I use each of these fairly regularly, though I do have my favorites; however, recent changes in favoritism are what prompted this article. Each of the browsers has its merits and problems. For this discussion, I'll be listing them in order of their usage 'Net-wide and for the 4-point scoring system, Internet Explorer is the "benchmark" as it is the most widely used browser online (by far) and thus earns two stars per category.

I rate the browsers on useability, functionality, speed, and reliability. Useability is based on the browsers intuitive design features such as side bars, tabbed browsing, etc. Functionality is based on the browsers "extras" like use of plugins, browsing options, etc. Speed is obvious and reliability is based on how often the browser "locks up," "crashes," or incorrectly displays a website.

Internet Explorer 6.0

Useability: **

Functionality: **

Speed: **

Reliability: **

IE is used by nearly 90% of the Web's users and comes standard on most machines sold as it is built into the Windows operating system. There are a lot of bonuses and drawbacks to using IE as your primary Web browser. It is highly adequate, most websites are tuned to IE-specifics, and it is free to use. On the down side, however, most scams and viruses are aimed specifically at IE because it is so widely distributed. IE also foregoes many of the browsing features many of us love; such as tabbed browsing.

Until recently, IE was my most-used browser as the Web began to surpass the capabilities of Opera. Regardless, as a developer, I use IE for testing regularly as it is the benchmark.

Mozilla 5.0v1.6

Useability: ***

Functionality: ****

Speed: ***

Reliability: ***

I wasn't very impressed with the early versions of Mozilla. We do have the open-source developers to thank for some of the innovations we take for granted in browsers now, but earlier renditions of this browser were slow and clunky. The latest version of Netscape, based on this browser, had a rough breaking-in period and many of us stopped using it outright thanks to its reliability and useability issues.

The latest rendition of Mozilla, however, has converted me over to using it as my primary browser again. This browser is adequately fast, has lots of great features, and is free to use. It has crashed on me (though only the browser, not a full system crash) once or twice, but not in a big way. Overall, I find it the nicest of the group.

Opera 7.23

Useability: ****

Functionality: ***

Speed: ****

Reliability: *

Opera used to be my favorite browser by far. It's the fastest-loading browser I've seen and it was early in adopting the cool features now taken for granted. It comes in a free (ad-based) and a purchased version - identical except for the banner ad delivery at top. This browser has long been a favorite of many developers, especially since it so closely adheres to the letter of W3C standards.

However, thanks to that adherence and its ignorance of IE-specific extras on pages, many sites look downright silly and very jumbled in this browser. Ad to that its recent propensity for crashing with this latest edition and you've got a questionable browser at best. I was disappointed to see how difficult it was to get basic functions like Java support to work correctly in this browser and finally gave up on it despite its great features and useability.

Conclusion

So I'm using Mozilla almost exclusively as my browser now. It took a little time to get used to hitting Ctrl-T instead of Ctrl-N to open a new tab instead of browser instance, but otherwise it's been awesome. It's fast, reliable, renders well, and has all the requisite plugins you expect. Not to mention the cool dinosaur symbol. :)

I still have IE since it's the browser used by most surfers, thanks to its connection with Windows. It's good for testing, but otherwise I rarely use i. I've removed Opera from my system altogether thanks to the headaches this latest version gives. When it goes through another big overhaul, I'll consider trying it again as I did love many aspects of the browser: especially its lightning speed.