Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera or Firefox

[[T]ensio[N]]

Post reviews, rants, and which you prefer


i thought internet was horrible so i switched opera liked firefox's add-ons so now to firefox... when i wasn't satisfied with the add-ons and the skins i decided to try out the extra-ordinary chrome
... OH BOY IS IT FASTER
im downloading something on steam and its still like 2x faster than ff
i suggest you get it

[airstorm]

Lack of NoScript is a deal breaker for me for any browser other than FF, no matter how slow and bloated it is getting. I just don't trust the internet enough to browse without it.

[monster]

They all pretty much works the same in my experience as a non-web developer. Sure, some maybe faster than others, but not so much that I would begrudge them. Most of the times I don't even notice the difference.

And while I did get a little crazy (for my standard anyway) with extensions in Firefox in the past, it turns out to be just a phase that came and went. Now I'll install maybe one or two extension myself, but I don't miss it if I'm using another browser that doesn't offer similar ability (either natively or with an extension).

So with that said, I use IE on Windows and FF on Linux. I don't own a Mac, but if I did, I'd be using Safari on it. And if I use someone else's computer, I'll use whichever browser they set as the default.

[demonix]

Originally Posted by airstorm

Lack of NoScript is a deal breaker for me for any browser other than FF, no matter how slow and bloated it is getting. I just don't trust the internet enough to browse without it.

From what I've heard there is a no script add on for chrome but it has been neutered so that google can still spy on your browsing habits.

[TidusBlade]

Originally Posted by monstert

And while I did get a little crazy (for my standard anyway) with extensions in Firefox in the past, it turns out to be just a phase that came and went.

Sounds like me, or at least how I was a few months back xD Had almost 50 addons, down to 22 that I actually use now though, but after relying on that many I can only use Firefox comfortably. Not to say that other browsers suck, but I can't use a browser without addons like Vimperator, AdBlockPlus, FireGestures, FireProxy and TooManyTabs. Yeah most are on other browsers as well but Vimperator is the deal breaker for me I guess. That and plus, I love the Classic Compact theme.

Interesting how other people find NoScript essential, I haven't touched it yet, haven't seen the need to I guess. Probably should though, I'm ignorant when it comes to scripts on the internet

As for other browsers, no IE on Linux so that's out. I found Opera and Chrome to be pretty big memory eaters actually, even with just a bunch of addons they easily rival the amount Firefox eats up. I don't usually open up tons of tabs, but for the times I do use tons I found Firefox to be the best then as the other slow down quite a lot relatively. Maybe it's just the Linux version though, Chrome was certainly a pain to set up.

[felix]

Chrome is a pain, adds all sorts of bloat and turns your computer into some Google spybot. Honestly I feel like its some legal spybot/trojan/keylogger program. No thank you (yes I know about Iron). Oh and maybe this is just me but its behaviour of closing the browser when you close the last tab is hell annoying! And no, could care less of how fast it starts.

Opera was good, but a few versions back they switched from their old tried and tested engine to some new crap that's just bloatware quality and unstable as hell on a lot of sites. Their releases have been nowhere near as stable as the old versions as well, though the new skin is not that bad, its really the only good thing in years.

Firefox is buggy and could be faster but at least it works every time. Its bloat free and doesn't have stupid crap/options preinstalled. I think its default look is ugly with the giant buttons and its tab bar is less then functional, but luckily there's a nice "small icons" option by default and seems they added a option to hide the menubar as well a few versions back so I can get along with it. As far as addons for it, I only use adblock, that tabplus thing, noscript and firebug. And yes, I am using it as main browser.

Originally Posted by TidusBlade

Interesting how other people find NoScript essential, I haven't touched it yet, haven't seen the need to I guess. Probably should though, I'm ignorant when it comes to scripts on the internet

Noscript is like a 2nd adblock. Don't bother with it if you're not used to using a firewall.

[spikexp]

Chrome:

Originally Posted by felix

Chrome is a pain, adds all sorts of bloat and turns your computer into some Google spybot. Honestly I feel like its some legal spybot/trojan/keylogger program. No thank you (yes I know about Iron). Oh and maybe this is just me but its behaviour of closing the browser when you close the last tab is hell annoying! And no, could care less of how fast it starts.

