Which browser would you recommend?

[lungbing]

I use Firefox as my main browser and  up to today used Brave as a backup.   I happened to use Brave last thing last night and it was working fine.  Today it won't start.  This seems to be a known problem.  I saved my profile, deleted Brave cleared all files and reinstalled, put back my profile and it won't even start.   So I have deleted it and am trying out different browsers.

I've tried and rejected a new one called Mullvad, but it's too privacy based and difficult to set up.  I even tried MS Edge.  Do you know that when you close Edge half a dozen of its processes keep running in the background?  At the moment I'm trialling Chrome,   but like most of us I do not trust Google an inch.  Vivaldi and Opera are possibilities.  Any recommendations you can offer?  I only  read forums, newspapers and email, nothing too taxing.

[Liverpool Lou]

37 minutes ago, lungbing said:

Any recommendations you can offer?  I only  read forums, newspapers and email, nothing too taxing.

Brave, never had any issues.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Liverpool Lou

[Morch]

52 minutes ago, lungbing said:

I use Firefox as my main browser and  up to today used Brave as a backup.   I happened to use Brave last thing last night and it was working fine.  Today it won't start.  This seems to be a known problem.  I saved my profile, deleted Brave cleared all files and reinstalled, put back my profile and it won't even start.   So I have deleted it and am trying out different browsers.

I've tried and rejected a new one called Mullvad, but it's too privacy based and difficult to set up.  I even tried MS Edge.  Do you know that when you close Edge half a dozen of its processes keep running in the background?  At the moment I'm trialling Chrome,   but like most of us I do not trust Google an inch.  Vivaldi and Opera are possibilities.  Any recommendations you can offer?  I only  read forums, newspapers and email, nothing too taxing.

 

If you use Firefox as your main, and it's working fine for your needs, why all the bother with a backup?

 

I use Firefox and it's fine for most things, can play around with settings to make it a bit faster, or security oriented or whatever.

Brave I found a tad too paranoid, plus a couple of browser games wouldn't run, so it's back in storage.

Edge is a PITA (what you described), Chrome is sleek (But feel a bit too intrusive/pushes unwanted options).

All them smaller apps - I don't trust them to be as updated, or even be around in several years time. Too much bother learning the ins and outs anyway.

 

[bignok]

22 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Brave, never had any issues.

Yes agree

[BigStar]

Used to be a poster here who loved Opera. I do find Opera really stable under the weight of 30 tabs or so. Opera used to break a lot of sites because it followed real standards, not Microsoft's imposition of its own standards. Seems not to do that much now for whatever reason. I'm still not really fond of the interface. Recent Opera GX has an annoying startup. 

 

Lots of good buzz about Vivaldi recently on the 'net, haven't tried it. Needs customization, I'm not convinced I need Vivaldi enough to bother messing around with it. 

 

Brave, I use on my phone, like it there. I don't care for its self-promotion. But it doesn't start for you on your PC now. 

 

I use Chromium on Linux (besides Firefox), it's in all the repositories. Works fine. I add Google search in, however, as it's better for most things. 

 

On the Windows PC I mostly use Firefox Developer. My Chrome alternative for years has been SRWare Iron. Privacy oriented out of the box, logical interface. I add all the usual extensions that make Chrome usable.

 

https://www.srware.net/iron/

 

You might take a look at "ungoogled Chrome" as well. Has a definite following. 

 

[Tropicalevo]

Sorry to sound dumb, but if Firefox is working fine, why does one need a backup?

I have been using Firefox since it first came out. No problems.

I have Adblockplus and use DuckDuckGo for searches. I never see pop ups or adverts.

All trouble free browsing.

I typically have 10+ tabs on the go.

(I also use Foxit PDF reader - again, it does all that I want.)

[Daffy D]

2 hours ago, lungbing said:

Do you know that when you close Edge half a dozen of its processes keep running in the background

This can be disabled, Google "How stop edge working in background"

 

 

 

 

[save the frogs]

there is also Tor browser.

very slow, maybe doesn't work with video sites (youtube), but IP address is hidden

 

[BigStar]

1 hour ago, Tropicalevo said:

Sorry to sound dumb, but if Firefox is working fine, why does one need a backup

In fact some sites display better on Chrome. It has such a dominant market share that developers target it first. Indeed, many prefer Chrome's DevTools over Firefox's Web Developer tools and so develop their sites initially using Chrome.

 

Sometimes one's Firefox is already under such stress from having so many tabs open that a switch to Chrome for additional browsing may result in faster display.

 

And perhaps one's Firefox is simply broken for the moment, for whatever reason. Perhaps its just on a particular site of interest at the moment. A reason could be the different extensions used on different browsers. Could be a matter of Javascript customization, for example, handling page refreshes. Once I needed to use Dark Reader on Firefox to achieve dark backgrounds with white text. When I posted on TVF, it made all quotations display with dark backgrounds on everyone else's browser. Their Lordships warned me about it, so I just quickly switched to SRWare Iron for posting, to be sure. 

 

The principle of having a backup for something currently working well is rather common, when you think about it. :) 

 

Nobody cares whether you have a backup for anything or not, however. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by BigStar

[NextG]

2 hours ago, BigStar said:

Used to be a poster here who loved Opera. I do find Opera really stable under the weight of 30 tabs or so. Opera used to break a lot of sites because it followed real standards, not Microsoft's imposition of its own standards. Seems not to do that much now for whatever reason. I'm still not really fond of the interface. Recent Opera GX has an annoying startup. 

