Ask dotTechies: What Internet web browser do you (mainly) use?
November 5, 2009 76
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Firefox is, more or less, known as the browser which initiated the browser wars. However, now with so many browsers out there, many users are using different browsers. So the query is simple. What internet browser do you mainly use?
[poll id="2"]
After you vote, feel free to post a comment below saying which one you use and why you use it so we can get a good idea of why people use what.
About the author: Ashraf View all posts by Ashraf
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@ Rob
I forgot to clarify this :
The PC can “die” in 2 ways: either due to a virus (for example) or due to a technical problem.
In the first case, using EAZ-FIX, I will have no difficulty (in principle) to repair and I will not even need the image.
In the second case only, your advice will be very useful to me.
With all this browser talk, I thought I’d check winupdates.
For those of you that have automatic updates turned off…….
There is an update (kbid=976749) that came out Tuesday 11/3 for Internet Explorer that resolves issues that occur after you apply security update 974455 (MS09-054)
You can either let winupdates do it for you or go here for your version:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976749
I would use Firefox if it ever became as user-friendly as Opera. FF add-ons are obviously more varied and numerous than Opera’s gizmos, but they still don’t duplicate the Opera setups that have spoiled me.
Opera’s MHT treatment, its built-in RSS feeds, treatment of downloads, “Speed Dial”, navigation among too many tabs, hotkeys for zooming and navigating, etc., etc., are all better (IMHO) than anything offered as FF add-ins (so far!).
(Search through FF’s add-on’s for “Opera” and you’ll see how many programmers have tried to duplicate the user-friendly Opera experience — sometimes without total success!)
I’ve switched to FF for 6 or 9 months at a time, mostly because some sites still don’t work with Opera, even v.10. Now I’ve got a stripped-down (only a few tabs open) version of FF available if I’ve got to use gmail online, and I sometimes use Chrome when YouTube is misbehaving with Opera.
I take my small conveniences seriously, which is why I like Opera, because they do too! (That’s also why I’m now addicted to Thinkpad keyboards, because that “stupid” little red “eraser” joystick (T (TrackPoint) turns out to be the best invention ever, at least for a touch typist who likes to scroll up and down and sideways a lot!
Opera’s the best for me, but it’s not for everybody — at least not ’til its add-ons become more like FF’s, and not ’til it can consistently handle everybody’s web pages.
@Everyone
Thanks for your feedback! To be honest, I expected Firefox to be the most popular, but I did not expect Opera to be at number 2!
Open source ease of use speed and lots of add-ons make it for me
Opera, ever since Netscape Navigator went out and Netscape Communicator (HUGE) came in. Was on old Win95 computer, dial-up, and Internet Explorer tried to eat the hard drive daily. NN had built in email prog, so the switch to Opera was easy :)
Always amuses me when Firefox is being touted as having a bunch of “new” “cool” functions or add-ons, because Opera usually did them at least 2 years previously, and with no big “look at me” noise about it ;)
I love how I (not particularly technical) can customise how Opera functions and looks, and their community is particularly helpful.
Opera is wonderful enough for me. Sleek interface, built-in features like integrated mouse gesture, download manager, torrent downloader, feed reader, e-mail, chat, etc…, and the newest “Opera Unite” platform.
I’m satisfied :)!
Firefox because of all the features the add-ons provided, and how customizable it is (userstyles, about:config, etc.)
Salam Ashraf and everyone
IE came with my pc and as it’s my first and I didn’t know diddley squat about anything to do with pc’s (and still don’t really when I measure what I have learned against all there is out there to still learn) so I just used that.
I’ve tried Firefox, but it doesn’t quite feel right (to me) and I do like IE’s interface over Firefox’s.
Also a lot of the visual aspects on Firefox seem more “younger generation” to me, so I guess I’ve moved into the older and more senior area of life and may be more set in my ways and decidely much more mainstream than I ever thought I was or would like to admit (but then I just have)
I think a bit of group confession therapy I never thought I’d take part in just happened too
Anyway I hope to eventually try all the others, but I am too busy with a lot of other things on my plate to experiment in that way at the moment.
I use FireFox predominantly! I have IE, 8 but use it only when I have to (i.e. when a site won’t work unless one used IE) and for checking compatibility when designing web sites. I also have Opera, but also for just checking compatibility.
I started (ahem…way back when) using Mozilla Netscape, back when Windows 3.1 was the current Windows OS of the day. Eventually I switched to Firefox after Netscape was sold to AOL.
I never did like IE.
Internet Explorer 7
Firefox 3.x for security, and multiple add-ons (In Windows XP Home Edition).
When I use Linux – Ubuntu, Firefox is very very fast.
