Poll: Which browser should I use?

[Zyst]

If you are in Software Engineering when you see web application creation you will understand why the geeks have hated IE for years.

Overall I like chrome, it runs on all my platforms, runs in a virtual box so it's amazing against viruses, it's quite lightweight and overall fast.

Besides, I'm a sucker for Google. But as it has been said, IE9 isn't THAT much of a wreck ball, they certainly got things a little bit better.

But how did you NOT get laughed out of your classroom the first day at College in Software Engineering? One of my teachers kicked one of the students out of his classroom because he used Windows, and asked him not to go back until he had a decent distro installed, I tremble at the thought of using IE.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

My grandmother still uses Netscape of all things.

Netscape.

 

[halfeclipse]

Thanks guys, good points! I've heard the argument that Firefox is better because it's open source so has few to no bugs and someone's always come up saying it has heaps so I've always been wary, not to mention the aforementioned egotism surrounding the idea, although that's died down since it started.

I've thought of Chrome, it seems pretty good but I feel as if Google is forcing it on me. Google is SUPER slow just to get results that you can click on and Youtube occasionally stops working for no reason, I just get a white space with an encircled exclamation mark where my movie should be. These are the only two websites that I find run badly on IE so it seems really fishy to me...

Anyways, at the time of writing, Firefox and Chrome are tied as the browser to go for, with Opera the only other contender. It interests me, I would've thought at least someone on a Mac would have voted by now, unless they think those are better than Safari anyway.

IE will have as many bugs as firefox, possibly more, you can just find out about firefox's because it's open source. Bit of a trade off there, Firefox's exploits will be more visible to those who would use them but they get patched very fast, where as IEs will be less visible but can take months to patch.

Chrome is my suggestion however. Nice and speedy, fairly minimalist, and damn near impossible to crash. Failing that; IE over firefox atm. Security wise they're fairly comparable, and firefox has turned into a pile of bloat.

 

[Davey Woo]

I use Internet Explorter, I have no issues with it, and don't really understand why people complain about it. From what I've seen all the browsers are the same, because when one comes up with an interesting new feature, the others just copy it.

 

[xGraeme63x]

I use IE. I don't mind it. I prefer it because of the favorites bar. I'm able to adjust the size of the links. It's the only reason I use it. If you don't care about that then I guess use another browser.

 

[Pinkamena]

Doesn't matter much anymore. They're all equally good, and it comes down to personal taste. Me, I use Opera since that's what I'm used to, and it have a lot of options.

 

[Winthrop]

Firefox got a little bloated. Longer load times than anything else from my experience. IE crashes when I change the page nowadays so I'd say Chrome.

 

[jklinders]

I use Firefox personally.

I keep hearing Chrome is good. But Google sees enough of what I do anyway. I don't need to invite them in for the whole freaking show.

 

[Rule Britannia]

Here are the main reasons I use Google Chrome: (the fourth one is my favourite)

You can "google" stuff in the address bar when you use google chrome.
Google Chrome doesn't use up as much CPU.
Google Chrome's app store is really cool
Google Chrome has adblock.

Not intentionally advertising the app :/ sorry escapist :/

 

[Edible Avatar]

Prepare yourselves Escapists, what follows may shock you.

I'm still using Internet Explorer.

Now, you can call me a moron all you like but you better tell that to my Chemical Engineering, Software Engineering and Mathematics lectureres because they seem to think I'm on the ball. I just haven't really heard a good enough reason to change to anything else (or rather I've heard NO reasons to change other than "IE sucks") and there's so much hype and egotism surrounding other browsers that I don't much want to relate myself to them. My own sister talks about every opinion she has with such piety that I take solace in the fact that something so insignificant as what browser I use can anger her every time she goes to use my computer and I can just shrug.

But anyway, my point is, Escapist community, I would like to know what browser you use, why you use it and if you know any technical reasons why IE is as bad as everyone says it is I may consider changing. Please be adults, I don't care if you think you're better than me because you changed to Firefox back in 2004, I think I'm better than you because I can turn my legs so my feet make a reflex angle, so we're just as petty as each other. Nor will saying "IE sux u is dum noob" garner any respect. If you have actual reasons for why IE sucks, tell me in a proper and concise manner.

So, let me know!

Google chrome is a resource whore. Yep, i said it. IE uses around 90,000k (in 2 processes) when processing this page while google chrome uses a astonishing 200,000k (in 7 processes)! I have a VERY slow computer so i need all the memory i can get to make basic games playable, so sometimes it is a issue for me. I still use google because it's flash programs are self updating and better, plus you cant beat it's speed.
So yeah...my 2 cents.

 

[evilneko]

Pfft, Opera is way better than J-Lo.

--------------------

google chrome opens up several times to ensure that if a tab crashes it doesnt crash the whole browser. on the other hand it crashes flash with this method.

opera is the most innovative but only a few really use it (which is a shame)

internet explorer is geting a bit better but still misses many crutial points. plus the user interface could be improved a lot.

firefox has become a add on frankenstein. but it is somewhat reliable. and it gets slower with time but i hardly had a application chrash.


in short. they all kind of suck in one way or another. perhaps you might want to install them and see which one works for you.

i know this is a shitty answer but people will tell you that firefox and chrome are the best browsers ever.

 

[nifedj]

I'm on a Mac, and Safari works best for me. I think some of the things I most like about it are only available on a Mac though - the way full-screen is integrated into the OS and the touch gestures. I'd go for Chrome on Windows, or as my second choice on a Mac. I used to use Firefox, and I still like it, but now that there are other browsers with plenty of customisability I kind of feel it's lost its USP. I like having extensions/add-ons, but running too many just slows you down and becomes more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Philol]

I've had both Firefox and Chrome, Firefox broke on my first use of it, but chrome has not failed me yet.

