<p>Ok. I grew up w/ IE. I used to think Netscape would rule the world. I have and use Firefox touch and go. But this one i actually enjoy. Did a little research too.</p>
<p>===========</p>
<p>2005 Chip Magazine “Best Browser”
2005 PC Magazin “Best Browser” (Germany)
2004 PC World “Best Overall Browser” (United States) </p>
<h1>2003 Only Trade Union Endorsed Browser (Europe)</h1>
<p>Opera Features
[ol]
[<em>]More secure than Internet Explorer, AOL and Netscape (Equal to Firefox)
[</em>]Faster than Mozilla Firefox, IE, AOL and Netscape
[<em>]Opera is an Internet browser with a pop-up blocker
[</em>]Choose from 100s of free “skins” and free program add-ons created by opera staff and opera users to make opera work like YOU want it to work, not the software company
[<em>]multiple-windows navigation and browsing. unlimited sites in ONE window for simultaneous viewing!
[</em>]built in download manager with resume. fast!
[<em>]mouse gestures
[</em>]keyboard shortcuts
[<em>]built-in e-mail client with Spam filter
[</em>]integrated search within email client (never lose an email again)
[<em>]cross-platform browser
(can work with any site and copy/paste from any other browser)
[</em>]IRC-compatible chat,
[<em>]support for RSS newsfeeds
[</em>]password manager
(1-click access to all specified passwords for all your sites,accounts etc)
[<em>]one-click customization and privacy protection settings.
[</em>]Mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts
[<em>]accelerated Web navigation w/Fast Forward and Rewind buttons
[</em>]personalize the user interface with one-click skins.
[<em>]special elements for users with disabilities
[</em>]drag-and-drop support
[<em>]built in notes/note pad
[</em>]user profiles
[li] Opera supports the latest in security and provides password and cookie managers.[/li][/ol]</p>
<p>What browsers do your universities use? Which ones are you using privately? Have any of you found any one browser more comfortable while working? </p>
<p>I like Opera because it actually helps me sort my research work easier. I can also program the search engine to look up keywords in my federal and private grant websites, so it makes work go by quicker.</p>
<p>Opera has been around for a long time and has always been pretty good but I much prefer firefox. It really has all of the features mentioned either by default or via the easy to install plugins and its totally free (and open source which means a lot of little tweaks are available). </p>
<p>The feature I use most is the tabbed browsing…its beatiful…middle click or alt-enter and <em>poof</em>. Another great thing that I make use of is hte cross-platform nature (your definition there is wrong…cross-platform means it can run on multiple system architectures…any app should be able to copy and paste and open any site) because it lets me use the same browser on my desktop (windows) and laptop (linux).</p>
<p>As to what my university uses, they provide every student with Mozilla/Firefox and Thunderbird.</p>
<p>“Opera has been around for a long time and has always been pretty good but I much prefer firefox. It really has all of the features mentioned either by default or via the easy to install plugins and its totally free (and open source which means a lot of little tweaks are available).”</p>
<p>Agreed. I, too, use Firefox, and I really like it. Like ottothecow said, the tabbed browsing is amazing, and I don’t know what I did before I used it.</p>
<p>Isn’t Opera the browser that runs ads on the top for the free version? All I can say is that I use Firefox and it is a very good browser, with certainly several more features than IE.</p>
<p>I only have one complaint with firefox…what do you do when you run across websites that are specifically designed for IE and don’t work with firefox for one reason or another?</p>
<p>I agree that Firefox is great, but for some reason it won’t work on my computer. It says that my SSL security is disabled even though I’ve checked all the SSL boxes. </p>
<p>I’d also like to point out another one of Opera’s amazing features. If you ever accidentally close Opera or if Opera crashes (rare), then when you open up the browser again, it will start up with all of the different tabbed pages you had opened up before the browser was exited.</p>