I think this can help everyone that uses the net.
Opera Web Browser
With the following:

• Pop-up Blocking
• Tabbed Browsing
• Integrated Search
• Advanced Security
• Skins
• IRC Chat
• E-mail with RSS Newsfeed
• And More...

http://promote.opera.com/medium/simplythebest234x60.png

And what are your views on Firefox?

I find Opera to be quite bloated as compared to Firefox. And furthermore, it is missing a few features which I find essential, such as being able to Cmd-~ to cycle through my windows. Plus, the rendering engine does some odd things to a good many webpages, especially with text size. And the popup blocker is too restrictive (blocks links that open in new windows). Firefox has better plugins too.

So, I prefer firefox. But Opera's certainly better than IE.

I never understood the whole thing against IE. What actual difference does your web browser make?

I used PopUpCop until XP Service Pack 2, which deals with pop-ups rather nicely. I havn't had a single virus or piece of spyware or adware on my machine since I got a good firewall, and I'm sorry, but with a cable modem my brower isn't gonna affect speed much. I don't care what my browser looks like, I don't mind going to google to do my searches, I don't mind just clicking on the damn taskbar to switch to an open site. I use Trillian for all of my chatting (well, all of my fiancee's chatting) needs.

So what do Opera and Firefox have to offer that I don't already have and am perfectly happy with using IE?

EDIT:
The way I see it, the whole argument is one of "anti-conformity" and some kind of rebellion against Big Ol' Scary Microsoft.

I'm glad there's a selection now when it comes to many things in the software/application world, but I don't see any sort of real improvement or important difference between any of the browers on the market right now. None of them are horrible, but none of them are really any better than the others. It really just seems to be a bunch of bandwagon jumping bullshit mixed with a healthy dose of hatred and jealousy for a man, and a company, which is infinately more successful than you are.

i think a funny image is in order:
Modified by Omuletzu
Reason: Picture was offensive

That's quite the ignorant statement. Besides the time it takes to query a page, there is another factor in how fast you will see a page after typing the address. That factor is the rendering engine. The IE rendering engine is rarely updated, doesn't conform to web standards, and doesn't have to be fast because of the monopoly that Microsoft has on the browser market. Alternative browsers have to have faster and better rendering engines to compete with monopoly, and therefore Firedox and Opera have faster rendering engines than IE. This means that your browser will not necessarily send a query faster, but the time from receiving page information to seeing the page on your screen is much shorter. I have cable internet as well, but the change of rendering engines is a noticeable change in speed, and also will allow you to see webpages the way they are coded, as the Firefox rendering engine conforms to web standards, as opposed to IE, which just makes up its own rules about rendering.

And if you don't switch browsers because IE is "good enough", you're just being stubborn. If you could trade in your current computer and get a faster one for free that still had all of your files, you'd take it.

I can see where you might not care about additional features like tabbed browsing, built in pop-up blocking without additional software, easy blocking of images, lack of security exploits, frequent updates which improve the browser, or themes, but it is either ignorant or stubborn to say that there is no difference in performance from browser to browser.

Two questions.

Is Firefox free?
And how big a download is it?

N.B. Obviously if it's a no for the first answer then I won't need an answer for the second.

OK, how about this

No difference in performance that's visible by the human eye, or percievable by the mind's eye.

Better?

It takes me a fraction of a second to load a new page that hasn't been cached yet, and if it were to take longer, I'm not an impatient man who thinks that a second is too long for me to wait.

If someone gave me a free computer that was better than this one, I'd wonder where the hell they found parts that are still weeks in development...

How does stubbonness come into play, I might ask? I like what I've got. If it actually was better, I'd change, sure, but insofar I see no clear reason WHY it's better, except for things I don't actually need.


EDIT: I have just downloaded the newest versions of FireFox and Opera. I will now install and demo both of them, one at a time, and return with a verdict.

Since you jsut downloaded them I'll assume they are free. :D

Ok, Firefox.

So far, it's slow. REALLY slow. Maybe some other people have a better speed, but on this machine, it's slow. Scrolling, loading, even the typing is much slower than with IE. I'm running under the same conditions as normal, nothing extra running. A bad start, really. Image quality is the same, and there's this really annoying placeholder image while the actual images load.

I have uninstalled Firefox, after having to dive for Add/Remove programs, since it didn't offer me the chance from the start menu, which is another strike.


Now I'm using Opera.

It too is slower. The fact that I have to PAY to get rid of a rather annoying banner is another negative, and the GUI itself is large and intrusive. It's reminicent of AOL, which I have a special place in my heart for, right next to my malice and bitterness. It offers me a lot of functions which I neither want, nor need. It didn't offer to use my pre-existing settings for e-mail and favorites, which FireFox did, but that's not that big of a deal.

OK

I have given both of them a chance, and right off the bat I've seen one thing: Slowdown. LOTS of slowdown. Firefox was little different in appearance and function than IE, just a lot slower. Opera gives me bad flashbacks to AOL, and is a pay product to boot, along with the slowdown.

I'm sorry, but IE does what I want it to do in a satisfactory manner, while these just give me things I don't need or already have.

Opera has been uninstalled. It too required me to go to Add/Remove Programs, AND it informed me that some parts of it's code could not be removed because they are "now part of my crucial .ini files", meaning I'm gonna have to go in with some anti-ad programs and my own computer skills to fish them out.

Sorry, but I like IE. I've given them both a shot, spending some, rather limited, time with each. They exhibited the opposite of your claims to speed-ups, which was the major part of the switch argument.