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I think Opera calls it the URL bar/Address bar, too. But who cares?

Is pentadactyl something like vimperator?
There is Vimpoperator (haven't used it).

What are you talking about? Opera has NotScripts. In fact, opera has almost everything, including a lot of powerful config options only available in Firefox via addons -- the one critical missing element (for me) is pentadactyl. If it had that I'd switch back to opera in a heartbeat (pentadactyl is why I switched to firefox, now I'm totally spoiled).

I wouldn't think that using less memory would be a bug (the last link shows Firefox using less total memory than the other browsers, but because it was written on an Opera blog I suppose there was some reluctance to admit it.)

Opera has had a similar feature for years now

Googling around I found this (very recent) re-implementation for Linux: LoadSnake

I mean if someone cared about page load times, they would be using Opera, the ONLY browser to fully support and have enabled HTTP 1.1 pipelining, which provides FAR better results across FAR more sites...

The only difference of course, is Opera ASA don't have the bottomless pits of money to tell the wider world about these things. I find it curious that it's Chrome this, chrome that, nobody is talking about the MASSIVE bandwidth savings that Opera 11.10 is getting using WebP server transcoding...

http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog/on-a-horse-opera-turbo-to-the-rescue

12MB of browsing slashed to 3MB....

Firefox 6 was released last December

With Opera I can right-click on a page say "edit site preferences" go to the scripting tab, and set a javascript folder. It will then load the javascript in that folder followed by the scripting on the page. However, in the javascript in the specified folder that you load, you can use opera-specific extensions to modify/overwrite the subsequently loaded javascript from the site. I'm probably doing a horrible job of explaining as I don't really do web-development stuff. So...

http://www.opera.com/docs/userjs/

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/ It's very fast, very feature laden, and is secure and in my experience, never crashes.

Firefox 5 was released back in December

It's not the first time that Opera has approached a rival's rhetoric with class and humor:
http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2003/02/14/

For the lazy: MSN targeted Opera users by feeding them a broken page based on the browser id. Opera returned the favor by having a special version of the browser.....which turned the MSN page language into the language of the Sweedish Chef.

Bork! Bork! Bork!

The downside is that, simply put, your phone is only connecting to Opera's proxies (the other downside is that Opera gets to see everything you send and receive, and I don't think SSL encryption works to protect your data from Opera's proxies, and you thought Google paranoia was bad!).

In fact it's SO bad, that Opera themselves are blatantly shouting this fact on their website!

If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full web browser such as Opera Mobile.

The bastards! They aren't even shy about admitting it!

But don't worry - I'm sure your tinfoil hat can protect you from the Norwegian secret police.

I thought Firefox 5 was released back in December?

They don't do Opera on Macs, do they? Jeez, imagine one of *THOSE* as a fanboi!

Yes, yes they do.

You can have a bit of a mess with various USB plugs, too. Most "legacy" devices and cables didn't present much more troubles... (when it comes to "standard")

Generally, saying how "nearly every USB peripheral that came out then had matching color for each iMac color. ~99.5% of all USB peripherals back then where designed for the Macs. Especially the iMacs" seems to come from a very local perspective, also (kinda like iPods "dominated"... if one looked at few markets. Like iPhone "dominates" and Nokia in general or Samsung & LG touchscreen "feature phones" (Corby, Star or Cookie) are nowhere to be seen).

iMacs practically didn't exist in most of the world (that's still largely the case, go through random countries in Statcounter). OTOH, IIRC, in the second half of 1998 new PCs adopted ATX en masse, with its two USB ports. Oh, and I don't think I've seen more than a few "translucent random color" peripherals around... (some categories of them weren't even needed much, in grander picture, like USB FDD drives)

Apple abandoned their "legacy" ports (different, here very much non-standard), which were sort of dead already / USB was how they could jump on economies of scale. Of scale.

