Browser Wars, IE? Opera? FireFox? Mozilla? Netscape? Options

[d3bruts1d]

Well, some would say that the browser wars ended when Microsoft crushed Netscape (I'd argue that AOL crushed Netscape).

Well, with the past several weeks, we've had several different threads discussing what browser everyone uses. And as a member suggested, we're going to eliminate all these multiple threads, and leave one message for everyone to discuss the "War of the Browsers".

Is your choice Netscape? IE? Opera? Mozilla? FireFox? MiniMo? Or one of the many add-ons for IE (MyIE2, Avant, etc.)? Maybe something else? Let us know what you like, why you like it, or why someone else should try it.

My take on it is, everything is better than IE.


This thread is only to discuss web browsers for Windows.. We have a similar topic for Linux/BSD.

[adrenalinepcs]

woohoo First comment!

i choose avant browser.
tons of features, skins, 100% compatibility, loads very fast, browses very fast, and works with all the ie plugins that i use.

[kurosen]

As I stated in another thread before it was closed, I'm an Opera fan... Mouse Gestures, Checkpoints, built in Google Bar, Zoom Function, Tabbed Browsing, the list goes on and on... Yes, some browsers have a few of these features, but Opera has it all, in one neat little package I might add

[injijagwalaafq]

Firefox is nice, though I've had some probs with plug-ins, tabs browsing, and page display, see pic, (ugly) IE top, Firefox bottom. Never really liked netscape. Have not played with opra for a while.

[HomerJaySimpson]

Opera!
I've been using it for years now and i wouldnt use anythign else. There are some sites which dont work well on it, but thats not Opera's fault, just the stupid webmaster!! The mouse gestures are the a great lazy guy feature and saves a lot of miliseconds while browsing. I've tried others but uninstalled them straight away when i realised they couldnt compete with Opera.

[Mr_Yuck]

Firefox!!!

I tried Opera, but $30-$40 for an INTERNET BROWSER???

Firefox, nice and customizable, though not perfect, it's a beta version for crying out loud!

Then there's the stability of IE

[O(V)eGA_l2el)]

Firefox is the best IMO; it is much more stable, compatible, and faster than any other browser. I love tabbed browsing; the popup blocker is superb. The themes and extensions are decent, but other than that it is a great alternative to IE, Netscape,etc.

[dangerousfigure]

i use mozilla but then again i am to lazy to install anything else on my linux box where i do most of my surfing haha ,but i figure avant is support by microsoft, through wug board , windows user groups, i would say its a goodie too

[d3bruts1d]

Opera is free. It cost ($39) to remove the ads from the browsers, which really take up very little space. Is it really that much? You pay $40-60 for a video game that you may use for 2-6 months, then throw away (or shelf)... Which seams like a better investment of money? Something you'll use for a long time? Or something you'll only use for a few months?

Netscape (7.1 - Full) = 29.3M
Netscape (7.1 - Navigator only) = 12.0M
Mozilla (RC2) = 11.9M
FireFox (0.8) = 6.2M
Opera (7.5) = 3.4M

Both Mozilla and Opera have built in IRC clients and email clients (I find the email and IRC clients in both suck). Even with these built in features, Opera is still extremely smaller in size. FireFox, the striped down version of Mozilla is still much larger than Opera.

FireFox/Mozilla and Opera share a lot of common features, such as the tabbed browsing, side bar/panel, pop-up blocker, themes, and search bars. Opera has mouse gestures, which is available to Mozilla/FireFox via a plug in. So, now not only does Mozilla take up more space, it also requires a plug in to do what Opera does by itself.

Skins/Themes for the browsers are roughly the same. They range anywhere form 110K - 700K (or more).

Personally, the best browser I ever used was Netscape 4.7x. After that it migrated to the Gecko engine (which is also used by the spin off, Mozilla). I can't stand any of the later versions of Netscape, and since Mozilla is (or at least was) teh twin brother to Netscape, I can't stand it.

Opera makes use of the Presto engine, which AFAIK is also still being used by Macromedia and Adobe (Go live and Dreamweaver).

Opera is highly (and easily) customizable, allowing you to drag and drop buttons to different toolbars, even those on the opposite side of the screen. Opera also provides information on the INI files and how to modify them in order to add additional things (i.e. different search options).

Opera also has a plethora of keyboard commands and shortcuts, which can be user defined. Moz/FF may have commands as well, but not as many as Opera. This is a major thing to me, as I don't use the mouse a lot (danged CT).

The next thing I like about Opera is the note ability. I didnt catch on to that for several years, but now that I have, I could go back to not having it. It's awsome for research, reviews, and keeping inportant info when I might not want to bookmark a page over one line.

There are many reason I like Opera, support, promote, and advertise Opera. Just like others around here have their own reason for liking Mozilla, FireFox, or even IE. To each his own. Use what you like. It's still a somewhat free world.

[Propane]

The thing about Firefox (which I have used since .6 or .5 cant remember) is that it is a straight up browser... I dont want email, irc, and the kitchen sink in my web browser... I want it to load pages and have tabbed browsing and nothing else... thats why I like Firefox (not to mention it is small, loads extremelly fast, loads pages extremelly fast, has no picture bar, and I have a ton of viewing space (see pic)... IMO it is the best but it might not be the best for you... I dont care what you use because I will use this untill something better for ME comes out...

[Phil]

i choose avant browser.
tons of features, skins, 100% compatibility, loads very fast, browses very fast, and works with all the ie plugins that i use.

OK, time for a new guy question. I don't quite get what avant browser is about. I went to their site, avant browser but still have questions. Does AB replace IE? If it does, does it use the same format? Any help would be appreciated.

[Propane]

it uses HTML and you would toss IE