The Mozilla browser “Firefox” has many hidden text and graphics message stored internally within a “dynamic library list" (the file will have a name ending with “*.dll”) that if the savvy user types in the correct command on the addressbar and hits ENTER on the keyboard, this calls up the image, program or user message.

One of the ones I enjoyed in an earlier version of Firefox, was typing in:

About:kitchensink

And you would be shown an ASCII image of what appeared to be a large stainless kitchen sink basin. This ‘Easter egg’ seems to be absent from my current version of Firefox (3.x). I think that “about:kitchensink: still worked in Firefox v. 2.x

Mr. Roboto

Here is an Easter egg that works in v3.x of Firefox that is really nice.

About:robots

This is an ‘active window’ and if you click the gray “Try Again” button on the bottom-left, you get another message…

I like the “And they have a plan.”, -this taken straight from the new (albeit imho, over-hyped) “Battlestar Galactica” TV series. Which by the way I should add that despite my being an avid fan of the original series back in the late 1970s even with it’s laughable plots and uber-bad acting, I can’t seem to get my head around the new series despite it being leaps and bounds better than the original. That shaky shoulder-mounted handi-cam thing has GOT to GO! It's just too scary and unnerving. I mean, it makes me want to puke! -It's a commercial TV series you idiots, not "The Blair Witch Project"!

And if you are epileptic, you should probably avoid “CSI:Miami” for they are the WORST show that I can name at the moment for bad use (read: overuse) of split-second splicing and faux digital toaster effects. It’s a superfluous SPFX that is supposed to draw-in viewership to 'the busy-ness' of their work, the way the great theme music successfully did for “Miami Vice.” It's just a hook. Except in the case of Miami Vice, that show was at least, viewable. Even entertaining, - for what it was.

The Granddaddy of Easter Eggs

Of Course(!) I have to mention the biggest most important Firefox Easter egg if for nothing else, to benefit the truly uninitiated:

About:mozilla

A warning about ‘the beast’ is presented when you enter “about:mozilla” which is a parody play against Internet Exploder opps, -I means Explorer, the quintessential Microsoft browser product. Various versions of Firefox (and Mozilla) use varying themes of text, but the messages are clear.

Turnabout is Fair Play

This by Firefox/Mozilla supposed to be a retaliatory poke at Internet Explorer for it’s previous inclusion of a similar Easter egg in its browser. Whereby typing “about:whatever” and then next try “about:mozilla” you are shown different results. They were apparently trying to poke fun at chief rival Netscape Navigator (a "Mozilla" product) with a suggestive BSOD, -the so-called “Blue Screen of Death.” This clearly to imply that Netscape ‘crashes browsers.’ Most of this was going on unbeknownst to me at the time as I was still learning how to use a computer.

But for IE to suggest that 'another brand' of browser causes BSOD… -that is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black if you know what I mean! “BSOD” is like entirely an IE-thing, imho. Windows ME was the messiest, most unstable browser of its time. That is, until VISTA came along last year. Whew… what were they thinking there?! I tried typing "about:whatever" and then, "about:mozilla" in my current version, IE-7, but nothing happens. This must have been removed from the later upgrade. I have just read that Microsoft formally stopped using added 'Easter Eggs' in its programs as part of its "Trustworthy Computing Initiative" in 2002.

Yet they are about the repeat themselves again with yet another 'broken by design' release...Windows-7 They just keep going 'round and 'round like a moron trapped in a revolving door, -repeating their errs, hoping against hope for a different outcome! Sheez!

If You Forget the Past, You Are Doomed To Repeat It…

I just read a report at PCWorld.com about Microsoft’s ‘new’ OS called “Windows 7” (formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna) and early reports on it are looking even worse than VISTA! Things that worked in VISTA now don’t work in “Windows 7” it seems. Yeah, -what are they thinking, -indeed!

I tried an anagram server to generate new words from the imputed “Blackcomb and Vienna” and while I did get over 1000 possible outputs, none of them were outstandingly helpful nor useful. I suspect that the same will be prevalent in Windows 7. Their Operating Systems browser was, is and probably shall continue to be a full 10+ years behind Standards. -A Generation-4 browser in a Generation-7.x/8 world. But enough Windows bashing (hey, -THAT was kind of clever, eh?)

Shiny New Google Chrome!