This.

FireFox:
I don't know why, but since the 3.6, firefox is so slow and buggy on my computer, the only thing I love in firefox back in the day were extension. I miss adblock, but that's all.

Safari:
Safari is a mac browser and it should really stay on mac, it just don't feel good on windows even if it's fast.

Internet Explorer:
I don't even have it on my computer (windows 7 can delete it now ).

Opera:
The one i use actually. Opera is fast like chrome. I love the speed dial, love the custom search, g use google, we use english wikipedia, wf french wikipedia, imdb ..., y youtube, vn visual novel database. The mouse gesture are cool too.
The only thing it's lacking is a good adblocker like adblock, the default adblock in opera is not good and not easy to use.

What I have:
Opera like main browser.
Portable firefox with many extension to use on many computer without always having to reinstall it. I use it when there is a problem with opera (never happen, but still).

[chikorita157]

Everything is better than Internet Explorer since Internet Explorer is pretty much crap when it comes to web standards (up to this day, it doesn't pass the Acid 3 test).

I use mainly Webkit based browsers (except Chrome) on Mac OS X since it's very good when it comes to web standards and they work with the Click2Flash plugin, which blocks embedded Flash unless you click on them to activate. Webkit is used practically everywhere on mobile devices, so you really can't miss it.

I use Opera when I am on Windows since the new interface looks nice and it's fast. This was always the default browser when I'm using other OSes.

I don't use Firefox because it does funky things on Mac OS X since it doesn't run like a native application. I stopped using it on Windows because Opera 10.5 came out, which looks prettier.

[MeoTwister5]

I switched to Opera after using FF a while since it used less memory but for some reason Opera 10 wouldn't even run when I updated so I went back to FF.

[Winford]

I use Google Chrome on my MacBook
and Safari if a website needs QuickTime.

FF is not very good for Mac OS X so I did myself the favor of just removing it.

I prefer FF on Windows though, much better than IE.

[Random32]

Firefox for all computer

Chrome is promising, but I love my addons and I don't trust Google

[synaesthetic]

I use Firefox 3.6. Chrome annoyed me on vBulletin forums, I had to physically type out the BBcode for font formatting instead of using the shortcut keys.

[airstorm]

I note a few people are saying they are having problems with FF on Macs. I've been using it myself for years and its been fine. What kind of things are you seeing?

I also use Safari quite a bit, but mostly just for sites I trust and have open all the time. Not for general browsing.

As Felix says, Chrome is pretty much spyware, I wouldn't want it anywhere near my machine.

[calorie]

Originally Posted by monstert

They all pretty much works the same in my experience as a non-web developer. Sure, some maybe faster than others, but not so much that I would begrudge them. Most of the times I don't even notice the difference.

And while I did get a little crazy (for my standard anyway) with extensions in Firefox in the past, it turns out to be just a phase that came and went. Now I'll install maybe one or two extension myself, but I don't miss it if I'm using another browser that doesn't offer similar ability (either natively or with an extension).

So with that said, I use IE on Windows and FF on Linux. I don't own a Mac, but if I did, I'd be using Safari on it. And if I use someone else's computer, I'll use whichever browser they set as the default.

Same here - I used to be a browser freak, always tinkering and trying out every browser there is. After I've switched to Windows 7 it's been Internet Explorer 8 for me. Honestly it's not that bad for an amateur computer user, it does feel slower interface-wise but you get used to it and all the web pages I visit open with about the same speed as with the other browsers. So while the alternative Windows browsers are probably better, they're not that much better to my untrained eye. Besides, its theme and font rendering fit Windows 7 the best in my opinion and I've been trying to refrain from using any software that I don't absolutely need -- been wasting too much time on that before which only nourished my OCD.

[Wervy]

I just use IE, mostly because it displays pages properly. I Have tried other browsers, but with the pages displaying wrong and the interface feeling more clunky I could never get into using them. Not to mention, that right now browsers like firefox and more popular so of course there is going to be more spyware for them since they are a larger target.

