Best Web Browser?

[Madboy]

Having done a little research of my own, i came up with the following conclusion. Having tested 3 specific type browsers, i think its safe to say, that Opera 8.0 has won, in my opinion. My theory goes like so (all using latest versions):

1) Internet Explorer - Due to its not so good security back hole techniques, i would say this is not the most safe browser to use, and not having a built in download manager is a let down. Tested on 2 different systems, not the most reliable neither. I give it 3/10

2) Mozilla FireFox - A greatly enhanced improvement compared to IE, loads pages up fast, manages bookmarks neatly and comes with a built in download manager. Having said that, again tested on 2 different systems, is known to produce errors, and the download manager is not very stable. I give it 6/10

3) Opera 8.0 - Does exactly as it says on the tin, is definitely the quickest browser i have ever used (im running 256K cable). Comes with a clean crisp design (doesnt eat on resources neither), easily maintainable bookmark system, and the download manager never fails. I give it a highly reccomended 9/10

The question in hand: What is your favourite borwser, which do use most, and which do you dislike the most?

Please give reasons if possible (im not gathering CIA research neither )

[Madboy]

How come this has moved?

[visualAd]

I discourages people from trashing it with useless replies. If you would prefer I can move it back to Chit Chat.

[Dreamlax]

What two systems have you installed FireFox on? I've installed it on two x86 machines, one running Linux/X11, the other Windows, and they both work exactly the same. Download manager is fine also.

The biggest turn of for Internet Explorer is that it is not even W3C compliant, however, that's typical Microsoft, always trying to set the new standard. In fact, the internal graphics refresh daemon in Internet Explorer is so slow that animated gifs often appear jumpy.

FireFox is growing because of the W3C compliance. Truth is, hardly anyone knows what W3C is or how to be compliant, but the fact that one browser is compliant and the other isn't makes people lean towards FireFox.

FireFox is available on any system that can run the GCC. It's open source, meaning if you find a bug, you can fix it yourself!

FireFox RAM Usage with three tabs open? 40MB
IE RAM Usage with the same three windows open? 72MB

I haven't tried Opera, mainly because it's not open source. It's the only way to go if you're worried about security and bugs.

[Madboy]

No, i see your point Visual

I ment i tried it on 2 different Win 98's Dreamlax, and you should try Opera, NOW!

[dglienna]

I haven't uninstalled (or run) Netscape for about 5 months.
I use IE only occasionally. Some M$ portals just don't like Fx.
For the past few months I have been using Fx almost exclusively.

Virus scans seem to be running smoother.

[dogfish227]

I installed opera once but they put ads all over there software so i took it off.

[CyberSurfer]

I use Camino 0.8.4, and it does fine for what I want

[Dreamlax]

I think a web browser should be free, absolutely free; the only good free browser is FireFox, truly multi-platform, truly free, truly W3C compliant. What more could you want?

[mendhak]

FF, because (mainly) of the tabbed browsing, and non-existence of ActiveX support.

[Dreamlax]

Far out mendhak, I can't believe you're still here! I don't suppose you remember much of me though. Fair enough. Hard to forget someone with a 3-eyed smoking frog as their avatar though.

[DeadEyes]

Firefox is my fav, Xul is cool as they say and user-content.css brilliant.
IE speaks for itself *shudder*
I didn't like the ads in Opera. I think Opera was the first with tabbed browsing so hats off for that.

[mendhak]

Far out mendhak, I can't believe you're still here! I don't suppose you remember much of me though. Fair enough. Hard to forget someone with a 3-eyed smoking frog as their avatar though.

Actually, I do... I guess we just don't post in the same forums. I'm a little surprised you never noticed me though, I'm in several different forums at the same time! (three hands, you "see")

[dj4uk]

Firefox definately - W3C compliance makes it the obvious choice. I love some of the extensions you can get for it too! Web developer, user agent switcher, Google PageRank and ColorZilla are soooo useful when developing websites!

DJ

[mendhak]

AndCander's...erm...extensiontoo.

[Madboy]

FF, because (mainly) of the tabbed browsing, and non-existence of ActiveX support.

Opera is tabbed too

And the download manager always let me down on FF, if my computer shut down, then i came back on, the download would be gone

[Madboy]

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

As described to the bottom (skip the boring top half), Opera is best for Windows

[agmorgan]

I find the big advertising in Opera annoying.
Not so much that I wanted to pay for the software, but enough to uninstall it
Opera 4 was OK, Opera 7 seemed too bloated/cluttered.