Have you tried Google’s “Chrome” browser?” It is amazing, for me it loads up from double-click to useable in just about 5-seconds! Okay, -I am amazed here. And Like Mozilla’s Firefox, Chrome also has ‘Easter eggs’ too!

About:internets

Note the “s” at the end. You will need this.

You get, well, “internets” I guess you could call them. Intertwined tubes that are also called “pipes” in other operating systems/browsers. Somehow though this is still fun to watch. Note the "Don't Clog the Tubes!". And sometimes though, if you get no animation you get instead a message that says "The Tubes Are Clogged." These both are probably Google’s way to slamming a snicker at something Sen. Ted Stevens said regarding the Net Neutrality Bill… he said something to the effect of "The internet is a series of tubes!" Yeah, -uh-huh. Not the brightest bead on the Rosary, is he? :(

Have You Ever?

Have you ever read the FAQ/TOS and User Agreements of the sites that we submit content to? Sometimes they are just plain funny! From MIXX, a social networking site, comes this:

Mixx General Terms of Use

By using the Mixx site, you are agreeing to play by our rules, which will govern your use of Mixx on what some Senators describe as "a series of tubes," or what we just call "the web." If you don't agree with these rules, we're sorry to say that you have to leave now....

Additional Chrome Stuff

Here are some additional Chrome ‘Easter Eggs’ to crack open and enjoy;

• about:memory
• about:stats
• about:internets
• about:histograms
• about:dns
• about:cache (this one takes a moment to load)
• about:plugins
• about:version
  

There are more, of course. And oh, -while this is not “Easter egg” but in keeping with the underlying theme of bad/better/best browsers and platforms, here is a video of awesomeness that you need to see and enjoy!

Hi, I'm a Mac! Hi, I'm a PC! Hi, -I'm LINUX!

(Static images are screenshots taken directly from my computer, by thestickman. -That's me)

Everyone has used the Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer at some point in their life, and many have ended up trying/using Mozilla Firefox as a good alternative, but very few have used any other, except maby for Apple Safari which they accidently downloaded whilst updating Itunes.

Opera is a wonderful internet browser that at one time you used to have to pay to use. It has since been made available for free.

It's main version is for desktop/laptop computers, although they have recently made a version for mobile phones, but in this article we will just be covering the PC version.

Right From The Word Go

For a start Opera is very easy to download and install, going to the Opera homepage will point you towards the download section, or simply googling "Opera" will take you direct to the download page. From here you just click to download it and run it. Setup takes a few minutes and doesn't require a restart after it is finished.

After installing it, you can boot it straight up. The default homepage is a page about getting started with Opera, but it can easily be changed by going onto "Tools" then "Preferences" to change the homepage to whatever you want.

The Features

Tabs

Opera has tabs, much like Firefox and the latest Internet Explorer 7 (IE were really behind the times before Vista). This means that you can open up preety much as many pages as you want without having hundreds of windows cluttering your taskbar.

Mouse Gestures

Another great feature that seems to be very Opera specific (although once again add-ons for IE and Firefox will allow this), are mouse gestures. By holding down the right mouse button you can then move it in different directions to do cause different effects. Moving the mouse left with go back a page. Moving right will go forward to the next page on your browser. Moving down will open a new tab, etc. etc.

Although seemingly complecated at first, they are very simple and once mastered can save great amount of time and effort, and once you have started using them, there really is no way back. If you choose to start using Firefox, the first thing you will automatically do is download the mouse gestures add-on, purely due it's ease of use, and win over clicking the back button at the top of your browser.

Skins

These are available right from the start on both Opera and Firefox (but not available on IE), and both are very similar. Basically if you don't like the look of the browser when you first install it (the black is a little dull), you can apply a new "skin" which are created by other users, which will completly change the look of the browser. There are hundreds of skins, with something to suit everyone. Want everything bright blue? Done. Want a subtle vista matching colour scheme? Done. With a little searching you will find a skin that suits your taste.

Widgets

Widgets, despite their amusing name, can actually be very useful, and can be used for many different purposes. Widgets can do just about anything. There are widgets that show you maps of the world, widgets that allow you to play fun little games such as sim aquarium whilst browsing, some widgets can show you real time webcams from all over the world, others allow you to play radio stations or check the news, and some just tell you the time, or show weather forcasts.

Overall widgets are handy little extras that add that extra bit of entertainment or information whilst your surfing the web.

