# Web Browser - which one do you think is the best?



## Black Panther (Mar 14, 2008)

Currently I use IE7. I did have Firefox previously on my older pc but I've never installed it on this pc, and that's been nearly a year ago.

I regularly visit sites, some of whom say that they are displayed best using explorer, others say that they are displayed best using firefox 

Since I got my wide-screen I've been finding many sites which display the picture on the middle of the monitor only, and I constantly have to zoom 150% to get the image on the whole of the monitor. Thankfully TPU isn't one of these 
But is this thing browser-related or not?

Anyway, I'm curious to know which browser you use, and why.
What are the advantages and the drawbacks, for IE, Firefox and Opera?


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## DanishDevil (Mar 14, 2008)

I've never had a problem like that.

I use Firefox with a few addons that I cannot live without.

Download Statusbar
Littlefox
Firefox Fix

First is a bar that pops up on the bottom detailing your downloads, littlefox maximizes screen space and has nice and small icons for my 1920x1200 laptop screen (I love having 20/20 vision) and the last is a tweak to make browsing with a broadband connection MUCH faster.

Google the other two and install from the Firefox Addon Site.

ALSO - the content search thingy (when you type in the address bar, instead of showing sites that START with what you type, it returns any part of the title or address) in the Firefox 3 betas is amazing


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## ktr (Mar 14, 2008)

I been using the new FF v3 Beta4, and so far so good...big improvement from v2.


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## LuzSYfer (Mar 14, 2008)

Opera - fast, comes with everything you need without dozen of addons, integrated basic mail client, can handle bit torrent


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## jocksteeluk (Mar 14, 2008)

I used to swear by IE but all of the faults, crashes and animated audio flash adverts drove me to seek an alternate, I tried opera but the interface wasn't very visually appealing so tried Firefox and haven't looked back since.


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## Azazel (Mar 14, 2008)

firefox...just got used to it


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## Silverel (Mar 14, 2008)

ff 3b4

I use it at work, and ff 2 at home.

ff3 is gonna rock so hard... lol 68% on the acid 3 test


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 14, 2008)

I like FF but I really haven't found much difference with Opera and IE except the actual features being offered.  Personally, I like the speed dial feature in Opera, there is a extension for that as well for FF but Opera's version appears better to me.


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## Black Panther (Mar 14, 2008)

EastCoasthandle said:


> I like the speed dial feature in Opera



I've never tried Opera, but since I have DSL I guess the speed _dial _feature would be something I don't need?


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## btarunr (Mar 14, 2008)

Black Panther said:


> I've never tried Opera, but since I have DSL I guess the speed _dial _feature would be something I don't need?



No, it's an accessibility enhancement 

CLICKY


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## panchoman (Mar 14, 2008)

ie= absolute crap thats spyware
opera= ie overlayed with some extra functionality and gui
ff= memory eating
other= netscape is dead.. and all of the rest use ie like opera

which one wins? 

firefox with the memory optimizer & ie tabs extension(for those that need to test pages in ie etc) & the kickass themes and extensions.


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## zatblast (Mar 14, 2008)

all 3...
firefox-main probably 90-95% of my everyday stuff
opera-2ndary choice, has a torrent function *cough* and used when ff seems to fail me on this or that...
ie-avoided but some arses code pages meant only for ie....


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## Black Panther (Mar 14, 2008)

IE7 with 5 tabs here is using 74K of memory.

Possibly FF is a hungrier memory-eater?


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## btarunr (Mar 14, 2008)

Not FF3. Don't confuse memory usage with cache commits. The OS commits (pre-loads) actions of the users for speedy execution. This is counted under the memory usage of the process under Windows Task Manager.


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## panchoman (Mar 14, 2008)

Black Panther said:


> IE7 with 5 tabs here is using 74K of memory.
> 
> Possibly FF is a hungrier memory-eater?



with ff optimizer with over 20 tabs.. i only eat like 15k with the optimizer


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## newtekie1 (Mar 14, 2008)

I use Avant, all the compatibility of IE but with a bunch of nice options added in.


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## btarunr (Mar 14, 2008)

panchoman said:


> with ff optimizer with over 20 tabs.. i only eat like 15k with the optimizer



And what it basically does is page everything on the disk = bad performance.


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## Ravenas (Mar 14, 2008)

Safari is a great stream lined, fast browser. I like FireFox too, but not quite as much as Safari.


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## VulkanBros (Mar 14, 2008)

FireFox...
mainly because of the extensions, addons and themes.....
it is just funnier than plain IE....

And FF 3.0 beta 4....very fast.....only Safari is faster.....


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## -iceblade^ (Mar 14, 2008)

firefox, easily, and 3 Beta 2 has been my fave so far... it's so clean and fast; it doen't bother me with constant requests for permissions like IE7... also, the tab interface is a lot better (ie, i'm used to it ), and i love the integrated downloads manager...


