J.D. Fox Micro Resource CenterLinksWeb BrowsersYou obviously already have a web browser, since you're here. This page provides easy access to several alternative web browsers you can install alongside the ones you already have, or upgrades to those already installed. It's quite useful to have more than one web browser on your computer. While you might need Internet Explorer to access a website that requires ActiveX, you might also find that a certain website crashes all the time in Internet Explorer, but runs just fine in Chrome. The focus here is on web browsers for desktop and laptop computers, and not for mobile phones. If you have an older computer, you may find that many of these browsers will not install. In that case, you should consider upgrading to a new computer if you do any web browsing at all. Using an old browser exposes you to well-known security exploits that are only fixed by running a current, modern web browser that has fixed the bugs in previous versions. Note: If you are working on a business network, please see your IT systems manager for authorization before attempting to download and install software.
Windows only Still the leader in overall usage, Microsoft Internet Explorer also supports some exclusive interactive technologies not available in other browsers, most significantly ActiveX. Websites have broadly moved towards using more universal technologies (such as Java), but many ActiveX-based websites still exist. Microsoft has been criticized for various aspects of Internet Explorer over the years the same as they get criticized for everything they do (whether fairly or not). These aspects include widely-publicized security flaws, and breaking from standards in the name of innovation. In the end, though, for maximum compatibility, Internet Explorer is the best option. Download the latest version to ensure your computer is not vulnerable to known security flaws and fully supports the latest websites and add-ons. The latest version, Internet Explorer 9, was released a year ago with all kinds of new features, but it will only run on Windows Vista and Windows 7. If you use Windows XP, you can only upgrade to Internet Explorer 8. The link below will detect your version of Windows, and present you with options to download the latest version of Internet Explorer your computer supports.
Windows, Mac, and Linux A descendant of Netscape Navigator, Firefox is the most popular Internet Explorer alternative for Windows users. It came out around the time numerous security problems with Internet Explorer made the news regularly, and for a while it had better features than Internet Explorer before Microsoft caught up, garnering sort of a cult following. It is not immune to security flaws as some believe, and you still may encounter websites that do not work as well in Firefox as in Internet Explorer. Many functions that seem to work automatically in Internet Explorer require you to manually download and install a plug-in for Firefox—for example, to play a Windows Media file embedded in a web page. However, the process of getting plug-ins has improved over the years, and is now quite smooth. The current version of Firefox is 12. As of last year, Firefox decided to release a completely new version, and render the previous version obsolete with no further security updates, every few months. This is why you might have noticed it jumped from the 3.x version, which it had been on for three years, all the way to version 7 in six months (through last September), and then to version 12 in another seven months. Overall, Firefox is a decent program that can satisfy varying personal tastes, but it is not as well-suited for a managed business network as Internet Explorer.
Windows, Mac, and Linux Google Chrome is a newcomer with a fresh design. Just like any browser, it has its quirks, and may require you to download and install plug-ins for some functions to work. But, it is designed to be small, sleek, and fast, and particularly to be a very intuitive program. It comes with integrated Flash and PDF viewer capabilities. It can handle websites that are heavily-laden with Javascript very well, compared to Internet Explorer or Firefox, which can choke on such sites. And of course it integrates well with the many online products Google offers, such as Gmail.
Windows and Mac Apple Safari is derived from the same codebase as Google Chrome, and is therefore quite fast. While available for Windows, it is owned by Apple and intended for Mac computers. The latest version, Safari 5.1.5, was just released, and includes support for emerging new web standards (HTML5) that will offer terrific functionality without having to worry about plug-ins. While Safari 5.1.5 can run on Windows back to Windows XP, it only runs on a Mac with OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and later, or OS X Lion 10.7.3 and later. Consistent with Apple's general approach for all their products, Apple does not make even very recent earlier versions of Safari available on their website for earlier versions of the Mac OS.
Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, as well as phones and tablets Opera is the quiet giant of the browser world. While relatively unknown to desktop and laptop users in the U.S., it is the browser on a tremendous number of non-computer platforms, such as gaming systems and mobile phones, worldwide. It is also highly popular for regular computers in Europe. It has been around for a surprisingly long time, having been first released in 1996 when the web was still very new. It was and still is extremely feature-rich and innovative, with functionality beyond just web browsing. You might want to install Opera if you just want to try a different experience. Note: On Windows computers, Opera will make itself your default browser without asking first—it is the only browser linked on this page that we have observed doing this. To avoid this, click the Options button, which you will see after the download completes. |
