"Onslaught" might be overstating the case a bit. The attack isn't destructive, but it certainly seems fierce. I receive questions about whether this browser or that browser would be safer or faster or better in some other way. Invariably, the answer is "maybe", but it's important to remember that all browsers are built on just a few rendering engines.
But dozens of browsers exist. Take a look at the Wikipedia page that lists Web browsers.
Source: Wikipedia
Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view.
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In software development, "fork" means essentially what you probably think it means. Development is divided into separate branches, each of which goes its own way. This is common in open-source software (see the insane Linux diagram) and is often considered not to be a good thing because it leads to wasted effort as each fork creates similar processes, the splitting leads to confusion, and there's a lot of silly in-fighting and arguments over who has rights to what. This may be one of the main reasons that Linux has generally not succeeded in the marketplace.
The Linux image above is a small section of a huge chart. It shows just some of the forks of the Debian Linux distribution
Source: Andreas Lundqvist (http://futurist.se/gldt/) [GFDL 1.3 (www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
As of December, Chrome was the most popular browser by far. Ten years ago, Microsoft's Internet Explorer had 75% of the market, Firefox was released and quickly grabbed a quarter of the market share. Netscape dropped from 1 percent to about half a percent and Opera ranged from 1 to 2 percent.
Source: "Timeline of web browsers" by I, ADeveria. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Today Chrome has more than 60% of the market, Firefox about 24%, Safari (availably only on Macs) has a little less than 4%, Internet Explorer has 8%, and Opera continues to stick around 2%. [Source: Log files collected by W3Schools]
"W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use the browser that comes pre-installed with their computer, and does not seek out other browser alternatives."
StatCounter, which reports information about a broader spectrum of users (TechByter Worldwide participates in StatCounter results) shows results that are not substantially different from the results from W3Schools.
Chrome generally receives high marks for safety, security, and speed, so why would you want to use a Chrome-based browser that isn't Chrome?
Chrome has an extensive library of extensions that add numerous features, but developers can modify the browser's operation by working directly with the open-source code that powers Chrome.
The browsers that are based on Chrome aren't just Chrome knock-offs. Invariably, the developers have something specific in mind when they open the hood and start modifying the code.
Here are a few examples.
Firewall and Internet security company Comodo has developed the Chrome-based Comodo Dragon and, as you might expect, touts the browser's security and privacy features.
Users of Comodo Dragon can can point the browser at Comodo's SecureDNS servers so websites that have been identified as malicious will be blocked automatically. The browser also includes a "site inspector" tool so that you can examine a site's inner workings.
Many browsers now offer an incognito mode and you can modify or disable the HTTP header that browsers send. The value of doing that is questionable because a website can provide a better experience if you allow the browser to identify itself. The header also includes HTTP referers that tell a website where you came from. If you click a link on the TechByter Worldwide website that takes you to another site, the referer will disclose to that site where you came from.
Comodo Dragon has an automatic update function, but if you're sufficiently paranoid, you can turn that off, too.
By the way, if you prefer Firefox, Comodo has you covered with IceDragon, which is based on Firefox.
The developers tried to call this one "ChromePlus" but that resulted in legal problems that should have been foreseen even though the developers are in China.
CoolNovo adds some interface features such as mouse gestures and the ability to run Internet Explorer in a tab. These are features that users of Chrome can enable with extensions. The browser also has a sidebar and it provides more control over tab behavior, something that's given substandard treatment in Chrome.
You'll generally want to avoid this one because it claims to be highly security conscious but doesn't follow through with actions. The developer is in Germany and many Germans are suspicious of Google. Iron plays on these fears. The browser actually uses Google AdSense to generate income for the programmer.
There's actually nothing in Iron that can't be done with Chrome. Iron turns on "privacy by default" but these controls are all readily available via Chrome's settings.
Iron's initial start page includes Google advertisements and if you visit the special Iron extensions page, you'll see even more ads. If you want to examine extensions from the Chrome Web Store, you'll need to type the explicit URL to get there.
The new Chrome-based browser has been receiving a lot of attention lately. WhiteHat Security is located in Santa Clara, California, and the goal was to create a secure browser that doesn't require a degree in software engineering to use. It's available for both Windows computers and Macs.
