What Internet Browser Do You Use?

[astral]

Are you accepting the MS default,

or are you already savvy enough to have made a choice of another browser without the help of the EU?

[garyh]

I use Chrome but there are occasions where I need to go back to IE. But you don't give me that choice in your poll.

[David006]

Use Firefox..Not great as seems to crash sometimes but always comes back with tabs intact. IE was always giving problems and annoying messages ..that's why I changed

[OriginalPoster]

Apparently the people here must not be typical PC users. The EU says that Microsoft has a monopoly on browsers and yet 90% here say they use Firefox. Maybe it's time for the EU to launch an extortion campaign against Mozilla, it can't possible be good for consumers for one company to control 90% of the browser market.

[beano2274]

Use FF 3.6 Beta 4

No issues

[villagefarang]

Safari, Camino, Flock. Does anyone use just one?

[Gary A]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2b6pre) Gecko/20091216 Namoroka/3.6b6pre

Works like a charm, no problems yet.

I like Chrome but frequent crashes prevent me from using it.

Safari has issues stalling with slow script.

Opera now has too much junk and is slow. IE 8 works well but is even slower than Opera.

[noahvail]

Using Chrome as first, Safari as second. I used to use FF until I found out what a CPU hog it is. Things run much faster in Chrome.

[spacemunk]

have always been using FF and will never use any other browser

[Beggar]

I use Firefox 3.5.7 (Shiretoko). With all the add-ons it is MY browser and I use many. As long as others cannot provide the same or more no way for me to change.

[Supernova]

FF 3.5.6

[thaimite]

The above hits are only from those who are reading this forum, and thus possibly have more of an interest in Computers than others who just open the box and surf away.

It would be interesting to see the TV site statistics of browser type which I am sure George could provide for a comparison

[bendejo]

I like FF, been using it for years and have incorporated plug-ins into my routine such that I'd be lost without them.

I also have a lot of counter-tracking stuff: not that I'm up to anything untoward, I just don't like being snooped (getting past google analytics takes some work). I use Chrome sometimes, it's faster when accessing google maps, or when I'm having trouble accessing a site that I think may be due to my security restrictions.

I consider IE to be part of Windows, the hel_l with what the lawyers say.

Remember some years back when Microsoft was The Great Evil (Apple bs to pump themselves by putting the other one down)? Now, I believe google is really the active villain, gathering and analyzing your info. If you use gmail, you'll always see ad links on the mail page that were chosen by looking through your messages -- consider that a reminder. Now with them supplying the browser, well, it's like the rats supplying the locks for the larder.

I would prefer to use Chrome Portable as the alternative browser, but it seems to only come up in German.

[thaimite]

I like FF, been using it for years and have incorporated plug-ins into my routine such that I'd be lost without them.

I also have a lot of counter-tracking stuff: not that I'm up to anything untoward, I just don't like being snooped (getting past google analytics takes some work). I use Chrome sometimes, it's faster when accessing google maps, or when I'm having trouble accessing a site that I think may be due to my security restrictions.

I consider IE to be part of Windows, the hel_l with what the lawyers say.

Remember some years back when Microsoft was The Great Evil (Apple bs to pump themselves by putting the other one down)? Now, I believe google is really the active villain, gathering and analyzing your info. If you use gmail, you'll always see ad links on the mail page that were chosen by looking through your messages -- consider that a reminder. Now with them supplying the browser, well, it's like the rats supplying the locks for the larder.

For all of the above reasons I now use http://startpage.com/ as my search engine (from firefox). Give it a try

It will also submit your query to Google and Yahoo so you do not loose results

[OriginalPoster]

The above hits are only from those who are reading this forum, and thus possibly have more of an interest in Computers than others who just open the box and surf away.

It would be interesting to see the TV site statistics of browser type which I am sure George could provide for a comparison

Internet Explorer still has the majority of market share world wide. But still, if informed consumers have a multitude of free alternative browsers available to them and most claim those alternatives to be superior, that's in strong contradiction with the EU's contention that IE being preinstalled is anti-competitive.

