Robin Turner (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
robinturner) wrote2002-03-28 03:08 am
robinturner) wrote2002-03-28 03:08 am
Browser wars
It used to be between Internet Explorer and Netscape, but I think we've moved on from there, haven't we, people?
A few days ago I downloaded Opera, partly because it's hyped as "the fastest browser on the web" (not that that makes much difference at the moment - I'm downloading a file at the moment at 350 bytes/second!) and partly because I was looking for something with good plugin support. I now feel a conflict of loyalties. For the past few years, I've been using Konqueror. It's faster than Netscape, handles CSS well, and doubles as a file manager. On the other hand, it tends to go loopy when it encounters bad Javascript, the worst being that poison invitation to download Macromedia Flash, when it can spawn as many as 16 windows (I once tried installing Flash, but it had no effect on Konqueror, and manged to break Netscape).
So far Opera won't do Flash. Apparently the latest version does, but I can't install it on my Mandrake 8.0 box. I normally get around these pesky library problems by compiling from source, but there's the rub - Opera is not Open Source. This makes me feel kind of guilty about using it. I'm not a Free Software fundamentalist (for example I'm happy to play non-free games, and I even have a copy of that other operating system hidden away on /dev/hda1) but in a choice between open and closed, I usually go for open.
Another disadvantage of Opera is that it requires me to resubmit my name and password every time I do something new in LJ, but then maybe I've configured it wrong.
OTOH, it is faster, and it ignores calls to download Flash. Maybe I'll just wait until I can get Mandrake 8.2 and see how the contenders pan out then. Oh well, at least I'm not using Evil Internet Explorer.
A few days ago I downloaded Opera, partly because it's hyped as "the fastest browser on the web" (not that that makes much difference at the moment - I'm downloading a file at the moment at 350 bytes/second!) and partly because I was looking for something with good plugin support. I now feel a conflict of loyalties. For the past few years, I've been using Konqueror. It's faster than Netscape, handles CSS well, and doubles as a file manager. On the other hand, it tends to go loopy when it encounters bad Javascript, the worst being that poison invitation to download Macromedia Flash, when it can spawn as many as 16 windows (I once tried installing Flash, but it had no effect on Konqueror, and manged to break Netscape).
So far Opera won't do Flash. Apparently the latest version does, but I can't install it on my Mandrake 8.0 box. I normally get around these pesky library problems by compiling from source, but there's the rub - Opera is not Open Source. This makes me feel kind of guilty about using it. I'm not a Free Software fundamentalist (for example I'm happy to play non-free games, and I even have a copy of that other operating system hidden away on /dev/hda1) but in a choice between open and closed, I usually go for open.
Another disadvantage of Opera is that it requires me to resubmit my name and password every time I do something new in LJ, but then maybe I've configured it wrong.
OTOH, it is faster, and it ignores calls to download Flash. Maybe I'll just wait until I can get Mandrake 8.2 and see how the contenders pan out then. Oh well, at least I'm not using Evil Internet Explorer.
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