When you buy a new computer these days, it comes with Windows Vista pre-installed and Internet Explorer 7 as the one and only web browser. Of course most folks have a geek friend or two who will provide them with technical assistance and advice in this situation. And one of the most common recommendations geeks give, is to get Firefox.
To a certain extent I agree, Firefox has a whole lot going for it.
However, the fact is, Firefox has hardly any advantages over IE7 when first installed. There are many little differences. Both have tabs, but the way Firefox handles them by default is slightly less intuitive then IE7. Firefox has a few neat features that IE7 lacks, like spell checking and very easy privacy options. And so on, and so forth. No real reasons to choose Firefox.
The main Firefox advantage comes from the ability to add extensions with many amazing features. First there is Adblock Plus, which, with the addition of a subscription, will block almost every ad on the Internet. Then there is DownloadHelper which can download streaming audio and video from more then 500 separate media sites. And of course there are many many more incredibly useful extensions.
Extensions are the reason for the explosive jumps in market share that Firefox has experienced. The philosophy being, we will provide the framework and let the users build and share useful modules. While this has worked wonders for Firefox, it can also lead to instability and create security vulnerabilities.
Then there is the Opera browser. It is the best browser by far, when comparing all three as installed. It has an IE7 like intuitive tab interface, an easy option for clearing private data like Firefox, and an abundance of great unique features as well.
For example, Opera has an extremely well implemented and unobtrusive sidebar which contains your bookmarks, history, and other important sections in an easy to access layout. It also has an website speed dial feature that appears when a new tab is opened and has thumbnail links to nine sites of your choosing. And a magic wand which can automatically log you into almost any site with just one click.
Opera also has many other advantages. It consumes less system resources then any other fully featured browser. It is known to be the most secure browser, even without factoring in the vulnerabilities of common Firefox extensions. And lastly, Opera is compliant with more web standards the IE7 or Firefox.
What Opera lacks is the customizable nature of Firefox through extensions. Even though this is a problem, there are solutions which implement the functionality of some of the top extensions. In fact, this page lists many of the top Firefox extensions and their availability in Opera. For the sake of brevity, I will explain how to set up only two of my favorite Opera tweaks. Adblock, and the built in Firefox in-line spell checker.
Regarding Adblock, Opera is already capable of performing the same function, you just need to add a list of items to be blocked. My favorite list is this one, due to the fact that some of the other lists I tried blocked things that I wanted. Grab that whole list and copy it into your urlfilter.ini file (if you can’t find it, do a search), and make sure Opera is closed and not running before you save.
In-line spell checking is slightly more complicated to set up. Fortunately, this site where OSpell is maintained has a video showing how to install.
All this having been said, go and download Opera. I think you will like it.
Tags: Adblock, Adblock Plus, Browser, Browsers, Computer, CustomizeGoogle, DownloadHelper, Firefox, IE7, Internet, Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 7, Opera, OSpell, Web, Web Browser, Web Browsers, Web Browsing
