What Internet Explorer do YOU use?
Jul 9, 16:45 by Lorna
I’ve been asked this question quite a few times1, as I do use browsers other than Microsoft’s best effort. Here I’m going to take the time to explain the main alternatives, how to start using them, and some reasons why you might want to change.
Mozilla Firefox
Firefox has been making waves in the software world for a few years now, as a real alternative to Internet Explorer. Its designed to be fast, safe and user-friendly. When you download Firefox it will ask you if you’d like to keep your settings from Internet Explorer, this will import your bookmarks and any firewall or proxy settings you are likely to need (this is useful if you are installing this at work, for example).
The first big difference you will notice is that Firefox offers tabbed browsing, which is great because you can keep all your webpages in one window without cluttering up your task bar. Firefox also has a number of other great featuers which are all numerous to list but my favorites are the find-as-you-type feature, where the search box appears in the status bar and as you type, Firefox finds all matches for what you have typed already and highlights them, and the multitude of available plugins which you can download to add extra functionality to your browser.
Opera
Opera 9 has recently been released and I’m hooked. Although Firefox is more popular, has more plugins, and on the surface has more functionality than Opera, every time I try to switch I end up back with Opera. Both browsers are fast, secure, and immune from the security exploits that hit in Internet Explorer. Opera has mouse gestures which seem pretty useless until you actually take time to learn them, and is also navigable entirely by using the keyboard – again, once you start using your browser in this way you’ll wonder why you ever switched between keyboard and mouse all the time when you when there’s no need.
Opera also allows you to switch a lot of settings on and off very easily while you browse. In particular you can enable/disable images, javascript, plugins, stylesheets and which browser you report yourself to the web as using, all as you go along. I habitually browse with no images and no stylesheet, partly because I don’t want to have to deal with the clutter that you find on a lot of pages, but also partly because is someone glances over my shoulder it is less obvious what type of content I’m reading on my screen. Opera also has a small-screen mode which is really useful for anything which you just want quick glancing updates on. I usually keep my email and a news site open in this smaller screen mode and find it a very useful way of grabbing a little bit of content.
Replacing your existing browser
Changing which browser you use is easy and reversible. When you install either Opera or Firefox, both will ask you whether you want to import settinngs from an existing installation, and also whether you want to use it as your default browser. A default browser is the one that will open if you click on an HTML file or a hyperlink in an email, for example. If you are just trying out one of the alternatives, then consider keeping your existing default until you find out how you get on with your new browser – its easy to change the default later on if you’d like to.
I hope that gives an overview of what is out there and why you might like to change – both browsers are completely free and its easy to switch around so why not try out the competition and see what you make of it?
1 Clearly the asker should have said “Which web browser do you use?”, but he’d only met one before and so used the product name instead, much to my amusement!
