Author Topic: What's your favorite web browser? (Read 14992 times)

Dullstar · « **on:** July 04, 2009, 06:15:37 AM »

What's your favorite web browser? I like Mozilla Firefox.

NOTE: The list of browsers in the poll was all I could think of.

If I'm wrong about Netscape being completely dead, let me know and I will add it to the choices.

Tim · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2009, 01:31:24 AM »

Ive only ever used two of them. It originally started with Internet Explorer, until the lastest version just threw me off balance and I switched to Firefox, and stayed with it ever since. Love it

EDIT: I wasnt exactly thrown off balance, nor do I even know what means now that I think about it. I just didnt really like IE8 for some reason, and then when I switched to Firefox I was able to get its appearance looking just about exactly like IE. This is why Ive stayed with it ever since.

Dullstar · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2009, 06:50:14 AM »

I didn't quit IE because a version threw me off balance. I saw the light once Mr. K got into Firefox. That was before I was on the Internet all the time, though.

I seem to remember when I was younger, they made it seem like Internet Explorer was the only way to get on the Internet without logging in, probably a childhood memory from MSN.

The only complaint I have about the latest version of Firefox is the icon changes. Is there a way I may be able to change it back to the one from the earlier version?

Chmera · « **Reply #3 on:** July 07, 2009, 03:23:35 PM »

Well, that seems to be a pretty strong consensus...

Clam · « **Reply #4 on:** July 08, 2009, 12:13:52 AM »

I'd vote Firefox if it didn't crash all the time

. It's the only browser I use though.

Dullstar · « **Reply #5 on:** July 08, 2009, 01:59:26 AM »

Have you checked Firefox for updates?

What OS are you using?

Firefox never crashes for me (well, except once that I can remember, but that has been CONFIRMED to be a Windows problem with my old installation).

Clam · « **Reply #6 on:** July 08, 2009, 02:34:24 AM »

It checks for updates automatically. I'm using Windows XP. It seems to be more prone to crashing when someone else is downloading stuff at the same time - I share a fairly slow (54Mbps max) wireless connection with a few other people.

When it crashes, it's usually just after a page has finished loading.

Any ideas?

Dullstar · « **Reply #7 on:** July 08, 2009, 02:51:38 AM »

You might have a bad Windows XP installation, or they could be sites that try to block Firefox on purpose. I've heard of that kind of stuff.

The Doctor · « **Reply #8 on:** July 20, 2009, 01:52:12 PM »

I use Safari on OS X. I'd use Firefox as well, but the Mac port isn't ... great. Bit ... crashy.

Dullstar · « **Reply #9 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:43:13 PM »

Could be an early version, there is a 3.5 out nowadays.

The Doctor · « **Reply #10 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:51:23 PM »

What do you think I tried.

It's alright anyway, I need Safari now because of the 3D transforms support. I suppose Firefox will have that soon, though.

Doing experimental stuff for uni, you see.

Dullstar · « **Reply #11 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:53:42 PM »

What is a 3D transform?

The Doctor · « **Reply #12 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:55:35 PM »

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/07/3d-css-transforms-available-in-leopard-via-webkit-nightlies.ars

Dullstar · « **Reply #13 on:** July 20, 2009, 11:57:22 PM »

Hm. Wonder where those are used?

The Doctor · « **Reply #14 on:** July 21, 2009, 12:00:29 AM »

Not many places at the moment, since only Safari and Mobile Safari for iPhone and iPod touch support it. It's supposed to become a standard later on, which I'm hoping for. If you're ever able to see what the 3D transforms can do, it's actually really cool that it can be done without the use of something like Silverlight or Flash Player (which both suck if you don't use Windows, and SL isn't even available on Linux proper).

Just something we had to dig into at uni. Experimental web standards, their impact, and showing one being used. I made a little thing where text revolves on a merry-go-round, with the haunted merry-go-round music from Super Mario 64 playing in the background.

Dullstar · « **Reply #15 on:** July 24, 2009, 05:44:31 AM »

Flash Player sucks even on Windows!

I've never used Silverlight and have no plans to.

Minim · « **Reply #16 on:** July 30, 2009, 09:59:22 AM »

I feel ashamed to be the only one who loves Internet Explorer.

I looked at the poll and heard that someone liked Safari.

Who was it?

The Doctor · « **Reply #17 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:03:45 AM »

That's me. I'm running Safari 4, and love it. Many people dislike it. Can't see why. Nothing implicitly wrong with it.

Dullstar · « **Reply #18 on:** July 30, 2009, 06:33:53 PM »

I've never used Safari, actually. I believe I have the poll set to allow you to remove your vote and then vote again if you change your mind.

Minim · « **Reply #19 on:** July 30, 2009, 06:37:38 PM »

Quote from: Jason on 2009-07-30 04:03:45

I'm running Safari 4, and love it. Many people dislike it.

Well, some people like me don't have it.

