Best Free Browsers

[Alan]

When I say the ‘Best’ free Web Browsers, that is of course, just my opinion!
There are many free browsers and a lot more opinions.

Mozilla Firefox V2 a solid first choice. It's safer than IE, so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections since they started using the product. It's also browses faster than IE, is very stable and is more standards compliant. The program loads slower than IE but once running, fly’s. With tabbed browsing and over 2000 free extensions (add-ons) that allow you to customize your experience, it provides most users with a major surfing upgrade.

Up there with it is Opera. It's a speed freak for sure, probably the fastest of all the common browsers. But it's much more than that; it's full featured, standards compliant and safe. Just as Firefox is extensible through add-ins, Opera can be enhanced using Widgets, though there are not nearly as many of these available as Firefox extensions. Then again, it doesn't need as many extensions as a lot of the features added by Firefox add-ins are already available built into the standard Opera browser.

Another not so well known browser is K-Meleon, a slimmed down cousin of Firefox that's optimized for Windows. It loads very very quick, the fastest for surfing. On the downside there are only a limited number of add-ons and plug-ins available so you are pretty well limited to the features available in the standard product. If you dont need hundreds of plugins check it out.

This list is by no means complete and we shall add to it over time.

[Alan]

Here is another browser that I am currently using - SeaMonkey. It is, although from the same family as FireFox, much faster. Version 1.1.7 has the latest security fixes.
Although, it was fairly easy to customize to suit my needs, one little niggly point was the splash screen. There was no apparent way to disable it but once I figured out how to lose it, no complaints. (I have a thing against splash screens).

The SeaMonkey project is a community effort to develop the SeaMonkey all-in-one internet application suite (see below). Such a software suite was previously made popular by Netscape and Mozilla, and the SeaMonkey project continues to develop and deliver high-quality updates to this concept. Containing an Internet browser, email & newsgroup client, HTML editor, IRC chat and web development tools, SeaMonkey is sure to appeal to advanced users, web developers and corporate users.

Under the hood, SeaMonkey uses much of the same Mozilla source code which powers such successful siblings as Firefox, Thunderbird, Camino, Sunbird and Miro. Legal backing is provided by the Mozilla Foundation.

SeaMonkey has inherited the successful all-in-one concept of the original Netscape Communicator and continues that product line based on the modern, cross-platform architecture provided by the Mozilla project.

The Internet browser at the core of the SeaMonkey suite uses the same rendering engine as its sibling Mozilla Firefox, with popular features like tabbed browsing, popup blocking, find as you type and a lot of other functionality for a smooth web experience.
SeaMonkey's Mail and Newsgroups client shares lots of code with Mozilla Thunderbird and features adaptive Junk mail filtering, labels and mail views, multiple accounts, S/MIME, address books with LDAP support and is ready for both private and corporate use.
Additonal components include an easy-to-use HTML Editor, the ChatZilla IRC chat application and web development tools like a DOM Inspector and a JavaScript debugger.
If that's still not enough, SeaMonkey can be extended with numerous Add-Ons that provide additional functionality and customization for a complete Internet experience.

[Alan]

I have posted a couple of neat customizations in the 'How To' for SeaMonkey.