best browser?

Mattus said:
Firefox: a great browser, especially for people who want extensibility
Chrome: a great browser, especially for people who want a simple interface and the last word in speed
Opera: a great browser, especially for people who want lots of functions built in
Safari: a great browser, especially for people who want speed within a nice UI
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All of them are good - they just have different strengths. In this case I'd say Chrome would be the best choice. Just anything other than IE.
 
I've used them all and the speed difference is pure placebo effect.

I'm currently on Firefox 2 with Adblock Plus and NoScript; minor things about FF 3 annoy me.

There is simply no reason whatsoever not to like Firefox.

Also using Thunderbird, NOD32 and Kerio Firewall 2.1.5.
 
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I used Firefox on my netbook and it was'nt very fast took a few seconds to load where Chrome is near instant and chrome is faster at browsing. IE8 is a bloated piece of .... from what i've seen.
 
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DIABLO said:
I used Firefox on my netbook and it was'nt very fast took a few seconds to load where Chrome is near instant and chrome is faster at browsing. IE8 is a bloated piece of .... from what i've seen.
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Yeah but Chrome doesn't have any of the awesome addons that Firefox does, if it did I wouldn't put up with the 10 second load Firefox takes on my (strangely decent) laptop. :o
 
Firefox (with IEtab and Adblock Plus) and Avira is the best free combo for browsing and AV, period.

paradigm said:
Firefox is bloody awful and I'll never switch to it.
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Ooh how about you give 10 solid reasons for why you think Firefox is "bloody awful". Should be interesting... :D
 
I switched from Firefox to IE a few weeks ago and I quite like it. It was protected mode that made me look into it, as I was happy with Firefox.

At first the "accelerators" were quite annoying but if you spend a few minutes turning off the junk you don't want you end up with a nice interface. And it's fast.

The only thing I miss is AdBlock plus, but to be honest it hasn't bothered me as much as I thought it would.
 
Richdog said:
Firefox (with IEtab and Adblock Plus) and Avira is the best free combo for browsing and AV, period.
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I think running your browser in a sandbox such as what Internet Explorer 7/8 does is a much better way to mitigate the risk of attacks. Admittedly, you have to be running Windows Vista but for those that are, I think it's a browser that should be taken into consideration instead of pushed to the side, which a lot of people still seem to do.
 
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It's pushed to the side because it's nowhere near as customiseable or well-featured as FF. With a good AV, firewall and SpywareBlaster, FF is as safe as any browser, and much more user friendly than IE imo.
 
Long time FF user here. Run ESNET Smart Security and Ad Block Plus too. Haven't tried Opera, Chrome, Iron or Safari - never any need to, with ADP FF does it all as far as I am concerned.

I am surprised at the amount of Chrome response though. I was personally put off by the 'tracking' element for Google, which I can see is one of the bonuses for Iron.
 
Apart from IE, I've only ever used FF and had no problems with it for years. Can't see any immediate reason to switch apart from curiosity really. FF does what I want, at a speed I can't complain.
 
For those running XP and not already running in a limited account who like the idea of running their web browser in "protected mode", I came across a tool the other week called DropMyRights that drops the privilege level of a process. You can read about it and download the .msi here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972827.aspx

Basically what it does is modify your user token, stripping out your administrator security identifiers and then launches the process effectively as a limited user. If your browser then gets compromised, you've got some good damage limitation in place.

This is very similar to the way protected mode in Vista works, except Vista works on a model of "integrity levels" of high, medium and low - with protected mode IE running as low.

The nice thing about this tool is that it works with Firefox (and any other browser too I suppose), and also email clients. I've only tried it myself over the course of a few hours and to be honest it put me off a little being written way back in 2004 but it seems to work with my Firefox/XP SP3. Your mileage may vary. :)

P.S. I don't wish to start another "running as admin" debate - it's just a tool - for the love of God just please take it or leave it. :D
 
DropMyRights is an effective alternative, as is PsExec.

If you're interested in DropMyRights, then the articles below are worth reading:

Every Windows XP user should drop their rights

DropMyRights part 2: Installing and configuring

DropMyRights part 3: Living with it

And:

Reducing browser privileges

It's a shame that things like this and just running with limited privileges isn't more widely advocated.

This isn't quite the same as Internet Explorer Protected Mode though. If an attacker manages to hijack the restricted process, then it still has the privileges of the user. Internet Explorer Protected Mode on the other hand, is running as a low integrity process meaning it only has access to specific locations.
 
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theheyes said:
I switched from Firefox to IE a few weeks ago and I quite like it. It was protected mode that made me look into it, as I was happy with Firefox.
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Other browsers can run in a poor man's 'Protected Mode'. [1] [2] [3]


theheyes said:
DropMyRights
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There is also MakeMeAdmin. The entire account runs as a limited user and individual apps are elevated as necessary. I ran like that before Vista and never encountered an application that couldn't run in that environment.
 
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