All About Browsers
**New**
Here is an excellent article on how to set up your browser’s preferences to suit YOU personally. It is particularly useful if you wish to increase your browser’s default text size, for example, if the text here on JWG (or on any website), appears a bit small, you may want to make it bigger.
Setting up your Browser. This article is relevant to all modern browsers.
You may have noticed if you have wandered around the new site at all, several references to “good browsers” “web standards” (see my article on web standards for more details on this), and even a “Stop Internet Explorer” button! What is all this about? Doesnt everybody use Internet Explorer? It comes with my computer, and there isnt anything else, right?
Well, no actually, these days everybody doesnt use Internet Explorer, because more and more people have discovered that there are other browsers out there that give you a much more enjoyable and secure browsing experience.
IE is the most popular browser, purely by virtue of the fact that it DOES come bundled with your Operating System OS. This does not mean that it is the best or safest browser to use, by any means. There is no need to uninstall IE, but I do suggest that you think about installing an alternative browser to try.
The beauty about all the other browsers out there, is that they are “standards compliant”. This means that they conform to the guidelines for the web written by the W3C, and if you use css and xhtml when you write your markup (page coding), your site will display correctly in all browsers, (apart from IE which doesnt adhere to the standards). Update: However, there is hope that the new IE7 (currently in beta1 release), may conform better, (if not fully). Final release date not yet known. Check the IEBlog for further info.
Which other browsers are there? How do I install them? Will they break IE/my computer?
Currently the most popular browsers for Windows computers are:
There are others, and there are separate versions for Mac and Linux users. Visit Browser News for more information on browsers than you ever wanted to know! Browser Spy also offers a wealth of info on you and your browser.
Alternatively, Browse Happy offers a somewhat gentler introduction to the world of good browsers.
If you know how to download and install an application on your computer, you can install a new browser. The installation process is very simple. You just double-click on the exe that you have downloaded, and follow the wizard for instructions. Generally, you can accept the defaults and let it do it’s own thing. It wont break your computer, and it wont interfere with IE, which will still be available for you to use if you need to. I would suggest that you make your new browser the default browser on your computer, (it will ask you about this), so that you can give it a fair crack of the whip, before deciding whether you like it or not.
You can be adventurous, and install several new browsers, if you wish. They will all install as separate applications, and you can choose which to make the default.
I currently have Firefox, Opera, and Mozilla installed on my home computer, and love them all in their own ways. I tend to use Firefox mostly for browsing, and Opera as my mail client (instead of Outlook Express or Eudora), as I am much taken with it. It is very sophisticated, and can give me all my mail, newsfeeds and browsing in one place. It is extremely customisable, and you can spend many happy hours, getting it just the way you want it.
The same can be said of Firefox and Mozilla, of course. Firefox has a partner email client (Thunderbird), which you can download separately, and is very similar to Outlook Express in its interface and design. The Mozilla Suite comes with it’s own integrated mail and chat clients, rather like Opera.
So, go to each of the links I have given you, have a look round, and see which one you fancy.
I have started a post on browser reports in the blog, so that you can come back and we can discuss your experiences, good and bad.
Browse Happy!
