Web Browsers
Who would have thought that now, entering the second decade of the Internet, we would be complaining about the quality of web browsers. Microsoft's slam-dunk victory over Netscape and other browser options, combined with its dominance in the operating system realm, means that Microsoft has no incentive to improve its browser. Internet Explorer is an aging application that is not going to get an upgrade until 2005 at the earliest, maybe 2006, when the new Longhorn version of Windows comes out, and then a long wait as users upgrade their operating systems or -- more likely -- their computers.
MS Internet Explorer 6 dates from 1999, and it still has lots of bugs that date from earlier versions, uncorrected by Microsoft. It has not picked up on SVG. Take a look at Tim Bray's The Door's Ajar for a more compelling explanation of the issues.
On the web development front, there has been a strong shift toward web standards as the most reliable approach for guaranteeing features across platforms and applications. After all, Microsoft participated in drafting the W3C recommendations in the first place. Groups like WaSP have been successful in shifting designers towards compliance. It's been amazing over the past two years how designers have caught on to cascading styles. sheets.
Personally, I have decided to break some entrenched habits and switch over to Mozilla and Opera as my main browsers. You can help improve the situation immediately by simply choosing to use a web browser that provides better support for web standards. Please help to re-create a robust environment for the web. I am picking up on an initiative by Eric Dobbs. Also see Use a better browser. This is not a Microsoft-bashing initiative, despite the neat graphic at the top of this page, because when Microsoft upgrades Internet Explorer adequately, it will be added to the list of standards-compliant browsers below:
By the way, in case you missed the news, Mozilla is no longer a part of the TimeWarner-AOL corporate matrix. Mozilla is still developed as an open-source project, but it gets its funding from a foundation set up by TimeWarner -- a kind of golden parachute for the browser initiative. The Mozilla program has also subdivided into several subprojects: Firebird, a stripped-down version of the browser; Thunderbird, a stand-alone mail and newsgroup reader; Camino, a Mac OSX version; and other initiatives.
Take care
Users should be forewarned that they may encounter some issues with these alternatives because they are still maturing and because Microsoft has us accustomed to its quirks as features. But only by providing feedback can the products improve. But I can assure you that non-MS browsers will get better a lot faster than the next incarnation of Internet Explorer.
The AnyBrowser campaign stemmed from the practice of designing sites for a specific browser and putting up a button recommending that people get Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, back during the browser wars.
The Other Extreme
It's still worthwhile to have a look at low-end browsers, you know, the ones that do not show graphics, just text. Why should you be interested in this kind of bare-bones browser. Because, if you are a designer or developer, it allows you to see your page as it might be parsed by one of the text readers for a blind person. Try Delorie's Lynx viewer for a simulated look. Otherwise, download and install Lynx for DOS or from go to the main site.
Mozilla
Mozilla Foundation ::: MozDev.org ::: DevEdge Sidebars
Opera
The Opera browser is the perpetual outsider in the browser world. It did not have the corporate heft of Microsoft and Netscape, but provided superior support for cascading style sheets because its chief technology officer is Håkon Wium Lie, who pioneered the concept of CSS at the W3C. The company is based in Oslo, Norway. The Opera browser has some innovative features like its true zoom for text and graphics.
Features ::: Support ::: Docs »» Specifications