That would be probably cost prohibitive - local dial-up most likely billed by the minute, and while cellular data access seems moderately decent (Part 4) ...both of them will most likely be affected by night ban. Don't get into costs of direct dial to unaffected location...

But then, the last thing shouldn't stop MMO addicts.

W3C did not create the specs, W3C is where the browser makers deside what goes in the spec normally. But HTML5 actually came mostly from WHATWG and was for Web applications. Which is Opera and Mozilla which came up with HTML5 and started on it years ago. Apple and Google got added later. All browser makers are in W3C so also Adobe, Microsoft and others.

Whatever, here is a longer explanation:

http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2011/01/26/the-zen-of-html5-london-web-presentation

Part 3 of this report focuses on the EU; not exactly poor countries / Nokia still has the largest slice of the market (I wonder how it would look if iPhone models were listed separately... many Nokia handsets are also very similar)

Or how it would look if iPhone users actually used Opera as a browser... I tried it and can't really figure out who the target audience for Opera mini on IOS is. Remember that is focusing on Opera mini usage so of course the phones listed highly will show who has a crappy browser, not who has the largest market penetration.

Part 3 of this report focuses on the EU; not exactly poor countries / Nokia still has the largest slice of the market (I wonder how it would look if iPhone models were listed separately... many Nokia handsets are also very similar)

They rarely undercut other manufacturers BTW, people chose Nokia - for each of their devices, it was typically fairly easy to find a comparable but cheaper phone from other manufacturers. Those outsourcing everything to China are not exactly a new thing.
(and S40 should remain for a long time on western low-end handsets)

I wonder what upgrade path many (those who will want to upgrade) of the hundreds of millions of people reflecting, by far, most top handsets in Part 3 of this report are likely to choose... (also, note RIM there, et al that you mention)

Indeed, look at top handsets in top20 countries of this report. Just look at them; beyond some probably fairly atypical (but vocal and visible) place. Curious way of being "toast"...

Who knows... at the very least, this deal means a lot of Winmob7 phones pretty soon. With Nokia most likely dominating - other phone makers brought, what, just ~2 million of them onto the market till now? Now they might even shun the platform, they don't depend on it & so it's easy for them, if it appears like Nokia might be getting a preferential treatment (at the least keeping Ovi Maps to themselves, and certainly deals with carriers / mobile payments). Last year Nokia sold over 100 million Symbian phones, and growing... and since now they say there are plans for just ~150 million more, that means a pretty quick switchover. With, all things said, a pretty decent OS, and which will certainly have all the "required" apps - plus IMHO a very real chance to rapidly pick up steam in mobile gaming. Then there are hundreds of millions of people still loyal to Nokia, many will want to upgrade from their "feature phones", and since Winmob7 is supposed to be now spread across a spectrum of handsets at different price points...
The "leaked" handset (yeah, "who knows?") doesn't look half bad, too...

Only the Windows logo is a bit disturbing / too bad it's still MS... ;/

Plus, it's a company which succesfully reinvneted, reorganized itself numerous times... this shift is even quite minor in comparison.

Mexico? ;p

(supposedly closest to most slashdotters, probably uses the same GSM bands; from Part 3 of the reports it's clear they are much closer to world-typical popularity of Nokia S40 handsets ... but obviously & unfortunately those are capable of j2me & web browsing (though "really" robust 3720 is among them...), there's also S30 / 1000-series / 5030 & C1-00 too, I believe ;> )

And even despite how the world as a whole has apparently become "at least 50 percent urban" around two years ago ... it doesn't change much. Very large part of that would be considered urban slums by the parent poster.

(and not so much service, as prepaid data access; also, Part 4 suggests it is noticeably less than $10 - because of course people do browse, use FB or IM on "dumbphones" - ...though 10 is not strictly inaccurate, just not taking into account Big Mac Index)

And those activities can be largely done already by so called "feature phones" or "dumb phones" (curious how pundits from few atypical, but visible and vocal places include also Samsung Star, Corby or LG Cookie...). Heck, all devices in Part 3 of this report can (obviously) do a significant part of your list. But some people think there's no place for them, since obviously world market must act just like their local one...

