warning Geek related question :P

[Nilk]

which browser, is best?
I won't say what actions, I am willing to go through with, since I am afraid of my xp key code getting rebuked, when I restart my comp.
I'm not even sure what I'm looking for in browsers, but if y'all will list your favorites and why, perhaps I will let you guide me

[insaneferret]

i think internet explorer with the google toolbar is best, a simple app that does what it does well, with no hiccups

the only other real choice is mozilla, the alternative browser, it boasts tabbed browsing, pop up blocking, e-mail client, downloading utility and a slew of other features.

netscape navigator is just a rebranded version of mozilla, so sorta redundant getting that

however, the internet is designed to be viewed through internet explorer, and there are loads of incompatibilities everywhere, things will look funny or out of alignment, and you will need to download plugins for dozens of the things that IE does smoothly, but some people swear by mozilla, i thought mozilla was bloated with unnecesary features

there is another browser called opera, i've never tried it, but i havent heard good things, lots of incompatibilities

if you dont know what youre looking for, and really dont seem to have any problem with internet explorer, then why change? i'd say download mozilla or other browsers, give it a try, you may like it, but internet explorer works fine

[Ghryphen]

Opera is nice, I used it for a while, though they had a bloated slow build at one time and I have never been back.

Firefox is pretty good, plugins install as easily as Internet Explorer. The tabbed browsing and menu's could use work.

Another great option is Avant browser, it uses the Internet Explorer engine but adds a ton of features, like tabbed browsing, popup blocking, ad removal. The tabbed browsing is what I like most, it works the best of any tabbed browser I have used. I don't like their google bar implementation though, and the regular Google bar doesn't work well with it.

My best preference is Internet Explorer with Google toolbar, attached is how I have mine setup, very minimal impact area, it is the browser I aways come back to after messing with others for a while.

[Nilk]

yea currently using IE with Earthlink tool bar, covers everything from pop-ups, to scamblocker. Google's my homepage anyways, I'm just curiouus, of what else is out there, and whether its worth changing over.

oh and for some silly reason my favorites have completely changed(lost a few) and NONE of my cookies will keep

[Ghryphen]

Yeah, I have seen that Earthlink toolbar, Earthlink has a habbit of hijacking the IE's icons, titles and such. Really annoying imho. I would clear all your cookies and start fresh, imho get rid of the earthlink stuff too. Though the Google bar is good for searching, it isn't what I use it mostly for, mostly it is a good popup blocker and I use the word highlight and search a lot.

[Squeeky]

I am a huge FireFox fanboi. It's not for everyone, but it's the browser of my dreams :-D

Atleast try it out.

[FaLLGuY]

no thanks...

[Stang]

[Maz]

wake up stang

[Stang]

I can't too boring of subject

[Gambit]

I use Firefox. It's a mini-mozilla; doesn't have the email and stuff that some people, like me, think of as bloat. However, "the internet was designed for IE" is a blatantly incorrect statement, Ferret!

Let me share some of the reasons I prefer Firefox to IE:
1. Sites have the ability to collect your email addy and certain other information from your system, if you use IE and a MS mail reader like outlook express.
2. IE has the ability to run ActiveX controls. Meaning that a malicious site admin or a virus can basically run anything they want on your computer. Yes, you can turn that off in the security settings, but then you can't see Flash sigs and such! Another alternative is to have it prompt you every time it wants to display an ActiveX control. That gets annoying quick. Mozilla/Firefox has plugins that you can install with a click; one of them is a .SWF player.
3. Mozilla/Firefox has lots o' plugins. There's plugins to help you with your tabbed browsing issues, Gryph - I personally LOVE tabbed browsing. There's plugins that let you NOT play a SWF unless you click on it (hide those annoying advertisements). There's plugins that let you remove any object from a rendered page (poof goes that annoying advert). There's also a setting, not sure if it's a plugin or not, that lets you control the number of times an animated .gif plays (0, 1, continuous, or author-specified). I use all of these to control my browser experience.
4. There are a couple configuration files, kind of like a client-side CSS file, that further lets you control how you want things to look or act.


In general, I don't like the tight integration of IE with the OS. So I wanted a non-IE solution. I looked at a few and settled on Firefox. There are one or two sites I hit occasionally that I need to use IE for, but other than that it's FF exclusively.