What web browser do you use?

[Nuno]

I always speak from a tech point of view, never from fashion.
Until IE 7.0, that is a lot better than 6.0, I saw all kinds of people switching to Firefox. Those weren't zealots, or even tech savvy people.

I saw whole schools, universities, companies and even government entities switching.
Even Microsoft knew that 6.0 wasn't a good browser (they didn't have a large team working in it), and now that they were quickly loosing too much market to Firefox, they had to come with something. And finally they have again a modern browser.

So, I'm not an anti-Microsoft guy. I have lots of their original applications. But don't doubt for a minute that Firefox was many times better than IE 6.0.
It's a fact that even Microsoft had to accept.

IE 7.0 is an whole new kind of browser if you compare it to IE 6.0
And I'm not talking about the looks... it not only has more features, but it's quicker, lighter and safer. For a first time in some years, IE is close to Firefox.

[Soquili]

Could someone please explain what I am missing about Firefox?

I've used it on Windows and Linux and have failed to see it to be an exceptional web browser. What am I doing wrong?

[Nuno]

I could be here writing for many hours, but I'll try to be right to the point:

- Much safer than IE 6.0 - not invulnerable, of course. Even Nasa's and the Pentagon's systems aren't, but it is safer. This is a fact, and I've seen government institutions making the switch because of this. One thing is having our desktop. The other is being responsable for dozens or hundreds of users. For those, security is a must, because some of the users will certainly mess up.
Firefox blocks 90% more spyware and dialers than IE 6.0
I saw whole systems jeopardized because of IE. Do you remember the IE javascript vulnerability that ruinned thousands of machines worldwide? I do.

- Depending on your machine, and the number of the pages you have open, it will be much quicker

- For me it's also important because I'm a web developer, and I try to have valid and standard code as established by W3C - World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/
IE 6.0 didn't follow any standards except theirs, and you must jump the hoop for some html or css code to work with it.

- IE 6.0 was an outdated browser that didn't even supported transparent png's. I don't want to use transparent gifs, so I had to drop the transparencies. Won't add activeX code to my site, just because IE 6.0 doesn't support such a simple thing.

So, here are 4 supported reasons. Not fashion, or anti-Microsoft statements.

Again I say: IE 7.0 is a good browser. IE 6.0 is an awful browser. And they are both from Microsoft, right?

[Soquili]

I appreciate your effort Nuno,

Having worked at the Pentagon and with NASA, I'm well aware of their network and computer systems.

I do remember the javascipt vulnerability, but only machine that had failed to maintain security patches were compromised.

I have not found FireFox to be quicker on any machine I've tried it on. Keep in mind I have several hundred machines on a domain that I have tried. Many of these have dual core processors with 2GHz or better CPU speeds and a minimum of 1GB of RAM. No other applications were running during the test, the Windows Firewall was disabled. The machines were fresh installs of Windows XP SP2 on equipment direct from the factory, so there should not have been any corruption of registry or filesystem. The installation was done from a clean download of the latest build available at the time of testing.

Any ideas what may be going wrong?

[RTK]

I use both Firefox and IE 6. Can't say that I have noticed a speed difference either? I normally use Firefox, but I use IE when I need access to certain toolbar additions.

Soquili / Nuno - I googled browser speed differences between the two after reading your posts... Found the below extensive tests (someone obviously has too much time on their hands... )

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

Conclusion from this test (didn't really read it mind you...) - Firefox is not faster...

Personal opinion - I have more important issues in my life to pay attention too than if my web browser saves me seconds (or what have you) of surfing time per day. It's as important to me as if I would pay attention to which hand I scratch myself with most often...

To me it's usability - with the extra junk I have installed for IE - Firefox feels cleaner and more relaxed.

Risto

[Soquili]

Thanks Risto. I appreciate you taking the time to find that information.

I was afraid I was doing something wrong and not giving FireFox a fair evaluation. The test results in your link match very close to my own.

Subjective opinions appear to make some software more appealing.

[vaXzine]

I use Firefox and Flock both on WindowsXP...

[Nuno]

This is a difficult thing to evaluate as you all know, and we can see many studies, but in the end, we must stay with what we really feel works better in our case. I really dislike zealots, that say "mine is better" and never hear others opinions. What I say is only my personal opinion as an user. I have both browsers here, and I really disliked when I was forced to go to IE 6... and remember that I dropped my browser project, after much invested money, because I didn't want to have a product that relied in IE...

When I said quicker I added that it depends in the number of pages opened. I sometimes have 30 or 40 sites opened at the same time. Doing that at IE was a pain. I remember it well, it wasn't not so long ago...

As for the software patches, you are right, but we know that many systems aren't up to date. But the most important thing is: IE has more vulnerability problems because it has a bigger user base, so it's a better target for hackers. So Firefox was safer because of that. Not because of the better code, but because it wasn't a target in the past.

Now IE 7 is a big jump ahead of IE 6, but I will continue to use Firefox. You know why? Because Mozilla really made an effort in making a better browser, and I think I should reward them for that.
Microsoft almost forgot browser development for years. It was smaller companies like MyIE2 / Maxthon, and I, that where trying to make it instead of IE's creator. IE 7 was only launched separately, instead of bundled with Vista, because they finally saw that they should do something, or loose their market share.

Whooo, nice exchange of point of views we have here. I almost don't have any free time, not even for billing my clients, but I've spent some time writing this for you. I really care

[GeoBen]

I use FireFox.

I prefer the interface, the 'vanilla' nature w/o a load of 'features' that i dont want and never use.

I like its extensibility. The scrapbook extension alone is worth switching for.

I AM an anti-MS zealot. I began desktop computing on a CPM machine and when MS-DOS came out, I was a big Gates fan. But i abhor greedheads, monopolists and people who insist on doing my thinking for me. MS has done more to promote home computing as well as more to restrict the nature of home computing than anyone. I still use windows, though XP will be my last version.... on to Linux/KDE as soon as XaraLinux catches up... it is the only app w/o a comparable linux version that i am wedded to. I use no other MS products.

Firefox maintains externally defined, USER defined standards. My web pages are all 100% W3C compatible and use no external plugins (no.... not even Flash). People are happy with IE7, but Mozilla is still several steps ahead. PNG? Hell.... Firefox 2 is SVG ready now. This being a vector graphics based forum, i would think we could all appreciate that. Firefox's biggest difficulty is overcoming the complacency of IE users... what good is it to include native "anti-aliased rendering, pattern and gradient fills, sophisticated filter-effects, clipping to arbitrary paths, text and animations" in a fully W3C compatible, open library (XML) based browser when most people prefer IE... whose latest version is only 5 or 6 years out of date.

yes.... i am a zealot.

geo.

I have tried the others (Opera would be my second best nominee).

[Intbel]

I use Crazy Browser for two reasons:

1. Multiple pages (tabbed)
2. In favourites folder it puts everything in alphabetical order.