Savvy Web Surfers Catch New Wave of Browsers

Reuters News Service ^ | Sun Sep 26, 2004 | Adam Pasick

[NewMediaFan]

LONDON (Reuters) - Since Microsoft won the browser wars in the late 1990s, its Internet Explorer software has been the way most people surf the Web. But with some slick new challengers on the scene, that may be about to change.

While Internet Explorer has remained largely unchanged for years, alternative Web browsers like Opera, Apple Computer's Safari and especially Firefox are wowing users with innovative features and the promise of increased protection from hackers.

Firefox rose from the ashes of Netscape, the first popular Web browser, which kick-started the dot-com boom before being vanquished by Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Netscape was then purchased by America Online, which donated the software's code to the non-profit Mozilla Foundation.

After nearly three years of fits and starts, Mozilla has turned out a sleek, fast-running browser. While numbers are hard to come by, more than five million copies of the software have been downloaded in the last two months, and more than a million in the 10 days since its 1.0 "preview" version was released Sept. 15.

Most estimates put Internet Explorer's overall market share at about 95 percent. But a shift can also been seen among the early adopter crowd, which picks up on technology trends months or years before the mainstream...

[captmar-vell]

will do!

thanks for the info

[birbear]

Slows down and crashes after long periods of use. Intermittently, will scroll up a few lines when I click a link or a dropdown box instead of the expected action. Will not return to the same point in a long page when I return to it with the browser's back arrow.

Yup, I've encountered all of those. Kind of annoying at times.

Also, when i first launch it, it takes forever to get to my home page.

[ApplegateRanch]

Thank you so much for an excellent set of explainations and arguments. It is what has been sadly lacking in what I have seen in the "browser wars" talks I've come across.

It is EXACTLY the kind of answer I was looking for.

Most boil down to the Star Trek Arguemnt: "Kirk can kick Picards @ss!" vs "No he can't; and besides, Miles is a better engineer than Scotty!"
Or, they are SO technically oriented and full of jargon, as to be useless to me.

With IE so heavily integrated into Windows-XP, and Windows products, how does Foxfire compare as to saving, copying, moving, directly (Outlook Express) mailing, web-based data into other aps?

Also, I don't use--tried, didn't like--searchbars, including MS's; I prefer to open a seperate window, and use Dogpile or Google; any problem with that? Also, I have Dogpile setup to automatically open any result I click on in a new window.

What I hate most about IE: minimized windows (such as Drudge) not staying minimized when they auto refresh, while I'm using the keyboard in another window. Does Foxfire behave the same, or is it more civilized in that respect?

Thanks again.

[kylaka]

Yep that's the system clock alright. Unless there is magic in that there box taking up 15% of the screen, its pretty much useless. You can regain the screen real estate by turing it off though.

As for Windows Explorer, I was talking strictly about the interface. I go back to DOS V.2 which was OK by me, but not 97% of users. In Windows 3.1, the earlier counterpart to Windows Explorer was derisively called FileMangler. I thought is was a great improvement over DOS 2,3, and 4, and it never mangled a single file on my system. Since Windows 95 MS has been making the file management interface more difficult to use. They seem to be continuing the trend with LH.

As for your system slowdown problems, unless you know from experience it is a memory management problem, inherent in windows, check Control Panel > Administraive Tools > Event Viewer and >System, and check the error messages by double clicking on them. That should give you some clues.

[kmiller1k]

I can't find the "download" button either...I am getting very frustrated and wondering (cynically) if MS is blocking that button!

[Terpfen]

Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad my post helped.

Firefox's functionality is fairly similar to IE's. It doesn't integrate itself into the OS, but it doesn't need to. A lot of IE's integration, as it matters to you, simply comes as a result of IE and Outlook being set as the default web browser and default email client, respectively. Firefox and Thunderbird (Tbird is Mozilla's email program--since I don't have a mail account that can be accessed with such programs, I don't use it, so I can't answer questions as to its functionality), when set as your defaults, should be able to perform the same functions as your current IE/Outlook combination. If you click an email address in Firefox, and if Thunderbird is set as your default mail client, Thunderbird should open up, ready to send an email.

IE's integration into Windows doesn't accomplish much. It's your default program settings that really control the features you're talking about.

I don't know what Dogpile is, but I'm assuming it's some kind of search program/engine. With FF, you can merely open a new tab (multiple browser windows are also possible, but again, tabs reduce clutter), go to whichever webpage you want, and go nuts. You can have a separate Drudge tab (which will not steal focus when it refreshes, based on personal experience), a separate Google/Dogpile tab, and your other browsing going on other tabs. It's great for FReeping in multiple threads, and also easier on the system.

