What browser do you use? What you need to know and why it matters!
When you access the net, your browser is the window which is launched and which allows your net surfing. Hardly ever does the average net surfer pay attention to which browser they’re using. Netscape was the pioneer of web browsers, and set the standard for quite a while. The Netscape browser is freely available to everyone. Mozilla is the ‘parent’ of the Netscape browser, as well as the newer Firefox and Opera browsers, all free and using the same standards. This is due to the fact that Microsoft made IE with a different standard, without any apparent reason to do so. Or was there? This cleverly disguised marketing ploy may backfire. More and more people are aware of the advantages of open source software. There are a few marketing shenanigans going on that you should know about.
Perhaps only programmers and developers pay any attention or understand the differences between browsers. It’s a tiny bit suspicious that IE captures and holds hostage its own customers, simultaneously locking users into their pricey software. You log on to the net and up comes Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer(R). So who cares? A browser is a browser, right? Not quite. IE is actually the dinosaur in the room. When you think about it, Microsoft is impeding technology! Web pages didn’t display correctly. “Oh, I’ll just use Explorer.” A web page constructed to Netscape browser standards will likely not display correctly in the Internet Explorer (IE) browser. Microsoft(TM) decided that they would design a browser which came as part of your PC’s operating system.
You may have a preference one over another, but besides that, what difference does it make? With Microsoft’s success in its PC operating system and applications, the majority of net users started using IE and stopped using Netscape. Why get locked into buying thousands of dollars of software? This brief snapshot of browser issues seeks to illustrate the fact that a certain brand of bureaucracy has crept into the web. If anything should be standardized on the net, it’s surely the browser. Look into open source software and you’ll see you can get everything you need. Web page designers must now accommodate both the IE and Netscape browser standards for a seamless user experience, which can show to be a royal pain in you-know-where.
Why buy Microsoft Word when you can get a better word processor for free? If that user took the trouble to download the Netscape browser, maybe since they favored it, the result was disappointing. The point is, we all want to keep the net as free as possible. Although the Netscape browser is no longer supported, Firefox and Opera bring an even better experience. One thing does guide to another. Now you know why it matters to you. It’s up to you to make your own choice.
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