Browser wars Firefox, Chrome, IE and the rest

[Kym]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/mozilla-firefox-browser-chrome-internet-explorer,15173.html


Mozilla has turned Firefox around. These numbers don't lie.

For the web browser, 2011 was an astonishing year. Google fundamentally changed our perception of what a web browser is and what it should do. According to StatCounter, Chrome gained 42.5 percent market share or 11.59 points, while IE lost 19.0 percent or 7.35 points, and Firefox lost 21.4 percent or 5.4 points. (For the remainder of this article I will only consider data provided by StatCounter, as it is the most comprehensive browser market share data set that is freely accessible.) You can love or hate Chrome, but there is little denying that Google's Chrome strategy, a combination of rapid browser development, convenient software delivery through silent updates, backwards compatibility, quick security fixes, and high-profile advertising, is working quite well.

http://media.bestofmicro.com/firefox,8-D-330781-3.jpg

Use Firefox, Chrome or whatever, just get rid of Internet Explorer :D

[OzzieTraveller]

Thanks Kym

Quite happy with F-fox ...
Very not happy with "anytime when in email I click on a link in an incoming message, bloody IE comes up" with multiple window images asking me to use it for this link & make it the default browser. I'm sick & bloody tired of the damn thing

Regards, Phil

[NoSideshow]

I can remember what it was like when one used Netscape on a Unix workstation, and its been downhill ever since. No ads, truth in searching (no fancy, commercial algorithm) and search results were accurate and not massaged according to how much ad money you spent.

Right now it sucks. I'm stll a fan of Firefox and as for Chrome, its so tainted by commercial interest, I deleted it.

What happened to Opera? That was like when Google just got started and it was simple.

[ameerat42]

Phil. That's because you have IE set as you default browser, or I'm a goose/duck/sausage. Make FFOX your default browser.

2 c how, look here.

Am.

[mongo]

....Use Firefox, Chrome or whatever, just get rid of Internet Explorer :D

MOngo agrees !

However, since starting to use a Mac this year, MOngo has not bothered to go back to FF. He is using Mac's Safari. Unless Mongo is wrong, Safari appears about the same speed as FF. Can anyone give me their experience about this because if MOngo is wrong, he will go back to FF.

[WhoDo]

However, since starting to use a Mac this year, MOngo has not bothered to go back to FF. He is using Mac's Safari. Unless Mongo is wrong, Safari appears about the same speed as FF. Can anyone give me their experience about this because if MOngo is wrong, he will go back to FF.
I don't believe Mongo is wrong! My experience (at least with these browsers - not with food sources) mirrors his! Haven't bothered with anything but Safari since switching to Mac. :cool:

[Ezookiel]

I had to stop using IE when it stopped working with a 4wd forum I'm on. The main menu is a mouseover thing that drops down "New Posts, My Posts, Unread" etc etc. I used ONLY that menu to browse nearly the entire forum, so I had no choice but to go to FF when IE wouldn't do the mouseover. I've used FF ever since.

[Art Vandelay]

What's the problem with explorer these days ?

I've been through a circle over the years of IE, netscape, firefox, chrome & the latest IE versions seem quite ok so just use them as is. What am I overlooking ?

[Kym]

IE9 is ok, but because of its architecture is a much higher risk.
Plus, do you really trust microsnot?

[Art Vandelay]

Plus, do you really trust microsnot?

No hahaha,

But the more time goes on the more I'm not liking the power google is getting either.

Maybe firefox is worth a look again.

[agb]

I don't believe Mongo is wrong! My experience (at least with these browsers - not with food sources) mirrors his! Haven't bothered with anything but Safari since switching to Mac. :cool:
I have IE, Chrome, Safari, and FF installed on my computer. The best one for me is FF.
If I have multiple tabs open, which I usually do, and I mean sometimes more than 20, there is a little down arrow at the end of the bar that lets me quickly choose which tab I want to view. Safari does not have it so far as I can find. Otherwise I like safari, seems quick enough. Chrome is the fastest though, but I refuse to use it any more and Kym has put me off IE, otherwise I would use it.
Firefox is faster for me. Opens and has the home page open in about half the time of Safari.
Don't ask me why I have so many tabs open at a time. just lazy I suspect and instead of bookmarking and then finding them and opening them its just easy to have them all where they are.

[wmphoto]

But the more time goes on the more I'm not liking the power google is getting either.

+1... I don't even use them as a search engine anymore, and don't get me started on Google books, following several heated email exchanges over about a month to do with an issue over an e-book, I now refuse to purchase any e-books from sites that use Google books (are you reading this Dymocks!!!) :angry0:

I've tried all the other web browsers and keep going back to IE. It provides all the features that I want and I have no reason to change.