Hundreds of millions of people, fine... that's already the case with present sub 20% share of userbase, with Symbian alone shipping 100+ million last year. Now compare it to, currently, 5+ billion of mobile subscribers. Certainly 6 before not too long (most of them not having own monitor, BTW; or dependable access to electricity)

Don't apply your experiences from very atypical place to the rest of the world. Don't listen to pundits doing likewise. I'm sure you think iPod was the dominating mp3 player worldwide, too? (and not, again, in a few fairly atypical places; rest had mostly Chinese S1/S1-like players, and during last few years shifted to so called "feature phones")

Most people in the world own their phones, and use prepaid. Look at Part 3 of this report, top handsets in top20 countries. Keep in mind not only how those devices are often perhaps up to 2 times more expensive in absolute prices (the less prosperous a given place is, the higher the premium on consumer electronics), but also "Big Mac Index" - how this can be easily ~10x more expensive subjectively. Similar with data access. And Opera Mini + FB & IM j2me app (+some random one...) work fine in such scenarios.

Actually...they make so called "feature phones" (Samsung Corby & Star, LG Cookie included... those phones are largely responsible for touchscreen uptake) more of a "smartphone" than the iPhone for first year (heck, "classic" SE handsets even have full multitasking). Might possibly be ... their way. A lot of devices from Opera report are quite sturdy, offer quite good reception in marginal conditions, and very dependable battery life (things where Androids, especially low-end ones, don't fare so well; radio modules, sturdiness or battery tech don't exactly follow Moore's Law). And, from models listed, it's clear they have long lifetimes.

SUV craze or suburbia sprawl were also fairly localized.

And that's just when talking about monthly financial barriers in some very few, rather atypical places. Most of the 5+ billion mobile subscribers own their phones, and use prepaid.

Look at top handsets in top20 countries via Part 3 of this report. Most of them for not really above $120 or $200 total, for whole life of a device, up front (yes, I basically doubled your monthly example / closer to 200 - the less prosperous a given place is, the bigger the premium on consumer electronics; also, keep in mind "Big Mac Index" - so this absolute $200 might be easily close to your subjective $500 or $1000; data access likewise, subjectively - so there's not much need beyond Opera Mini + FB & IM j2me app) - but BTW a lot is quite sturdy, offers quite good reception in marginal conditions, and very dependable battery life (things where Androids, especially low-end ones, don't fare so well). And, from models listed, it's clear they have long lifetimes.

Particularly notable are Samsung Star & Corby (TouchWiz "feature phones") or LG Cookie. Really, check them out. Those are the widely popular "dumbphones" of today.

But that's the thing, barriers for entry in some places ("wireless for all" below the logo of MetroPCS is for very small values of "all"...), rather atypical ones.

Look at top handsets in top20 countries via Part 3 of this report. Not a lot of them cost $200 (yes, closer to 200 - the less prosperous a given place is, the bigger the premium on consumer electronics; also, keep in mind "Big Mac Index"... so this absolute $200 might be easily close to your subjective $500 or $1000; data access also can be often quite a lot expensive, especially subjectively... so there's not much need beyond Opera Mini + FB & IM j2me app) - but BTW a lot is quite sturdy, offers quite good reception in marginal conditions, and very dependable battery life (things where Androids, especially low-end ones, don't fare so well). And, from models, it's clear they have long lifetimes.

Now I wonder if that couldn't be one of the reasons contributing to how Apple virtually doesn't exist in most of the world (Part 3 of this report, while only about top handsets in each of top20 countries, is fairly representative as far I can tell / from few places I had contact with) - a rather minor reason, sure (way after "Big Mac Index" of course, after big increases in absolute price of any "premium" item - the higher the less prosperous a given place is), but still...

