Today I Learned...

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by 2020BRZtS

I wrote my own.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I've been using browsers since there were browsers, and honestly, I have never been able to find a reason to use one over the other. Maybe my Internet habits aren't sophisticated enough to tell the difference.

That's how it should be. And (mostly) that's how it works now without too much effort, but for so very many years it was nightmarish to support all the browsers; The early years were just a mess - Mosaic died, IE showed up and got weird. Lynx still had users. Netscape made a name for itself, then the battle began. IE in particular was horrible over the years, no two versions working the same, but Netscape really made some horrible steps after v4. Firefox sorta rose out of the ashes of Netscape and was the first to put serious effort into being 100% standards compliant. They brought us all the amazing in-browser debugging tools the industry takes for granted (and for so many young developers, falsely attribute to Chrome...) and plugins/extensions.
At the moment there is no functional reason for one browser over another if browsing is your focus. The next battle line is privacy - in so many places, but very much in the browser. Facebook (...Meta) knows everything about people who don't use Facebook, because their trackers are everywhere. Also about maintaining a choice so there can be even the tiniest bit of leverage against things getting really ugly.

[Sapphireho]

Those who can remember the early years, there were some really great programs, for example Lotus 123, WordPerfect, and a few browsers. Then Microsoft made inferior copies of these programs, and offered them for free with their operating system, putting the competition out of business.

Good times...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Those who can remember the early years, there were some really great programs, for example Lotus 123, WordPerfect, and a few browsers. Then Microsoft made inferior copies of these programs, and offered them for free with their operating system, putting the competition out of business.

Good times...

Microsoft never offered any of the Office products for free, at least not at the corporate level. Companies chose to buy them once MS bundled them together and made them a good deal.

Lotus screwed up by trying to make one product that was all things to all office workers (Symphony) and WordPerfect waited way too long to get on the GUI train and did not have the other interoperable products needed at the time.

[FR-S2GT86]

I've been using Vivaldi for a couple of years now:

https://vivaldi.com/

It's cross-platform except for iPhone, but I haven't had to watch a single ad on YouTube on my Android phone since I installed it.

When Opera decided to ditch the Presto engine and move to a Chromium-based engine, all the old programmers left and eventually formed Vivaldi. Good stuff.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by FR-S2GT86

I've been using Vivaldi for a couple of years now:

https://vivaldi.com/

It's cross-platform except for iPhone, but I haven't had to watch a single ad on YouTube on my Android phone since I installed it.

When Opera decided to ditch the Presto engine and move to a Chromium-based engine, all the old programmers left and eventually formed Vivaldi. Good stuff.

I have a second browser installed for when I meet a website that doesn't work with all my Firefox addons. Atm I have Brave installed but I like trying new browsers so I'll give Vivaldi a go. If I don't like it I'll try Bach or Schubert.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I have a second browser installed for when I meet a website that doesn't work with all my Firefox addons. Atm I have Brave installed but I like trying new browsers so I'll give Vivaldi a go. If I don't like it I'll try Bach or Schubert.

well just keep trying. Eventually you will get a Handel on it.

[Celica00]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Those who can remember the early years, there were some really great programs, for example Lotus 123, WordPerfect, and a few browsers. Then Microsoft made inferior copies of these programs, and offered them for free with their operating system, putting the competition out of business.

Good times...

I used to live near the WordPerfect founder's estate. We'd always make the trek there to get the full-size candy bars on Halloween!

[Lantanafrs2]

Yoga balls make lousy stepladders

[weederr33]

TIL I'm getting too old for some jobs

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Lantanafrs2

Yoga balls make lousy stepladders

Just means you've got poor balance!

I read an article in mountain bike magazine probably about 20 years ago about some pro rider that incorporated balancing on the balls part of their daily routine. It improved their skills significantly.

I did it for a while as a novelty, got to the point I could stand up on them until I got bored, and just sorta gave up. It did help in a lot of aspects. And it's a nifty party trick

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by soundman98

Just means you've got poor balance!

I read an article in mountain bike magazine probably about 20 years ago about some pro rider that incorporated balancing on the balls part of their daily routine. It improved their skills significantly.

I did it for a while as a novelty, got to the point I could stand up on them until I got bored, and just sorta gave up. It did help in a lot of aspects. And it's a nifty party trick

It's all fun and games till some average joe thinks it's crucial for the weekend warrior fitness program

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by soundman98

Just means you've got poor balance!


I read an article in mountain bike magazine probably about 20 years ago about some pro rider that incorporated balancing on the balls part of their daily routine. It improved their skills significantly.

I did it for a while as a novelty, got to the point I could stand up on them until I got bored, and just sorta gave up. It did help in a lot of aspects. And it's a nifty party trick

And the subject of many MANY fail videos and GIFS!

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Celica00

I used to live near the WordPerfect founder's estate. We'd always make the trek there to get the full-size candy bars on Halloween!

LOL... What a fun memory!