Posted on 09/26/2004 3:08:53 PM PDT by 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I've tried all the recent versions put out by Mozilla and while they are better than I.E., I still prefer Opera.
The Mozilla browsers, to me, all feel "clunky". Opera seems to be smoother and better looking, besides being faster.
Just my opinion thought I'm a bit biased. I've used Opera for going on 3 years now.
Mozilla does rule. I've been using it for two years now. In those rare instances that I'm forced to use IE I find myself asking "why would anybody choose to use it".
I use Firefox, but it still has bugs that are years old, and unlikely to ever get fixed. Of course, bugs never stopped Microsoft.
I had the same feeling for about the first day. I downloaded some very neat extensions and have been in love every since.
Do you know if there is such an animal?
The plug-ins to view animations are not so hot, I switch to Exploder for animations or clips of video.
I guess that would be one complaint, huh?
at one time netscape had 100%. things change.
Back when I used Opera, it was at version 6.50. It was alright, but it didn't feel solid. It was very configurable, but the browsing left something to be desired. 7.50 is much better, but I'm sticking with Firefox (which has a couple of tweaks you can implement to make it even faster than Opera.)
Mozilla itself is meant to be a web application suite, so a direct comparison to Opera doesn't quite work.
Any of the three programs (Opera, Firefox, Mozilla) are better choices than IE, but Firefox's customizability wins the day, IMO.
For saving web pages as .mht's, and because Java for Mozilla is a crash prone mess.
I have yet to find a bug, can you elaborate?
Do you get any IE pop-up ads, when IE is not running? I've gotten a few lately, but can't seem to see any pattern to them. If you have gotten any, do you know a way to block them?
I had the exact response.
It's like upgrading from a old rotory phone to the newest cell phone.
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.
The feeling I get is that Opera's answer to features that don't work is to add new features that also don't work. It's a pity, because on paper it ought to be a world-beater.
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