Not trying to steal Val's thunder but I thought after reading the Safari thread and trying Avant Browser, that this app deserves a thread of it's own.

I been using it a couple of days now and it's got some killer features on it. Nice big browser window, history displayed in tab from. You can open new tabs from your bookmarks without having to right click. If you click on a link with the middle maouse button, or wheel, then it'll open up in a new tab. And it's really fast.

give it a go, you might like it, you might not. It's slightly better than Firefox IMO, and way better than IE.

Avant Browser::Home

Cheers Roy, will give it a go

But its built onto of IE :thumbdwn:

Switch back to FF, most if not all of the feature you list can be enabled on FF. As an aside, Firefox 3 is coming along nicely

But why go to the effort of enabling them on FF when they're already there and working on Avant? I've never really understood the appeal of FF... at least with Avant being built on IE it means pretty much all websites will display properly on it!

Not really related but...............

On unistalling advant it still leaves the Browser on your machine. (c:\program files\advant). Just in case. LOL

Avant - Windoze only.

I've downloaded it but haven't got round to testing.

The one thing I am really interested in is memory leak, because that is where FF falls down.

I've never really understood the appeal of FF... at least with Avant being built on IE it means pretty much all websites will display properly on it!

:confused: I never had problems with websites on FF - apart from Microsofts own, of course - I used Opera previously (the 7.x version) and that was more troublesome but I reckon that later versions of Opera work better.

I thought this was going to be a thread about a new Audi :(

But why go to the effort of enabling them on FF when they're already there and working on Avant? I've never really understood the appeal of FF... at least with Avant being built on IE it means pretty much all websites will display properly on it!

Surely that also means that Avant has all the rendering issues and problems IE has? (your definition of displaying 'properly') As a web designer IE narks me off. If this is just a fancy UI for IE then it's still gonna be crappy?

Avant is little more than a skin for IE and my colleague gets a lot of flack for using it. FF is the way forward.

Can anyone give me a specific example of a website that works better on FF than IE/Avant? From a browsing point of view I've never really found them any different, so I'd like to be able to see where one betters the other.

I've downloaded it but haven't got round to testing.

The one thing I am really interested in is memory leak, because that is where FF falls down.

You might want to post something there:

Firefox Help: Reporting Bugs

Leaks are a real PITA at the best of times, not that other programmes don't have plenty.

Can anyone give me a specific example of a website that works better on FF than IE/Avant? From a browsing point of view I've never really found them any different, so I'd like to be able to see where one betters the other.

It's not so much 'better' as a decent web designer will always test on IE and provide extra code to 'fix' the bugs in IE's rendering so the site works as expected. But the fact is that IE doesn't render some HTML 'properly' (as in the way the W3C says it should) so when you design pages you spend a lot of time making IE do what it should do with the code rather than what it wants to do.

The easiest way to see the problem is all the sites that say 'You need IE to view/use this' There's none that 'need' Firefox. Though many that will say best viewed perhaps.

Easiest example off my head is max-width. If you have a site that you want to stretch to the width of the monitor you use a width value of 100% in your code. Problems occur when you have people with stupidly high resolution screens where the site is massively wide and looks bad. So you add 'max-width: 1500px' to limit the resize to a maximum of 1500 pixels. This is totally valid CSS2 markup (note Microsoft helped develop CSS) which was defined by the W3C in 1998 - but the only browser that will ignore that max-width value is IE. And it'll use 100% no matter what. So the designer has to add extra code making the site bigger so that he can provide a 'workaround' so IE will stop making it 100% width.

IE isn't 'bad' it's just a little ignorant. Add to that things like ActiveX and you have a browser and platform specific website that can only be used on IE/PC. Which is technically both illegal and rather bad practice.

If IE would just use the Web Standards properly then it'd be a fine browser. It's just that for some reason Microsoft don't make it do that.

