Shooting the Breeze: A Free Opera
Is Internet Explorer too easily filled full of spyware for your tastes? Is Firefox too slow compared to Internet Explorer? Paul Chan tells of an old school third web browser which is having a 10th anniversary special.
It's been 10 years since Opera was launched as an alternative to Internet Explorer but despite claims of being a speedy and secure alternative to the previously unstoppable IE6 it has not gained the foothold it should have because it is unashamedly a paid-for browser. In the intervening period, Firefox has stolen much of its thunder with its open source community origins.
These days, spyware is more of an internet buzzword than viruses and a lot of it targets well documented security loopholes in Internet Explorer. This prompted the launch of the project that eventually became Firefox - a web browser which is supposedly a lot more secure and less buggy than Internet Explorer.
Seasoned Internet users have already started defecting and using Firefox which promises a much better and more secure experience of the internet.
Firefox is such a threat to Internet Explorer that Microsoft is planning to launch Internet Explorer 7 with Windows Vista (which will succeed Windows XP in 2006) after saying that it had no plans to produce another major Internet Explorer upgrade.
One web browser which was developed prior to Firefox is Opera. It was a daring development but in exchange for accountability and a more professional approach to development, Opera usually ships with built-in advertisements which can be eliminated by paying a one-off fee for it.
Web-users, not used to paying for their web browsers, have hardly bought Opera in their droves but a relatively small number of users swear by what is still claimed to be the fastest web browser available. One notable feature that Opera has is a special mode in which it emulates Internet Explorer and can even fool certain websites into thinking that you are using Microsoft's web browser (for example, if your online bank won't work without Internet Explorer Opera can be made to present itself as IE6.)
You may be wondering why I am extolling the virtues of a web browser that most readers won't be interested in trying. Well, to celebrate their 10th birthday, the guys at Opera have decided to offer a free license code. I don't know how long the offer will last but I recommend that anyone wanting a change from Internet Explorer and Firefox give it a go. Don't forget to download Opera itself and it's for a limited time only so hurry!
Opera is available for most platforms, including Windows, Macintosh and Linux and, having given version 8 a go, I can thoroughly recommend it to experienced internet users.