[welo]

Remember some years back when Microsoft was The Great Evil (Apple bs to pump themselves by putting the other one down)?

Microsoft never was 'The Great Evil' to me, but since we talk about web browsers here, MS criticism can hardly be dismissed as 'Apple bs':

"Microsoft ends 10-year fight with Europe on browsers" (BBC News Dec 2009)

<h1></h1>"The First browser war" (wikipedia)

welo (not a MS basher)

[SeanMoran]

I find SeaMonkey to be a nice Mozilla alternative to Firefox on Linux, because there is only the single X box on the RHS of the tab bar (and sometimes with Firefox I've been in a hurry and accidentally closed a tab when switching between them), and I also like the good old classic-style text only menus and preferences that make it easy to get notification of all cookies, so I can deny the plethora of advertising crap and stuff like that.

I guess I am a little superstitious and try to keep my PC from being too promiscuous, and SeaMonkey is a nicer, more peaceful sort of name for a browser than Firefox. Admit that it's all rather illogical, but logic is not my business - that's why I bought this Compaq, as it is nothing else but logic.

Voted for OTHER.

[Gerontion]

SRWare Iron and FF.

[aussiebebe]

I'm using Internet Explorer 8 and think it's great. I've used Firefox in the past, but decided to uninstall it as I rarely found it especially more useful. I just use the internet for business, banking, and communication and I prefer the way IE functions for these basic things like security/favourites/updates/add-ons etc.

[Gary A]

I'd say that if a computer user is not savvy enough to know that he has a choice of browsers, then it makes no difference to him what he uses. He just wants something that works and IE does work. If you don't know others are faster and better, then you will be perfectly happy with what comes with the computer. I think it would be a disservice to the customers to ship a machine without a built in browser.

[garyh]

I'd say that if a computer user is not savvy enough to know that he has a choice of browsers, then it makes no difference to him what he uses. He just wants something that works and IE does work. If you don't know others are faster and better, then you will be perfectly happy with what comes with the computer. I think it would be a disservice to the customers to ship a machine without a built in browser.

HERE HERE

[SantiSuk]

I use Firefox because 3 years ago HSBC, my main bank, told me to use it if I wanted a less-troubled connection to their UK on-line banking.

Now another financial institution, the Post Office, tells me I have to use IE and FF does not work for them.

I guess this is f&ck-up theory rather than some money-spinning commission opportunity for the banks.

I do wish other web businesses would stop pushing their own versions once you have bought into Google for searches and Apple for i-Tunes. It's so boring having to remember not to waste time eg downloading updates for Safari when all you asked for is i-Tunes. Same thing for media albums - I've lost count of the number of applications that suddenly start trying to categorise every picture they can find on my hard drive - B$gg£r off!!

[VocalNeal]

I'm browsing this with Iron so voted "other"

[thaimite]

I use Firefox because 3 years ago HSBC, my main bank, told me to use it if I wanted a less-troubled connection to their UK on-line banking.

Now another financial institution, the Post Office, tells me I have to use IE and FF does not work for them.

I guess this is f&ck-up theory rather than some money-spinning commission opportunity for the banks.

I do wish other web businesses would stop pushing their own versions once you have bought into Google for searches and Apple for i-Tunes. It's so boring having to remember not to waste time eg downloading updates for Safari when all you asked for is i-Tunes. Same thing for media albums - I've lost count of the number of applications that suddenly start trying to categorise every picture they can find on my hard drive - B$gg£r off!!

More likely because they are too lazy to ensure that their web pages work with all browsers and assume that everyone banking with them runs Windoze and are noi using Linux or a Mac so thus have access to IE.

For various reasons the web standards laid down by W3C have not always been adhered to by browser programmers leading to confusion and if you are designing a web page it makes sense to ensure it works with IE as that has been by far the most popular browser for a long time, even if doing so means not following the rules.

