Which popular browser do you use?

Reamer Fanny · 08-09-2009 2:07pm #1

I am just interested to see what browser people prefer. I have been using Firefox for the last four years, and before this I used Internet Explorer, comments are welcome on this thread.

thorbarry · 08-09-2009 2:09pm

Safari

We should have a stickey for this

I use chrome, after using firefox for about 3/4 years, i find it much faster and responsive at start up

Reamer Fanny · 08-09-2009 2:21pm

Chrome

thorbarry wrote: »

We should have a stickey for this

+1 on the sticky idea!

There are ways to maintain Firefox

http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+vacuum&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

I have tried this myself and the difference in performance is very noticeable.

Cenk93 · 08-09-2009 2:25pm

Chrome

i use mozilla firefox.

cpu-dude · 08-09-2009 2:27pm

Chrome

justryan wrote: »

+1 on the sticky idea!

There are ways to maintain Firefox

http://www.google.com/search?q=firefox+vacuum&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

I have tried this myself and the difference in performance is very noticeable.

Firefox for the past 3 years. Perfect browser with IETab + Adblock + Xmarks + Skipscreen.

Chrome is nice, the speed especially but people forget it has no addons yet - I look forward to seeing what Google brings to the game in that department because I think I'd possible switch.

But until then, FF3.5 for me all the way - I love it. And it's not slow regardless of peoples complaints.

KJF · 08-09-2009 2:27pm

Opera

Safari on the mac for everyday use and firefox for development testing mainly because of firebug.

Reamer Fanny · 08-09-2009 2:39pm

Chrome

Agreed on the IE Tab add-on, saves having to load up Internet Explorer if I need to test some CSS. Firefox has a diverse amount of add-ons to choose from, this makes it very flexible

steamboat · 08-09-2009 3:21pm

Chrome

It's funny how no one has admitted to preferring IE so far

I suspect this has to do with the forum the poll is posted on more than anything else... IE being the most popular web browser internationally but it does often tend to ignore w3c compliance making the web developers job a pain in the but sometimes. For web development I make a point of always testing on IE 5, 6 and 7 before any other... but my preferred browser... Firefox all the way

cpu-dude · 08-09-2009 3:36pm

Chrome

steamboat wrote: »

It's funny how no one has admitted to preferring IE so far I suspect this has to do with the forum the poll is posted on more than anything else... IE being the most popular web browser internationally but it does often tend to ignore w3c compliance making the web developers job a pain in the but sometimes. For web development I make a point of always testing on IE 5, 6 and 7 before any other... but my preferred browser... Firefox all the way

IE6, 7 and 8 are only the most popular because of the exact reason Europe now has to have a seperate new version of Windows - because it's bundled in with Windows leaving most common PC users with only this (because they might not even know what a browser is) and now the new law states that this can't happen, customers will now most likely be presented with the option to install a choice of browsers... much like the image below (which is actually a default browser manager program).

Tech3 · 08-09-2009 3:38pm

Other

I use Opera, I have some issues with it opening hotmail and some picture uploads taking up the screen. Although I havnt uploaded the new update yet. I prefer it over IE and Firefox which I have used previously.

Goodshape · 08-09-2009 5:51pm

Chrome

KJF wrote: »

Safari on the mac for everyday use and firefox for development testing mainly because of firebug.

This.

Safari is great nippy, lightweight, little thing... I have it set as my default to handle links from mail, twitter clients, rss readers, etc... but can't beat Firefox for development work.

Bob_Harris · 09-09-2009 1:21am

Chrome

cpu-dude wrote: »

IE6, 7 and 8 are only the most popular because of the exact reason Europe now has to have a seperate new version of Windows - because it's bundled in with Windows leaving most common PC users with only this (because they might not even know what a browser is) and now the new law states that this can't happen, customers will now most likely be presented with the option to install a choice of browsers... much like the image below (which is actually a default browser manager program).

http://windows7center.com/news/no-more-windows-7-e-in-europe/

I use Firefox. I've tried all the alternatives and find Firefox to be the all round winner.

The whole "Chrome is the future" thing baffles me. It really offers nothing new, and it's only stand out feature is a slight increase in speed compared to the competition.

The extensions structure in Firefox has been in development for years, and with the speedy Firefox 3.5 now out, it's light years ahead of the rest.

Placebo · 09-09-2009 9:32am

Chrome

i still use Netscape

waynewex · 09-09-2009 1:30pm

Chrome

Firefox

Pablod · 09-09-2009 8:28pm

Firefox

99% of the timeI use IE8,
I use Firefox for only 1 or 2 sites that I know perform better on it.

