h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

People tell me that there really are alternatives to Internet Explorer. A browser called Opera sounds interesting...Anyone know where I can get it?

Try

http://www.opera.com



And, yeah, it's great -- I use it

You can download it for free at www.opera.com.

Others to try...

http://www.mozilla.org
http://www.netscape.com
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/

worth expanding on that.

Mozilla A291016 ) is now up to a "happy" release of 1.2.1, this is the version they feel is stable and should cause minimal problems.

Netscape 7.02, uses an older version of Mozilla nad then bungs extra stuff at it, if you don't want these feaatures, stick with Mozilla 1.2.1 or if you are adventerous use the overnight builds

Pheonix, is being written under the Mozilla project but is totally new, but yet to make a version 1.0 (0.5 I think at present) meaning there is a lot of work left to do, but I have it on my work machine to test my pages in , along with IE, Opera, Mozilla, NS 4.7.

Opera comes in 2 flavours, one with ads (free) one without (a fistfull of dollars, not huge amount)

CH

you may also want to read A942275 the not yet, but surely soon to be, official edited entry on the history of browsers, currently in Public review.

CH

I've been using Opera for almost a year now, and when I use IE from time to time (if I want to use two different h2g2 IDs at the same time for instance) I wonder how people ever stick with it. It's so slow compared to Opera.

Opera has a few downsides - not every feature of every website will work in it, and you have to pay if you want to get rid of the ads - which, incidentally don't behave like spyware the way that built-in ads do in some software, but hey, you had to pay for IE when you bought that computer.

They've just released Opera 7, and it looks pretty good.

Oh, and one more thing - ever get frustrated with the fact that you can only open the first window of IE maximised, but you have to maximise all subsequent windows? Doesn't happen in Opera - they all open maximised

Thanks folks...Good stuff!

A very handy feature of Opera is that it lets you refuse pop-up windows with just one mouse click. Say goodbye to annoying ads popping up and slowing the computer down...

Also, when opening links in a new window, there is the option to have them open up in the background, so you just keep on reading whatever you are reading, and have the background information right there - in the background.

Y.

Mozilla can do all the above too now - the popup stopper is cool, plays a sound when you get a unasked for popup (so the "Who's Online" link on h2g2 is allowed as you asked for it) - you can then decide if you want popups from that site in the future.

CH

Mozilla is pretty cool, but as far as I know nobody has the tabbed browsing concept quite right except Opera...

That said, I haven't played with the very latest Mozilla... just 1.1 I think...

it certainly is good enough for me, middle mouse button opens link in new tab, in the background - ideal for my work, which often involves "research" ie - a Google search followed by opening loads of the links, just go down the page mifddle clicking and wait a few seconds (minutes with a dial up) and all your pages are in the tabs.



CH

I agree, tabbed browsing in general is lovely ...

It's very sad to think of all those poor souls out there using Internet Explorer

I started feeling comfortable when I found Opera - I would not go back to IE, never ever!

When you say tabbed browsing, do you mean the 'New page' tab to the right of the window? I used that a lot when I first got Opera, but got frustrated with the fact that you when you close a window you lose all the tabbed windows within that window too. I don't use tabs any more - I'll open a new window with the downward mouse gesture - yet another thing you can't do in IE

You might want to consider a browser called Avant Browser. More stable in Windows than Mozillla (fer me, anyhoo) and can play everything right out of the install (unlike Opera). It also has a popup blocker righ on the toolbar as well as the tabbed windows. it also minimizes to the tray so the olde boss cannae see what you are looking at. Also a heck of a lot faster than IE (hard not to be!) but i've used it for about 6 months now, and will not use anything else (till something better comes along).

Hope it helps,
TUUUYSCS,
Deuce.

PS, It lets you navigate with the mouse bettons.
That is, hold down righ mouse button and click left to go back adn reverse to go foreward. The most spoiling aspect in any software i have ever used.

TUUUYSCS,
Deuce.

By tabbed browsing I mean keeping the whole lot in one window, which makes a *lot* more sense...

Hmm. So quit teasing us, cCmndhd Deuce, and give us a link

It's a shame two of the best browsers in existence don't run on Windows... oh well, Windows users will just have to carry on suffering.

For Mozilla fans, by the way, I'm using 1.3beta at the moment and it's looking very nice indeed - although minorly unstable!

Er... which browsers are those?...

Opera does, Mozilla does, Netscape does, Phoenix does...