Which Browser should I use?

[sbrylski]

I've used Firefox, but for whatever reason it started running super slow on me even after I uninstalled and reinstalled. Then I moved on to Opera, but there's a few things I don't like about it.

 

What other browser's out there would you recommend? I'd be fine with just continuing to use Opera, but I'm itching to try something new...

[temke]

have you tried running firefox with the adbock plus feature?

 

i dont even realize that some sites have so many ads until i use someone else's computer.

 

i swear by firefox

[1992casey]

Sam, usually when Firefox starts acting up, it's the result of a bad profile rather than a bad installation. Here are some links you can look through.

• How To Manage Profiles (mozilla.org)
• Profile Folder (mozillazine)
• Migrating settings to a new profile

One of them gets into stuff about using the Profile Manager. I remember that you use Windows. In that OS, with Firefox exited, I generally drag the Mozilla Folder from Application Data to the desktop. Doing that will cause Firefox to create a new profile the next time it's run. Note that if you're using Thunderbird, that stuff will probably also be in the Mozilla folder. If so, I'd consider the Profile Manager route.

 

Your old profile will contain files, such as bookmarks, that you may like to restore. Keep in mind that one of the old files might be contributing to your slowness, though. I generally use the import function to get my old bookmarks into my new profile, then set up the rest from scratch.

 

EDIT: Safari is now available for Windows.

[berniebrewer4life]

Opera is my main man. I really like it.

[Chio151]

Well, if you want a standards-compliant browser, use Firefox/Opera/Safari. IE7 is now much better as well. Do NOT use IE6 or below. They should be banned from the web.

 

Personally I use Firefox because of the gigantic developer network and an add-on for anything you can think of. Plus, the open source feel just makes it feel more 'pure'.

[sbrylski]

Thanks Casey. And Chio, I definately won't be using IE6!

[Team Canada]

What things don't you like about Opera?

[Patrick425]

I have always been mainly an IE user. Based on this thread I started using Firefox. It appears to be slightly more stable and quicker than IE, but nothing that significant, but I'm continuing to use it. There are some things that from IE that I miss with Firefox.

 

1) Sometimes I accidentally close the browser when I really mean to just close the current tab. IE always asks me if I really want to close the entire browser.

2) IE offered the option to remember my password when I typed my ID in or even autocompleted the ID when I typed the first few letters. I only used this for web sites without any personal sensitive information attached to it (i.e. my son's webgrader page)

 

Is there some sort of setting in Firefox that will give me these functions?

 

Edit: Ok, I probably should have done a little exploring (pardon the pun) in Firefox before posting this. I found the "close multiple tabs warning" setting. However, the only thing I could find for passwords was a setting to remember passwords. I don't want to remember all password, only for some site. I would like it to ask me each time I first enter an ID and password.

[endaround]

At this point I wouldn't recommend Firefox. Its become really bloated and a memory hog. I think IE is better right now but still it has its security issues. Go with Google Chrome and be amazed and how much faster the internet can be.

[RightFieldCoder]

Firefox was great when upgrading from IE6. Now Firefox is pretty much even with IE7+. I still use Firefox at home, but I also use Chrome at work. I still need IE for certain websites.

[Invader3K]

At this point I wouldn't recommend Firefox. Its become really bloated and a memory hog. I think IE is better right now but still it has its security issues. Go with Google Chrome and be amazed and how much faster the internet can be.

I've been using Chrome as my main browser on all my computers again. I really like it, and am not having the problems I had with certain webpages that I used to. It's faster than Firefox or IE.

[1992casey]

1) Sometimes I accidentally close the browser when I really mean to just close the current tab. IE always asks me if I really want to close the entire browser.

 

I don't know if Firefox specifically can specifically warn about quitting the application, but it seems that the harm done would be in losing multiple tabs. There are two things you can adjust in your Firefox preferences (Tools-Options in Windows, Firefox-Preferences in OS X, Edit-Preferences in Linux).

1. Under the Tabs tab, check the "Warn me when closing multiple tabs" option.

   http://images.yuku.com/image/png/0e635b785b484897521d436b0b2254480657cb6.png

   Once that's checked, when you close a window that has multiple tabs open, you'll be warned that you're about to close multiple tabs via a Confirm Close dialog.

   http://images.yuku.com/image/png/97d253c5cf4d75994810ccbcc02e2b60d05932d.png

2. In the General tab, set "Show my windows and tabs from last time" as your startup preference.

   http://images.yuku.com/image/png/2d825185c44f357340f037f8ea714c76695e005.png

 

2) IE offered the option to remember my password when I typed my ID in or even autocompleted the ID when I typed the first few letters. I only used this for web sites without any personal sensitive information attached to it (i.e. my son's webgrader page)

 

Under the Security tab, check the "Remember passwords for sites" box.

http://images.yuku.com/image/png/ebc350f154ab475651ba4ac40c862da4fff01ed.png%20style=

If you'd like to set a master password, check the box for that. It might be a good security measure.

For what it's worth, there's quite a bit of more recent web browser discussion in this topic:

 

What's your primary web browser?