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What Browsers Best? (sic)
Among PC users there seems to be a lot of debate over whether Opera or Mozilla Firefox is better. Personally I like FireFox with the web developer toolbar the best.
How many Browsers do u have installed on your machine?
Just the three:
IE6 XP SP2
Opera 7.5
FireFox 0.9
Probably need to update one or two of those.
What Browsers Best?
I second that vote for Firefox, although I still tend to use IE6 more.
How many Browsers do u have installed on your machine?
IE6, Mozilla 0.9, Netscape 4.8, Netscape 7, Firefox, Opera 5, 6 and 7.5; IE5.0 on a Windows 98 partition; Konqueror and Mozilla on a Fedora Linux partition; IE5.0, 5.1 and 5.2, Omniweb 4.5 and Safari 1.2 on a Mac. (Well you did ask ;) )
And what Browsers are built on the same technology as an another Browser?
Netscape 6 and 7, Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox use versions of the Gecko rendering engine.
Konqueror (Linux), Omniweb (Mac) and Safari (Mac) use versions of the KHTML rendering engine.
IE5 (PC) and IE5 (Mac) are completely different!
Which one's best? Depends on what you use it for and which one suits you best - there is no right answer. Personally, I use Firefox as my default browser and I like Dillo the best (it's small and very fast). My favorite browser of all time? Netscape Navigator 2 Gold - it brought me to the web, and was the best of its time by a long margin.
I use IE6 and Netscape 7.0 UK ver which I’m not keen on I tell you now
What’s the difference between Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox?
Does Opera use the Gecko rendering engine to?
Also for those Browsers that use the Gecko rendering engine does it mean that a web page should display and work the same in all Gecko rendering engine browsers?
[edited by: domoftheuk at 5:29 pm (utc) on Oct. 14, 2004]
Mozilla for non-flash, non-javascript surfing.
IE6 with google toolbar for viewing pages that insist on using flash or javascript navigation.
Avant Browser 8.02 for tiled windows, automatic page refresh, and some other cool features I wish were in Mozilla.
I used to use Netscape Compact but then one day it mysteriously installed the Flash plugin without my consent so I had to delete it from my computer.
Rendering engines:
IE: MSIE, crazy browser, avant, a few others, those are just shells though, also the new aol browser, also a shell
Gecko: mozilla, firefox/firebird/phoenix, epiphany, k-maleon, netscape > 6, galeon, and some others
Opera is opera, uses its own rendering engine
AppleWebKit-KHTML: safari, konqueror, more or less but not 100%, omniweb, and some others.
Lynx is lynx
Dillo is dillo
Installed:
OS 1 w2k:
Opera 4, 5, 6, 7.0,7.2, 7.5
Netscape 3.0, 4.0, 6.2, 7.1
Mozilla 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8a
Phoenix 0.5
Firebird 0.6, 0.7
Firefox 0.8, 0.9.3 [waiting for final gold release of 1.0 to switch]
Lynx 2.8
Internet Explorer 5.5
OS 2 w2k:
IE 5.0
Firefox 1.0
OS 3 wxp:
IE 6.0
OS 4 w98:
IE 4.0
Mozilla 1.x
Opera 6
OS 5 w2k - laptop:
IE 6
operas, mozillas, firefox
OS 6 yoper linux
Mozilla 1.7
Firefox 0.9
Dillo
Lynx
Konqueror 3.3
and a few others scattered here and there, galeon on suse I think, maybe epiphany.
[edited by: isitreal at 5:43 pm (utc) on Oct. 14, 2004]
That's false. It doesn't run IE proprietary document.all or netscape < 5 document.layers of course.
Flash works, although you have to use either the embed tag or a workaround with the object tag to get pages to display it, same probably applies to khtml type browsers.
Zaroo spyware found.. Nada, Zilch!
wtg Firefox [getfirefox.com]!
[edited by: Chndru at 5:46 pm (utc) on Oct. 14, 2004]
I use a lot of the browsers mentioned above, firefox standard, the only one not mentioned here that I use occasionally is elinks, which is a lot like lynx except it does some table rendering, so the text-only display mirrors that of a 'normal' webpage a little more.
should I wish to view them on a page I open IE6, which I seem to be doing quite often.
i don't understand the concept of requiring a surfer to install an insecure 3rd party plugin to use a website, but i'm obviously in the minority on this.
I also have a Mac in the house to check out Mac IE5 and Safari
Opera offers a small screen mode for seeing what a 3G phone may do to your site. Since Opera is the embedded browser in many mobiles, that's a good reason to have it installed.
