Category: Browsers

If it’s about Opera, Firefox, IE or other browsers, this is the category!

Opera and GMail

Opera implemented user javascripts for the Opera 8 beta 3 release, something which was appreciated by many – and one use was for GMail. With GMail you could previously tell it to log in even if your browser wasn’t supported, and a ?nocheckbrowser-argument was added to the URL. Then it stopped that option, giving non-supported browser a basic, less useful implementation.

Opera was such a non-supported browser, despite handling the standard implementation just fine. The nocheckbrowser-argument still worked, but you had to enter it manually. It wasn’t perfect, as you still were thrown back into the simple interface sometimes. Enter the user-javascripts. Some javascripts to keep the argument in place were quickly made and published by other users, and I quickly started to use one of them, making GMail a nice experience once again.

I never gave it any thought after that, until I a few days ago used an earlier version of Opera without user javascript – and GMail worked flawlessly there, too. How come? Well – it turns out Google has yet again tweaked GMail to give us a better experience. The choice of using the simple interface is still there, but now as a link at the bottom of the pages. Wonderful 🙂 And with the storage space growing each day, who’s complaining? Not me.

Of course, with Opera working flawlessly with GMail once again, I’ve turned off that particular userscript.

The Acid2 test

A while ago, before the WaSP Acid 2 test was ready, Opera challenged Microsoft to take said test in the upcoming IE7. Not everyone appreciated this challenge, claiming that WaSP is working for Opera and such (see among the comments after a post in Scobleizers blog.)

Well – the wait is over, and the WaSP Acid 2 test is here. How does the browsers fare? Well, not unexpectedly, IE6 fails miserably – but no one have claimed IE6 support CSS2.1; it’s the next version that’ll be interesting to test. Maybe to the glee of some, Opera 8 fails too, and so does FireFox. Every browser fails, truth to be told.

So, now we just have to wait and see how fast the browsers get the pieces implemented correctly. Work has already started on the Safari, for those of you on the Mac.

IE7 – what’s important?

I’ve been thinking – and procrastinating. I had a comment to a post in Scobleizer’s blog, about the Acid2 test and Opera’s challenge to Microsoft:

What is left now is for MS to ace the Acid2 test with IE7, and make it secure to counter the reputation in that field, and optionally add features so that it will be an attractive browser to use.

And Robert Scobleizer answered thus:

Yup, although I’m still not sure just how many Web standards we’ll be able to support in the next version. Supporting Web standards are important, but not the most important thing on the list. By far security is more important. So we’re continuing to work on that first and make sure we nail that. Just wanna let you know that figuring out software development priorities are tough.

Believe it or not, but the IE team does not have unlimited numbers of really smart developers.

Now, I do know that expecting that IE7 will completely support CSS1 and CSS2.1 right away is not realistic, but I started thinking: What is the most important thing? This does depend on your point of view, I guess, but there is one thing that gives us a hint, I believe: Why did MS change their mind and decide to release IE7 for Windows XP after all, and not wait for Longhorn as previously stated? Personally, I’ve got no doubt the popularity of FireFox is at least partly to blame.

Security is of course important – very important – and when there are warnings from many against using IE due to security risks, it’s especially important to eliminate threats. There will be many scrutinising eyes at the release of the new version, and I don’t think MS can take any chances not getting that right.

But security isn’t all, is it? Security isn’t the only reason people have downloaded FireFox and Opera – what more is there? There are some who are enticed by the tabbed browsing alone, and have said they would switch back to IE if it got tabbed browsing too. More are enjoying other features, either built in or via extensibility (plug ins) – and then there are those who like the fact that the alternatives support standards much better than IE.

I have no idea how many of the FireFox users and Opera users care about standards support or even know what the standards are about. How many have just heard about FireFox and/or Opera and that it is so much better than IE, or got it recommended, and just decided to try it and see without knowing much more than the names and that they support tabbed browsing? But when it comes to web designers and developers, standard support is very important, and some are getting very impatient with MS. From time to time, and from many different sources, I’m hearing the equivalent of “Screw Microsoft, IE can get served a less advanced web page. I’ll support the standards.” The voices uttering these opinions are not getting fewer.

This is also an aspect Microsoft have to consider: When users visit such pages with standards compliant browsers, and then see a usable, but less advances/pretty/whatever result in IE, which browser will they use? How will they react? While many users don’t care or know about the standards the web pages are built on, their experience with the browsers that support standards (or not) will be an influence. So while security is a necessity, standards support shouldn’t lag too far behind. And maybe have a look into which browser features are popular – when standard support is in place, that’s where the browsers are going to win and lose users. All in my humble opinion, of course.