To me, it seems there's not much crapware on any random new laptop; it tends to not ruin the experience. Not much of an incentive, I guess (even for my reasonably prosperous place) - and considering how the OS image needs to be different (localized versions of Windows), it would only require more effort.

Opera is already at 11.

http://www.opera.com/

It's far more popular than most people realize, especially outside the US. Opera 11 accounts for about 15% of all users in Russia, for instance. Add in Opera Mini, and that jumps to nearly 25%: http://my.opera.com/FataL/blog/2007/11/29/russian-internet-runet-browser-statistics

Now granted, I don't know what percentage of nerds use it - but I suspect it is non-trivial, world-wide.

Part 3 of the latest State of the Mobile Web report from Opera has the answer. Look particularly close at "top handsets" in each of the top20 countries; how unusual some places are, when compared to more typical ones.

Mozilla and Opera have a revenue stream from Google for placing a search field next to the address field.

Define standard.

Some counter arguments:
http://www.osnews.com/thread?458060

"What you perhaps actually mean is that WebM is a standard that is not yet endorsed by any official independent standards body."

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_standard):

"A technical standard may be developed privately or unilaterally, for example by a corporation, regulatory body, military, etc."

H.264 is not a standard acceptable by the W3c http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2011/01/13/openness

And finally:
http://annevankesteren.nl/2011/01/why-webm

"And lets face it, WebM has a specification, independent implementations, backing from hardware manufacturers, and is supported in all browsers that are not MPEG LA H.264 patent licensor — once Firefox 4 is released that makes about sixty percent of the desktop browser market."

You lost the point quite a bit, just reinforced the impression how you perceive this via local experiences. In large part of the world Kia Rio (generally - similar new car, or similarly priced used car) is middle-class at worst.

And Apple almost doesn't exist. In my reasonably prosperous late EU memberstate (certainly more prosperous than basically all of Latin America, Africa, CIS, most of Asia; where vast majority of people live) I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've seen an iPod (well, excluding my iPod obviously...). Even worse with iPhone. So called "feature phones" never ceased being the rage (lately in the form of touchscreen LG Cookie or Samsung Star). Look at part 3 of latest Opera Mini report, nice lists of handsets used in many different economies. And don't tell me "the lesser people are irrelevant" - there are over 5 billion mobile subscribers now.

To be fair, AC to which you replied made first this error, in saying how iPad might "continue to dominate" - it didn't really strictly happen in the first place. With none of their products. Except in "few atypical (but highly visible and with lots of loud pundits(*)) places"

I thought Firefox 5 was released last month.

if it *does* come down to x86/win32 apps not working on ARM machines and vice-versa, won't MS have a bit of a public education battle?

Not if Microsoft pushes this as the successor to Windows CE. Ideally it'd run CE apps in much the same way that 32-bit Windows can run Win16 apps and 64-bit Windows can run Win32 apps. It'd finally close Windows CEMeNT into one codebase.

Should had been the government. Anyway, I reminded myself that (I thought) some browsers offered this functionality of their own to. And if you trust your government to hold your keys why not your browser vendor?

http://lastpass.com/

Maybe Opera wasn't stupid enough to do it online:
http://www.opera.com/link/
Maybe Apple Safari with MobileMe doesn't either.
Chrome?

Oh well, atleast there was a solution for people who really want to.

I thought Firefox 5 was released last week.

That's more of an adblock-equivalent, and I found it lacking when I first tried it (I don't remember my specific complaints, and it may have gotten better). The more direct noscript-equivalent is "NotScripts", which is quite simple and works pretty nicely.

There's no hardware acceleration yet, but it could be coming in a further dot release and benefit XP users as well as Mac, Linux and Windows 7/Vista users.

Actually, it does have the ability to use hardware acceleration for graphics in both opengl and direct3d, it just has not been implimented in general release versions of opera yet. See this discussion for more details and a post by an Opera developer. Currently, as the links mention, Opera's rendering engine is pure software, but it seems to keep up well enough with the browsers that have opted for hardware acceleration so far. I'm guessing they wont implement it until they can make sure it works on Windows/OSX/Linux/Unix, since they try to keep uniform support most of the time on all major Operating Systems.