Before Firefox came along, I quite liked Avant Browser.
What do you think of the IE wrappers?

Has anyone tried deepnet explorer?

[ALL]

you are all forgetting Avant, although it isnt that big, it is a good browser(in my oppinion). it runs off of IE's Internet settings, and (i believe) supports ActiveX, Popup blocker, Safe Recovery, and has Tabed browsing, and well, see for your self: http://www.avantbrowser.com/

oh, and the biggest thing, is the Ad Remover, it does a really good job, but it ocasionally blocks wanted data.

[<ABX]

And the download manager always let me down on FF, if my computer shut down, then i came back on, the download would be gone

it is not possible to resume downloads across sessions. If the user knows their network connection is going down they can use our limited "Pause" support now but only so long as the browser is open.

This functionality is going to be added to the download manager in 2.0


The following features are required for 2.0:

• cross session resume
• storage back end
• unified download back end with XPInstall, etc.
• unified API for invoking download operations (e.g. unify code paths between link clicks and Save Target As... and other potential uses - single API to take a url and transfer)
• accessibility - listview implements accessibility APIs and proper keyboard navigation support
• download queue - user set the maximum number of simultaneous downloads (per site and total) and the download manager queue the downloads. save queued downloads across sessions.
• download speed limitation

[Madboy]

Now then i might consider going to FF if they fix a few little snaggly loose ends like that

[NoteMe]

It is called Fx, not FF...

[ALL]

It is called Fx, not FF...

I have allways heard it called FF, but maybe that's just me

[NoteMe]

I have allways heard it called FF, but maybe that's just me

No it is not just you....most of you are wrong. I am right...

[alex_read]

SecureIE

[NoteMe]

MyIE 2


[edit] Oooops it is called Maxthon now..

[Madboy]

FX = FireXox?

I thought it was FireFox?

[<ABX]

How do I spell Firefox? How do I abbreviate it?

[sciguyryan]

Firefox all the way

Cheers,

RyanJ

[NoteMe]

How do I spell Firefox? How do I abbreviate it?

Ohhh...finaly an other guy that has found the FAQ....


ØØ

[<ABX]

Ohhh...finaly an other guy that has found the FAQ....


ØØ

hehe

[The Hobo]

I've tried IE, Netscape, Opera, and Firefox, and Firefox won for me. It's best hands-down. And I don't even use the download manager. I download stuff into respective places, ie pictures to a picture folder, videos to a video folder, applications to an application folder (to be installed), etc. I don't see the need to keep a list of things I've downloaded in the browser.

Plus I love all the extensions and themes available for Fx.

[sciguyryan]

I've tried IE, Netscape, Opera, and Firefox, and Firefox won for me. It's best hands-down. And I don't even use the download manager. I download stuff into respective places, ie pictures to a picture folder, videos to a video folder, applications to an application folder (to be installed), etc. I don't see the need to keep a list of things I've downloaded in the browser.

Plus I love all the extensions and themes available for Fx.

Soo true, I wonder what new surprises V2 will hold... Anyone care to speculate

Cheers,

RyanJ

[Madboy]

I guess in conclusion Firefox wins, either way they are all good.

I read somewhere that the developer for IE is wanting to implement tabbed browsing, but stated it is too much of hassle

I like Opera better

[sciguyryan]

I guess in conclusion Firefox wins, either way they are all good.

I read somewhere that the developer for IE is wanting to implement tabbed browsing, but stated it is too much of hassle

I like Opera better

Its a bit late now - ever other browser already has it...

And even if they did by the time they would have managed to do it FF Version 2.0 will be out with even better features

Cheers,

RyanJ

[Madboy]

When will that be released, and will it remain free?

[<ABX]

When will that be released, and will it remain free?

Unknown, probably by 2006.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/roadmap.html

v1.1 is scheduled for July 2005

Version Summary: Re-sync with trunk. New Gecko, ongoing HIG compliance, sw/update and extension manager improvements.

http://www.mozilla.org/about/

Since all Mozilla Products are open source, it will most likely remain free.

[sciguyryan]

When will that be released, and will it remain free?

It would be very, very, very unlikley thay it would ever become paid-for-software. This is because to put it basically there would be no point as hundreds of of people already have the source code anyway and, they would loose most of their support if they did that anyway

Cheers,

RyanJ

[Gary W]

Why isn't Safari in here as well?

[Madboy]

Why isn't Safari in here as well?