Browsers such as Internet Explorer and Chrome have close relationships with search engines. IE would like to direct you to Bing and Chrome wants you to use Google. Even Mozilla receives the most of its revenue from Google-based advertising on Firefox. Other search engines exist and some of them don't employ aggressive tracking.
Because Aviator has received so much attention, maybe this would be a good time to take a look at it.
"You probably shouldn't be using the WhiteHat Aviator browser if you’re concerned about security and privacy," is what Justin Schuh wrote on his blog. It's important to note that Schuh works for Google and that Aviator is somewhat antagonistic toward Google, the developer of Chromium on which the Chrome browser and Aviator are based.
The overarching goal, according to WhiteHat is "putting the consumer's needs first" and Aviator claims to do that by turning the "do not track" option on by default, by blocking ads, and by turning the private browsing feature on unless you turn it off.
Schuh says that some of the code added to Chromium to create Aviator "doesn’t seem to have been written with a sufficient understanding of how Chrome works, or with adequate regard for security." And he notes that "the bulk of Aviator’s enhancements are actually provided by the already popular Disconnect extension for Chrome."
One of Aviator's security practices involves turning Flash off by default. That's not a particularly bad idea, but potentially this has a down side. TechByter Worldwide uses Adobe Flash to play audio files and for the weekly podcast. Most browsers will allow these files to be played but Aviator turns them off by default so the user must activate every Flash player on every Web page. It's easy enough to enable the players, but this could confuse the very people the browser is intended to help. Still, the overall benefit probably outweighs the negative because clicking a link that takes the browser to a rogue site can install malware.
Aviator also removes ads by default, so those pages that used to be cluttered with ads will be cleaner. I have to wonder, though, how successful this will be in the long term. Collectively, Internet users have refused to pay for any content at any time from anyone. If content providers cannot realize income from ads and consumers of the information refuse to pay for it, who will pay the journalists, writers, illustrators, and editors?
Instead of Google or Bing, Aviator enables DuckDuckGo as its default search engine. DuckDuckGo emphasizes privacy by not profiling its users and by deliberately showing all users the same search results for a given search term. The developers, in Paoli, Pennsylvania, say that the search engine emphasizes obtaining information from the best sources rather than the best known sources. Instead of using a feature such as Google's Page Index, DuckDuckGo assembles search results from crowd-sourced sites such as Wikipedia and from partnerships with other search engines like Yandex, Yahoo, Bing, Wolfram Alpha, and Yummly.
Here's another search ("caring for cats") that returns some images, too. In both this search and the previous one, you'll notice that ads are served.
Aviator also set Incognito mode (private browsing) for every URL and it deletes search history when you close the browser. This can be a disadvantage if you remember conducting a search and want to revisit the page but can't recall the precise search terms used. By default, Aviator does not autocomplete URLs when you're typing them.
Probably the most significant privacy feature Aviator offers is blocking systems that track your browser use. Examples of these include DoubleClick, Google Analytics, and Omiture. Other browsers have a "do not track" function, but many websites ignore the instruction.
These two functions are always at odds with each other. The more stringent security is, the harder an application is to use. The easier an application is to use, the less secure it is. Balancing security and ease of use is always a challenge and Aviator is intended for those who place a premiums on security and privacy, and who are willing to forfeit some ease of use.
Aviator won't save passwords by default and there's a good reason never to allow any browser to save passwords. Using an application such as LastPass is a better option for safely storing passwords.
Security software firm CA Technologies says that 84% of hacker attacks in 2009 [note that this figure is 6 years old] took advantage of vulnerabilities in Web browsers. The developers say that Chrome is the most secure of the standard browsers, but they wanted to create hardened security and privacy settings that give hackers less to work with.
In the good old days, only questionable websites contained ads that were infected with virus code, but today "malvertisements" (ads that install malware) have been found on hundreds of legitimate websites. As noted, Aviator blocks advertisements by default.
Aviator's developers assume that all users will encounter viruses at some time, so they have attempted to create a browser that defends against them. Using Chrome's "sandbox" functionality, Aviator can protect your data when your computer's antivirus software eventually misses something.
