to rather obnoxious at times

Naturally, there will be a Netscape Now! button underneath all that mess. So is there anything to that drivel? Maybe. There are a few things the browsers do differently from one another. Older versions of browsers cannot handle new functions, and the newest versions of browsers differ in some things. However for the most part, you are probably safe to view any site with any browser, and if you can't you will know about it.

So there are Netscape and Microsoft; posed, if you will, as sumo wrestlers fighting over dominance of the WWW. Is there any alternative? Actually, there are at least two out there. So go download one and prove there's no Microsoft monopoly!

A Night at the Opera

Kim Komando's Ezine turned me on to Opera Software's Internet browser. The name of the browser led me to use the funky posterized Pavarottt picture in the titlebar! Opera is a low-weight browser that's a snap to download and a snap to boot up. Opera is the EditPad of Internet Browsers, since it allows you to view multiple pages in one single window. Opera has an informative Status bar that lets you literally count the K as they download. You can also use the timer to count the seconds it takes for stuff to download. Speaking of time, the main Opera window keeps you up to date with the time. Opera supplies a bigger bevy of pre-loaded bookmarks than does Netscape 4, but you'll find a lot of dead links in there unfortunately. Opera presents bookmarks to you just like Internet Explorer 4 does; by using a frame on the left hand side of the window. You can't make the frame go away like in IE4, but also unlike IE4 you can resize the frame! Opera's control buttons are not going to win any awards for graphic presentation, and in fact, cheesy seems to be busting to come forward as the way to describe them! Opera puts a little red stop button on each individual window that opens up, unlike Netscape and Microsoft, who put big ones on the toolbar. To view, or not to view images: if that is the question to you, click the little camera on the window until you get the answer you want. No preference menu to fool with for toggling the view image option! How much would you pay for a browser like this? Dooooont answer! Because you can also fetch your e-mail and get caught up in your newsgroups with Opera! Plus in Opera, you web weenies can choose the application to use to view HTML sources! Opera can handle frames, but Cnet says it can't handle Java. Another peeve I have is that I have never been able to derive much of anything concerning browsing history in Opera. And Opera is alternative to Microsoft and Netscape in another way........

I know, I know, IE and Navigator are free, and so should we be, but not Opera! Opera gives a month to test, and it's $35 to register. Of course, all the alternative browsers in Cnet's test cost money! Those were the "good" old days.

No money? Be calm - I mean BeConn!

There is another browser I have poked around with some. It's TSW Inc.'s BeConn 4.2.5. But , I must admit, BeConn has been a peck of trouble from the start. At first was the download, which was much bigger than Opera. At first I downloaded a corrupted file. After installation, I surfed a little with BeConn, but now I get an error message about the winsock. I don't know what's going on here. Too bad for BeConn, because it had some promise. After all, not only did it have e-mail capability, it also had FTP power too! It could've been a browser MacGyver would have loved, but could he get it working? Sheesh. Hey, it could work! Maybe.

If the spirit moves, head over to Tucows and go get em'! And then again you can also go check out the Cnet Article on rebel browsers! Or you can just go...

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