Best internet browser

KIA · 18 Dec 2013 at 16:55

Audigex said:
Firefox used to be king, with new features (like tabbed browsing) which we now take for granted. It also used to be a lot faster than IE. However, it also gets bloated faster than most other browsers, as soon as you start adding plugins. For web development it's probably still the best with great debugging tools.

It's so annoying having to restart the browser to use a new add-on. They need to get this changed.

Raumarik · 18 Dec 2013 at 17:02

This thread has made me want to look at Waterfox though, so that's a bonus

Blackjack Davy · 30 Dec 2013 at 18:37

Audigex said:
Firefox used to be king, with new features (like tabbed browsing) which we now take for granted.

Most of which were devloped by Opera first, its always puzzled me why Opera's developers never took action over it, some of the last versions of FF have looked so much like an Opera clone its laughable.

It also used to be a lot faster than IE. However, it also gets bloated faster than most other browsers, as soon as you start adding plugins. For web development it's probably still the best with great debugging tools.

That and extremely versatile plugins are the reason I still use despite using ridiculous amounts of RAM (500mb with just a couple of tabs open)

IE is still carrying a bad reputation from IE5-8 which were, frankly, woeful... slow, buggy and with security concerns by the bucketload. To be fair to it, the newer versions (10/11) are much improved, but I still don't trust the OS integration and I don't go back to a bad product just because it's pulled itself up to average.

It also has limited integration for plugins, its security features are just plain annoying (Active X filtering needs disabling for YouTube to work, etc.)

Chrome is the current king for most: it's usually fairly fast and lightweight and does the web browsing bit without a load of messing about you don't need. I switched as my primary browser when it first came out and haven't looked back since.

I dislike its privacy policy, and general secrecy over its code which make plugins not always 100% compatible.

Waterfox is a souped-up version of Firefox: I've not tried it, but most of what I've seen suggests that it's basically an optimised version of Firefox.

Might give it a go...

_lecro_ · 30 Dec 2013 at 22:09

Just installed waterfox and it does seem a bit faster than firefox
only problem is my afterburner display is showing up and i dont seem able to get rid of it

Macro · 31 Dec 2013 at 13:23

I've not used Chrome for a long time as I dislike their privacy policies, however I thought I'd give it a go and see how things have changed. I have to admit, the experience has been kinda "meh" when compared to IE11. I really can't tell any difference in speed, I have adblock and tracking lists on IE and it syncs my favourites and open tabs across all my machines so Chrome has been taken off again.

I keep Firefox for a back up and it I want to **** about with scripts etc but despite it not being the trendy thing to say I don't see much reason not to carry on using IE11 tbh. Would I change to it if I was a die hard Google fan or Firefox user, maybe not but otherwise IE seems to do what it says on the tin well.

OspreyO · 8 Feb 2014 at 14:33

Macro said:
I've not used Chrome for a long time as I dislike their privacy policies, however I thought I'd give it a go and see how things have changed. I have to admit, the experience has been kinda "meh" when compared to IE11. I really can't tell any difference in speed, I have adblock and tracking lists on IE and it syncs my favourites and open tabs across all my machines so Chrome has been taken off again.

I keep Firefox for a back up and it I want to **** about with scripts etc but despite it not being the trendy thing to say I don't see much reason not to carry on using IE11 tbh. Would I change to it if I was a die hard Google fan or Firefox user, maybe not but otherwise IE seems to do what it says on the tin well.

I'm getting to agree with your opinion. I'm getting really miffed with the amount of information google is trying to harvest all the time. Also I really have a problem with how they want to join up all your accounts across different apps and accounts.

I use IE11 all the time at work. Don't have a problem with it. I've been trying the Opera 19 and its like Chrome without all the data harvesting.

I use firefox but it seems a lot slower and glitchy compared to other browsers.

arc@css · 8 Feb 2014 at 14:37

I've been using chrome for a little while and I like it. In my experience, I'd say it's pretty close between firefox and chrome - I changed to chrome since ff seemed to have a consistent run of irregularities, at least for a while. I've also downloaded waterfox, though I've yet to try it out. I think I will.

Rainmaker · 8 Feb 2014 at 15:46

As Duke said it's more likely a dodgy addon or profile corruption. Recent versions of Firefox are really well optimised and are outperforming Chrome in memory use and speed benchmarks, though in many ways it's tit-for-tat. That doesn't change the fact that Firefox is way better and leaner than it used to be, though. A profile reset (with your data backed up) is worth a try.

If you want the 'best' browser, it's horses for courses as many have said. However I would say give Maxthon a try as it outclasses Chrome in speed, FPS, rendering and HTML5 but it doesn't have the amount of addons in the Windows version. Maxthon uses Trident (IE) and Webkit (Chrome/Safari) rendering engines in tandem and is very well optimised. Personally I flit between browsers but Firefox is best for us.

OspreyO · 10 Feb 2014 at 10:33

OspreyO said:
I.... I've been trying the Opera 19 and its like Chrome without all the data harvesting...

Discovered that the new Opera until recently had no bookmarks. They've added back the toolbar but with very limited functionality. Bit of a deal breaker that.

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Feb 2014 at 11:01

There is nothing wrong with IE. It's what I use on Windows systems but Safari on OSX.

Antar Bolaeisk · 10 Feb 2014 at 12:30

OspreyO said:
Discovered that the new Opera until recently had no bookmarks. They've added back the toolbar but with very limited functionality. Bit of a deal breaker that.

I've found myself going back to Opera despite all the items and behaviours I miss since they moved over to the chromium backend. I oscillated between firefox and chrome for a while but found they did things just slightly differently from the way I liked.

I just wish Opera would bring back ctrl-z for undoing a closed tab (oh, and all the other bits and pieces they had as well).