No browser is 100% compliant to the W3C standards but according to this article Firefox is the currently most compliant, however the scene is constantly changing

For cases that do not work in Firefox I use the IE tab extension, to open an IE tab in Firefox

[pampal]

1. Opera by far the fastest

2. FF 3.5.6 updated today

[dave_boo]

Well, I'm on Linux...but mostly I use elinks. If I need to view something that's not supported Opera gets fired up....

[craigt3365]

Using Chrome as first, Safari as second. I used to use FF until I found out what a CPU hog it is. Things run much faster in Chrome.

Exactly...and the bookmark manager is WAY better than Firefox. Have some issues with Chrome from time to time, but not many. Love it. I use to use FF all the time, but now just Chrome....

[SantiSuk]

I use Firefox because 3 years ago HSBC, my main bank, told me to use it if I wanted a less-troubled connection to their UK on-line banking.

Now another financial institution, the Post Office, tells me I have to use IE and FF does not work for them.

I guess this is f&ck-up theory rather than some money-spinning commission opportunity for the banks.

I do wish other web businesses would stop pushing their own versions once you have bought into Google for searches and Apple for i-Tunes. It's so boring having to remember not to waste time eg downloading updates for Safari when all you asked for is i-Tunes. Same thing for media albums - I've lost count of the number of applications that suddenly start trying to categorise every picture they can find on my hard drive - B$gg£r off!!

More likely because they are too lazy to ensure that their web pages work with all browsers and assume that everyone banking with them runs Windoze and are noi using Linux or a Mac so thus have access to IE.

For various reasons the web standards laid down by W3C have not always been adhered to by browser programmers leading to confusion and if you are designing a web page it makes sense to ensure it works with IE as that has been by far the most popular browser for a long time, even if doing so means not following the rules.

No browser is 100% compliant to the W3C standards but according to this article Firefox is the currently most compliant, however the scene is constantly changing

For cases that do not work in Firefox I use the IE tab extension, to open an IE tab in Firefox

Sounds worthwhile, but you need to add an extension and after 5 minutes of searching the Firefox add-ons home page for 'IE tab extension' or 'Internet Explorer tab extension' it was still unclear to me where this facility can be downloaded, so I gave up. Life's too short!

Thanks for the info anyway

[thaimite]

I use Firefox because 3 years ago HSBC, my main bank, told me to use it if I wanted a less-troubled connection to their UK on-line banking.

Now another financial institution, the Post Office, tells me I have to use IE and FF does not work for them.

I guess this is f&ck-up theory rather than some money-spinning commission opportunity for the banks.

I do wish other web businesses would stop pushing their own versions once you have bought into Google for searches and Apple for i-Tunes. It's so boring having to remember not to waste time eg downloading updates for Safari when all you asked for is i-Tunes. Same thing for media albums - I've lost count of the number of applications that suddenly start trying to categorise every picture they can find on my hard drive - B$gg£r off!!

More likely because they are too lazy to ensure that their web pages work with all browsers and assume that everyone banking with them runs Windoze and are noi using Linux or a Mac so thus have access to IE.

For various reasons the web standards laid down by W3C have not always been adhered to by browser programmers leading to confusion and if you are designing a web page it makes sense to ensure it works with IE as that has been by far the most popular browser for a long time, even if doing so means not following the rules.

No browser is 100% compliant to the W3C standards but according to this article Firefox is the currently most compliant, however the scene is constantly changing

For cases that do not work in Firefox I use the IE tab extension, to open an IE tab in Firefox

Sounds worthwhile, but you need to add an extension and after 5 minutes of searching the Firefox add-ons home page for 'IE tab extension' or 'Internet Explorer tab extension' it was still unclear to me where this facility can be downloaded, so I gave up. Life's too short!

Thanks for the info anyway

All you had to do was ask!

Here it is

[cdnvic]

Firefox with IEtab. Same on Linux without the IE addon.