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## panchoman (Mar 14, 2008)

btarunr said:


> And what it basically does is page everything on the disk = bad performance.



i've got increased performance from that on a 10 year old hdd.


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## Dyno (Mar 14, 2008)

Opera 9.26 configured properly for security. Do not use Flash/Java, and you're safer than any other web browser, my opinion.


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## btarunr (Mar 15, 2008)

panchoman said:


> i've got increased performance from that on a 10 year old hdd.



Disable the extension and/or the system page file, you've got 2 GB memory, run FF and see the performance. Right now I'm running OpenSuSE 10.3 without the swap partition = everything on the mem. But my Firefox performance is totally off the charts compared to Windows...the reason could also be the OS though.


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## xfire (Mar 15, 2008)

Opera
Speed Dial
Mouse Guestures
Trash
Wand Manager
Starts with the web page(s) previosly left open(called session)
Side bar which has history,widget, book marks etc.


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## beyond_amusia (Mar 15, 2008)

The pages saying that they are "best viewed with FireFox" are getting paid by Mozilla to put that on there, fyi, just like MS paid sites to do the same.
EDIT: makes me just shake my head at people crying that Ms is so horrible and stuff, and then turn around and do the SAME thing.


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 15, 2008)

OK, I just tried again between IE, FF and Opera.  There really is no difference however, Opera is a bit slower opening websites then FF.  However, IE is the fastest for me.  I am talking  no delay when clicking on the link.


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## ShadowFold (Mar 15, 2008)

I used to just use IE but I tried FF and cant stop lol


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## JrRacinFan (Mar 15, 2008)

Actually, I use all 3. More Opera and FF than IE though.


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 15, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> I used to just use IE but I tried FF and cant stop lol



I understand that .  I am a little shocked that IE is much faster though.  And completely compatible with FF with regards to browsers.  I can actually drag all my favorites from the tool bar of FF onto the link bar of IE.  At one time it was hard enough to convert them over to IE.  I wasn't able to do that with Opera.  To me, Opera has a  steeper learning curve then FF or IE.  But, I simply took it to as a bit bias because I knew them so well.  Now, I starting to think I may have been right with my earlier assessment of Opera.


Edit: I just tried it a few more times with other browsers and IE is faster with Opera coming in 3rd.  Maybe it's just my setup 

I deleted the cache and cookies of IE, FF and Opera and tried loading TPU from MSN.com as a start page.  Here are my results:
FF: Their was a slight pause then the page for TPU came up.  However, it loaded in sections.  First the top outer portions then the center
Opera: There was a slight pause similar to FF and the page for TPU came up which also came in at one section at a time.  However, I noticed the page was still loading after TPU was displayed.  I added this to additional time subjectively making it longer then FF.
IE:  There was a light pause and the page of TPU came up, no fuse no must.  The entire page of TPU came up, not in sections. There was no additional page loading that I could see.  

This has been my experience using these 3 web browsers so far with other website I tested.  I didn't do a stop watch test because the performance results between the 3 were noticeable without it and this is only with my setup so far (other PCs may vary).


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## btarunr (Mar 15, 2008)

EastCoasthandle said:


> OK, I just tried again between IE, FF and Opera.  There really is no difference however, Opera is a bit slower opening websites then FF.  However, IE is the fastest for me.  I am talking  no delay when clicking on the link.



If it's possible, clear the cache (temporary internet files) for your IE, FF, Op and then try. It seems like since IE has already cached the websites you frequently visit, you're getting those no-delays.


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 16, 2008)

btarunr said:


> If it's possible, clear the cache (temporary internet files) for your IE, FF, Op and then try. It seems like since IE has already cached the websites you frequently visit, you're getting those no-delays.



I did, and the results are the same 
Take a look at the post again as I updated it with and edit.


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## Mussels (Mar 16, 2008)

Black Panther said:


> IE7 with 5 tabs here is using 74K of memory.
> 
> Possibly FF is a hungrier memory-eater?



IE is tied into explorer.exe, so it can hide its memory usage in with windows ram usage.


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## das müffin mann (Mar 16, 2008)

firefox all the way, dl faster fox, and the add-on that allows you to use firefox to update windows


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## sneekypeet (Mar 16, 2008)

A buddy of mine showed me Crazy Browser and i was hooked. Has gone on every one of my personal PC's.

I like it, its pretty customizable and user friendly!

Never ran the beta versions either. So im not sure on their stability!


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## Ravenas (Mar 16, 2008)

Browser in order from slow to fast on my Windows XP Professional PC and my Vista Ultimate 64-bit PC.