Torrent Downloader

Opera, unlike Firefox, IE, or any other browser I can find, has a built in torrent downloader. For the average person looking to have a nice looking browser that they can happily surf the net on, this won't effect them; but for those who know about downloading files through a torrent, this could be handy.

Rather than having to download a dedicated torrent program such as utorrent, all torrentsbei can be handled easily inside a seperate tab in Opera, which allows you to see all the usual information such as seeders and peers, aswell as being able to do all the standard tasks such as setting download limits etc.

This is probibly one of Opera's greatest achievements, as by having a built in torrent program, whilst it's competitors do not, it means it can appeal to a wider audience.

Easy To Navigate History

Ever looked at a really good news article, then crossed it down, then wanted to look at it but not been able to find it? Well Opera has it covered. All you have to do is type in whatever you want to find into the adress bar, and it will show you the websites/pages you have visited lately where the specific phrase has been used. A good example would be where I was looking at some motherboard upgrades earlier. If (for example) I couldn't remember the website that I was looking at that had them cheap, then I can just type "motherboard" into the address bar, and it will show that earlier I was looking at *whatever motherboard* on whichever page of ebuyer I was looking at it on. Overall this excellent way of browsing your history is just genious, and is great when you can't remember the exact thing you were looking at.

Conclusion

Many things included here are including in add-ons for firefox, or by downloading the popular IE Pro for Internet Explorer users, but the fact that they come built in, means that the creaters of the browser really are in touch with their users, and that is always a major thing when it comes to creating any sort of program, be it a game, an application, or a browser.

Opera really does set a new standard for web browsers, and i'm sure when IE finally gets an update, or when the next generation of Firefox comes out, things Opera has already done, such as including a torrent downloader, or having mouse gestures, will become the new standard for browsers.

Whenever updated versions of Firefox are available, Firefox automatically downloads them and installs them upon the next time you restart Firefox. These updates include mainly security features that help keep you safe, making Firefox the leading internet browser in safety.

Firefox has themes

Finding an internet browser that suits your style can be hard... But that was before Firefox came into the picture. Firefox has an endless amount of themes that are simple to install. These themes change the Firefox colours, buttons, and other features to fit your style.

Firefox add-ons/extensions help make your life easier

The add-ons/extensions on Firefox are endless. You can get add-ons that will control your media players through a control panel in Firefox. You can get an add-on that displays a screen saver to help protect your screen when you wander off. You can even get an add-on that lets you decide whether to save or open PDF files when you click on them.

Firefox is better for viewing pages

Excluding Microsoft pages, which are rigged to work best on Internet Explorer (made by Microsoft), and to work poorly on other browsers; Firefox is the best browser for viewing websites. I am not sure exactly what is it that makes these sites run better, but Firefox pulls it off.

Firefox restores pages when it closes improperly

We've all experienced losing the pages we were on due to browsers/computers freezing up, power going off, etc. And we have all been ticked off when we lost whatever page we were viewing or working on. If Firefox closes improperly, when it restarts it will prompt you to restore your last session or start a new one.

Firefox lists recently closed tabs

Under the history menu, Firefox has a section that lists recently closed tabs. So if you accidentally close it, there are no worries, as you can easily get back to where you were with 2 simple clicks. Even if you didn't close the tab accidentally, it is great for finding any recent page you looked at.

Firefox has built in search engines

Tired of typing in URL's to search engine sites? Firefox provides a section where you can chose your default search engine/site (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia), and you can type in what you want to search on that site. Whether you want to find info on identity theft on Google, or want to look up the history of the Jaw Harp on Wikipedia, Firefox brings you this convenience. Note: This feature is amazing for dial-up users.

Firefox imports Internet Explorer settings

For Internet Explorer users: When you first install Firefox, it will import your existing Internet Explorer settings, including your Favorites, cookies, stored passwords, and a variety of other data. This saves you a lot of time, and makes switching to Firefox even more convenient.

Firefox has keyboard shortcuts

Firefox and Internet Explorer share many of the same keyboard shortcuts. So if you are used to certain shortcuts on Internet Explorer, than changing to Firefox is certainly going to be convenient and the only difference you will notice is that pages load quicker, there are less errors, and it's a better browsing experience.

Firefox is just plain awesome!

There are so many reasons why Firefox is the best browser to chose, but what tops it off is that the experience itself is unique, and after trying out Firefox for yourself, you too will understand this reason. So if you don't have Firefox yet, what are you waiting for!?! It's free, and it's the best! Happy internet browsing!