I need help.
I decided to take my own advice (regarding IE8) and install it.
(If I later wish to image my hard drive, I will first uninstall IE8, so that XP Repair Install will work properly).
After I installed it, to my shock and horror, I find that it does not start a new session, by re-opening previously open Tabs.
People have written to MS, and they say all you have to do is to go to the Tools menu, and click reopen the last session.
I would like to tell the Tools where to go.
Am I missing a setting somewhere, or have the idiots not provided this feature ?
Also when I open a new Tab, I keep getting -
“What do you want to do next?”
I want it to open up with Google search page.
I have set that as my Home page, yet it appears that I have to click the ‘Home’ icon each time.
Am I missing a setting somewhere, or have the idiots not provided this feature ?
Color me furious or confused
OOPs forgot to tick the checkbox -
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
So I am doing that now.
Should it not be ticked as the default, in case some fool(color that me) misses it ?
I found a blog by the IE team where they were patting themselves on the back (should be a bit lower), and I found where they had hidden away the Tab settings, so I can now get a new Tab to show Google.
If I cannot solve the ‘reopen last session’ problem, i will whip it out (IE8), and install IE7.
From memory it needed a good beating as well (by using IE7Pro)
Maxthon – the favourites display is far neater than Firefox’s or IE’s. I want multi-column. And it must be Roboform compatible- which Opera isn’t and won’t be.
Maxthon will soon be dual engine, but after v2.1.5 it lost the ‘frame’… losing compatibility with certain other features.
Firefox has a couple of annoying crash modes. I got fed up with that. A browser should be non-intrusive.
Very promising: Lunascape- 3 engines! – trident, webkit, gecko. If you really need that kind of thing.
I use Firefox 3.5.x myself though I supplement that with occasional use of Opera 10, Google Chrome and Maxthon. Lunascape seems like a good idea with weird execution in that it can not use Firefox extensions when using the gecko engine; I just found myself unable to like it despite having multiple engines. Firefox with IE Tab takes care of most the multi-engine needs I have. Google Chrome beta seems quite interesting in that there is now a beta of Xmarks that works with it so my Firefox and Chrome have the same bookmarks. In fact due to Xmarks I can have my bookmarks the same in most any browser except Opera. That to me is the most important issue in switching between browsers.
I think I can synchronize my bookmarks between Opera and other browsers by using Linkman Free. It is an extra step, though, and Opera is (again!) less well integrated than IE & FF. . . But I think it works.
Norm
I use Firefox 3.7 latest trunk. I used to use Safari but Firefox was just faster, more customizable, and better. Google Chrome is plain evil as it sends what you type in the address bar to Google BEFORE you press enter.
@Rob:
To change what page opens by defualt in IE8 for new tabs go to the Tab settings on the General Tab of IE Settings.
As to the Restoreing seesions, I use the restore feature. You can get it either from the about:Tabs page or from Tools>Reopen Last Browser Seesion. In fact I used it on the IE instance I’m writing this on!
@Samuel:
Thanks for responding.
I had tripped over the Show Google(Home Page) on New Tabs setting.
On your last point, are you saying that you manually click the restore option ?
I knew about that, but I wanted it to do it automatically.
I always keep some Tabs open (with the intention of actioning them later). So it is a bit of a pain, to tell it every time, to reopen them.
Not to mention that something might fire up a new window (which can happen, even if you have set every setting that you can find to prevent it).
If you don’t notice that other window, and you close the main window first, it could happen that it’s memory of your last main session, is gone forever.
If you have found a way for it doing it automatically, I would appreciate it.
In the meantime, I have installed IE7, and IE7Pro (free), which does the auto restore that I need, and adds great crash recovery, etc.
@Rob:
No problem.
Ok.
Yes I manually click it. The only way to have IE8 on its own ask if you want to restart a session is to force it close, that is if u kill the main IE process the next time you start up IE it will ask you that.
I do too, but you could just have them all set as Home Pages (type one URL per line in the textbox for home pages, it then opens each in its own tab).
I never have pages open in new windows so I havn’t had that problem.
I happen to use IE7Pro, though I use it with IE8 and it works fine. I plan to write a review for dotTech on it, havn’t had the time though. I don’t use its tab recovery but thats more because the only time I use it is when IE crashes and in that case its own auto recovery works fine.
@Samuel:
Actually I noticed that they have been enhancing IE7Pro to work with IE8. However I believe the one bit they have not got working yet is the auto restore of previous session Tabs.
When they get that working, I will switch to IE8.
@Rob:
Can’t say, since I don’t use it.
Good to know they’re are other IE users still.
Hi. Opera, easy to use, to customize… fast and no needs to install various plug-ins