First, we have Internet Explorer that we know so well. It has all the essentials that a good web browser should have, like managing sessions, cookies, security and stuff. But then I discovered that Opera and Firefox could a lot more and they have set the standard for web browsers and that is something Internet Explorer could not catch up with.
Freeware
Internet Explorer is not freeware. Firefox and Opera browsers are freeware, and they can just be downloaded and installed just like that.
Internet Explorer's installation is lengthy and troublesome and they can sometimes mess up the
computer.
Download Manager
Opera and Firefox all have a download manager window called Transfers. Most of the time you
can pause the downloads and continue them some other day. Internet Explorer cannot do that.
Better sessions managing
I was making a website using PHP sessions to allow users to log in. Opera and Firefox worked
fine, but Internet Explorer would not let me log in until I unblocked my site. Apparently,
they block every site unless the site is "special". This is for "security purposes" which
brings us to the next topic.
Better security
Still seems that Opera and Firefox have better security. Most Active X, spyware, trojans and
viruses are optimized for Internet Explorer, the mostly used browser all over the world. Once
you visit a site, they can install themselves into your PC, but only if you are using Internet
Explorer. However, there are new viruses that can also do the same if you are using Firefox
and Opera. But then again, these viruses usually come from pop-ups. Internet Explorer has no
pop-up blocker but Firefox and Opera have a built-in pop-up blocker.
Cannot easily be tampered
Internet Explorer is the most vulnearable compared to other browsers. Once I went to an
unknown site and it freakin popped up a porn window and automatically installed a porn search
toolbar in my Internet Explorer!! I clicked Uninstall and it's still there. I clicked
Disable. Still there. But Firefox and Opera was not affected by this.
Tabbed browsing
Is a browsing necessity. Until now, Internet Explorer introduces it. Version 7. But before
that I had to use my taskbar and it was freakin full. Firefox and Opera has tabbed browsing
since I don't know when.
In the end, I decided that Internet Explorer would not be my primary browser. But what about Opera and Firefox? Which one is better? Well, the only thing Opera would fall behind Firefox is the compatibility of web content. There are still certain css and plugins that Opera cannot display, especially css. When making websites, I often test them on all browsers that I have, yes, including damn Internet Explorer. And there were some css that Opera displayed differently from what I wanted, and Firefox did just fine.
Therefore, in my book, the winner of the triple threat is definitely Mozilla Firefox. Not to criticize other browsers, but that's really the truth of what I, a user, experienced. Don't believe me? Download Firefox and try it for yourself. If you don't like it, it's all good cause you don't need to pay a cent for it. As for me, I have set it as my default browser.