I've been a long time Opera user, switching from Mozilla (pre firefox) to Opera when it became free (as in beer). However, I do get irritated by their efforts to keep up with Chrome's speed while screwing over long time users (they cant win that fight in the long run anyways, Google has way too much money). Numerous bug reports on long time stable features and major regressions happen every time they release a major update for Opera and take months or years to fix. From Opera 10.5 to pre 11, tool tips would cover up other applications even if Opera was located in the background. If you happen to have a mouse with arrow buttons for back and forward, the forward arrow button has been broke as far as using the "fast forward" feature since 10.5. At one point, during the version 11 betas, the arrow buttons were broke period (though it was a development release so one cannot really complain about that). With Opera 11, their famous mouse gestures are also partially broken with their implementation of a graphical interface for showing what gestures do what when you hold down the right mouse button. One of the more useful gestures was "right" + "left" + "right" (closes the current window). Now, with the changes they have made, this gesture only works half the time, but they have said they will fix it, but it's tied into the UI they implemented, so it will probably be a while.

They do generally listen to their users. They decided to force chrome like urls on their users during the Opera 11 development (removing "http://" and any of the args after *.com such as ?id=12345) claiming it would make users less likely to click fraudulent links. However, if you're a developer, seeing the arguments is a must and not seeing "http://" or "https://" or "ftp://" is just kind of silly, since sometimes you like to know what protocol you are using instead of guessing through some abstract replacement graphic. Since opera has never been a browser to appeal to novice internet users, dumbing it down seems kind of counter intuitive.

Opera is still my primary browser (except for development--I prefer Firefox/Firebug for that over Opera Dragonfly, but it seems every new version they release, I dread what long time feature they will break next. They haven't frustrated me enough to want to modify the Chromium source code to natively have all the features of Opera, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it for Opera 12.

There's no hardware acceleration yet, but it could be coming in a further dot release and benefit XP users as well as Mac, Linux and Windows 7/Vista users.

Actually, it does have the ability to use hardware acceleration for graphics in both opengl and direct3d, it just has not been implimented in general release versions of opera yet. See this discussion for more details and a post by an Opera developer. Currently, as the links mention, Opera's rendering engine is pure software, but it seems to keep up well enough with the browsers that have opted for hardware acceleration so far. I'm guessing they wont implement it until they can make sure it works on Windows/OSX/Linux/Unix, since they try to keep uniform support most of the time on all major Operating Systems.

I've been a long time Opera user, switching from Mozilla (pre firefox) to Opera when it became free (as in beer). However, I do get irritated by their efforts to keep up with Chrome's speed while screwing over long time users (they cant win that fight in the long run anyways, Google has way too much money). Numerous bug reports on long time stable features and major regressions happen every time they release a major update for Opera and take months or years to fix. From Opera 10.5 to pre 11, tool tips would cover up other applications even if Opera was located in the background. If you happen to have a mouse with arrow buttons for back and forward, the forward arrow button has been broke as far as using the "fast forward" feature since 10.5. At one point, during the version 11 betas, the arrow buttons were broke period (though it was a development release so one cannot really complain about that). With Opera 11, their famous mouse gestures are also partially broken with their implementation of a graphical interface for showing what gestures do what when you hold down the right mouse button. One of the more useful gestures was "right" + "left" + "right" (closes the current window). Now, with the changes they have made, this gesture only works half the time, but they have said they will fix it, but it's tied into the UI they implemented, so it will probably be a while.

They do generally listen to their users. They decided to force chrome like urls on their users during the Opera 11 development (removing "http://" and any of the args after *.com such as ?id=12345) claiming it would make users less likely to click fraudulent links. However, if you're a developer, seeing the arguments is a must and not seeing "http://" or "https://" or "ftp://" is just kind of silly, since sometimes you like to know what protocol you are using instead of guessing through some abstract replacement graphic. Since opera has never been a browser to appeal to novice internet users, dumbing it down seems kind of counter intuitive.