 

Lots of good buzz about Vivaldi recently on the 'net, haven't tried it. Needs customization, I'm not convinced I need Vivaldi enough to bother messing around with it. 

 

Brave, I use on my phone, like it there. I don't care for its self-promotion. But it doesn't start for you on your PC now. 

 

I use Chromium on Linux (besides Firefox), it's in all the repositories. Works fine. I add Google search in, however, as it's better for most things. 

 

On the Windows PC I mostly use Firefox Developer. My Chrome alternative for years has been SRWare Iron. Privacy oriented out of the box, logical interface. I add all the usual extensions that make Chrome usable.

 

https://www.srware.net/iron/

 

You might take a look at "ungoogled Chrome" as well. Has a definite following. 

 

That would be me 😊 Started using it when the Internet was still dial up. It was lightweight and cutting edge. 
Vivaldi is/was their new project after Opera sold. 

Not quite as excited about Opera these days, but it still has it’s uses. 

[balo]

I use Brave with adblocker and never had any issues, just make sure to update to the latest version. 
As a backup browser I use Opera.

I'm on devices with both Win 10 and Win 8.1 and Android. 

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by balo

[bubblegum]

Thorium

[stoner]

8 hours ago, bignok said:

9 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Brave, never had any issues.

Yes agree

 

3rd that.

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, lungbing said:

Do you know that when you close Edge half a dozen of its processes keep running in the background?

I didn't know and I don't care. The use little to no resources so I don't see the problem.

 

Personally I use mostly Edge but I also use Firefox and Chrome. I do this to keep things separated. I have a company and a private LastPass account and it is easiest to keep two different browsers open with two different LastPass logins.

I don't really care which browser I use because they work all very similar. It's like using car A or car B. Sure, there are differences, but mostly they work the same, it's just a car... 

[stoner]

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

I don't really care which browser I use because they work all very similar. It's like using car A or car B. Sure, there are differences, but mostly they work the same, it's just a car... 

 

completely wrong. 

 

some browsers do not allow ads. huge difference.

[OneMoreFarang]

15 minutes ago, stoner said:

 

completely wrong. 

 

some browsers do not allow ads. huge difference.

And some people like me just ignore the ads. After a while you just don't see them.

 

I guess, but I am not sure, that browsers which don't show ads, also find away around those annoying ad pages in between. Like click on a link and expect page A comes up. But first page B shows up with an ad and it has to be clicked away and only they we see the expected page.

[Ben Zioner]

I use Netscape, on Windows 3.11. For  security reasons...

[daveAustin]

Safari. Most others are a joke and can’t be trusted, including Chrome. Don’t do your banking on them. If you’re not a Mac/iPhone man then never mind. I still prefer using a PC but probably wouldn’t go back. 

[ignis]

Chrome + AVG + Opera 

use all 3 every day for years

some websites are better in different browsers

[it is what it is]

 

horses for courses, different websites/functionality works better on different browsers

[ravip]

I use Chrome and Brave

[stoner]

47 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

And some people like me just ignore the ads. After a while you just don't see them.

is the sand warm down there ?

[Lacessit]

I use Firefox as my main browser, it has given me very few problems over the years. I  have Google Chrome as a backup for the very infrequent occasion Firefox is not acceptable.

I did have Edge on a new laptop, until I purged it. Kept trying to push me into more Microsoft BS.

[OneMoreFarang]

16 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I did have Edge on a new laptop, until I purged it. Kept trying to push me into more Microsoft BS

Did you also purge Windows and Office and all the other MS "BS"?

If you don't like it just don't use it. Why make a drama out of it? 

[Chris Daley]

It doesn't matter how fast your internet is Windows will slow it down to a crawl.

 

Chrome will do.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chris Daley

[Lacessit]

3 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Did you also purge Windows and Office and all the other MS "BS"?

If you don't like it just don't use it. Why make a drama out of it? 

Yes I did. IMO only mugs pay for an OS which is under daily attack by hackers, when there are perfectly adequate free operating systems which don't have the same problems.

[ignis]

45 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Yes I did. IMO only mugs pay for an OS which is under daily attack by hackers, when there are perfectly adequate free operating systems which don't have the same problems.

Used M$ Office 95, never upgraded to 7, as you say there are as good or better out there for Free

[NoshowJones]

16 hours ago, lungbing said:

I use Firefox as my main browser and  up to today used Brave as a backup.   I happened to use Brave last thing last night and it was working fine.  Today it won't start.  This seems to be a known problem.  I saved my profile, deleted Brave cleared all files and reinstalled, put back my profile and it won't even start.   So I have deleted it and am trying out different browsers.

I've tried and rejected a new one called Mullvad, but it's too privacy based and difficult to set up.  I even tried MS Edge.  Do you know that when you close Edge half a dozen of its processes keep running in the background?  At the moment I'm trialling Chrome,   but like most of us I do not trust Google an inch.  Vivaldi and Opera are possibilities.  Any recommendations you can offer?  I only  read forums, newspapers and email, nothing too taxing.

I have been very pleased with Opera apart from not being able to get on to Youtube because of this blocking adverts nonsense, though that is not Operas fault.

[Bangkok Barry]

16 hours ago, bignok said:

Yes agree

 

Agreed. I've used Brave for years with no issues at all.

[Stocky]

Brave and Vivaldi