IT: Web Browsers

So as far as internet browsers are concerned, there are quite a few on the market for those that seriously don’t want to use microsoft’s internet explorer. Even after the release of the new IE9, which I wrote about a wee while ago, Opera also released an update (Opera 11.10) a few days ago. I must say, I installed Opera a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly impressed. I have always been a Microsoft fan, and have also always loathed to even try too many apps (inc browsers) on my machine basically because of previous versions of Firefox (let’s blame them for now).

Opera is fast and concise browser software, and with a codename like Barracuda (reminds me of the song!), it even sounds revolutionary (you agent). There is a feature called Opera Turbo which is a built-in accelerator to speed up slow connections (those unfortunates using 3G and dial-up). And the reason it’s faster is because the Turbo feature somehow reduces the size of the page (and why can’t ALL browsers do this regardless of any feature?!).

As far as comparing this to Firefox – as usual there is no comparison and I still don’t understand why some people laud Firefox as the best – I mean it’s not even good… to say the least! It also displays some content different than ALL other browsers – probably another old-school Unix trick they are employing for some bizarre reason. Perhaps Mac and/or Linux perform really well with Firefox – I won’t be able to say – but as far as running this on any Windows OS is simply ridiculous. And yes, I am biased AGAINST Firefox… so there!

Lastly, I don’t know who was first (and as far as releases are concerned, perhaps Firefox MIGHT have been), but all three of the major browsers all have the same basic layout, menus, and tab display – just another example of the Sheep Syndrome.