Internet Browsers

[C.S.J]

hello,

i currently use vista IE7, and i have no problems at all with it, but people keep saying to use Opera/Firefox, what are the advantages of using one of these?

im one of those users that doesnt really like to touch things on the OS, i tend to use IE7 / Windows Mail / windows defragment / windows cleanup etc etc

so, if there are some good reasons to use others, please mention them and i will give them a try on vista. ;D

[lucas1985]

- Security and privacy.
- Much better browsing experience.
- Fun.
- Non MS soft ;D

[KikiBibi]

Alternative browsers offer:
- themes
- "one click" function to enable/disable javascript, etc
- customizable toolbar

That's all I can think of.

Security can be achieved with IE7 if you configure the "Zones".
I use IE7 because it does what it's supposed to do - "browse the net".

[C.S.J]

i tried opera, its a good browser for sure, definatly better than firefox.

but opera looks sooooo much like IE7, i dont see the point in changing, i see hardly anything new to make me 'leave the comfort zone' :D

[stapp]

In opera, tools appearance you can change things.
Also I like the right click options on a web page, and I like to highlight a word on a web page, right click and search with google option, very usefull!

[C.S.J]

ok, but...

looks: opera or IE7 win this
performance: opera and IE7 are quite equal
surfing speed: ? dont know
ram usage differences: ? dont know

opera does have more inside the browser, but for what i use a browser for, browsing, they seem very similar to me, and look very similar too.

as for firefox, i havnt tried the 2.0 one, but if its like 1.5, its not as good as either.

i know there are probably more browsers out there, but these are the main 3 right?

[Pedro]

CSJ, you probably didn't touch the surface. Go through the tutorials:
http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/
The features:
http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/

IE7 really isn't in the same league, imo. Use the features while reading the tutorial. No post can explain better. You have to see for yourself.

[Paranoid2000]

Opera and Firefox score significantly better on security grounds - see Internet Explorer Myths: Security (http://www.webdevout.net/ie-myths#security) for a graph showing the open advisories on IE compared to the others and the Secunia listing for Internet Explorer 7 (http://secunia.com/product/12366/) to review its current vulnerabilities (7 out of 9 unpatched at time of posting). Bear in mind that these only cover publicly reported issues also.

As for features, the most useful for me in Opera is single-letter search engine access - type g plus some search terms in the address bar and you get a Google search, e plus the same terms plugs them into eBay. You can customise this quite easily to use the search feature on any site also (I have wf set up for a search on this forum for example). Opera also seems to be the fastest at rendering webpages but this can be subjective - it does however provide the most information on page download progress which is always useful with large pages/slow servers.

Another benefit is customisability - almost any part of Opera's layout can be changed by adding or removing buttons.

Firefox on its own has the advantage of simplicity - it's biggest advantage though is its extensions. There are hundreds available covering areas like security and privacy, webpage customisation, faster access to certain features or UI changes. These can make Firefox the most customisable (and potentially also the most complex) browser of all.

[C.S.J]

i know some browsers have add ons such as themes and customization etc, but im just after a browser, for browsing.

i like opera as it looks great, as does IE7 and both are quick and do as they ;say, my only added extra of opera is the added bittorrent client into the browser, this is pretty cool.

some webpages, (rare) have problems loading in opera, whereas IE7 seems to be compatible with all.

its a tough decision but as it stands, i will stick to IE7, and if i ever choose a change, it will definatly be opera all the way.

firefox has losts its reputation a bit, i will give firefox 2.0 a try and see if its any different.


edit: i want to try firefox 2.0 but am having trouble installing it, will reboot and download the package again.

i did use to use firefox a while back so i know what to expect from it, lets hope firefox 2.0 works well with vista.

[C.S.J]

ok, still having this problem install firefox.

http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/6448/ffva2.th.jpg (http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ffva2.jpg)

how do i fix this?

[Pedro]

I agree with Paranoid2000. Firefox allows you to make your own browser.
Since you're inclined to Opera, i'll add some more great features;D :

Trash- this seems silly, but it really is not. If i close a tab by mistake, i go to trash and retrieve it.
Gestures- to go back, right click- left click, or hold right and click left to go back one page at a time. This is priceless, when you start using it. All other browser without it look medieval once you start using this. Forward is left-right click. This is only the tip of the iceberg though.
Sessions- you're looking for parts to assemble you pc, for instance, and you have 15 tabs open to compare products. But now you want to stop, and do something else, without loosing all that searching. File-sessions-save this session. Whenever you want, Opera can open this session exactly as you left it. Priceless.
Related to this, is the feature that opens Opera as you left it when closing the last time, whether you saved it or not. No pop-ups, just is.
torrent- you just click a torrent, and Opera downloads it. No need for anything else. Common...
mail- built in client. Don't need it, fine. But it is there and very good one too.
(look at the pattern- one application only)
Widgets- little programs that are very useful. Well, at least some. News, Search, Converters, translators, encyclopedias, calculators...
Voice- yes it works. Voice recognition, and read text out loud. Need it or not (depends on the user), it's there.
Search engines- right click on the field of a search engine, and add it. Choose a keyboard shortcut, and you're done- you can search with it just like the google toolbar.
Ads- right click- block content- choose the ads- done.

