PCWorld.com - The 100 Best Products of 2005
Ivan Magerle
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,findid,48080,00.asp >
Brafo FF i Opera. Samo da se makne ili pokrene taj IE.
--
magi at dropbike.com - http://opera.dropbike.com - Croatian Opera Blog
Nikola Cakelic
> <URL:
> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,findid,48080,00.asp >
>
> Brafo FF i Opera. Samo da se makne ili pokrene taj IE.
*Mozilla Firefox*
WEB BROWSER (Free) Let the browser wars begin anew: This open-source
program is streamlined, customizable, and just plain better. No wonder it
has attracted millions of users in just a few months. Is it merely a
coincidence that Microsoft finally plans to give the aging Internet
Explorer the major overhaul it has needed for years?
Vezano za zadnju recenicu. Microsoft je i dalje u prednosti, dok god je IE
sastavni dio operativng sustava.
--
ChaKy @ IRC :: ncakelic.gmail.com :: PGP:0x487B18D5
Humanity to others - Ubuntu Linux Community
Linux ubuntu 2.6.10-5 #1 Tue Apr 5 12:12:40 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
Nikola Cakelic
> http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,findid,48080,00.asp >
>
> Brafo FF i Opera. Samo da se makne ili pokrene taj IE.
I njihov review:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,118959,00.asp
Browser Wars
You've heard Internet Explorer is no longer the only game in town. But is
an alternative Web browser really in your 2005 plans?
Are you sick and tired of Internet Explorer? Have you grown weary of the
constant vulnerabilities and patches? Do you scratch your head at sudden
program lockups and crashes? Are you dismayed that Microsoft hasn't lifted
a finger to improve or enhance IE since it buried Netscape's Navigator
browser at the dawn of the century?
Yeah, me too.
Welcome to Internet Explorer backlash. For the first time since Microsoft
launched its flagship browser in 1995, Internet Explorer is actually
losing market share. Research firm WebSideStory reported that the enormous
chunk of IE users declined from a high of 95 percent in June to 92.9
percent in October. That number could drop further, as a sudden wealth of
good browser options attracts users of all stripes.
A lot of the credit can go to the folks at the open-source Mozilla
Foundation, which was established in 1998 to breathe new life into the
fast-failing Netscape browser platform. It's taken six years and the utter
failure of Netscape the company, but Mozilla is finally delivering on its
promise.
Today, not one, but two significant browser alternatives are powered by
Mozilla's Gecko software code base--America Online's Netscape 7.2 and the
wildly popular new Firefox 1.0 browser. Of course, even those two aren't
the only IE challengers: A third major alternative, the Opera browser from
Opera Software, has been serving disaffected IE users for years.
With so many choices just a software download away, questions swirl. Why
should you care? Which browser is best? And after all is said and done,
should you really switch? Software junkies may tell you the answers are
obvious and conclusions foregone, but wait; read on.
It's the Tabs, Stupid
There are a lot of reasons why users are fleeing Microsoft Internet
Explorer, but a lot of it boils down to security. Microsoft has chosen to
run IE like a highly automated factory. ActiveX controls, dynamic HTML,
and other technologies deliver lots of automation and programmatic control
over IE. That's great if you want to integrate, say, a billing system with
your browser, or have Web sites offer dynamic interfaces. But those same
controls can be misused or targeted, amplifying the threat from malicious
code.
Microsoft's response has been a grim parade of patches, fixes, and
advisories. In some instances, Microsoft has suggested turning off
features or setting security levels so high that they disable the very
capabilities that make IE attractive in the first place. Finally in
October, Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2, a wholesale update
that helped close many of the vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.
But understand this: No browser is without flaws. Mozilla patched some
holes of its own prior to the Firefox 1.0 release, and Opera has issued a
few security-centric updates in the past year. The problem for Microsoft
is the overwhelming popularity of its browser. Virus writers and hackers
target IE because there are so many systems running it.
Perhaps more frustrating than security leaks is the fact that Microsoft
quit adding new features to its browser. The last major feature refresh
for IE dates back to August 2001--and it shows. Firefox, Netscape, and
Opera all offer significant feature improvements over IE, including tabbed
browsing for juggling multiple Web pages, and built-in pop-up blocking to
prevent ads from opening new browser windows. Other refinements include
helpful managers for file downloads, integrated search bars, and more
accessible controls for managing histories, cookie files, and the browser
cache.
In fact, the future of Web browsing comes down to one word: tabs. I
realized it the instant I fired up multiple pages in a single Opera
program window. Just like that, I could browse a half-dozen Web pages with
ease, jumping from one to the next simply by clicking on the little tabs
at the top of the window. What's more, I could open multiple tabbed pages
in the background, so they could load while I looked at the page in the
foreground.
Not all tabbing systems are created equal, and no one has done it
perfectly yet. Opera gets the nod for best keyboard shortcuts. For
example, I can close a tabbed page by holding Shift and clicking on the
page tab; clicking the tab for the foreground page bounces me to the last
page I viewed. I can even drag tabs around to keep pages in neat order.
Both Firefox and Netscape offer tabbing that is a bit more rigid.
Time to Switch?
Of the four browsers I've worked with--IE, Firefox, Netscape, and
Opera--Firefox 1.0 stood out as the best overall choice. The browser does
an excellent job of faithfully displaying Web pages, offers a superior
user interface, and suffers fewer crashes than my previous favorite,
Opera. It's also highly customizable through something called Firefox
Extensions. I installed one module that lets me navigate pages using mouse
gestures, a feature I became addicted to during my Opera years.
One area where you'll hear browser makers tout an advantage is
performance, or how quickly a browser can show you Web sites. I'd urge you
to take any such claims with a grain of salt. In my testing, I found that
performance was usually determined by the speed of my Internet connection
(not surprisingly) rather than one browser or another. Although Firefox
tended to outperform all the others in loading complex pages, we're
talking about a difference of one to two seconds.
When the dust settles, the different browsers offer their own unique
benefits and drawbacks. Here's a quick take on which browser might be best
for you, depending on how you work.
Firefox: The best all-around alternative to IE. Great for power users who
want to add functionality to the browser, and appropriate for newbies just
getting started.
Internet Explorer: Best for corporate users in controlled environments and
those who spend most of their time on Microsoft-branded or IE-specific Web
sites.
Netscape: Best for AOL subscribers (with AOL Instant Messenger
integration) and those who are willing to put up with some rough edges to
use other goodies, including an HTML editor and e-mail program.
Opera: Best for power users who keep many pages open at once and perform
frequent downloads. There's an e-mail program included, but banner ads on
the free version of the browser are annoying.
So is it time to ditch Internet Explorer once and for all? In a word, no.
Microsoft requires its browser to access its Windows Update and Office
Update services, and it's not uncommon to find Web sites that are designed
specifically for IE. Pages such as MSNBC.com can challenge non-Microsoft
browsers. Firefox renders MSNBC pretty well, while Opera fails to render
the fly-out menus on the navigation bar.
For the time being, most users will need to keep IE handy, just in case.
Keep in mind that you can have more than one browser on your computer. If
one acts up, close it and launch the other.
But for general-purpose Web browsing, there is no reason to put off the
switch a minute longer. Firefox, Netscape, and Opera are an impressive
trio of IE alternatives that could help shelter you from the daily
blizzard of Internet exploits.