In any case, it will be intereting to see the result of MS’ work on IE7, at least.

Opera included in Adobe Creative Suite 2

In an interview in March, HÃ¥konWium Lie, CTO of Opera said there would be some big news in April. And here it is: Today they announced that Opera will be integrated in the Adobe Creative Suite 2, which include products like Photoshop CS2 and GoLive CS2.

This is great news. With this integration, not only will web designers automatically be encouraged to develop for and test in a standards compliant browser – with Operas technology it will also be possible to see how their designs will appear on small screens, such as PDAs and mobile phones.

New Opera 8 beta 2

Opera has now released a new version of the browser, which is now at Opera 8 beta 2. While Firefox presented a “fix” for IDN spoofing by just disabling it, Opera has fixed it with another solution which doesn’t disable it. Neat – that means I can still visit those domain with Norwegian letters! 🙂

But of course, what I took advantage of first was support for atom feed, noticed some updated CSS, but there’s lot of changes. You can read more about that in the changelogs.

I’ll just enjoy browsing a bit more now, and see what more I can discover. 😉

MS changes mind – IE7 will be out

In an announcement today Bill Gates announced that there will be a new version of Internet Explorer after all – IE7 will be out in a beta version this summer.

In the IE blog there is of course much positive to say about this – but just how much can we expect from this update? Will we get what is needed – updated standards support and png support – or is this just one of those “don’t leave us, we’ll have something better soon”-announcements? It’s not the first time we’ve heard those, it that’s the case.

What does the announcement say about it?

Building on those advancements, Gates announced Internet Explorer 7.0, designed to add new levels of security to Windows XP SP2 while maintaining the level of extensibility and compatibility that customers have come to expect. Internet Explorer 7.0 will also provide even stronger defenses against phishing, malicious software and spyware. The beta release is scheduled to be available this summer.

Not much. Add new levels of security? OK, it’s needed, but what more? “Compability” – that may not sound as good as we’d first believe: Compatible with what? Earlier statements from MS staff tells us that one reason IE hasn’t been updated to support the standards, is because the compability with previous versions – and solutions that build on the non standard functions and implementations of those. Supporting the standards would easily break those solutions, in addition to that web pages will break, too. (Gee, how bad. The web designers of those sites need to be updated anyway.) Now, if that’s the kind of compability we can expect, we might not keep our hopes too high of a better rendering engine.

However – this is not going to happen until summer, at earliest, and that’s with a beta version. The finished version will be available – when? Until then – and maybe/probably after then – there are better and more secure alternatives. Such as Opera (and Firefox and Safari and…) MS has felt the pressure to do something about their browser because of these increasingly popular alternatives. Keep up that pressure to make MS do the right thing with their browser; install and use one of the alternatives. Nothing prevents you from going back to IE should you wish to at a later stage, when – hopefully – IE does supportthe standards too.

But what about Opera?

There’s Firefox this and Firefox that everywhere you see, glowing reviews and all, it’s almost as it’s the only browser in existence besides Internet Explorer. Now, it is a great browser which truly deserves a lot of praise – but it’s not the only great browser, and not the alternative browser to IE. What about Opera?

True – some say they want a barebone browser, and true, Opera does contain a lot more than Firefox does as standard – but still, it’s a smaller download and a lean, mean browser. I’ve always said Opera felt much quicker and more responsive, which in addition to being the most customisable browser is one reason to use it. But – how fast is “the worlds fastest browserr” compared to the other alternatives out there? Luckily, there’s no longer a need to guess – just look up in the browser speed comparisions and see the numbers and graphs.

Opera is no slouch 😉

Yet another IE spoof

Netcraft tells about yet another IE spoofing trick:

A number of recent phishing sites blocked by the Netcraft Toolbar community have had a common technique of using JavaScript to create a narrow popup window, which is then placed on top of the Address bar. A fake URL is entered into the popup, using the same default font as the real address bar. The script continually checks the location of the browser window and moves the popup accordingly, ensuring that it is always placed on top of the Address bar, thus obscuring the real URL of the phishing site.

It might be in its place to remind people that the safest way to avoid trouble with IE, is to use a different browser. (And while there’s a lot of talk about Firefox, personally I find Opera a better choice. In my humble opinion, of course.)