It is possible that I may have found a new favorite web browser. For anyone who keeps track there are really only three major browsers IE (Internet Explorer), Firefox, and Opera. Okay … wait no … there’s four, I forgot Safari. For some time now Opera has been a pay browser, it was like most any software you buy on the net. But when version 8 arrived it also brought with it the birth of Free Opera. Now at ver. 9 Opera is as strong or stronger than ever. You can check out their website for all the details. But the short version is it is everything I liked about Firefox, but all in one place. Although the new “Widgets” business is kinda … odd since I already use Yahoo Widget Engine (formally Konfabulator). Plus if you have OSX.4 you already have a widget thing, it’s the Dashboard. They all have their place I’m sure, but so far between the Dashboard and the YWE (Yahoo Widget Engine) most of my “useless” but cool stuff is covered.
Also Opera was one of the first to be “standards compliant”, meaning that the guidelines set out by the W3 commitee should all be executed the way the W3 decrees they should be. This doesn’t mean as much to browsers since most sites are still built with IE in mind but it does mean that everything should work when you visit a page, and in the off chance that it doesn’t then you probably need IE anyway. But hopefully with all the new stuff coming out of the Web 2.0 movement most of that will slowly fade into the distace. (looks prayerfully to heaven) All in all try it. Between Firefox and Opera I’m pretty sure you’ll find an excellent replacement for IE.
A Geekish View of Life 