firefox if it's based on MSIE which is way slower?

[Highwayman]

I use Firefox as my main browser, and play around with Maxthon and Avant a little.

A properly configured Firefox browser using the extensions that are of worth to you is way superior to any other browser that l've used. If you don't like tinkering then maybe it's not for everyone. I find very, very few sites that won't work with Firefox, sites not working can have a lot to do with not having Flash etc. configured properly. The common complaint is not being able to use banking sites but no problems there for me.

How anyone can go back to IE once you've tried tabbed browsing is beyond me.

If you don't have the time to learn how to use Firefox then Maxthon is good, so is Avant, both IE shells but with a superior interface. Using IE compared to any of the other browsers mentioned is like the difference between using Win98 and XP. There will always be some people who don't appreciate the change but for most it's a positive leap forward.

I tried Netscape a few weeks back...hated it, even though it is based on Mozilla.

[psychosid10]

I have been using IE as all of you have been..lately i started using firefox i love it BUT i have a strange problem .Maybe some oof you know how to solve it.

When i try to refresh a page in firefox it does not get refreshed , it still shows the cached version. but if i refresh the same page on IE and then refresh the page on Firefox it gets refreshed

i dunno why its happening .. please suggest..

[glassdude007]

hi all.....been using firefox now for a month or so....no complaints but still learning extentions and such ..i still have ie loaded just in case ...have not had any trouble with pages not loading yet and i do shop and pay bills online...tried advant not impressed dumped it.... so for purposes of this topic....mozilla firefox is my choice....for now????

regards ...glassdude007

[Phil Conners]

I have been using IE as all of you have been..lately i started using firefox i love it BUT i have a strange problem .Maybe some oof you know how to solve it.

When i try to refresh a page in firefox it does not get refreshed , it still shows the cached version. but if i refresh the same page on IE and then refresh the page on Firefox it gets refreshed

i dunno why its happening .. please suggest..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Odd actually. MSIE has a setting where you can configure the caching setup for the browser (never, any changed, always,...) but I dont' find anything like that in Firefox.

[slimdog]

Maybe worth a read:

http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/best_of/firefox.htm

or to highlight

"To make this change, find this entry in about:config:

browser.cache.check_doc_frequency

The default setting is represented by the numeral 3, and corresponds to "when appropriate/automatically." To change it, simply double-click the browser.cache.check_doc_frequency entry. A small dialog box will open. Type the numeral 1 to change it to "Each Time" and press OK. Here's a description of the available options for this particular setting:

0 = Once per session

1 = Each time

2 = Never

3 = When appropriate/automatically"

[psychosid10]

Thanks guys ... have no problems now .. it worked !! .. GUESS i need to go deeper into extensions for FF ..

Edited April 1, 2005 by psychosid10

[SeaVisionBurma]

Definitely OPERA (currently version 7.23) as my preferred browser.

Too many good features to list: tabs (open in background), speed of loading, bookmark/hotlist, download manager (I can resume interrupted downloads nearly always), etc etc

I keep IE only for the certain sites which Opera can't load (some sites are incompatible with Opera, Firefox etc - I blame the web designers)

I have tried firefox, and while it is also very fast to load pages (as fast or faster even than Opera), it is not as user friendly as Opera, which is in turn far superior to IE.

My 2 baht worth.

[Plus+]

I've been using Opera for some years now and the new Firefox doesn't impress me at all. E-mail reader (with RSS) in Opera is integrated.

One of my favourite features is that Opera will start browsing exactly from where you left yesterday. Haven't finished reading something? - no need to bookmark it.

And an absolute must - status bar. In Opera it shows what is happening in all details - whether it's looking for a name, connecting, sending requests, downloading, downloading images (and at what speed) - everything. If you get stuck you know exactly where, so you'd refresh, reconnect, or just wait. IE would wait for five minutes and then display useless "page not found" window.

[Tufty]

Definitely OPERA (currently version 7.23) as my preferred browser.

Too many good features to list:  tabs (open in background), speed of loading, bookmark/hotlist, download manager (I can resume interrupted downloads nearly always), etc etc

I keep IE only for the certain sites which Opera can't load (some sites are incompatible with Opera, Firefox etc - I blame the web designers)

I have tried firefox, and while it is also very fast to load pages (as fast or faster even than Opera), it is not as user friendly as Opera, which is in turn far superior to IE.

My 2 baht worth.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I second that, there is no way I would use IE again the open in background feature is the best thing since sliced bread

[Abandon]

I've been using Opera for some years now and the new Firefox doesn't impress me at all. E-mail reader (with RSS) in Opera is integrated.

One of my favourite features is that Opera will start browsing exactly from where you left yesterday. Haven't finished reading something?  - no need to bookmark it.

And an absolute must - status bar. In Opera it shows what is happening in all details - whether it's looking for a name, connecting, sending requests, downloading, downloading images (and at what speed) - everything. If you get stuck you know exactly where, so you'd refresh, reconnect, or just wait. IE would wait for five minutes and then display useless "page not found" window.

Maxthon does all that. Except for the status bar - It's sometimes difficult to see what is going on. But Maxthon should open all IE only sites too as it is IE based. Sometimes you need to turn off the adblocker though.

Sounds to me that these browsers are much of a muchness. No one has posted about Avant browser yet though. One thing I have noticed is that many of the browsers will actually do the things people complain they can't do, with just a little fiddle of the settings. So, with a few extra words about opera, does my original post stand ok ??? For the upcoming FAQ

Edited April 1, 2005 by pandit35

[waldwolf]

......So, with a few extra words about opera, does my original post stand ok ??? For the upcoming FAQ

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You've picked an almost impossible task, pandit. Seems the "love" for ones browser is in the eye-of-the-beholder.

For the FAQ you might want to just give features and links. Let each reader determine the pros and cons, for themselves.

peace