Getting spyware and viruses is more a problem with the person using it than the browser. I have used IE for years and never gotten any sort of infection. I find all the people saying that a browser is to blame instead of the ignorance and stupidity of the user is laughable. If you get infected from web browsing you must be an idiot who is surfing horribly dirty sites. Frankly, if you cant use the internet properly you should go outside and play in the dirt.

[airstorm]

Originally Posted by Wervy

Getting spyware and viruses is more a problem with the person using it than the browser. I have used IE for years and never gotten any sort of infection. I find all the people saying that a browser is to blame instead of the ignorance and stupidity of the user is laughable. If you get infected from web browsing you must be an idiot who is surfing horribly dirty sites.

While I agree that the majority of infections are due to people doing things they shouldn't or not knowing what they are doing at all, the design and architecture of different browsers do make certain attack vectors easier to exploit. Internet Explorer's tight integration with Windows and the amount of features websites could access through it made drive-by infection trivial. That is more of a reason for IE's horrendous history with web security more than its market share.

Also consider that ad sites (or any for that matter) can be hijacked and serve dodgy content to safe sites. That is not the fault of the user and they are not being ignorant and stupid. That case isn't specifically the fault of the browser either, but it isn't helping if it implicitly trusts any code that gets thrown at it.

Additionally, its nice to be able to filter out crap you have no interest in from websites. Specifically ads and annoying flash banners and other similar nonsense. This is even more of an issue if you browse from a metered connection where you are literally paying to see whatever is the latest iteration of that Zap The Monkey thing.

Originally Posted by Wervy

Frankly, if you cant use the internet properly you should go outside and play in the dirt.

Yes, indeed. But its OK to take certain precautions to minimise risks.

[aeriolewinters]

Running FF3.7 PM me if you know how to rename the titlebar...

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by airstorm

Lack of NoScript is a deal breaker for me for any browser other than FF, no matter how slow and bloated it is getting. I just don't trust the internet enough to browse without it.

/thread for me; as I tried chrome while I liked it's speed, but it caused me to get two virus cause I wasn't careful as necessary when running without it, so I gave it up, and went back to Firefox only, since I enjoy having to be bit less paranoid while browsing the internet. Plus I've come to like the various other random/useful addons I have.

[chikorita157]

Originally Posted by Wervy

I just use IE, mostly because it displays pages properly. I Have tried other browsers, but with the pages displaying wrong and the interface feeling more clunky I could never get into using them. Not to mention, that right now browsers like firefox and more popular so of course there is going to be more spyware for them since they are a larger target.

Getting spyware and viruses is more a problem with the person using it than the browser. I have used IE for years and never gotten any sort of infection. I find all the people saying that a browser is to blame instead of the ignorance and stupidity of the user is laughable. If you get infected from web browsing you must be an idiot who is surfing horribly dirty sites. Frankly, if you cant use the internet properly you should go outside and play in the dirt.

I blame Internet Explorer for hindering Web Standards and giving more heartaches to web designers just because of their huge market share Microsoft abused. It's inexcusable for Internet Explorer to be behind web standards when Opera, Webkit and Mozilla implementing more web standards. Heck, Internet Explorer just recently passed Acid 2, which most of the browsers already passed... and still lagging behind Acid3 and from the looks of Internet Explorer 9, they might not even pass Acid 3 test. If the pages followed the web standards, in most cases, it will load on any browser that have full web standard support.

I use OpenDNS to protect myself from spyware and malware since it blocks all these sites before the browser loads them... even with any browser, there is a possibility of getting spyware from cookies, plugins and phishing attacks. Adobe Flash, the most widely used plugin is the biggest security target since its installed on practically every machine.

[[T]ensio[N]]

i say ie is the slowest i have used ever...
it may just be my computer or something but i hated it

*EDIT*
there are some pretty nice extensions for chrome btw
like WOT which is basically an anti virus for searching on the web.... NOT INTENDED TO ADVERTISE
just telling you guys