Here's a quick link to some of the problems you have to workaround when designing for IE: Explorer Exposed! (just a random google there - it's not everything and may not apply to all versions of IE (but you still have to design for outdated versions when coding, remember))

Well I must admit that after a few days working with Avant, I've drifted back to using FF. The main reasons being

1. I'm lazy, despite promising to import all my bookmarks from FF, Avant (or I) couldn't manage it.

2. I didn't realise Avant used IE as it's foundation. IE for me has always meant problems with my internets.

3. I been using FF for too long now, it's like an old comfortable jumper that always seems to get saved from the charity auction.

4. I've realised with a bit of digging that FF can do most of the stuff that seemed magical about Avant.

Ah, well as me dear Grandma used to say

"Shy bairns get nowt."

I've been using Avant Browser at home for a few days now and am starting to prefer it to firefox. I don't think its perfect but it is damn fast and I've not had any problems with it yet...

Think I'll stick with it until I find some irritating problem (like the memory leak in FF) and then I might switch back.

Basically it get a from me. Thanks for the tip off.

1. I'm lazy, despite promising to import all my bookmarks from FF, Avant (or I) couldn't manage it.

Tools (no, not you :P) > Avant Browser Options > Miscellaneous > at very bottom 'Use IE favourites'.

Tools (no, not you :P) > Avant Browser Options > Miscellaneous > at very bottom 'Use IE favourites'.

But what if you don't use IE?

Like me.

Cheers

Dave.

The main thing i don't like about IE and Avant is the poorer quality text when compared to Firefox.

I've attached a couple of images to show what i mean..... If you look at the text that read "Congratulations etc etc etc" it's a lot crisper / clearer when viewed in FF than when viewed in IE / Avant. I notice this in just about all websites.

I'm not a web expert so have no idea why it is but it is one of the reasons i prefer FF.

Cheers

Dave.

The main thing i don't like about IE and Avant is the poorer quality text when compared to Firefox.

I've attached a couple of images to show what i mean..... If you look at the text that read "Congratulations etc etc etc" it's a lot crisper / clearer when viewed in FF than when viewed in IE / Avant. I notice this in just about all websites.

can't tell cos I'm looking at it through Avant Browser

Personal preferences. Looking at them there was for and against IMHO :confused:

The main thing i don't like about IE and Avant is the poorer quality text when compared to Firefox.

I've attached a couple of images to show what i mean..... If you look at the text that read "Congratulations etc etc etc" it's a lot crisper / clearer when viewed in FF than when viewed in IE / Avant. I notice this in just about all websites.

I'm not a web expert so have no idea why it is but it is one of the reasons i prefer FF.

Cheers

Dave.

Might be worth setting up ClearType properly if you find the text in IE/Avant too 'smooth' in XP (dunno about Vista): ClearType Tuner Step 1: Turn on Windows XP ClearType

Might be worth setting up ClearType properly if you find the text in IE/Avant too 'smooth' in XP (dunno about Vista): ClearType Tuner Step 1: Turn on Windows XP ClearType

Hmmmmmm I've tried that and set it up to the least smooth / fuzzy setting....... Still exactly the same but only in IE...... Firefox displays the fonts the same as before... alot chrisper. The text is also ok in all other apps.... word, outlook and on the desktop it's just blurry in IE.

I did change the setting to the next setting up but that made all the text on my desktop go fuzzy so went back down to the least fuzzy one again.

Ooooh well no worries i only use IE when i need to use the Microsoft site anyway so it's no big deal.

Cheers

Dave.

Dave, I presume your using IE7 on windows XP. IE7 comes with cleartype enabled as standard, theres a setting within the browser to switch back to 'normal' fonts. HTH

Dave, I presume your using IE7 on windows XP. IE7 comes with cleartype enabled as standard, theres a setting within the browser to switch back to 'normal' fonts. HTH

Found it..... Turned TT fonts off and it's a lot clearer / chrisper now..... Only noticed it since i got my TFT monitor last year.

Cheers

Dave.