Other IE/Firefox/Safari/Chrome. Which do you use and why?

Try browsershots.org if you want to check sites in any/all browsers you can think of

I use Chrome mainly but miss my extensions from Firefox which I use a bit, IE/Opera/Safari are purely for testing.

 

Firefox for me. Yeah its a lil slow these days but using 3 different pc´s (home,work,laptop) the weave extension and ability to sync the browser cross os`s is awesome. Plus the other addons like firebug and dev toolbar makes it the best for web devs

 

Forced to use IE6 at work. Thank god for FF Portable.

Other than that, I am not a demanding browser, so IE8 usually suffices but I really haven't bothered to look into it.

 

Another scathing witty retort from Ph4ZeD...

/sarcasm

I get that Chrome is all shiny (see what I did there?), and Firefox does have useful extensions etc (I used to use FireFTP on a home network for sharing media back in the day), but honestly, I'm using a web browser for that sole purpose. If I desperately needed to use some function, I'd probably aim for a dedicated application, rather than have it hogging resources every time I looked at my browser.

Having said that, the missus keeps harping on about Firefox, if only for the plethora of singing/dancing Christmas mods for it. Sigh... She wonders why Facebook goes slow on her laptop, when Firefox is trying to play 17 different terrible MIDI versions of Jingle Bells...

 

IE cuz if it aint broke dont fix it?!

On another note, all this MS unfair browser bs is just that, BS! It's their os, their browser, like we even have a right to complain!

 

Yeah, shame you can't get flash to work with it though (without admin rights).

 

I currently use Firefox. I used IE 7 before, but now I prefer Firefox.

 

I used to use firefox but now Im a chrome user. The only thing that really irritates me are those people who build websites using non standard website thingys i.e. I still have to use IE for a couple of sites as bits on these sites just dont work in chrome.

 

Firefox and not because of all the add ons, just the really really useful ones like ABP and the in line spell checker.

 

firefox for autospellcheck and adblock, only performance issues i've had with it are on my old PC with downloads finishing (which could admittedly cause long freezes). will see if this chrome jobby is worth using though as long as i can block google sites with it, i happen to intensely dislike targetted ads/emails/amazon reccs/searches

 

Chrome. Used to use Firefox and even went back to IE for awhile (Firefox takes ages to open)

Chrome is fast, simple, has the omnibar (great idea!), safe and light. The only problem with it is some (very few) websites are incompatible and come up funny...

 

Ergh. IE is usually broke, so, er, fix it? The problem is that it's the default browser of the world's most popular operating system, and therefore the default browser of the uneducated and computer illiterate. That means that it's by far the most popular target of hacks and exploits, because the hacker knows the average IE user will be less likely to realise the breach has occurred, and even less likely to know how to fix it. I'm not saying FF users etc are all security gods, but having sought out an alternative to IE, downloaded, installed and customised it are tasks beyond the reach of many of the computer users who stick with IE. The bottom line is that IE is usually vulnerable, and yet also quite slow and not particularly well-featured, so there's no compensation.

Secondly, as much as I admire people who take up the difficult task of defending Microsoft's corporate policies on moral grounds, there's more to this argument. I agree that Microsoft should not be prevented from installing additional software with their own operating system, but to say that because we use their OS we should be bound to their browser is gigantic steaming piles of horseshit. We have a right to complain because we're the target market - if instead of complaining we just buggered off to another OS (OS X, for example) Microsoft would be left wondering what exactly in the litany of poor corporate decisions it was that had annoyed everyone so much. Complain if you want something changed, and voting with your feet by using another browser is the best way to show MS that you consider IE's gaping security flaws and poor feature-set a deal-breaker.

Unless you don't. In which case... enjoy?

 

It aint broke, it works just fine for you know, browsing the web.
And faster? so what? who cares about miliseconds? every page i visit loads instantly, way faster than i can move the mouse and actually click something, when i move the mouse, my page is there.
As for exploits etc.... i for one use a hw firewall and av (as do most of us), the chance of being expolited without notice is unlikely. plus i dont care for 1000 add-ons for my browser.

And i know theres more to it, i'm also not saying in any way we should be bound to their browser and we're not, so your argument is irrelivant, you have the option to install any browser you like, as you have done.
But lets use your example of OSX for the argument, last time i checked, doesnt osx ship with safari? Do you see an anti-trust case for them? a company that screens what apps can be installed (officially) on their phone? No, you dont, so why should there be one for ms? whats next? oh im sorry Toyota, your not allowed to sell your car with a toyata engine in, you must offer one from subaru, nissan etc etc...its stupid and you know it, you don't complain that your toyota has a toyota engine, why should you complain that your ms os has an ms browser?

I agree that yes, ms should provide a safer and more enjoyable browsing experiance, yes they should be faster/better at securing ie, but an anti-trust case is retarded.

(im tired, so if this is jumbled, my bad)

 

I agree that taking MS to court is stupid but I'm pretty sure no-one here is complaining about the fact that IE comes with Windows. They're complaining about the fact that it's spent most of the last ten years being crap, which I think anyone has the right to do about any product/service. You say as much yourself. When most people using IE aren't aware that they could be using a "safer and more enjoyable browsing experiance"... If MS made IE the way it should be in the first place, nobody would be having this discussion.

Also the speed thing isn't (speaking personally anyway) about page load times, I used IE for years, eventually installed FF and was amazed how comparatively little time it took to open the actual browser. Likewise when I tried Chrome the first time, thats the main reason I've stuck with it. Plus I prefer Chrome's method of homepageyness, link page < 5/6 tabs opening at once.

 

Actually, I have managed to get Flash installed now.

Follow the instructions on the Portable Firefox page - download the XPI file, rename it .zip, extract the dll file and another one (can't remember the name) and chuck it in the plugins directory.

Bonus.

 

A perfect summary. I agree that MS should be allowed to send IE with Windows, just as Apple are allowed to send Safari with OS X, and also that taking them to court is pointless and stupid and belittles consumers' ability to pick a browser of their own accord even if there's one already supplied. The anti-trust cases against Microsoft shouldn't have started with the browser, but that doesn't change the fact that it basically still sucks.

Each to their own, obviously.

 

Firefox with wonderful extensions such as greasemonkey, mouse gestures (could not live without this), infomenter, tab mix plus and the bloody wonderful xmarks.

 

Personally, I think the solution the courts have now come to is the right one. I'm fine with MS doling out IE with every edition of Windows, if an OS came with no way to access the internet there would be outrage.

But this new ballot screen idea is excellent I think, with the choices opening up on first install in order of market usage. Not to mention, if your layman doesn't know what it's asking, they'll just click Internet Explorer, which is what they would've wanted anyway and what they will recognise as it's so well-known (by my dim view of said layman).

The ballot screen is coming with Win7 from March or something isn't it? Maybe it'll be released as/included with a Service Pack.

 

safari all the way. I've tried em all and I tried chrome when it came out for mac, but it's just bulkier than safari. Safari is very simple, compatible with everything, doesn't take up much memory, and I like the top sites feature a lot (a page with icons of 16 sites of your choosing instead of a homepage). I'd rank em like this:
Safari
chrome
FF
EI (so awful I just refuse to use it if I can help it, damn people who don't want their toilets to cook for them!)

 

i agree. that's the point.
maybe Chrome is really good enough, but i just can't lose some addons at all.