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Web-Browser
There are a couple of aspects to discuss about Web-Browser
- Standard compliance and
- Privacy
Privacy is quite an important aspect. Its about
the question on how easy it is to follow your movements on the internet.
There are lots of resources out on the internet that cover this
question. With some of these resources, I have the feeling they
try to leverage on your fears and lack of knowledge. Please
don't fall for it. I am in the process of analysing this aspect
and will publish it here as soon as I am done! If you want, I will
inform you as soon as it is ready. Just click
here to sign up to my mailing list.
Standard Compliant Browsers
There are quite a number of internet browsers available. Whereas
I think this is desirable, from a web-designers point of view it
is a bit of a pain.
Fighting for the number one spot in the "browser
business" companies have built "private" features
into their products. The result is that web-designers have to make
sure that the pages they designe work (well) in all those different
browsers. Painstaking work. For the customer, i.e. for you, this
is actually a waste of money! You are paying for the "browser
war".
There are however standards, which resolve this
problem to a large extend. If the browser companies respect these
standrads, web-development can concentrate on its core task, content
development. The browsers itself still keep their "individual
faces".
My plea to you
If you are using an older version of your favorite browser, please
upgrade to the newer version, which is standard compliant. The companies
do not advertise this, but quite often mention it. You may read
things like "better css or DOM support". But mostly they
advertise other features. For this reason, here a list of browser
versions, which are quite standard compliant (Windows Versions):
Originally I used Netscape, later I switched to
Internet Explorer. Recently I got Opera 5.0. I must say, I like
this browser! Without having done any measurements, it seems to
be the fastest of the three (they advertise that!). It follows a
little bit a different philosophy than the other two. Instead of
having individual browser windows popping up all over, Opera opens
one master window. Within this window, the actual internet page
windows open. You can minimize all of them by just minimizing the
master window.
Besides that, Opera offers some pretty cool mouse
controls. As an example, the "Back" function can be activated
by pressing the right mouse button and making a slight movement
to the left. I like it.
I don't want to advertise a Web-Browser. But if
you would want to try something new, try Opera!
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