new browser-firefox, opera or explorer 7beta3 ? need advice!

[tyrant_iv]

well i want to upgrade to a better browser, but can't choose between firefox and opera, and my freind says explorer 7 beta 3 is great....

 

another freind who knows alot about computers (kinda surprising from him actually) says firefox is best, so which one should i download?

[____]

Try then all, use whatever you like the best.

[Anesthesia]

Between FF and Opera it's just a matter of personal preference.

[devilheart14]

Personally i prefer firefox because of the heaps of extensions.

 

 

 

Ive got the new IE but i dont no if i like it.

 

 

 

There all getting pritty secure, but the older IE's weren't as safe as opera or Firefox.

[paddyj88]

Firefox. Nothing comes close. It's just plain brilliant, really. And if it wasn't good enough, Extensions give it an even larger boost.

[Mercifull]

You shouldn't use beta software as your main browser so try Firefox and Opera and see which one you prefer.

[tyrant_iv]

so far iv'e done all 3 and sped up firefox using a config thingy, it's going pretty fast, and so does the new IE, i havn't really tried opera yet....

[Vape]

Decide for yourself?

 

 

 

I'm all for Firefox, but Opera is a quality browser too. I'd recommend not going with IE7 as it's still in beta, which equals possible dataloss, crashes, etc. And considering Microsoft's history, odds are it will be full of holes and they'll take months to patch them.

 

 

 

Great things about Firefox:

 

• 
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Free as in beer
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Free as in speech
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Extensions
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Themes
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Customisability
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Fast
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Lean
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]Great community (eg. if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to help you or tell you where you might be able to find help :))
   
  [*:2csxe6ah]

Aliens prefer firefox
 
[*:2csxe6ah]And much more \

[Diminished2b]

Meh, the whole marketing point of vista and all of the new things it's getting (IE 7) are just poorly implemented features with the ideas taken from the Free & Open Source Software people.

 

 

 

UNIX/MAC/Firefox.

[Greatsilverwyrm]

Great things about Opera:

 

 

 

• 
   
  [*:1g2ave7e]Free, free, and free.
   
  [*:1g2ave7e]Many, many themes.
   
  [*:1g2ave7e]Customizability
  • [*:1g2ave7e]Completely and totally customizable interface.
     
    [*:1g2ave7e]User JS, somewhat similar to Extensions
     
    [*:1g2ave7e]Custom buttons

[*:1g2ave7e]Many of the most popular Firefox extensions are features built-in to Opera.

 

[*:1g2ave7e]Built-in (amazing) mail client, and chat client.

 

[*:1g2ave7e]Small

 

[*:1g2ave7e]Fast (fastest browser on windows in all benchmarks I've seen)

 

[*:1g2ave7e]Fantastic community, with many less fanboys and pundits than other browsers.

 

[*:1g2ave7e]Revolutionary rendering engine.

 

[*:1g2ave7e]all pages/images/anything are fully zoomable

 

 

 

Really though, choose for yourself.

[d3nic]

I use FireFox, and to be honest, I think it's fantastic.

 

 

 

Amazing security built in FireFox.

 

 

 

So, I say, go to Firefox. :)

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

- Denic.

[weezcake]

Try both Firefox and Opera. See which one you like better and stick with it. :)

 

 

 

IE7 is horrible though, IMO. It's a lot slower and a lot more annoying than Firefox..

[insane]

I'd go with FireFox. I love it! Extensions, extensions, extensions.

[tyrant_iv]

well i've decided to go with firefox, opera looks good and i supose is more user freindly, but somehow i like firefox better, especially the extensions, and it sounds alot safer, which is important

[TheLeader]

I use firefox, opera is pretty cool though. Get bored of the look type in google 'firefox skins'.

[Aznhuskarl]

I've heard that the IE beta has the similar features of the Tab browsing ofFirefox not long ago.

 

 

 

{I was looking for this version but I haven't found any...}

 

 

 

So far I'm using Firefox.

[Militaris]

IE has had the ability to have tab broweing for a long time, no need to get the IE beta.

[Mercifull]

IE has had the ability to have tab broweing for a long time, no need to get the IE beta.

Only if you install a 3rd party plugin and that still doesnt change the fact that its the most insecure browser.

[Militaris]

IE has had the ability to have tab broweing for a long time, no need to get the IE beta.

Only if you install a 3rd party plugin and that still doesnt change the fact that its the most insecure browser.

 

 

 

Thats true. But Firefox requires 'extensions' (basically a more efficient version of 3rd party PlugIns) to give it much of its functionality. Mozilla record on security has also been less then stellar.

 

 

 

Used correctly, with the right supporting software all browsers are extremely capable products. I personally use the browser which is highly capable with the minimal amount of extra add-ons required.

[Mercifull]

The difference between a FF and IE exploit is that one causes a nuisance and the other has the potential to cripple or compromise your entire system...

[Diminished2b]

I like Firefox.

 

 

 

The extensions, themes, and plugins make it very modular.

 

 

 

Anyone can make extensions, plugins, themes. Anyone can extend to the main Firefox code unlike Opera or IE. Many people do contribute who aren't part of the main development team and that's one of the major factors to why it's so great. It's a community project.

 

 

 

With a few configuration enhancements it can render webpages like a beast. Without it's still pretty dang good at doing it. The code is very clean and the newest releases have no memory leaks (That I have come across).