Opera is still my primary browser (except for development--I prefer Firefox/Firebug for that over Opera Dragonfly, but it seems every new version they release, I dread what long time feature they will break next. They haven't frustrated me enough to want to modify the Chromium source code to natively have all the features of Opera, but I wouldn't hold my breath on it for Opera 12.

It's part of the top most popular extension now:
https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/noads/1.0.8/?display=en

With the bonus of a one click install

Only took seven years, but now I'm using them and liking them. Would probably prefer them to expand vertically instead of horizontally, and while I realize it's a niche-request and might not work well in practice, I'd still like the ability to automatically redirect pages into groups using regex against title/url/whatever.

Opera Link is a free service that enables data sharing between all your computers and devices. It can synchronize your bookmarks, Speed Dial, notes and other useful browser information, so they are available to you wherever you go.

As well Opera's bookmarks include:

Name: Yahoo! Says Delicious To Get the Boot, Not the Axe - Slashdot
Nickname: aWord
Address: http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/12/18/1342250
Folder: what folder you have saved it to
Description: Yahoo! Says Delicious To Get the Boot, Not the Axe -- article related to Index, Businesses, Technology, News, Social Networks, Software, and Yahoo!.

1) Typing in the addressbar searches your bookmarks by any of the words/text above.
2) Typing in the QuickFind bookmark panel similarly filters your bookmarks as you type.
3) Typing the "Nickname" in the addressbar will launch that particular bookmark.

If you don't want to sort your bookmarks into folders, the search function would work fine, so long as you "tagged" words into the description.

Ability to:
1) Export your bookmarks to plain HTML file.
2) Import bookmarks from most other browsers: Opera, FF, IE, Safari, Konqueror.

Anybody else have a recommendation for a site with similar functionality, clean interface, and good browser addon support?

I'll bite. I use Opera as my Browsing weapon of choice. You can import bookmark files (Opera, IE, Firefox, Konqueror) into it easily. Nerdlist has published instructions on how to export to an html file, which you can then import into your browser, but I'm not sure how well the tags & notes would import along with the bookmarks.

Opera has nicknames where tags could go and description fields you can add notes to on Bookmarks, but whether you can port them over automatically or have to do it by hand I don't know. Maybe a canny coder will make an Opera Widget or Extension to help user port their bookmarks over. If you make use of Opera Link you can synch your bookmarks (and more) to your online Link account and choose to make your bookmarks public or private, as you so desire.

Anybody else have a recommendation for a site with similar functionality, clean interface, and good browser addon support?

I'll bite. I use Opera as my Browsing weapon of choice. You can import bookmark files (Opera, IE, Firefox, Konqueror) into it easily. Nerdlist has published instructions on how to export to an html file, which you can then import into your browser, but I'm not sure how well the tags & notes would import along with the bookmarks.

Opera has nicknames where tags could go and description fields you can add notes to on Bookmarks, but whether you can port them over automatically or have to do it by hand I don't know. Maybe a canny coder will make an Opera Widget or Extension to help user port their bookmarks over. If you make use of Opera Link you can synch your bookmarks (and more) to your online Link account and choose to make your bookmarks public or private, as you so desire.

Anybody else have a recommendation for a site with similar functionality, clean interface, and good browser addon support?

I'll bite. I use Opera as my Browsing weapon of choice. You can import bookmark files (Opera, IE, Firefox, Konqueror) into it easily. Nerdlist has published instructions on how to export to an html file, which you can then import into your browser, but I'm not sure how well the tags & notes would import along with the bookmarks.

Opera has nicknames where tags could go and description fields you can add notes to on Bookmarks, but whether you can port them over automatically or have to do it by hand I don't know. Maybe a canny coder will make an Opera Widget or Extension to help user port their bookmarks over. If you make use of Opera Link you can synch your bookmarks (and more) to your online Link account and choose to make your bookmarks public or private, as you so desire.

