Re: TVGuide.com now officially useless


Roy Knable wrote:
> In article <1134424902.234210.312910@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, WQ
> <wq@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > --- In fact, their market share has grown substantially since they
> > removed the ad banner a couple of months ago, having increased
> > downloads by over a million, if not more by now.
>
> Web usage stats don't bear that out, as shown by this from early
> November:
>
> http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox40_browser_market_firefox_gr
> owing.html
>
> Opera consistently comes in fourth or fifth, behind even Safari, which
> runs only on Macs. Besides, a million isn't much when you consider
> Firefox claims over 110 million downloads.

--- Firefox's figures could actually be artifically inflated just as
Opera's may be artificially undercounted. This is due to Firefox's
feature of prefetching and Opera's default ID as Internet Explorer.
Opera's problem can be corrected easily if users simply changed the
browser's default ID to Opera, but many users may be unaware of this or
don't care so it works against Opera's numbers since it becomes
identified as IE and not Opera in the browser count. Anyway, this
article says more about Firefox's "sneakiness." But there's probably
no denying that Firefox would still rank higher in users than Opera.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39204643,00.htm


> > However, simply for quick and efficient surfing purposes, you
> > can't beat Opera. I'm not sure what you mean by "quirks" to the
> > interface
>
> Open multiple tabs (or "pages," as Opera alone stubbornly insists
> calling them) with different web addresses. Close one. If you change
> your mind and decide to revisit that page, you'll have to open the
> history and double click on it. Every other browser has a menu that
> shows all recently visited web addresses, but not Opera. History opens
> in a new page. Double clicking on a history item opens it in yet
> another page. The way these tabs/pages multiply is almost worse than
> popups.

--- To revist a page you just backtrack with the back button, it'll
still be there. You can also facilitate minimizing, restoring and
closing a window without affecting the main window by unchecking 'Show
Close Button on Each Tab' in Preferences to make those extra set of
buttons appear under the main ones. And History does appear in the
left side panel which you activate by clicking on the tiny arrow in the
middle of the strip that appears along the left edge of your screen,
then click on the history tab and you get your list like in IE, without
having to open any new page. And also by unchecking Show Close Button,
you can easily get rid of all unnecessary pages without shutting down
the main window and minimize any others you might want to return to,
all of which would fall underneath and behind the window you're using,
and to get to those stored windows you click on that extra minimize
button to drop down your current page to see the small rectangular
blocks of pages you've collected. Like I said, you need a good solid
afternoon to explore all the tricks you can do with Opera that you
can't do with other browsers.

> This review doesn't have kind words for Opera
> http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=5370076
> 1

--- It's interesting that the same source has this review of Firefox
and its numerous vulnerabilities compared to Opera:

from:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160900911&pgno=3

Historically, most of the exploits targeting Web browser
vulnerabilities have been directed at Microsoft Internet Explorer, the
most widely used Web browser. In response to this, many people in the
Internet community have turned to browsers such as Mozilla, Mozilla
Firefox, Opera, and Safari as more secure alternatives. However, as
security-conscious users have migrated away from Internet Explorer,
attackers have followed suit....

The discovery of vulnerabilities affecting browsers appears to be on
the rise, with more Mozilla vulnerabilities documented in this period
than those affecting Microsoft Internet Explorer. This runs contrary to
a trend seen in previous periods where nearly all browser
vulnerabilities affected Microsoft Internet Explorer exclusively.

Between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2004, Symantec documented 13
vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Internet Explorer. This is notably
lower than the 21 vulnerabilities affecting each of the Mozilla
browsers that were documented during the same period. Six
vulnerabilities were reported in Opera and none in Safari.

> > --- The problem with Firefox is that it's become just as prone to web
> > viral infestations and hackers as much as IE.
>
> Not even close. IE has a ton of dangerous vulnerabilities because it
> has too many hooks into Windows, especially ActiveX. In the following
> article, CNet calls Firefox "much more secure."
>
> http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-5561073-1.html

--- Well, I just provided a source to the contrary above. But any
search this will reap all sorts of contradictory information.

> > It also has just as many
> > limitations as IE when it comes to tricks you can use that are readily
> > available with Opera. It's gotten so with me that using IE, whenever I
> > have to use it, has become a frustrating experience because I find I
> > can't do as many things with it as with Opera, not to mention that the
> > pages don't load up as fast in IE and the surfing speed isn't as zippy.
>
> Nobody's defending IE, so you shouldn't compare with that. As for
> having lots of tricks at your disposal, one man's cornucopia of options
> is another man's tsunami of options.

--- You just need to master the tsunami for it to become a cornucopia.

> > I've tried Firefox and, as you think with Opera, it was okay, but I
> > found its features lacking compared to what Opera has now.
>
> The only feature I can imagine Opera having that Firefox doesn't is the
> customizable keyboard shortcuts. When was the last time you tried
> Firefox? If it was during the beta period as recently as early
> November, a lot has changed since then. They've already released
> versions 1.0 and 1.5. Like I wrote, Firefox, as an open-source project,
> has a lot more resources available to it than Opera, which is a small
> company.

--- The version I tried was 1.0 earlier this year. I can always
download 1.5 to see if it's a better experience than 1.0. I know one
thing is for sure, I won't be able to use the Oxid 2.2 skin I'm using
for Opera on Firefox, which I'm really keen on, nor will I likely be
able to add some of my bookmarked icons to the toolbar to instantly
click onto regularly visited sites without having to type in addresses
every time.

> > But clearly, IE should only be used only when absolutely necessary.
>
> No disagreement there. Preferably never used.

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