# What is your preferred PC-based browser?



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Hmmmm..... with so many choices out there.... it's so hard to choose. It would be interesting to see which browser DBS Talkers like to use. Thus the poll. I believe that I got all of the rendering engines out there.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Running Firefox 3.0.5 on all machines here...


----------



## Game Fan (Sep 8, 2007)

Firefox 3.0.5 on my laptop.


----------



## bidger (Nov 19, 2005)

I started using Moz FF in 2004 and never found a reason to look elsewhere.


----------



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

FF 3.05 here. I have used Opera in the past, but not lately. The only time I use IE is when the web site demands it due to nonstandard (read Microsoft FontPage) code.


----------



## brant (Jul 6, 2008)

safari for me.

i have IE and firefox also, but i really like the safari browser. 

internet for me is pretty much a couple of chat forums and manufacturer websites for the products i install, and ebay.


----------



## music_beans (Mar 21, 2003)

Me, I use Firefox all the way. Right now, Im using 3.0, but I may try out 3.1 beta soon.


----------



## Hansen (Jan 1, 2006)

I started using IE8 Beta 2 a couple months ago and really like it a lot. Big improvements over IE7.


----------



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

I keep flip-flopping between the latest FF "Shiretoko" beta (now at 3.1b3pre), Chrome and Opera 10. They're all quite good, IMHO. It's an embarrassment of riches.  /steve


----------



## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

95% of the time it is IE8, i also have google chrome loaded on my 2 main machines....

i have no experience at all with firefox.


----------



## waynebtx (Dec 24, 2006)

Had voted TE but just switch to firefox 4.0 sweet.


----------



## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

Running Firefox 3.0.5


----------



## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Safari, except for the few sites which won't handle it (Firefox in those cases).


----------



## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

Firefox 3 and IE7


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

I've been playing around with Chronium, and it seem to be speedy in rendering web pages. However, since I develop a website which can be accessed by state employees, I still have to maintain that IE6 compatibility.


----------



## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

As someone else put it, right now it is an embarassment of riches.. Currently my primary PC is running the newest version of IE8 Beta.

In the early phases of IE8 Beta, I ran FireFox as a backup and I have always found FireFox to be a good product. My backup PC is currently running FireFox, Chrome and IE7... all are adequate to the task.

I am starting to enjoy some of the new features in IE8 as they mature and have become useful and the final beta before release will come in January 2009, and will be finalized iin plenty of time for the release of Windows 7.


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

Firefox 3.0.5 here. Chrome, IE7/8 and Opera all have nice features, but none offer the selection of addons that FF has available.


----------



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Ken S said:


> Firefox 3.0.5 here. Chrome, IE7/8 and Opera all have nice features, but none offer the selection of addons that FF has available.


Curious what add-ons you like. I don't find "vanilla" Chrome, Opera or FF really lacking any features, so I'm wondering what I'm missing out on!  TIA. /steve


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

I stick with Firefox (flavor of the day) .. I'm running 3.1Beta at the moment @ home and 3.0.5 @ work. I haven't even downloaded/used Google Chrome as FF is exactly what I want. I've tried Opera & Safari briefly but will not try them again.

I also use Thunderbird for E-mail (except at Work where Outlook is the only option) .. So I guess I'm partial to the Mozilla folks


----------



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

If you use a laptop without a lot of vertical screen real estate, especially the wide-screen models, Chrome seems to make the best use of whatever space is available. Tabs are high up on the screen and the bookmarks/links bar can be set to only display on blank pages. So with Chrome, you see more of the page than any other browser.

Also, as expected, Google has merged the Search and Address bars into one from a functional standpoint. Start typing a URL (or any word or phrase) and you're instantly presented with loads of suggestions that aren't just from your history cache.

/steve


----------



## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

I mostly use FF 3.0.5, but this thread made me curious about Minefield...

WOW!! Minefield IS FAST!!! Holy crap!


----------



## B Newt (Aug 12, 2007)

I use Seamonky. It use to be called Mozilla browser. I like Seamonky because of the built in spell checker and built in email/newsgroup service.


----------



## B Newt (Aug 12, 2007)

I use Seamonky. It use to be called Mozilla browser. I like Seamonky because of the built in spell checker and built in email/newsgroup service.


----------



## Sirshagg (Dec 30, 2006)

Once Roboform works with Chrome I see no reason to use anything else. Till then it's IE7


----------



## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

Internet Exploder 7...


----------



## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

IE7 - I have several thin-client apps that won't work in anything else, and I'm too lazy to use different browsers. I'm not too worried about security as about the only place I visit is DBSTalk!


----------



## Rob-NovA (Jan 10, 2008)

FF 3.0.5 here on all machines. The recent zero-day for IE finally convinced my wife to switch after resisting for a long time. If I need IE functionality, I run the IETab extension in Firefox.


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Hmmm.... I don't see why anyone wouldn't have Firefox installed along with Internet Exploder. It's a free download. Throw in Chrome and Opera as well, they're free downloads. 

My primary drive is still stuck on IE6, primarily because I still need to keep a site accessable to IE6 users from the state for a non profit. My games drive and my laptop is on IE7, while my Vista 64-bit is at IE8beta2.


----------



## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

I'm still running IE6 at work, because I like the full-screen view and I don't care about tabs.

