Avant Browser?

[DLadybug]

I ran across this browser on ZDnet and downloaded it. Liked it, went to the website, where it said Avant browser was renamed from IE Opera.

Well, interesting, I hadn't used Opera, so this is what everyone has been talking about. cool.

So I did a goog for more info and found a review that had the line "Avant, renamed from IE Opera, (and NOT to be confused with Opera)..."

So now it seems that this Avant browser is the new name for a browser that used to be called IE Opera, but IE Opera is NOT the Opera I've heard of. There were two named so similarly?

This one's authors say it is like an up-build of MSIE. I was delighted with it because it displayed my site perfectly and was freeware, as opposed to the other opera which I believe is not? Anyone used both?

(side note, I can't seem to enable Java applet support, even though others at their support boards have that working and I do have the settings done right. I'm going to dink with it some more. Other then that, it's a very cool tabbed browser. I'd like to play with the skins function.)

~Dian

[chris_f]

Hi Dian,

I can confirm that Avant is not Opera. It is a whole different browser. I do not support this browser as I have only ever had one person use it.

Opera is free to use, however, this is a small advertising banner in the browser. It does affect my bandwidth and doesn't get in the way so I don't mind.

Chris

[universalis]

The Avant browser is not a stand-alone prodct - it is an Internet Explorer plug-in, which gives Opera-like features to IE - basically, it's an nothing more than an IE skin. In terms of authoring/rendering pages, it is identical to the underlying IE. I can understand why they had to rename it - it is certainly not Opera!

The real Opera is not freeware, but you can run it with an embedded advert for free for as long as you want - which is fine if you just want to test your site. You can pay to get rid of the banner. The latest version is 7.11, and is well worth the download.

[DLadybug]

Yes, plug-in, that's the term I was looking for. So, with the skin feature, it's essentially a a skin that can be "skinned again". cool.

I didn't know about the free w/ advert. option on the Real Opera, I think I will try that out as well, good info.

Thanks both of you!
~Dian