Xmetalfanx Useful Programs Section

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Web Browsers

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Many People are sticking with Internet Explorer, which comes with Windows to do their web browsing... Just note that, there are other choices and almost all of them are much better ... with the exception of a few that are just IE with "skins" and spyware in them...

Browsers and Crashing your Computer

listed below are some Browsers I have tried... Despite reviews saying "Don't use (Maxthon/Flock/Firefox 3) ... IT WILL BSOD YOUR SYSTEM AND EVERYTHING WILL CRASH AND ... THE GODS WILL RAIN FIRE DOWN.. .AND.... " ~clears throat~ .... sorry about that ..

I have not had any of these crash or have any ill effects on my computers (Even MANY Firefox and Flock BETA versions I have tried)
The "WORST" part is you may find your favorite addon is not 3.x compatible (or in Flock's case, 2.x compatible) ... most addons I have found are now FULLY compatible with the new versions of each browser ... Then again, I DON'T USE EVERY Addon there is,... I can only talk about the 30-40 addons I do find myself using.

"My favorite sites no longer working with ~fill in browser name here~ !!!"

Well, I can't comment on every page a user may have a problem with, Alot of webmasters make their site and view it in Internet Explorer and they think they are done... the issue I have is that some sites will not display correctly on Firefox, Konquerer (Linux), Opera, and/or other browsers.

On My site, I DO KNOW that users of older browsers (Pre-Internet Explorer 5) may not see the content the way I intended for it to display, but for all (Windows based and some Linux based ... ) browsers. I personally view and navigate the site to make sure that (not counting a table being "one pixel off") .. My site looks identical in all browsers. ...

SUMMARY: It may not always be the Web Browser's (programmer) fault for a site not displaying correctly.... I have even updated my site late at night, to find out ... I really goofed up a layout.. that is entirely (in the case of my site) MY FAULT ... not the user's or web browsers viewing my site

Internet Explorer Clones | Mozilla Browsers | Flock (Firefox based ..) | Opera

Internet Explorer Clones

No Matter which of the two you pick, I find that either one is much mucccccccccccccccch better then even the newly released Internet Explorer 8.

Maxthon
Description	My Comments
If you want to stick with an IE based browser, but want more options, try Maxthon Homepage. It has Skins, popup blockers (much better then the SP2 popup blocker in XP Service Pack 2, plugins, and much more
1.x	Comment: This has a bit of a dated Interface... however, that is not necessarily a problem... Some people like the older look better than the newer 2.x versions. I give credit to Maxthon for making this version EASY to find for those who rather not use 2.x
2.x	Comments: Same as Maxthon 1.x with bug fixes, a newer Interface and ... I am sure some security fixes too

Avant
Description	My Comments
If you want to stick with an IE based browser, but want more options, try Avant. It has Skins, popup blockers (much better then the SP2 popup blocker in XP Service Pack 2, plugins, and much more

I Cant really say which is better (I know someone is thinking "well Xmetal... which is better ... Avant or Maxthon???").. I think for IE based browsers, they both are good.. .BOTH ARE RICH IN FEATURES ... BOTH ARE 110% SPYWARE FREE... BOTH ARE NOT THAT BIG (@1-5MB AT MOST) ... try them both ... keep them both, if you like... make up your own mind

Mozilla Browsers

These are browsers that at one time could be compared to IE's #1 competitor, Netscape... now they don't compare... THEY ARE FAAAAAAAAAAAR better then Netscape and as a matter of fact ... i do not know many (if any) people that still use Netscape (now owned by AOL)

Firefox
Description	My Comments
This is the browser I use for daily use ALL THE TIME... .. I LOVE IT! At first, it does look plain, but after you add the addons you want, you can customize nearly everything about it. The IE clones listed above have nice additional features; however, many are the ones the programmer wants, and the way the programmer wants them to function There are tons of Themes, Addons ("Plugins), that can completely customize Firefox ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "But Xmetal, I like the plain look and don't want (alot of) addons " ... NO PR0BLEM .. .that is the great part about Firefox .. add as many addons or as little (even no addons at all) as you want
2.x	Comment: Good Browser... some "regular" Firefox 3.x users may
3.x	Updated for 3.5: I have just installed Firefox 3.5 and although I don't see any "WOW !" FEATURES , .. there is a new feature called "private browsing", all my addons seem to work (you may have to open MRTechToolkit{6.0.3.3}.xpi and when you add that (and restart Firefox) you open addons again and for any that have not been updated yet, you can try "Make compatible" to get the particular addon to work... This happened to me on a few addons, I then used this method to "update" the addons for Firefox 3.5 and they work like a charm) ... in some cases the "max" version of Firefox the addon knows about is say 3.0xx ... this method would just change that to say 3.5xx)

"SeaMonkey" / Mozilla (suite) - The full featured Mozilla web browser that some consider what "Netscape" should have been. ... I will be fully honest .. I have not used this one in (at least) 4 YEARS or so .. I am not sure if Mozilla is still releasing this or not

Flock

This could really be included in the previous section as it is based on Firefox

This is a Firefox 2.x based (for the current stable 1.x versions) .... I have Flock BETA 2 which is based on Firefox 3. Despite seeing reviews that are mostly bad for this beta (yes... a "test" version) ... I have not run into a SINGLE problem .. addons are fine, menus work ... all seems a-ok

I really like this one; despite the fact that I rarely use it. (Its basically a Firefox 2.x (which i use for all my browsing) with a few extras like RSS Readers, and things of that nature). MOST but not all of the plugins that work on Firefox 2.x, work A-OK with Flock. you can even use plugins like CLEO AND FEBE to backup your extensions to a folder in Firefox, and then you can try using that folder to import addons to Flock. Some will import, some will not

My "main" , "must have plugins for Firefox that I have tried on Flock (and they work A-OK) are

NoScript
Adblock Plus AND Adblock Element Hider (Adblock Plus "helper" addon)
Flashblock
(not necessarily a "must have" ) Downloader Helper - (best FLV (Flash) Downloader I have tried ... I have found (not to save it as FLV, but rather as MP4 Video Files) some Greasemonkey Scripts THAT DO work ... some of the other "freeware" program and even some shareware program I have seen ... really don't work at all

My Summary on Flock: Good Browser, but since its basically Firefox, I don't use it much

Opera Homepage

Opera
Description	My Comments
DOES have adware, but it is removed after you purchase it.... Pretty Fast Browser although its claim as the fastest browser may be debatable with Firefox
any version	Comment: Main issue is that it cant be used with Roboform, at all IT HAS/HAD spyware in the free version. This fact is a major turnoff for many users, (and i still would probably use Firefox 3.x for everyday browsing) I am one of them.. I do install from time to time to test my site's layout (to make sure it displays properly on all browsers); however, that is about it