browsers

The machines we love to hate

Moderator: Wiz Feinberg

Post Reply
User avatar
Antolina
Posts: 1263
Joined: 2 Apr 2001 12:01 am
Location: Dunkirk NY

browsers

Post by Antolina »

As I understand it there are only two browsers to choose from. IE & Netscape. AOL isn't in the mix because it's part of the netscape family. Am I correct in my thinking or are there other options available?
Dave Alfstad
Posts: 431
Joined: 24 Mar 1999 1:01 am
Location: Indianola, IA USA
Contact:

Post by Dave Alfstad »

There is at least one more. It is called Opera. It is a good browser except to have the browser free of advertising you need to pay for it.

Dave Alfstad
Indianola, Iowa
User avatar
Jack Stoner
Posts: 22136
Joined: 3 Dec 1999 1:01 am
Location: Kansas City, MO

Post by Jack Stoner »

There are several browsers available. Some are free, some are free but have ads, some are shareware. Just depends what you want.

But the #1 browser is (free) Microsoft Internet Explorer. Most web pages, that pay attention to browser compatibility, are generally set up for I.E. and/or Netscape.

AOL owns Netscape and for that reason alone I dont use it.
User avatar
Bobby Lee
Site Admin
Posts: 14863
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Cloverdale, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Bobby Lee »

At avery.com/print , we design for IE and Netscape. IE is pretty easy to write for, but Netscape has a lot of quirks. We have to test everything we write with both browsers, and we have had a lot of Netscape-only issues.

The problem is complicated by the fact that Netscape did a total rewrite for version 6. It was very different, so a lot of users stayed with their 4.x versions (there was no version 5). So we have to test with old Netscape and new Netscape - they are really two different browsers.

We don't support Opera because we use a lot of JavaScript that Opera can't handle.

------------------
<small><img align=right src="http://b0b.com/b0b.gif" width="64" height="64">Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs
Sierra Session 12 (E9), Williams 400X (E7, D6), Sierra Olympic 12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop 8 (D13), Fender Stringmaster (E13, A6)
Michael Garnett
Posts: 972
Joined: 21 Feb 2001 1:01 am
Location: Seattle, WA
Contact:

Post by Michael Garnett »

There are as many web browsers out there as there are steel guitars, it seems. The problem is, which one's going to do you the best for what equipent and expertise you have with computers. The two mainstream ones have already been listed above. Not to say that IE is the BETTER browsing software, but you do have certain added bonuses by using it.

1.) It's the browser that's physically designed INTO the Windows OS, which is the most used Operating System out there. It works better under windows than the others. Microsoft did this on purpose, and that's some of the reason they were getting into trouble over anti-trust suits. But since the "unclean masses" use it, there are few webpages that are not IE compatible.


2.) If you've got Windows on your computer, you don't have to buy it, and it works pretty well for what you need it to. Most of the added stuff like plug-ins are already loaded, and it works without a hitch in most circumstances.

3.) There ARE other browsers, but you have to ask yourself, "Why is Windows the most used Operating System?" Not because they've got the best programmers, and certainly not because it's the most stable program. It's the most popular for the same reason there's a McDonalds in almost every town in America, and overseas also. Microsoft has made the easiest, most user friendly interface on the market. That combined with a lot of shady dealmaking and creative advertising, is why most people use it. It's sortof a Catch-22. You don't have to use it, but if you don't want to use it, you have to be a pretty decent computer programmer to get a comparable OS to work as good as Windows already does.

Garnett
Post Reply