| In Part I of this article, we discussed Internet | | | | version and have been using it now for several |
| Explorer and Firefox. Now we will discuss some | | | | weeks. Although I like it a lot, is not about to |
| lesser known browsers that are gaining in | | | | supplant Firefox as my browser of choice. It is |
| popularity. I was first exposed to the Opera | | | | basically a skin for IE because it uses the same |
| browser back in 2000 and wasn't impressed | | | | rendering engine but is not quite as fast as IE. |
| much. After using it for a few weeks, I quickly | | | | However it's interface is more visually appealing. |
| uninstalled it. I don't remember exactly what | | | | The level of customization that is available with |
| turned me off at this point but I do remember | | | | Avant rivals that of Opera and Firefox but as I |
| that I was turned off. Now in 2008 we have | | | | stated earlier, the speed of it is an issue. Content |
| Opera 9.27. It has come a very log way and it is | | | | rich sites tend to load slower than one would like |
| a very impressive browser. Opera is a tabbed | | | | and streaming audio or video doesn't work well |
| browser and has some cool features built in to it | | | | either. The things it does well, it does about as |
| that Firefox makes you download as an add-in. | | | | well as IE, but it doesn't do anything better. |
| That said, it loads pages quickly and doesn't use a | | | | That brings us to Apple's offering - Safari. I don't |
| lot of resources like Firefox does. The only | | | | like it and will be uninstalling it. It does have tabbed |
| complaint that I have about Opera is that it | | | | browsing but it is not nearly as easy to customize |
| doesn't handle media well and it doesn't render | | | | as the other browsers I've mentioned, and the |
| some sites as well as Firefox does. I listen to a lot | | | | customization options are limited. The speed of |
| of talk radio and watch some TV shows online; I | | | | this browser is about as good as any that I |
| have found that Opera is not the best option for | | | | tested, but when it came to sites with video |
| that. | | | | content, the performance deteriorated |
| The next browser I'm going to talk about is | | | | considerably. The bottom line is that unless you're |
| Avant. I started using Avant back in 2000 just as | | | | a MAC user, there really is no good reason to use |
| I did with Opera. I loved it then, but got away | | | | this browser. |
| from it for some reason. I rediscovered the latest | | | | |