The settings page looks a lot like Chrome's setup page and that's expected. If you don't like DuckDuckGo, the search engine option can easily be changed.
Two extensions are installed by default.
If you want to add more extensions, Aviator will take you to the Chrome Web Store.
Sunday, February 1, 2015, it's Super Bowl XLIX (oh, wait, that's a Roman numeral and saying "xlix" is inappropriate.) It's Super Bowl 49 featuring the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, one of which will go home with a 15-4 record and the other with a 14-5 record. There will be a bunch of commercials, but I won't see them and this year there's Super Bowl fantasy football. See, there's the tech tie in.
Rivalry Fantasy Sports has an app for that. Available for Apple and Android devices, Rivalry Fantasy Sports will allow fans to compete for points or cash during Super Bowl XLIX (ah, 49). Earlier in the week, participants were able to start selecting their 6-man teams.
Rivalry Games says that it makes fantasy football, basketball, and baseball accessible. What they mean by that is that the traditional fantasy leagues require that participants actually know something about the sport. Rivalry Games allows anyone to participate even those who don't know that basketballs are oval and footballs are round. Or is it the other way around?
It seems to me that real football teams have more than 6 players, too, but for the fantasy games, you get a thrower, a running guy, a couple of smashers, and a catcher guy. Oh, and a kicker. You can play for free or pay something between $1 to $100 to play. The maximum number of people who can play in any tournament ranges from 10 to 100.
So download, play, and enjoy Super Bowl XLIX. (Ah, 49.)
Ohio has more than 200 breweries. Columbus alone has nearly 20. Some are factories that churn out a yellow, fizzy liquid by the truck-load and others bottle or can small batches of hoppy, or pungent, or dark beer. And yes, there's an app for that.
Ekos, a North Carolina company, makes software for craft brewers. Their Brewmaster software is already in 150 craft breweries and CEO Greg Forehand says they expect to be in about 400 breweries by the end of the year.
What's wrong with spreadsheets and logbooks? Forehand says that the software communicates with Apple and Android apps that allow employees to perform tasks using a tablet or mobile phone.
The application is cloud based. It's designed to assist with inventory, planning, production, and sales, and it integrates with QuickBooks, one of the more popular accounting systems for small businesses.
If you're in the business of brewing craft beer and you'd like more information about the service, you'll find it on the Ekos Brewmaster website. And ... Cheers!
According to the US Census Bureau, on January 26, 1983, (yes, that's 32 years ago) Lotus 1-2-3 was released. Prior to Lotus 1-2-3, VisiCalc had been available for Apple II computers and lots of managers found ways to put those machines on their expense accounts so that they could use them in the office.
Lotus 1-2-3 was the first "killer application" for IBM-compatible PC. The Census Bureau notes that finance and accounting workers were freed from hunching over ledger books and switched to hunching before a computer screen. Quite an improvement, wasn't it?
The name "1-2-3" stemmed from the product's integration of three main capabilities — spreadsheet, charting and graphing, and rudimentary database operations. Today there are over 8600 software publishers in the US and they employ almost 420,000 people in the resulting $170 billion per year business. That's the kind of information one would expect from the Census Bureau.
The bureau provides lots of information and you can find out more (yes, there's an app for that) by downloading the "America's Economy" mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.
Maybe your cellular provider offers an "unlimited" plan, but read the fine print and you'll learn that "unlimited" has some very definite limits even though providers go to great lengths to make them invisible.
The largest provider of prepaid wireless plans in the US, TracFone, has agreed to pay $40 million to settle a suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC says that TracFone advertised $45-per-month plans that offered "unlimited" data, but then intentionally reduced the speed of users' connections when they exceeded certain limits. If you have one of those plans, you can file for a refund on the FTC's website.
TracFone's response has been, much like their service, highly limited.
Last year the FTC went after AT&T because it did not clearly state the limits of its "unlimited" plans. That case is still open. Perhaps the nation's CEOs and marketing directors could make use of a dictionary.
Unlimited: "without any limits or restrictions; not limited in number or amount."
Source: The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary
