Finally, Opera has released my favorite Web browser as a free app! They even removed the banner ads now that they’ve got backing from the big guys (like Google and eBay). I’ve been using (and paying for) Opera since about version 5. Something to keep in mind is that it’s so simple to use that you never realize the power you’re sitting on until you go through one of the tutorials or check out the keyboard shortcuts or the mouse gestures. I still tend to use a combination of keyboard and mouse, but as most of my friends know I never learned to love my mouse, so I tend to like the keyboarding shortcuts more. However, there are times when I’m just browsing, reading news, looking at pictures, etc., and it’s nice to just sit back and without touching the keyboard or even moving the mouse more than an inch on your mousepad you can open new windows, close the ones you’re done with, go back in history, move forward, even go to a ‘Next’ link without having to move the mouse all the way to the bottom of the page.

One of my favorite things has been the F12 key:

With a quick click you can turn off sound, GIF animation, Java, disable javascript or your plugins, enable or disable your cookies, popups, or change the identity of your browser when you come across those rebel sites that only allow IE users. The funny thing is that this has always been a great browser, one of the first to offer true tab browsing and the first one I know of to have a built-in ability to block pop-ups.

Firefox is also an excellent browser and I’ve been using it equally, especially at work, because it was free and because of it’s simplicity and compatibility with plug-ins I use in the office (by the way, they just released 1.07 about three days ago and if you’re a loyal user you should upgrade soon). I won’t abandon Firefox, but Opera is still my favorite, particularly now that it’s FREE…

From W2Knews™:

Free Opera. Great Move, And No Ads.

This week, Opera Software announced the release of version 8.5 of its web browser, available on Microsoft’s Windows, Apple’s Mac OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, and Sun Solaris. The latest version is downloadable at no cost and without banner ads. Their revenues are generated via third parties such as Google and eBay and have grown more than the money they make from ads, so they now believe they can gain wider adoption by making their browser freely available for users. In fact, they want to beat Firefox which is the No. 2 player with 8.3% (Redmond’s share being 86.3%). Here is the download:
http://www.w2knews.com/050926ED-Opera

I’ve been following the Talkback forum on the new Firefox release and it seems that the users who are having problems with the new release are those that were using test versions (aka nightly builds) and then installed the new version without first removing the unstable software.

After using the new version for a week I have not experienced any problems. I’m not sure if it’s necessary but I uninstalled 1.0 before installing the new 1.0.1 version. You don’t need to worry about your preferences or your bookmarks, all those things are stored in a separate directory and will not be touched by the upgrade. Version 1.0.1 will use all the same customisations you had prior to the upgrade with the only exception of extensions, if you’ve installed any (extensions are small add-ons to the browser that give it extra functionality, sort of like many of the pop-up blockers or the Yahoo toolbar for Internet Explorer).

So, go to www.getfirefox.com, click on Free Download and save the file to your hard drive. You could just install it over the top of your old version but I recommend going to Add/Remove Programs and uninstalling the old version first (this should only take a minute or two). Once you install the new Firefox you’re ready to surf the web with all your same preferences, stored passwords, bookmarks, etc. If you have any trouble drop me a line (email terry at this domain) and I’ll help you work it out.

Update (3/15/2005): I successfully installed Firefox 1.0.1 over the top of 1.0 just after posting this blog. I’ve been using it daily for just over a week and have not experienced any glitches or problems.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 Released – MozillaZine Talkback

Good news and not-so-good news. I was about to encourage everyone to upgrade to the latest Firefox, released just yesterday, but after reading the talkback on MozillaZine I’m going to caution everyone to wait a week or two. I’ve read posts about a couple of bugs (one occurs when entering an URL into the address bar and pressing [Enter] rather than clicking the [Go] button, the other has to do with memory consumption, i.e. possible memory leak). It’s possible these are specific to the users running the program or having to do with the way they installed it. 17 million people have downloaded Firefox 1.0 so it won’t be long before many of them upgrade. We’ll find out soon enough if it’s advisable to upgrade.

If you decide to upgrade it’s best to uninstall 1.0 before installing 1.0.1. Your preferences and bookmarks will still be left in tact in your user directory and will still be available after you install the new version (I tested this with no obvious problems). Technically you could install the new version over the top of the old version but this is not recommended. Let me know how it goes if you decide to do this.

See the announcements or get the new version (if you’re ready) at Mozilla.org.

Terry

Redmond | Feature Article: Time to Dump IE?

From the horses mouth, or rather Redmondmag.com, “The Independent Voice of the Microsoft IT Community.” Great article that touches on the risks we take by continuing to use Internet Explorer (IE) and what some of the alterntives are. The author does tend to get a little bit technical but I recommend reading it anyway. If you depend on your PC for anything at all, you need to reconsider how you’re using it.