This event sparked a thought in my mind. Do people not know how much better this holy internet browser is compared to all the others?

Firefox 2.0 is the pinnacle of human existence. Sometimes people ask me why I know so much about computers. I tell them Google, but the real reason I love knowing more about computers and am intrigued to know more, is because ofcompanies and designers like Mozilla. They stepped up against the atrocity that is Internet Explorer. I get so pissed off when websites FORCE me to use IE instead of Firefox. Sometimes when I find something I really like, such as a video or a game I want to play online, and it tells me I need be using IE instead of my current browser, I click the "Contact us" Button at the bottom of their page, and send them an email of how fucking retarded they are. You think I am kidding, but I am NOT.

You are probably wondering, "But what makes Firefox so good? Isn't a browser a browser?". That is completely wrong and stupid. Here is a list of reasons why Firefox owns your face:

1. Tabbed Browsing

   You can be looking at a page and decide that the page that you are on is going to take a little bit to load. All you have to do is Middle-Click on a link or bookmark and open a new tab that you can go back and forth from your page that is loading while you check your Facebook or something. This allows extremely fast and efficient multi-tasking while browsing the internet. IE may have this, but the idea was taken from Firefox.

2. Portable Bookmarks

   Have you ever been on a computer at school and wanted to show someone that cool link you found last night, well you can get all your bookmarks from home at any computer with Foxmarks. It may sound dumb, but it is incredibly useful. Especially if you browse the internet a lot.

3. Way Faster

   Firefox is way faster than IE. That means you can load and upload your pictures on Facebook faster. :P

4. Addons
   

   There are hundreds of addons that you can use to implement into your browser to help you with things such as watching videos, knowing the weather, or listening to music.

5. Dictionary

   There is an automatic dictionary that you can download to use if you are a really bad speller/typist. How do you think I wrote this article with minimal errors?

6. No Or Minimal Pop-Ups

   Have you ever been annoyed/scared of the ads on webpages that are just pictures that tell you to go to this website and win a free Xbox 360 or something? Not anymore. With ADP (Ad-Block Plus) you will not have anymore ads again. EVER. Try going to this site and see if your browser does that. http://serials.ws

7. Themes

   Find a theme or color scheme that fits your personality or hobbies and use it. Simple as that.

Take that, Microsoft.

A friend of mine later added:

IE7 now resembles firefox, but it will never match the outstanding capabilities of the open source master piece built by the most brillliant that the Internet has to offer.

I do like opera, but it isn't supported much.

But enough, the following statement sums up the entire argument, suck it Microsoft, you have been beat this time.

Bill Gates will never match up to the internet population of genius, which is an unlimited number of future bill gates. Bill Gates is the gate keeper to a new world of brilliant.

But it could be worse, we could be stuck with Safari....

(AAAAHHHHH Apple! AAHH)

The Opera browser is very customizable and is based towards the person who wants more security. It has no holes in its security compared to 7 for IE, 4 for Firefox, 3 for Safari, and 2 for Konqueror, as of 2/19/2007. Opera also has many widgets that are like the add-ons for Firefox with the exception that anyone can make these widgets. Safari is customizable and doesn't have as many security issues as IE, but is only for Mac and PC, meaning no for Linux. And last but not least is Konqueror, which is like a mix between Firefox and Internet Explorer. It is very customizable and presents few security concerns for the average user. These are the main browsers that people use nowadays and by far the best. It is up to you to decide which one you should use.

Well to identify which one is best you have to compare them with the compelling features that they possess:

• Good Layout and easy to use
• Setting are easy to change
• Allows you to change the Skin of the browser
• First one to use tabbed browsing
• First to introduce built in search engines
• It is freeware
• Built in spell checker for when you are writing an email or on your blog
• Search suggestions are displayed when you search something
• Restores your session if it is closed down for whatever reason
• Live titles are displayed in the tabs example Ebay bids
• Live bookmarks so you can keep up to date with the news
• Built in pop up blocker
• Automatically updates itself if there is a new version of the browser
• Tabbed Browsing

Quick Tabs

• Tab groups
• Streamlined Skin and interface
• Advanced printing options
• Instant search box
• Favorites Center
• RSS feeds from other websites
• Page zoom
• Advanced security
• Built in phishing Filter