Browser Discussion from Freeware Programs Thread

[DeltaGuy]

Yo Delta. I've just downloaded Mozilla 1.6 and it doesn't even display the Quinnware plug-ins page properly. Check this out:
http://www.quinnware.com/plugins.php

Tell me if it's universal or just my comp. Thanks.
This is an issue that's been brought up in the Bugs section of these forums, and Matt is in the process of fixing...

If you look at the new MSN page (apart from being ugly to begin with), it displays slightly differently on Mozilla than it does on Avant. Focus on the headers-- glossy and contoured on Avant vs. plain and rectangular on Mozilla. Both quite untasteful in my opinion, but you make the call.
Yeah, I just realized that. I don't visit the MSN page at all...

the customizable integrated google search bar, the mere availability of toolbars other than the default, the fact that you can access history without resorting to a menu (can you believe that Mozilla doesn't offer this feature?), the faster startup, and the variety of included skins all make me lean very strongly towards the Avant browser powered by IE 6.0. I have yet to try the newest update of Firebird, but I doubt it can best my current setup. It's rockin'. :cool: :D
Every, and I mean every, feature you mentioned above, including many more, are available in Firebird. Firebird and Thunderbird are new products that were only recently developed, but are still quite stable. Soon, they will be joining together, along with a couple more products, Sunbird and Nvu, to form a new Mozilla Suite, that'll really be the best Mozilla has ever had to offer. In the meantime, as you know, they're avaiable in standalone editions. Firebird will definitly equal your current setup, many users now no longer use Mozilla, but Firebird and Thunderbird instead. Firebird has many themes to chose from too... ;)

[Toe]

If you think IE6 is good at rendering pages properly (according to w3 (http://www.w3.org) standards, no idiotic proprietary markup), all I can say is try creating a completely CSS-driven website sometime. Trust me, you'll be hurling a long and detailed list of expletives at IE.

And please, can someone explain to me why PNG, which has been an official w3 reccomended specification since 1996 (http://www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG/) is STILL not fully supported by IE? Gecko (Mozilla and derivatives), Opera, and KHTML (Safari and Konqueror) all support PNG alpha channels, as does fucking Mac version of IE5 (which is actually a completely different browser with a completely seperate codebase from its Windows counterpart)! Of course, if you really want to display PNGs with alpha channels in IE, there is a hack you can use. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/filter/reference/filters/AlphaImageLoader.asp) In a nutshell, they want you to use some proprietary CSS tags that tell IE to make a fucking system call to DirectX, have DirectX figure out wtf to do with the image, and then send the result back to the browser. When Microsoft says they're not releasing new versions of IE for current operating systems because "Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS." (http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-1011859.html), idiotic shit like that is the reason why.

Given that the next version of Windows is still at least 2 years away, and that some 3 years after IE6's release, a good 5% of my site's visitors are still using IE5.5, it looks like webmasters are probably stuck supporting IE6 for at least another 5 years. Gee, thanks Bill.

[Heigar]

everybody has their own preferences,to me if i can get on the web and view my favorite sites i really don't give a rat's a$$ on what browser i'm using.

[Hanzo]

I smell browser wars... I'll just toss my opinion, just because I'm that kinda guy :evil:

I downloaded and used the perfect-render browser, aka Firebird. No doubt it does show the websites I surf nicely, but so does IE. As for those that claim that it is "faster" I could not see a difference with IE. Even if it could have a difference; how much could it be? nanoseconds? Anyways, it doesn't matter because I have ADSL.

Features... they are all kinda nice and plugin-like but IF you are like me, I've been using IE since Windows 95 so I'm used to it. Anyways, I surf regular websites and nothing too geecky that requieres the browser to be updated everyday and up to the "standards".

Standards... that's kinda a debate. What's the meaning of standard? What people use the most, right? I've seen far many sites that requiere "IE 4.0 or superior" than "Mozilla X or superior".

Security... now I have BlackIce at home or ZoneAlarm Pro at work. I don't worry about hackers and exploits because I know how to stay away from them, also I keep both my antivirus and firewalls updated. Many people complain about it, but I don't. It's the risk for using computers, if you drive a car you run risks, same thing with whatever you do on your life. Why would computers be different?

Now, basically my opinion is biased to IE. I'm used to it. But if you like Opera, Mozilla, Firebird or MSN Explorer, or you like to use all them at the same time, good for you ! I still will use IE and I'm not alone... ;)

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

Attention to all IE users this information may cause you to change browsers at this instant:

"Microsoft have provisional solution for the newest leak in its browser Internet Explorer: users can better no longer click on hyperlinks in sites or e-mails. It is possible that in the status -, address - and title bar the url of a Internet site comes to stand, whereas one is in fact sent to another site. Microsoft has not yet released a patch for this problem, but is working on a solution.

Instead of clicking on a link in a document, it is advised to all the users to type addresses in in the address bar in order to surf to the desired sites..." blablabla yada yada yada :)

Translated from dutch from this site: http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/30827

Btw, do any of you guys know the internet browser called kmeleon? Looks like fun :D

[DeltaGuy]

Btw, do any of you guys know the internet browser called kmeleon? Looks like fun :D
K-Meleon is the fastest Windows Browser, period. It uses a native Windows GUI, similar to IE (Firebird uses a new type of GUI language known as XUL). Because of this, it is able to load faster than any browser created for Windows, even IE. It also comes with a preloader, that can make it appear literally instantly. It is opensource, and based on the Gecko rendering engine. It is a very light and slimed down browser, almost identical to IE, except it has popup blocker and integrated Google search. It's main attraction is, of course, that it's really, really fast, especially if you use a blank page as your home page, in which case you will just have to blink and it will be there, even on older systems. More information can be found at K-Meleon's Home Page (http://kmeleon.sf.net). The current version is 0.8.2

[Rex_Mundi_Incarnit]

:bulb: Wow, holy cow and all else that's holy, k-meleon rocks my world :silly:

Time for a good cup of :coffee:

[chicubs]

dont we already have like 10 threads on this?

[Toe]

On the topic, I really wish someone would develop/port a KHTML-based browser for Win32. (For those not familiar with it, KHTML is the HTML rendering engine that powers the Konqueror browser for Linux and Apple's Safari browser.) While I'm quite happy with Mozilla, choice is always a good thing, especially when it's free. Plus it would be nice to see how it handles my own designs without having to buy a Mac or pull out a Knoppix CD or something.

[DeltaGuy]

KHTML...
I want a Mac so bad...