But mainly IE because from IE7,IE8 i've had the settings customized/optimized to work perfectly for me.

I know some of you will be shocked that odd time I have found Firefox to be slower to load up than IE, (and no theres no hardware problem

)

Alanstrainor · 09-09-2009 8:32pm

Safari

Chrome 98% of the time. And firefox next. Chrome is just so much quicker to start up, and it's lightning fast loading pages. I do mis ad-blocker though....

Tim M-U · 09-09-2009 9:06pm

Firefox

I think that Firefox is a bi faster then IE, but Safari is good for website snapshots.

just my opinion....

donmeister · 10-09-2009 12:34pm

Safari

Loving Chrome at the minute, has every you want and need in a browser (Except add-ons :pac:)

Reamer Fanny · 10-09-2009 1:41pm

Chrome

Firefox seems to be the favourite, no surprise really.

aidan_walsh · 10-09-2009 2:37pm

Chrome

I would be 50/50 Safari/Firefox. However Firefox has been annoying me of late (crashed three times this morning by opening the Help menu!) so thinking of trying Opera.

eamonpendergast · 10-09-2009 3:05pm

Chrome

aidan_walsh wrote: »

I would be 50/50 Safari/Firefox. However Firefox has been annoying me of late (crashed three times this morning by opening the Help menu!) so thinking of trying Opera.

Are you on Firefox 3.5 outta curiosity? I've been having trouble with it crashing alot recently, I'm not sure if it's the browser itself or one of the plugins that's causing the instability...

I have another program FirefoxPreloader that quickens the start time for Firefox (just keeps it loaded into memory) that might be causing it too...

On a seperate note, I've tried Chrome too, it's nice, fast and all that but I miss my Firefox plugins! I've a massive bias against IE, we're stuck using IE6 in work, drives me demented!

ScumLord · 10-09-2009 4:59pm

Safari

Chrome all the way baby!

eamonpendergast wrote: »

On a seperate note, I've tried Chrome too, it's nice, fast and all that but I miss my Firefox plugins!

It's the lack of plug ins I find most appealing.

deep1 · 10-09-2009 5:13pm

Other

Firefox user from 3 years, Using Opera 10 from last week and loving it so far.

Epic Tissue · 10-09-2009 10:41pm

Safari

ScumLord wrote: »

Chrome all the way baby!

It's the lack of plug ins I find most appealing.

You don't have to use the plugins for Firefox you know

I am using chrome. It starts up faster than any of the others, better design by default (more screen space) and it seems more responsive.

As for extensions:

http://lifehacker.com/5355925/google-chrome-turns-on-extensions-by-default-on-the-dev-channel

http://dev.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/extensions/samples (Gmail Checker and RSS Feed button)

http://www.chromeextensions.org/ (Nothing notable here yet)

sineadw · 11-09-2009 12:41am

Safari

The visual developer tools in Chrome won it for me...

ReallyDeadThing · 11-09-2009 2:16pm

Opera

You should add an IE6 option to the poll, to see how many people are holding the rest of us back.

nice1franko · 11-09-2009 2:22pm

Safari

Chrome for browsing, FF 2.0.0.16 + firebug1.05 for development (it was much better before that bollix john resig got his hands on it)

harney · 11-09-2009 2:32pm

Safari

I have been using Chrome a lot recently, and love the speed but it does tend to hog my cpu when it hits too much flash.

I have been using Avant browser since about 2003 but have tend to use it less recently as it has become quite slow over the years as the developer upgraded it.

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

There is a version of Avant running on Firefox called Orca which looks quite promising. It has the speed of old with all the cool UI features that have been added over the years

http://www.orcabrowser.com/

Columba Rad · 11-09-2009 7:19pm

Firefox

I've always been an IE user, but reading the comments above Google Chrome seems the most popular. I've never used it, so I'm going to give it a go

-Patrick

donmeister · 11-09-2009 7:30pm

Safari

Columba Rad wrote: »

I've always been an IE user, but reading the comments above Google Chrome seems the most popular. I've never used it, so I'm going to give it a go

-Patrick

Please do, you wont look back!

Columba Rad · 12-09-2009 12:07pm

Firefox

Don't like it

... I spend a lot of time on forums and I find the WYSIWYG editor very useful, and on Chrome you don't have this. Also, fonts looked weird, I tried changing them in the settings but couldn't get them right. Links in my own forum signature were out of line. I just didn't like it.

I tried FireFox 3.5 too, that gave the same problem with fonts & links.

So I'm back to IE8 again.

-Patrick

Which popular browser do you use?

Which popular browser do you use? 95 votes

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