However, since the update to this site, I'm not getting the preview thread pop-ups. Could it be because I'm still running IE6?

Using IE7 at home, just because it came already on the computer--I'd rather have IE6.


----------



## Sirshagg (Dec 30, 2006)

Charise said:


> However, since the update to this site, I'm not getting the preview thread pop-ups. Could it be because I'm still running IE6?


I believe they are currently disabled due to some sort of issue.


----------



## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

Sirshagg said:


> I believe they are currently disabled due to some sort of issue.


Thanks for the answer! I like them, so noticed their absence.


----------



## Sirshagg (Dec 30, 2006)

me too


----------



## netconcepts (Jan 20, 2007)

Firefox with ie-tab snap in, to handle all those pesky active-x pages.


----------



## Milkman (Dec 6, 2006)

WHERE IS LYNX???

lol


----------



## Rob-NovA (Jan 10, 2008)

Milkman said:


> WHERE IS LYNX???
> 
> lol


Probably in the same place as vi/vim... (I'm not gonna start a emacs/vi war here! )


----------



## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

Firefox 3.1beta as the primary with IE7 as a back-up browser.

I have also started to play a bit with Google Chrome but that is just now and then..


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

On the new, beta version of FF, is the Google search bar in the upper right corner absent? I thought I read that Mozilla removed that for some reason, which would suck. I love having that there.

I use FF but hate when on some sites I visit, FF is out of whack, meaning parts of the text are jumbled up or squished together, and this occurs without me changing font or text size settings. I always have to go to IE, then, to be able to read those sites.


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

As you can see by the beta and minefield screenshots, the search bar is still there. However, you can drag it off the screen if you want it to disappear entirely.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

So Minefield is made by Mozilla, too, huh? What are some of the differences, then, between it and FF? Any preferences you may have over one or the other?


----------



## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Lord Vader said:


> I use FF but hate when on some sites I visit, FF is out of whack, meaning parts of the text are jumbled up or squished together, and this occurs without me changing font or text size settings. I always have to go to IE, then, to be able to read those sites.


This problem generally occurs on sites that use Microsoft's Front Page, which unfortunately generates some nonstandard markup code. The same problem manifests itself when you use Opera on those sites.


----------



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> So Minefield is made by Mozilla, too, huh? What are some of the differences, then, between it and FF? Any preferences you may have over one or the other?


I believe Minefield offers a smaller memory footprint for the same pages, much faster Javascript execution and a stealth browsing mode, which has become a browser "must" since Google was the first to formally implement the concept in Chrome (incognito mode).

For those that don't know about stealth/incognito mode, you can now browse in a fashion where no "footprints" are left locally on your computer (History, Cookies, cache). As far as the sites you visit, tho, there's little difference. Your IP address is known, as always.

/steve


----------



## Pinion413 (Oct 21, 2007)

Firefox 3.0 for the most part. 

I do find myself using Chrome quite a bit here and there lately though. I mainly use it in combination with Google Reader for my RSS feeds, set to the homepage.


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Lord Vader said:


> So Minefield is made by Mozilla, too, huh? What are some of the differences, then, between it and FF? Any preferences you may have over one or the other?


Minefield _is_ Firefox, however, it is a experimental version of Firefox (thus the Minefield name). Consider it bleeding edge technology. They even warn you that you can lose your profile. There is a way to set it up so that Minefield is in it's own profile, and I even have it configured so that Firefox and Minefield can run at the same time.

Use at own risk.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Steve said:


> I believe Minefield offers a smaller memory footprint for the same pages, much faster Javascript execution and a stealth browsing mode, which has become a browser "must" since Google was the first to formally implement the concept in Chrome (incognito mode).
> 
> For those that don't know about stealth/incognito mode, you can now browse in a fashion where no "footprints" are left locally on your computer (History, Cookies, cache). As far as the sites you visit, tho, there's little difference. Your IP address is known, as always.
> 
> /steve


It would appear that Minefield is only in beta right now, not officially yet released. Is that correct?


----------



## jimstolz76 (Dec 28, 2008)

Lord Vader said:


> It would appear that Minefield is only in beta right now, not officially yet released. Is that correct?


I don't think you'll ever see Minefield as a replacement for Firefox or anything like that. It's more like a testing grounds or a permanent beta test.

I've been running Minefield on my Intel iMac for over a year now (I think). I even found a specific build for the Intel mac that was much faster than either Firefox (which is a PowerPC build) and the standard Minefield.

Like I said, been using it for months. No problems here.


----------



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> It would appear that Minefield is only in beta right now, not officially yet released. Is that correct?


Based on this, it looks like they're shooting for a release candidate in February. Features have been frozen for a couple of months. /steve


----------



## fwlogue (Dec 6, 2006)

Firefox 3 and Chrome here. Primarily Firefox


----------



## Draconis (Mar 16, 2007)

Firefox 3.0.5 here, the primary reason is that I *LOVE* the Adblock extension.


----------



## max1 (Aug 12, 2005)

I like internet explorer the best. It works great for me. All though I do like using the Aol Browser. Max.


----------



## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

FF 3.05


----------



## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Very happy with Firefox 3.0.5, but sometimes use IE7 for sites that seem to hiccup with FF.


----------



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Thought I would bump the thread for the results.


----------

