Battle of the Browsers
I remember my own personal preferences in the mid nineties to chose technology companies that were outside of popular belief. The giants of the time consisted of companies like AOL as an ISP and Microsoft for their OS and web browsing. Actually, I had a little vendetta against AOL because of their censorship policies defined in their Terms of Service (TOS) agreement, specifically referring to the word 'breast'. Censoring that word from a support community, where women with breast cancer as well as survivors communicate, wasn't their intent but it was the reality and many accounts were canceled do to their TOS agreement. I will save my arguments about AOL for another blog entry.
In the nineties I was drawn to companies outside of the mainstream where I saw great potential and Netscape was definitely one of those companies. Not only was I drawn to Netscape because of my hatred for AOL as an ISP but I really favored their web browser over the already Microsoft giant Internet Explorer (IE).
The specials of the browser wars between Netscape Navigator and IE reminded me of the bullying and often gorilla warfare tactics of the then and now giant of Microsoft. What happened to my appeal for the underdog? It's still here but did fade when Netscape retreated under the power of Microsoft and joined forces with AOL.
The underdog browser wars are still apparent today, ie. Firefox stealing a large market share from IE in one strong month a few years back. Below is an excerpt from PC Magazine in 2006
By Davis D. Janowski
...Here's what I'm getting at. After its introduction way back in 2001, IE6 began to usurp the popularity of Netscape, and, in short order, came to dominate the browser space for the next five years. As its dominance grew, developers and Web-page designers began to architect sites, create content, and code their works in such a way that they would look ("render" in Web parlance) the way they intended in IE6. Reasonable enough, since that's what everyone was using to view the pages. That often meant deviating from standards and customizing fixes for IE6 that might mean a page just didn't look right or worse, didn't work at all on other browsers..
..I find it additionally ironic that the three newest, most sophisticated browsers currently on the bleeding edge, including Firefox 2.0, IE7, and Opera 9 all have either a setting or add-on application that'll make Web pages think they're IE6 so that they will, in fact, render the way designers originally intended. With that, I'll add that among these three I find that Opera 9 has the most elegant, aesthetically pleasing interface. But, unfortunately, and for reasons described above, quite a few pages break or don't render well on it. Despite how long IE7's rollout has taken, with discovery of vulnerabilities almost right out of the gate and installation issues for some, Microsoft's offering is an overall good browser with a lot of features to recommend it; but Firefox 2.0, even though it represents smaller evolutionary steps beyond its predecessor remains for now the best overall browser.
Below are links to the three top contenders for Editors' Choice for browsers on the PC. Look for a new review of Mac competitor Safari, soon.
Those of you who've followed our coverage of the development saga that is Internet Explorer 7 know that I and others at PC Magazine haven't been easy on the Softies for their laggardly development and the various shortcomings we've noted in beta builds. I've lived with the various preliminary versions of Internet Explorer 7.0 for almost a year now, using it on a daily basis. What I said in my beta 3 review still applies: I think it's solid overall and a big improvement over the patchwork quilt IE6 has become. At the same time, when I'm in a mood to really try new things and push the envelope, I like the Firefox and Opera more.
If you expect every software update to bring an arsenal of shock-and-awe technologies, prepare yourself now for disappointment with version 2.0 of Firefox (as well as with IE7 and Opera 9). But if you realize what artisans and engineers have known for millennia—that improving and refining what you have beats feature bloat—this is your browser. Not that you won't find new features, with session restore and anti-phishing capability (both of which were in the betas) at the top of the list.
When you go to Opera.com to download the latest version of the browser, don't be scared off by the strange people you'll see at the top of the home page. They're a little frightening, but Opera 9 isn't. In fact, I was all set to make it my pick for Editors' Choice among the most popular general browsers, but rendering problems and some odd errors kept Opera from winning the title. Still, there's a lot to like about this plucky independent browser from Norway.
http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a%3D193304,00.asp
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