The week before last I downloaded Opera 8.5 after my IE install became hopelessly corrupt (and refused to be corrected by reinstalling; a registry edit wasn't useful either). I had been resisting Opera for years - I didn't like the lack of configurability with regards to screen space (why couldn't I put the ad further up?) and I didn't like the idea they would track my net usage (where I go and what I do there is my business only). I would have been prepared to pay for an adless trackless version if I could have had a reasonable trial period without the flarping ad, but they weren't offering that, so I never bothered with it (did install 7.54 August 2004, but hated it and immediately uninstalled).

I have been trying for a week to install Firefox. I got it on a cover disc with an internet mag. I would start the install but after extracting about a third of the files it would hang and my puter would crash. This morning I finally managed to get it to install all the way through. And you know what? I hate it. I hate it more than I hated IE when it was popular. I loathe and despise this browser, its interface, the way it limits me. It's revolting. I therefore regret to announce that Opera is now My Preferred Browser ("MPB"), an honour previously held for many years by Netscape 4.x (4.5 and then 4.72).

I am still looking for an acceptable local email client. Opera's mail client doesn't behave in a way that suits me (I want to choose when I download my mail, tyvm; I do not under any circumstances want it downloaded automatically for me). Thunderbird, forget it. Pegaus, yuck. Seems for the time being I am still gonna have to use Netscape 4.72 mail. Which is okay, but I really wanted something more modern, ya know?

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