I can't wait to see what Safari looks like when I'm lucky enough to get one.

Dullstar · « **Reply #20 on:** July 30, 2009, 06:38:56 PM »

You want a Mac too?

There is a Windows version of Safari. I won't get it, though, because I use Linux and see no reason to run a web browser in WINE.

Minim · « **Reply #21 on:** July 30, 2009, 06:46:03 PM »

Quote from: Dullstar on 2009-07-30 12:38:56

You want a Mac too?

No I don't

" title="Angry" class="smiley" /> but I've been to a school where they used Macs. I don't think there's safari on any of the macs I've seen.

Dullstar · « **Reply #22 on:** July 30, 2009, 10:17:47 PM »

Were they those really old ones? Like, Mac OS Classic (or at least before IE Mac was discontinued?)

Minim · « **Reply #23 on:** July 31, 2009, 07:07:23 AM »

I don't think they're old. They are new laptops.

Oh dear. I think I'm not seeing straight here.

The Doctor · « **Reply #24 on:** July 31, 2009, 07:09:26 AM »

The Windows version of Safari 4 is good. It's slower at Internet Explorer at loading itself up, but faster showing web pages. It's a bit like Firefox in that regard. Firefox is a good browser too (but I hold it to be over rated ... well, seriously. Who needs all those plugins? Doesn't anyone use their browser to actually browse anymore?)

Dullstar · « **Reply #25 on:** July 31, 2009, 07:53:07 PM »

I just like convenient plugins. Many are a bit ridiculous. However, among convenient ones are:

Gmail Checker if you have Gmail.
DownThemAll! is nice if you sometimes find yourself downloading several things at a time and want a more informative download manager.
AdBlock Plus is awesome for obvious reasons (do other browsers have such effective adblocking tools? I'd like to know)
And if you want to put a link in your signiture or something else that gives limited characters, try Tiny URL Creator.

Here is a list of plugins NOT to get.
Nowhere near complete list.

Babelfish Instant Translator: Always seems to pop things up when reading text. If you disable it without uninstalling it, it'll still function by feeding ads through text. If you uninstall it, no more problem.

Minim · « **Reply #26 on:** July 31, 2009, 07:54:02 PM »

Oh goodie! I've got Gmail as well!

Dullstar · « **Reply #27 on:** July 31, 2009, 07:55:41 PM »

Firefox should serve you well, then.

Minim · « **Reply #28 on:** August 01, 2009, 05:13:43 PM »

Hmm... I use Firefox on one computer but on other computers I still prefer Internet Explorer.

Dullstar · « **Reply #29 on:** August 01, 2009, 07:29:40 PM »

I still say even though I haven't tried any of the following alternatives, you might want to check these out.
If you didn't like firefox (?!)...

They all link to the browser's website, except for "That's not all" which links to a Wikipedia article.

Minim · « **Reply #30 on:** August 01, 2009, 09:04:08 PM »

Safari has got a good first impression Dullstar. I like it because I've got a I-Pod and I use I-Tunes

Dullstar · « **Reply #31 on:** August 01, 2009, 09:41:40 PM »

Why don't you use it a little and see how you like it? I haven't used it before, so it would be great to hear another opinion of it!

Dullstar · « **Reply #32 on:** September 06, 2009, 10:19:51 PM »

Just bumping this thread for our newer members.

Pooty · « **Reply #33 on:** September 06, 2009, 10:24:28 PM »

I use Firefox, but.. my favourite web browser? Not sure what the others are like (except Internet Explorer). I might be missing out.

Dullstar · « **Reply #34 on:** September 06, 2009, 10:29:23 PM »

You can change your vote if you try another one and like it better. Hey, I've only used three of the options in the poll: Konqueror, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Firefox is the only one I've liked.

Dullstar · « **Reply #35 on:** November 15, 2009, 03:02:36 AM »

~~I believe we still have some newer members, if I am not mistaken. Anyway, I decided to upgrade my Firefox to a 3.6 Beta. I was originally going to 3.5, but then I ran into the beta version.~~

Went back to 3.5 as the beta is still a little funky with page rendering. Which I guess shouldn't be too big a surprise if it's a beta.

Minim · « **Reply #36 on:** September 25, 2010, 02:10:02 PM »

I've just changed my vote to Firefox. Reason? It's because I needed Firefox for the Java-script functions that I use on Wikipedia. Despite the look of the logo I'm still going to vote Firefox.

Lemika · « **Reply #37 on:** December 01, 2010, 03:50:45 AM »

I like Firefox best of the ones that I've tried. I used to use Netscape quite a while ago, but then I switched to Internet Explorer when almost nothing worked in Netscape. Then, once things stopped working in IE 6, I decided to just switch to Firefox - which I now like better than the other two anyhow. I never liked IE, really, I just didn't have enough motivation to switch.

Adam · « **Reply #38 on:** December 01, 2010, 10:02:13 AM »

So glad to see Firefox out in front. Switched about 5 years ago and haven't looked back!

