Is It Enough?
Tuesday, 24. June 2008, 01:27:14
In reading some comments and postings, it seems Opera has been tooting their horn about a new web browser version — and frustrating a lot of users by clogging up their internet arteries with downloads.
I haven't noticed.
You see, not too long ago, I had a problem with an updated version of the Opera browser where it botched my feeds. I rolled back to the previous version and the feeds began correcting themselves (although I did find out the original web page had changed their feed identification source, perhaps inducing this issue). Nonetheless, I didn't see any need to upgrade since the browser version I had was doing what I wanted it to. There was a time when I felt it was imperative to have the latest and greatest.
Now I'm not so sure.
When IE7 came out, I found it looked and worked much like Opera. The problem with it was hidden menus. Who needs that? My life is not all about the mouse. With my older hands, I prefer to make use of as many fingers as possible and avoid “mouse finger” stress (those who use CAD programs know what I'm talking about). I uninstalled IE7 and made sure it was disabled for updates from Windows. Internet Explorer 6 is just fine, thank you very much. A lot of the user interface for Firefox is also a knock-off of what Opera has been doing for years.
Windows XP is the same. It does everything I want on my main computer without being a resource hog or requiring a new computer to run. I can see some advances as being helpful, like 2G of RAM and a dual core processor for working with video files to render or convert them. But for many people, liquid-cooled chips and jet-engine level cooling fans are not necessary for day-to-day operation.
The biggest threats it seems to most users are viruses, adware, malware and annoying popups. All of these are directly related to being connected to the internet and going to places that maybe they ought not to go. I try to keep my life simple and be connected to people who really care—even when I'm using Windows ME on my lower end machines.
I haven't noticed.
You see, not too long ago, I had a problem with an updated version of the Opera browser where it botched my feeds. I rolled back to the previous version and the feeds began correcting themselves (although I did find out the original web page had changed their feed identification source, perhaps inducing this issue). Nonetheless, I didn't see any need to upgrade since the browser version I had was doing what I wanted it to. There was a time when I felt it was imperative to have the latest and greatest.
Now I'm not so sure.
When IE7 came out, I found it looked and worked much like Opera. The problem with it was hidden menus. Who needs that? My life is not all about the mouse. With my older hands, I prefer to make use of as many fingers as possible and avoid “mouse finger” stress (those who use CAD programs know what I'm talking about). I uninstalled IE7 and made sure it was disabled for updates from Windows. Internet Explorer 6 is just fine, thank you very much. A lot of the user interface for Firefox is also a knock-off of what Opera has been doing for years.
Windows XP is the same. It does everything I want on my main computer without being a resource hog or requiring a new computer to run. I can see some advances as being helpful, like 2G of RAM and a dual core processor for working with video files to render or convert them. But for many people, liquid-cooled chips and jet-engine level cooling fans are not necessary for day-to-day operation.
The biggest threats it seems to most users are viruses, adware, malware and annoying popups. All of these are directly related to being connected to the internet and going to places that maybe they ought not to go. I try to keep my life simple and be connected to people who really care—even when I'm using Windows ME on my lower end machines.
Perhaps there will be more later (
Glad I'm not a programmer or webmaster.
WIDGETIZE