Unless I'm testing pages, I never use IE unless I need critical information from microsoft and their page requires it. Anyone else that requires IE just lost my business.
I also run NN4 - just for the Messenger email client. I no longer develop for Navigator 4. Although it takes an extra step, I like the security of copying links from an email and pasting them into a different browser.
Many people find (and I agree) that the most efficient way to develop these days is to write validated mark-up and begin in Firefox or Opera. Then, do a last minute check in IE and tweak if needed.
What's the difference between Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox?
Firefox is Mozilla with all the bloat removed. The Diet Coke of Mozilla.
Does Opera use the Gecko rendering engine to?
As isitreal's covered. Opera is Opera.
Also for those Browsers that use the Gecko rendering engine does it mean that a web page should display and work the same in all Gecko rendering engine browsers?
Across the same Gecko versions they *should*, but Netscape 6 was based on Mozilla 0.9 and we're all the way up to 1.7 now. There have been a lot of changes in that period. If you're particularly worried about your site working on a particular browser on a particular OS, then test with that browser, not a substitute. Saying that, you'll find that most of us will test with the latest build, the earliest build we're worried about (0.9 in my case), and very little in-between (Netscape 7.1/Mozilla 1.4 for me).
I still like IE6 the best. The browsing and loading is fast and smooth and it doesn't have a "clunky" feel like the other 2.
I've tried FireFox since 0.7 after hearing alot of great reviews and really made an effort to like it but my experience has not been great but only satisfactory. It does its job but somehow, it just feels clunky and not smooth while surfing. I do love the tabbed browsing though.
now I'm a FF fan. (Well Jeepers it's the "toy" of the day)
Opera, I want to love it , indeed I tried to as a first non-ie choice, but it flirts with the "line". As far as I'm concerned it "drew the line" and all kudos.. but now there's too many ways for it to jump off the fence, tho' definitely not to be ignored
IE is IE it cannot be ignored it still; has the "rep" (Hence Opera's decision I presume) I personally never surf with IE.. now that's not typical, except for here in "geek" circles, it (IE) never warrants ignoring (but there's ignoring and there's trashing ;))
And all that and still no Mac.. sorry but to me that one is like VHS and Beta something is happening (has happened) and it's not just IE versus All, although I think they've won that one!
Q. Have Opera withdrawn their Mac dev?
[edited by: SuzyUK at 7:22 pm (utc) on Oct. 14, 2004]
I have reed all replies and they are all very helpful and interesting. I am soon going to download and install Firefox and Opera. Opera I am particle interested in after a comment made by tedster: Opera offers a small screen mode for seeing what a 3G phone may do to your site. Since Opera is the embedded browser in many mobiles, that's a good reason to have it installed.
Also Chndru: Zaroo spyware found Nada, Zilch ; what are these and what do they do to your computer as it worries me greatly? If they are dangerous how do I go about removing these things what software must I install if any. I have Ad-Aware
Yes I agree IE can never be ignored no way as Microsoft is the dominant OS and MS will also include IE until some one stops them from doing so. So as long as that continues most of the worlds Internet users will be viewing web sites with IE.
However, with motivation it would be possible for a firefox extension developer to create the same thing, only with more features, such as imitating other handheld devices.
Oh, I forgot, the webtv emulator too, that's very useful, people actually use webtv, not many, on my commerciall sites web tv and opera numbers are about the same, 0.1 - 0.2 % of users.
<wading against the tide of the Firefox majority>
Zaroo spyware found Nada, Zilch ; what are these and what do they do to your computer as it worries me greatly?
domoftheuk, i meant no spyware were found.
@ photon: [mozilla.org...]
I tried Opera when I decided to migrate away from IE browsing, but it just didn't "fit" me. FireFox fits perfectly. I never use IE unless I have to get updates from MS, and there are a couple of sites that just don't work in anything but IE (one is the benefits site for my husband's retirement program, the other is an obscure little credit union in another state where we still have a cd or two).
I actually can't remember how to use some of the stuff in IE any more....
As for Mac and small viewport stuff, I've been depending on a couple of friends with Macs and cell phones equipped to surf. I'm going to be buying a used Mac in the next few months, and I guess I might upgrade my phone package next year to include the surfing stuff (I'm probably the only person in the world who still has a b&w phone, and only 30 minutes a month.... package only costs $25 a month including taxes, though, and I NEVER use more than about 8 minutes....)