Internet Explorer and other browsers

I've just heard the news about Internet Explorer's security flaw - can you tell me what other browsers are available and how do I get them?

There are several other browsers available, we’ll give you a list of the most popular choices with links so you can find out more about them and download them. By the way they are all free!

This is a very topical question given today’s news about a new flaw in IE here and advice to use an alternative browser until the vulnerability is fixed. Incidentally this particular flaw is to do with the helpful feature in IE (and other browsers) where it will remember those pesky passwords for you.

So, what is a browser ? Basically it’s the computer program that allows you to browse and interact with web sites. Behind the scenes your browser is receiving pages from your website in a formatting language and converting it into the screen display you see. It translates your screen clicks and keyboard entries into commands which it sends to your selected site for action.

Internet Explorer (IE) browser is installed with Microsoft operating systems so it is almost assured the top spot as many PC users just won’t be interested in looking for an alternative. It’s a bit like deciding to upgrade the radio in your car, most people stick with the one that came with the vehicle.

Informed users will want to at least look at the alternatives and choose the browser that offers the combination of usability, speed and security that is important to them. A good question you can ask is; if IE is installed with Windows – why would people go to the effort of downloading another browser? What do these other browsers offer that the users feel is lacking in IE?

Mozilla Firefox is the most popular alternative browser (statistics here), indeed amongst those interested or working with web technologies where it seems set to overtake IE as the browser of choice (statistics here). If you want to find out more about Firefox and why it is the most popular non IE browser then follow this link Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is user-friendly; it had tabbed pages long before IE added them and is more secure. There are pages and pages of articles on the web on whether Mozilla is better than IE or not – read about it, try it and make up your own mind.

A relatively recent addition to the browser list is Google Chrome which offers a minimalist design with the aim of delivering a browser that makes web browsing faster, safer and easier. We have used Chrome recently and loved the clean uncluttered design, speed was comparable to either IE or Firefox perhaps a little faster. There is a nice video overview on the BBC website by Google’s Jessica Powell. This will be the browser to trial over the next month or so, it’s going to have to be pretty good to beat Firefox though!

Another choice, which is going to be of interest to people who use both Apple and PC, is Apple’s Safari, simply because its available for both Mac and PC – so you can use and get used to the same browser on both types of computer. Naturally being an Apple design you get that Mac feel to the program. More information on Safari is here.

There are a few other browsers such as Opera and some old soldiers such as Netscape and the original Mozilla – however these all rate less than 1% of the global usage share.