 

[halfeclipse]

Prepare yourselves Escapists, what follows may shock you.

I'm still using Internet Explorer.

Now, you can call me a moron all you like but you better tell that to my Chemical Engineering, Software Engineering and Mathematics lectureres because they seem to think I'm on the ball. I just haven't really heard a good enough reason to change to anything else (or rather I've heard NO reasons to change other than "IE sucks") and there's so much hype and egotism surrounding other browsers that I don't much want to relate myself to them. My own sister talks about every opinion she has with such piety that I take solace in the fact that something so insignificant as what browser I use can anger her every time she goes to use my computer and I can just shrug.

But anyway, my point is, Escapist community, I would like to know what browser you use, why you use it and if you know any technical reasons why IE is as bad as everyone says it is I may consider changing. Please be adults, I don't care if you think you're better than me because you changed to Firefox back in 2004, I think I'm better than you because I can turn my legs so my feet make a reflex angle, so we're just as petty as each other. Nor will saying "IE sux u is dum noob" garner any respect. If you have actual reasons for why IE sucks, tell me in a proper and concise manner.

So, let me know!

Google chrome is a resource whore. Yep, i said it. IE uses around 90,000k (in 2 processes) when processing this page while google chrome uses a astonishing 200,000k (in 7 processes)! I have a VERY slow computer so i need all the memory i can get to make basic games playable, so sometimes it is a issue for me. I still use google because it's flash programs are self updating and better, plus you cant beat it's speed.
So yeah...my 2 cents.

Resource hog with a reason. It's tabs are actually multiple instances of the program which increases the system resources needed but means one shitty webpage won't nuke your whole browser.

 

[Nyaliva]

But how did you NOT get laughed out of your classroom the first day at College in Software Engineering? One of my teachers kicked one of the students out of his classroom because he used Windows, and asked him not to go back until he had a decent distro installed, I tremble at the thought of using IE.

Despite what people think, we Software Engineers don't communicate entirely about computers and we don't judge people's standing based on their choice in internet browser and OS. I mentioned it to a friend and he was like "Eh...it was really bad a while ago, I changed to Firefox ages ago but I use Opera now mainly. I'm not sure if it's gotten any better though." which is where I found out about Opera. Besides which Software's only my minor so people don't expect me to be Captain Linux (that would be my friend).

But that teacher sounds harsh, I can't stand people like that. I mean if he was fourth year Software who had to program a lot in PERL or something I might understand but if it was just the teacher's personal standing then that's the perfect example of the kind of people I resent surrounding this type of question.

My grandmother still uses Netscape of all things.

Netscape.

This made me LOL so hard! Are you absolutely serious?

 

[Zyst]

But how did you NOT get laughed out of your classroom the first day at College in Software Engineering? One of my teachers kicked one of the students out of his classroom because he used Windows, and asked him not to go back until he had a decent distro installed, I tremble at the thought of using IE.

Despite what people think, we Software Engineers don't communicate entirely about computers and we don't judge people's standing based on their choice in internet browser and OS. I mentioned it to a friend and he was like "Eh...it was really bad a while ago, I changed to Firefox ages ago but I use Opera now mainly. I'm not sure if it's gotten any better though." which is where I found out about Opera. Besides which Software's only my minor so people don't expect me to be Captain Linux (that would be my friend).

But that teacher sounds harsh, I can't stand people like that. I mean if he was fourth year Software who had to program a lot in PERL or something I might understand but if it was just the teacher's personal standing then that's the perfect example of the kind of people I resent surrounding this type of question.

My grandmother still uses Netscape of all things.

Netscape.

This made me LOL so hard! Are you absolutely serious?

We were in second year of computer science, and there's no colleges in Mexico, only Universities, so you go in and study only 1 thing. There are areas of specialization though, like, "Software Engineering", "Topography" and so on. I'm going to the Software Engineering focus area, but when you get to that point you're pretty much done programming you just learn how to program OS and get some insane algorithm classes.

 

[mcattack92]

I currently use Chrome. It boots and runs a lot faster than Firefox and a lot faster than IE. I haven't had many problems with it compare to IE and Firefox.

 

[Yopaz]

Now I use chrome because of the url bar acting as a search bar for various websites. So now, instead of going to wikipedia (or amazon, or various other websites), I start typing in 'wiki-', chrome autocompletes wikipedia.org, and then I hit tab and start typing in my search.

Huh, that's really neat. Thanks.

Opera does this too, but you also got a separate bar for your favourite search engine. Even Internet explorer does this as well as Chrome does. What I dislike about Chrome is that when you want to google something and you start clicking yourself through a lot of pages you have to type in the search all over again or press back until you get to the search results since the same bar used for searches is also for web adresses. It's not practical.

OT:
Chrome currently got best support for HTML5, while IE got pretty crappy support along with Safari.

Internet explorer currently got the best Java support according to one test and pretty bad in another test. and the least memory usage for one tab while Firefox and Chrome are just a little behind and Opera is by far the worst. For 5 tabs Chrome and Firefox are almost equal and Safari and IE are just a small step behind.

For 30 tabs Safari is by far superior to all other browsers, but personally I don't see a need for that many tabs.

This test is about one year old so it might not be comletely accurate, but all of the test data are objective and not based on what I prefer. Internet Explorer got some problems, but it's not far behind in any case. I'd say you should just go with whatever you prefer. The functions and design is what wins me over anyway.