Slowest -> Fastest

Internet Explorer -> FireFox -> Safari


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Mar 16, 2008)

foxfire


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## Solaris17 (Mar 16, 2008)

i use firefox the newest beta nice and stable no memory leaks and i dont see a problem with anything i choose firefox for security and that fact that i can basically customize it however i want with like a million add ons.


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## erocker (Mar 16, 2008)

I use Internet Explorer, because it comes with Windows (which I use), and I'm bitter, closed minded, and am afraid of change.  Really though, I do not use web browsers for anything other than viewing the internet.  An address bar and a couple arrows is all I really need.  So, would anyone recommend I switch to anything else?


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## Ravenas (Mar 16, 2008)

erocker said:


> I use Internet Explorer, because it comes with Windows (which I use), and I'm bitter, closed minded, and am afraid of change.  Really though, I do not use web browsers for anything other than viewing the internet.  An address bar and a couple arrows is all I really need.  So, would anyone recommend I switch to anything else?



Try Safari, and then decide what you think.


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## flashstar (Mar 16, 2008)

I've tried Safari briefly and all I can say is that I was unimpressed. Sure, it opened me up to the big wide world of the all-powerful Mac , but the browser itself was no faster than IE or Firefox and looked garish. 

I prefer IE 7, but Firefox 3 is good too.


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## farlex85 (Mar 16, 2008)

I love me some ff. All the add-ons (stumble-upon is great), and its quick and highly customizeable. There are all kinds of little tweaks you can do. I also use opera from time to time, mainly just for its pandora widget to have on in the bg. And you can't get around using ie sometimes......


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## EastCoasthandle (Mar 16, 2008)

I tried Safari and like IE it won't allow for a new tab when selecting from my tab bar.  That's very annoying if you have a tendency to multi task.  FF and Opera(I think) are the only browsers that allow this simple operation.


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## Darknova (Mar 16, 2008)

Opera is the BEST, most secure, uses least amount of memory and certainly does NOT use IE pancho, do some research before you make claims like that.

I PREFER IE though, mainly for the interface. It's way of rendering things is very very broken though and does not adhere to web standards, however with IE 8 MS is rectifying that and I look forward to seeing them accomplish this.

As for Firefox, I DON'T want to be forced to use plugins to bring it up to the same level of memory usage, and security as Opera which has it all by default. In my book that's an Epic Fail.

I'll still to IE 8 and Opera for now.


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## xfire (Mar 16, 2008)

Darknova there are some skins for opera to make it look like IE.


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## WhiteLotus (Mar 16, 2008)

Firefox for me, not really sure why, but i just find it more visually appealing and the tabs was an amazing feature over IE when i first used it.


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## intel igent (Mar 16, 2008)

i run IE tried FF some time ago and didnt have much luck with it so i went back to the tried and true browser


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## Water Drop (Mar 16, 2008)

Been a Firefox user since it was called "Firebird", it is probably still the best browser.  IE7 though was a huge improvement over IE6, and once in a while I will use IE7 if I get pissed at Firefox for some reason or another.

In Kubuntu I use to use Konqueror, which was alright.  I now use Firefox in Ubuntu though and Firefox in Vista x64.  IE7 is my secondary browser in Windows.  

As for Safari, that is the biggest piece of crap I have ever used.  I will never install that crap on my computer ever again.


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## niko084 (Mar 16, 2008)

Out of these Firefox, but I find myself liking Safari also, problem being it has its own issues.


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## Black Panther (Mar 17, 2008)

Well so I've switched to FF 3.0 beta 4.
It's hard not to after viewing the result of this poll!

And I'm glad I did. I had no idea about the customization of FF, the themes and all the stuff!

One thing which is bothering me though is that when I first load a page it doesn't load up as a whole all at once but like in 2 or 3 parts, very quickly. It doesn't have anything to do with my internet speed, IE used to load up the whole page at once. 

Maybe there is some plugin I could do with?


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## lemonadesoda (Mar 17, 2008)

I've tried them. Internet Explorer 6.0.3790 is the best.

Just got to learn to use SHIFT+CLICK to open a second, thrid, fourth window etc.   Use the taskbar for tabs.


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## Mussels (Mar 18, 2008)

lemonadesoda said:


> I've tried them. Internet Explorer 6.0.3790 is the best.
> 
> Just got to learn to use SHIFT+CLICK to open a second, thrid, fourth window etc.   Use the taskbar for tabs.



firefox uses the middle mouse button for that. no keyboard for me!


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## AsRock (Mar 18, 2008)

I like using Seamonkey ( Mozilla )..


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## xfire (Mar 18, 2008)

Mussels said:


> firefox uses the middle mouse button for that. no keyboard for me!


So does IE7 and Opera.Only IE6 doesnt have it since its old.


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