 

 

 

It's a great webbrowser, and after trying 2.0.0b1 it seems like it's going places. It works natively on x86_64 systems aswell as most other architectures. Can't say that about Opera.

 

 

 

On the other hand, Internet Explorer intigrates within the Windows kernel, which as said above can cause larger security exploits then normal. This also makes it very hard to port it to other platforms, and was ported ONCE to a few UNIX platforms but was discontinued at version 5.0sp1. It works on Solaris and HP/UX.

 

 

 

Firefox is almost fully compatible with all standards. There are a few which it fails due to a silly bug (Which, in real usage doesn't matter, and will be fixed by 2.0.0).

 

 

 

Opera is fully compatible with all of these standards.. Whilst Internet Explorer fails at quite a bit of them.

 

 

 

 

 

*EDIT* Firefox 2.0.0 beta 2 was just released recently. I'll try it out soon. Looks promising as the beta 1 was quite good.

 

 

 

Here's a page on improvements from 2.0.0 beta 1. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho ... 2.0b2.html

[Militaris]

 

Anyone can make extensions, plugins, themes. Anyone can extend to the main Firefox code unlike Opera or IE. Many people do contribute who aren't part of the main development team and that's one of the major factors to why it's so great. It's a community project.

 

 

 

 

It is also a major flaw, because many people do contribute which are not part of the main development team. In projects like Opera everyone has a clear goal in mind, and they work together to achieve that. In firefox it is a bunch of individuals who supply bits and pieces and the main development team have to make it work and fit together flawlessly. Plus in firefox the developers trend to concentrate on the more exciting and rewarding aspects of design, leaving other key but less interesting aspects underdeveloped. A community based product would never be as good as a bunch of specialists working together.

 

 

 

Would you rather eat a omelette made by a team of train chiefs, or by a few hundred volunteer?

[Diminished2b]

 

Anyone can make extensions, plugins, themes. Anyone can extend to the main Firefox code unlike Opera or IE. Many people do contribute who aren't part of the main development team and that's one of the major factors to why it's so great. It's a community project.

 

 

 

 

It is also a major flaw, because many people do contribute which are not part of the main development team. In projects like Opera everyone has a clear goal in mind, and they work together to achieve that. In firefox it is a bunch of individuals who supply bits and pieces and the main development team have to make it work and fit together flawlessly. Plus in firefox the developers trend to concentrate on the more exciting and rewarding aspects of design, leaving other key but less interesting aspects underdeveloped. A community based product would never be as good as a bunch of specialists working together.

 

 

 

Would you rather eat a omelette made by a team of train chiefs, or by a few hundred volunteer?

 

 

 

Opera uses many libraries that are community-based. Atleast 1/4th of it's code is developed by a community (The libraries it uses).

 

 

 

Code is code. If it accomplishes what it should with a good level of quality then it's fine. When someone submits code to the project, unless it is submitted by a developer then it is looked over by developers to make sure it's worthy of the project. Most components of my desktop are community-based projects and each and every one of them -- I believe, is very developed and good software.

 

 

 

That analogy is also pretty weak. A better analogy is "Would you rather eat an omelet in which the recipe was made by a team of train chefs or by a few hundred volunteers."

 

 

 

Anyways, what "key and less interesting design aspects" are Firefox lacking?

[Militaris]

The core fundamentals of opera are designed and coded in house. Code is not code, there is efficient code and bad code. The more efficient the code the more it can archive for less computing resources. The more efficient the code, the less likely bugs and instability would occur. The more efficient the code the easier it would be for others to read and modify.

 

 

 

The original analogy was better. When the consumer uses the browser it is a finished product, people use the browser, not read the recipe.

 

 

 

The main flaw in firefox design aspect is the lack of integration between the various features, and the core engine itself. Because many of the extensions are developed independently they are not designed to take advantage of the previous extensions already in use.

[Diminished2b]

The core fundamentals of opera are designed and coded in house. Code is not code, there is efficient code and bad code. The more efficient the code the more it can archive for less computing resources. The more efficient the code, the less likely bugs and instability would occur. The more efficient the code the easier it would be for others to read and modify.

 

 

 

The original analogy was better. When the consumer uses the browser it is a finished product, people use the browser, not read the recipe.

 

 

 

The main flaw in firefox design aspect is the lack of integration between the various features, and the core engine itself. Because many of the extensions are developed independently they are not designed to take advantage of the previous extensions already in use.

 

 

 

That's why I said if the code had good quality. If you have the ability to code the feature most likely you have the ability to implement it cleanly. If it wasn't implemented cleanly then it's filtered out by developers and note added. As simple as that.

 

 

 

Code is recipe. The chef is the compiler. If the chef follows the recipe then it outputs the finished product (The omelet). He can also add some 'spices' such as optimization flags.

 

 

 

Extensions can communicate easily. It's the extension-makers decision to do this. Portability and modularity are the future.

 

 

 

I don't even understand what your saying with your 'lack of integration between the various features and the core engine itself.' Themes, plugins, and extensions can actively communicate with the core engine, and do. It's the theme/plugin/extension maker's decision to do this and it's your decision to choose their creation. Firefox is still a GREAT browser without any themes/extensions/plugins.