The list goes on. Some features present in IE7 were on Opera and Firefox for a long time. You have to take that into consideration too. Tabbed browsing is built in for a long time.

[C.S.J]

lol thank you for the little pushes towards opera,

i aint inclined to any, im being open-minded about trying something else, as i said, i dont like changing anything, i usually use all the tools in windows.

when/if i can get firefox 2 working, i will give that a spin too.

-----------
firefox 2 is installed, so far so good... but still dont know which is better *lol*

this is one of the hardest decisions ever.

[C.S.J]

ok, firefox runs pretty well on vista and seems to be the quickest at browsing on my machine,

does fasterfox still work on firefox, if so... any noticable differences when using it?

[Dr. Lucien Sanchez]

Before installing any add-ons for Firefox take a look at this (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions) list.

[lodore]

i use IE7 for runescape (online game)
i mainly use firefox but seem to be using opera more and more
lodore

[TOMxEU]

You can try IE7 Pro addon (http://www.ie7pro.com/), which adds mouse gestures, AD filter, sessions recover and etc.
-{ Quote: "people keep saying to use Opera/Firefox" }-
IE6 has bad history, it has a bad effect on IE future, even when IE7 in Vista is really safer.

IE6 -> a user visited a porno and guess what, he got infected -> oh boy IE sucks, it has activex allowed by default, I will use a safer browser (FF/O) -> he will say to his friends, IE sucks, use other browsers -> friends will say the same to friends and to people, who has no idea, what a virus is, that IE sucks and so on. A new user got a PC with Vista and uses IE7 with protected mode, but he will read on a forum, that IE sucks, so he will switch, why, well he does not know really, because he was told so or because using IE is not cool now. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

By the way, IE7 has vulnerabilities on XP, because IE6 will be allways there, like a black hole.

[ErikAlbert]

I use IE for a few safe websites and all the rest with Firefox.
Firefox has the best structure, because :
- you can expand its functionality with many extensions (and themes) at free will.
- you can put its profile folder on another partition, if you want to separate your data from your system.
(Thunderbird has the same structure).
I don't need a faster browser, because I need time to read the webpages.
I can't do anything with speed and less space, I need more features.

[steve161]

Agreed. Although I have always heard that IE is a security risk (and I am not debating here that it isn't), I myself never had a security problem with it. I tried alternate browsers because, well, everyone said "use an alternate browser, it's safer". With that being said, I now use K-meleon as my primary browser because of its speed and features, and I guess I'm safer now.

[Pedro]

What i keep saying is that security alone isn't the reason to use another browser. Functions man, functions.
IE7 now has tabs, you say "see, it has tabs too", i say i have that for a long time. Now you have addons that mimic Opera... when you can just download the original... Next you'll say that IE8 has torrent, mail, adblocker, voice... I'll just say i have that for quite some time now. Old news.:-\

If you try all these programs for everything, why not try Opera or Firefox, and actually use these for everyday. They're better, that simple. Don't you use defraggers, and process explorer etc?

IE7 does what you need, IE6 also, even 5 right? But then new features come and you use them. Tabs, so neat. Opera, nah, bells and whistles. Not functionality. Whistles.:P

[FastGame]

-{ Quote: "im one of those users that doesnt really like to touch things on the OS" }-
Thats the best reason to use Firefox or Opera, they're not part of the OS like IE ;)

[steve161]

Good point. Hence one of the security problems with IE. As far as bells and whistles, the lack of those is why I prefer K-Meleon. I have speed, a simple toolbar, and a privacy bar where I can prohibit pop-ups, Java applets, javascript, and cookies. And I can also clean cookies, cache and passwords. All with one click. Of course, it always comes down to preference.

[aigle]

I started using FF few years back and liked it most due to Extensions and Themes plus tab function.
Then I used Opera and now it,s my main browser. It has so many built-in functions that I never imagined to be in a browser, though I use only some of them. I especially like it,s loading speed and speed of browsing the web pages. Important for me as I am on dial up. Uses less resources than FF. I pay for dial on time-basis so I just open a lot of tabs, then disconect from internet and read these pages for hours. And I am really impressed by its Trash function, it,s really wonderfull as I can get back my closed tabs even if I am disconected from internet. It has built in download manager that is much superior to FF. U can resume download even on next session like any other download manager. Opera is easy to backup as well, al ur bookmarks, site preferences, settings etc.
Portable opera is just another wonderful thing. U can take it anywhere on a simple USB flash frive.
No doubt Opera is much secure but it,s not of much concern for me as all my browsers run isolated in GesWall and I do safe surfing.
The main thing I like in IE7 is that it has a nice interface.

[the Tester]

I prefer Opera.
But,if you are looking for just a basic browser K-Meleon is the one to try.
It's gecko-based,no frills version of Firefox.

[Genady Prishnikov]

-{ Quote: "I prefer Opera.
But,if you are looking for just a basic browser K-Meleon is the one to try.
It's gecko-based,no frills version of Firefox." }-

No doubt. K-Meleon is one fasstt browser. The rendering of pages is almost instant.