First thing I on a fresh system (and I install a lot of fresh systems due to testing that goes horribly wrong :) Just put this in your sources.list and your fine. deb http://mirrors.nl.kernel.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free deb-src http://mirrors.nl.kernel.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-beta/ squeeze non-free deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ squeeze main non-free After that I down the catalyst drivers from ati. And only then I start using the system. With all my closed-source goodies :D I love it!

It works with just about anything, which yes, CAN "backfire" on you (online comes to mind, security, etc. & bugs) - & there's things about its surfing experience that I personally do not like vs. Opera especially (though MS pinched tabs + Speedial page & more from Opera))

E.G.-> IE doesn't have the right-click "paste-n-go" in the address bar as Opera does, NOR DOES IT ESPECIALLY NOT HAVE EASILY ADJUSTED "By Site" INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCES, & BY SITE... so they can be diff. on diff. sites you visit (say this one, vs. www.whatever.com, w/ Javascripting, Cookies, or Frames/IFrames, diff. on each one & more per my example here). Nor does IE have Opera's speed. Turn off javascript??? IE "bitches" like a nagware.

HOWEVER:

You guys ever code in IE? Specifically IE + VB.NET or ASP.NET?? Especially for not only online public internet usage, but in business environs for internal shop usage by employees (1000's @ a time etc.))???

Well - I have many times since 1996, & I have to say 1 thing about it IN IE'S DEFENSE IN BUSINESS & INTRANET USAGE - it's flexible & extensible as all hell + EZ to code 4... bigtime. If you can code VB, you can do .NET, especially VB.NET... probably some of the most successful & widely used programming tools ever as far as market-share & widespread use, just like Windows itself.

(Disclaimer, & I am sure SOME of you will understand: Yes, I know - after awhile, ALL the languages come down to more of concepts mastered & knowing what to do in 1 language/IDE is simple enough, because you've done said task before in other tools/IDE... so, my praising VB for ease of use? Hey - WHEN & IF you're good enough to be considered a decent enough coder that can get the job done?? By then, I think you all understand that ALL the languages & tools/IDE's are fairly pretty much the SAME thing, conceptually, & nowadays? Syntactically too, with OOP's Object.Property Method parameters syntax? Well, if they're not? LMAO - build a callable lib/dll in the tool than can & link to its functionality @ runtime - problem solved! Anyways... back on track).

IE + VB.NET coding, or ASP.NET, are excellent for ease of use & RAD buildspeed times, which rocks & saves you time/work/effort (via ActiveX controls), & for business? The way Visual Studio renders either Active Documents or .NET apps, it's a snap for DB access for instance (grid controls etc. & all)... and IE's certainly "setup from the 'get-go'" for corporate LAN/WAN intranet usage for (any DB engine, locally run .exe, or webservice there is out there, and built like you have always built VB apps since 1992 onwards).

Makes it easy to snap together business apps via prebuilt controls & visual template based design that VB itself was "revolutionary" for vs. other competing tools over time. A lot of successful ontime projects have been built off of it all over the planet, so... there you are.

Now, online on the public internet? Well... you know - not so great, security-wise most of all, & imo, especially compared to the latest Opera Betas as of TODAY that just came out -> http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/ ?? IE IS SLOW... bad slow (not so horrible I can't use it, but it's NO Opera).

APK

P.S.=> Plus, IE has policies templates for network admins too, and built/baked right in place, so you can "mass enforce policies" almost as easily as you can on a Citrix/TS setup, which is, WICKED EZ also...

WHICH IS PROBABLY WHY GOOGLE DID THIS FOR CHROME TODAY -> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/15/chrome_for_business_tools/

Easy is good: It gets out to production faster - make budget, make deadline, make money - it works for that which is, imo & experience over 17 yrs. in professional computing? LOL, might be a "wee bit ske