🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Tracy Marks wrote:

> I am so fed up with Netscape crashing a dozen times a day
> that I am finally switching to Internet Explorer and may soon start
> teaching IE instead of Communicator.

You might want to try Opera, but more on that later. Or what about
a previous version of Netscape, if the one you're using is giving you
grief on your machines?

In Internet classes, I'm trying to teach principles instead of specific
software programs. So my students can use Netscape, Internet Explorer,
or Opera for browsing the web.

Giving students a choice of browsers allows beginners to stick with
whatever they already have at home, if they wish. This is a nice option
for those who feel intimidated by technology and overwhelmed by new
things.  The more adventurous students sometimes take the opportunity
to try That Other Program - the one they don't have at home. And those
students who are used to running several programs at once will
sometimes use two or even all three of our browsers at once, switching
back and forth during class to compare features.

So instead of saying "click your back button," I'll say "which of the
buttons on your toolbar would take you back to the previous site?"
Students using Netscape quickly decide that "back" is the most likely
option. Students using Opera don't have a back button, but they find
they do have a "previous" button which does the same thing.

Later on, the concept is "how to I mark this site so that I can
return to it easily next time?" We go through the menu bar options:
File, Edit, etc. I'll ask: "What looks like a good bet?" Those using
Netscape will vote for bookmarks.  Those using IE will tell us about
favorites(sic) and those in Opera will suggest the hotlist. Once
again, the principle gets emphasised and students see how various
programs do the same thing, but in slightly different ways.

> Losing about 1 1/2 hrs. work a day (not only rebooting but also
> having to refind web pages that were lost in a crash) isn't worth
> the satisfaction of NOT supporting Bill Gates any more than I have to.

Bad enough that I.E. is yet one more Microsoft Product. But then to
hear that AOL bought Netscape. Argh! That was more than I could bear.
So off I went in search of a new browser for my personal use. The
product I settled on is Opera, which can be found on the web at
http://www.operasoftware.com.

I'll tell you some more about Opera now, so you'll see why I like it
so much.

In sharp contrast to Netscape and IE, Opera is not bloatware. In fact,
it downloaded in about four or five minutes over a 28.8 modem link.
It has lots of cool features which I just love. It's so easy to keep
bookmarks (which it calls Hotlinks) organized as I go. It automatically
found and copied my Netscape Bookmarks and IE Favorites when I installed
the program.  And Opera has a timer which tells me how long a site is
taking to load - quite helpful for those of us who write web pages and
want to ensure that they load quickly... so this feature is handy in
HTML classes.

Opera is easy to customize so that it'll work the way you want it to.
For example, say you work in an academing setting. You want to visit
http:///www.ubc.edu. But you forget to type the entire URL, and you
type only "ubc" and press enter. Some browsers will take you to
http://www.ubc.com (a bookstore) while others will do different things
to you. In Opera, you can change the defaults so that the program
will append .edu to any single word you type in the URL bar, instead of
.com.  This might be quity handy for academics.

And that URL that's terribly long and hard to type? When you create a
hotlink (bookmark) you can give that site your own nickname, like
"mom." When you type in that word and press enter, Opera will take you
to the site you've specified.

I could go on and on about this program; I like it a lot. In fact,
I'd list it as one of my all-time favourite downloads. I'm going to
pay the 30.00ish registration fee and keep this one.

> (Note however that bookmark managers such as Compass and
> PowerMarks do work with both browsers)

And the bookmark manager called Columbine can switch info back and
forth between Netscape, IE, and Opera.

> c) IE's bookmark ACCESS scheme is superior (with all bookmark
> folders visible at left,

Opera has that.

> d) IE has bookmark alphabetization which Communicator sadly
> lacks (a ridiculous absence; just try to navigate through 6000
>  bookmarks all day long when you can't alphabetize them!)

Opera alphabetises its hotlinks.

> f) Netscape has a better FIND feature for searching web pages
>    for a particular word ;

Also available in Opera.

Now, I'm not saying I like *everything* about Opera, just that it's
a good product which I prefer to other browsers. And no, I'm not
affiliated with the company, and don't have anything to gain by
telling you this.

Take care,

cmc

Christine Code, Internet Trainer      Treat people as if they were what
Vancouver, Canada                     they ought to be, and you help them
cmc@ferret.net                        become what they are capable of
http://www.ferret.net/cmc/            being.  - Goethe