Mr. K · « **Reply #39 on:** December 03, 2010, 03:03:54 AM »

I switched to Firefox about 5 years ago as well. Still using it today although it is admittedly a bit sluggish compared to the competition. However it's familiar and I like the addons I have. Looks like Firefox 4 will fix the few issues I have.

I do use Chrome/Chromium on my lower-performance computers though. It flies.

danparker · « **Reply #40 on:** December 03, 2010, 03:52:18 AM »

Well, I use Internet Explorer. It's my current web browser. I've got it upgraded.

Clam · « **Reply #41 on:** December 03, 2010, 09:17:07 AM »

I did like Firefox (despite my earlier problems with frequent crashes) until it decided to completly selfdestruct on one of my machines. After an uninstall/reinstall, it still crashes every time it starts, even in Safe Mode. I'm typing this post on clunky old IE6 - time to try out a new browser methinks

chaos_defrost · « **Reply #42 on:** December 04, 2010, 06:05:19 PM »

How am I the only person here who uses Chrome

what

Clam · « **Reply #43 on:** February 01, 2011, 07:11:40 AM »

Quote from: Insane Steve on 2010-12-04 12:05:19

How am I the only person here who uses Chrome

what

You're not the only one any more. Since my last post, I updated to IE8, but it was pretty slow and generally clunky. I finally ditched it when it ate a post I was making on another forum

" title="Angry" class="smiley" />. Onto Chrome then...

I'm still withholding votes until one browser really proves its worth. It could yet be Chrome. We'll see.

LemSteven · « **Reply #44 on:** February 03, 2011, 03:58:49 AM »

I've used IE8 for quite a while, until just recently when it's been freezing up every time I try to load a large page. I've since found Firefox to be much faster and more reliable.

Nortaneous · « **Reply #45 on:** February 03, 2011, 07:51:03 AM »

Firefox. I'll admit that it's not very good, but it has NoScript. That's the only reason I use it.

I almost switched to Chrome anyway, but I can't stand the UI, especially the annoying custom window design. I still use Windows Classic, and I don't want programs forcing anything that's not Windows Classic.

chaos_defrost · « **Reply #46 on:** February 03, 2011, 07:56:09 AM »

Honestly, if you want to customise the browser, FF is better than Chrome.

I'm very no frills wrt the internet, though, and Chrome is both the fastest startup/loading I've seen and offers the largest browsable window, which I care about a lot more than add-ons and such.

Your mileage may vary.

Clam · « **Reply #47 on:** February 04, 2011, 12:28:02 AM »

I've never customised Firefox at all, so I guess that's not an issue for me.

finlay · « **Reply #48 on:** March 06, 2011, 10:39:57 PM »

Firefox, because
a) it has adblock and flashblock plugins, among others
b) safari started saving thumbnails - which were so high resolution they might as well have been screenshots - of every webpage I went to and started eating away at my limited harddrive space.
c) IE isn't available for the mac, and it's s*** anyway.

Opera was alright, though, when I tried it, and it became my main browser a couple of times when Firefox refused to work for whatever reason.

I haven't tried Chrome; I don't like the idea of Google having even more of my personal details. Edit: That, and they don't support older PPC macs, or my version of the OS, anyway... stupid apple introducing blocks to compatibility.

" title="Angry" class="smiley" />

Also, I've tried the new version of Firefox recently, and they've done the one thing that made me switch away from Safari in the first place, namely having the stop and refresh functions on a single button. (The reason this annoys me is to do with slow connections and computers - and if you try to stop a page from loading but the computer takes so long to respond that it interprets the click as a refresh, you can be driven up the wall very easily. Java often induces the effect...) The default interface also has the buttons on the right of the address bar instead of on the left next to the back/forward buttons, which I also hate, and the tab bar has moved to above the address bar instead of below it, like Opera and Chrome. And they've taken away the status bar (wtf?). And the bookmark bar has little icons on it. So basically it's an amalgamation of all the interface features I hate, some of which you can't change back. So I'm not going to update to that if I can help it.

Nortaneous · « **Reply #49 on:** March 07, 2011, 12:43:14 AM »

Quote from: Insane Steve on 2011-02-03 01:56:09

I'm very no frills wrt the internet, though, and Chrome is both the fastest startup/loading I've seen and offers the largest browsable window, which I care about a lot more than add-ons and such.

So am I, but I prefer no frills on what actually gets displayed. It's always useful, at least to me and my pathetic computers, to have Java/Flash/JS/etc. garbage disabled by default, and most of it is useless anyway.

Clam · « **Reply #50 on:** March 31, 2011, 10:08:55 AM »

Well, I've been using Chrome for a couple of months, and it hasn't failed me yet

. My one minor complaint is that I can't seem to browse history as easily as I could with Firefox, or even IE. But that's not too important, for the most part I stick to just a few sites anyway (like this one for instance

)