Ultimately, I think you should download Firefox and Thunderbird, and give them a quick trial. Set them as your default browser/email programs and use them for a week. If you don't like them, you can uninstall, and set IE and Outlook back as your default applications. FF and TB are free, so the worst you could say is that you wasted your time downloading and uninstalling the pair. Of course, I don't think you'll consider them a waste. =D

[Terpfen]

Oh, hey. I'm sorry that I forgot to reply to your XPI question.

The XPI whitelist setting is in Tools -> Options -> Web Features -> "Allow web sites to install software." Currently in 1.0PR, you can only check or uncheck the option, and you can only maintain your whitelist. You can't globally allow XPI installs--by default. There's an extension called Feeping Creature (click the text at the top which says "extensions are fun" to install) which allows you to override Firefox's security settings and let every website you go to install XPIs. But you still have to manually approve the installation when the XPI window comes up, so be careful.

If you get Feeping Creature, after you install and restart Firefox, go to Tools -> Extensions, find Feeping Creature, right-click its listing, and hit Options. Uncheck "Block extensions from untrusted sites," and hit OK. You're good to go. If you're wondering why you can't do this from Tools -> Options -> Web Features, it's a security issue. The idea is that if you can find this option menu and disable this specific feature, you know what you're doing in the first place.

Hope that answered your question.

[ApplegateRanch]

Thanks again. I'll try it.

[Terpfen]

Well, as long as it's able to be deactivated, I guess I can stand the system clock. Still doesn't seem too handy, though. There's no real reason to take the clock out of the taskbar like that.

Windows Explorer is a pretty good interface, IMO. I actually liked it better back in 95 or 98, when you actually had a separate program named Windows Explorer, with the sidebar directory listing. Very intuitive--at least, I liked it. The file manager is getting a little clunky now, but nothing too worrisome, IMO.

Checked Event Viewer, no errors reported.

[ActionNewsBill]

bump for later

[ApplegateRanch]

Okay; it doesn't "feel" that much different to use, (except the tabs) BUT it is faster.

Another difference I like, the 'bookmarks" can be opened in a new window or tab, rather than usurping the active window.

IF it doesn't do odd things to my machine in the next few days, then I will not only call it very sweet indeed, I'll pass a recommendation on to a few friends.

[defenderSD]

bumparooski...

[MadIvan]

I use Mozilla myself. I can't see a reason why anyone would use anything else.

Opera is excellent for web development purposes as it is the most unforgiving browser - if your code is sloppy, it will show up in Opera.

Regards, Ivan

[Terpfen]

Like I said, it's a seamless transition.

If you stick with Firefox, then I suggest customizing it a little bit. Adjust the toolbars (View -> Toolbars -> Customize), install a couple of extensions, try out Live Bookmarks (head to FR's front and hit the RSS button that pops up in the status bar at the bottom), and generally take advantage of its customization features. It doesn't have to be like IE if you don't want it to be... and of course, it can be as close to IE as you want.

Enjoy the browser.

[Terpfen]

Missed another comment... wow, I'm terrible at this. Okay. Firefox speed tweaking. This is written for version 0.9.x, so I don't know if you can still do this in 1.0PR. Definitely worth a shot, though.

1. Type "about:config" in the address field.
2. Set the value of network.http.pipelining to "true".
3. Set the value of network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to "100".
4. Set the value of network.http.proxy.pipelining to "true"
5. Set the value of nglayout.initialpaint.delay to "0"

Pages should load even faster, though you might occasionally experience a slightly messed up page load. If you do, a refresh should fix it.

[Terpfen]

Looks like I missed a lot of comments...

Glad the link finally worked. Let me know how the browser works out for you.

[Casloy]

As a mac user I'm not overly impressed with Safari. It has some minor but annoying bugs.

[Dec31,1999]

Big time. I suggest this: Try to disable or delete IE. Download Firefox or some other browser. Download spybot and ad-aware and run them. Then, download "hijack this" and do a scan. Follow instructions very carefully. (I don't keep any important files on my 'puter, so I don't mind reformatting the drive/ reinstalling winblows, which I do at the first real sign of trouble) Keep all important files on separate floppies or a CD.

There are bugs out there that go so deep into your computer that you can never, it seems, get them out!

Oh, and download zonealarm to protect yourself on the internet. Hope this helps!

[Dec31,1999]

Sorry to sound so dumb, but what is "tabbed browsing"?

[Dec31,1999]

It can't hurt. You can download it and use it at your convenience. I have three non-Microfraud browsers sitting on my desktop.