[Ezookiel]

....The best one for me is FF. If I have multiple tabs open, which I usually do, and I mean sometimes more than 20, there is a little down arrow at the end of the bar that lets me quickly choose which tab I want to view.....

Damn. I've been using FF for ages and never noticed that. You've just made my day. I have FF set up so that everytime I open the browser, it opens SIX tabs (Google, AP, FB, and 3 4wd forums), and that's just what I start with. I also use heaps of tabs. I had no idea I could get to them like that. Cheers!!!

[Mark L]

I'm no expert here, however.
You get used to what you get used to.
I have no real need for speed, 1 second or half a second, who cares.:confused013
I'd rather have as little as possible to do with a multinational corporation (other than Microsoft Security Essentials), and FF has what I want. And you get used to what you get used to.
I also like to change how things look every now and then....

88390

88391

88392

Since changing from IE to FF we've had no scareware etc intrusions.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day am - et al


Phil. That's because you have IE set as you default browser, or I'm a goose/duck/sausage. Make FFOX your default browser. 2 c how, look here. Am.

Gosh - hasn't there been a lot of chatter on this topic ...
Sorry am .... yurra goose mate

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers

Here's a screen dump from today showing my defaults:-
http://i46.tinypic.com/biujk.jpg


So I return to my previous statement - I get very upset that a program which has no defaults loaded and that has never been activated by me, that upon me clicking on a link in a website [like AP] or an email message, it insists upon loading its splash screen and wanting to a) load the linked item, and b) wanting to become the default web browser

Regards, Phil

[arthurking83]

Hi Phil,

I notice that you have Eudora there for email purposes.

I used to use Eudora about 5 or 6 years ago, but eventually switched to T-Bird .. a whole lot nicer once you get used to it.

Anyhow, Eudora was also quite good, but the purpose of my reply was to ask if you have set any prefs in Eudora for opening links within emails?

The problem to me sounds like it's not a Windows setting problem as such WRT defaults and suchlike, but the problem with the program used for clicking on the links.

From what you say, the initiating software is invoking IE. IE. is then opening up as commanded too, and it knows it's not default, so will ask if you want it to be because of the request to open in the first place.

That'd be my first point of call.

Other programs also do this, and there is no option to set any other browser as the default. The software(usually an old program from when M$ ruled the known universe) just wants to open a browser for your purposes.

[ameerat42]

...Sorry am .... yurra goose mate

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers...


(Honk! <- a goosine Hmm!) But I don't mind if I learn something from it.

But this...

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers
needs addressing.

AFAIK, when you install Windows (of any X) you do install IE and it does become your default browser until you change that. (I see you have Win 7. Has it changed for that?) Somewhere along the line Win is treating those links as IE only, in spite of those settings.

So, I will return to my previous statement: have you had a gander at the settings inside FF?
(Note, only two options left for transformations are duck and sausage.)
Am.
PS: now I see the link in my previous post does not work.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day fellas

1- thanks both for your responses & I will try to investigate a lot further
2- it may not be immediate tho - I need to find a linked message that causes it to occur & note the circumstances
3- it is definately not confined to eudora ... there are other times > but I need to revisit to confirm them.
Future discoveries I will chat via PMs > it may be easier to criss-cross the options that way

Arthur- I tried Tbird and gave it away as I could not get its address book to behave as eudora does - via retaining groups of names under their group-header > it wanted to list every person in a group as an individual as well. Many of my group contacts have 20-30 names within the group, and while I know "sue from the credit union" list, when sue + another sue + then yet another sue turn up as individuals in the address book, it just became unworkable

Regards, Phil

[Mark L]

Maybe this is to simple and so obvious that you would have done this , but just in case.
You need to set FF as your default. So in your screen dump, click on Set this program as default top right.
I'm sure you know this, but just in case.

[Eberbachl]

Enjoy Chromium very much on Ubuntu with Firefox as a backup for the odd occasion when Chromium doesn't render as it should. Placing pictures in eBay ads for example.

;)

[rodw]

Forget the rest, just go with Chrome. I have told quite a few people this and they never go back so maybe it is my fault that it is growing so fast :eek:

Personally, I think email clients are old hat these days and don't bother even installing Outlook anymore. My email client of choice is Gmail via Google Apps for business. Cost $50 per account per year but $100 for me and my wife is well spent.

Having said all that, I still use IE and Outlook at work because we are very much into bed with Microsoft on our network.

[ameerat42]

...Forget the rest, just go with Chrome. I have told quite a few people this and they never go back so maybe it is my fault that it is growing so fast :eek:

Personally, I think email clients are old hat these days and don't bother even installing Outlook anymore. My email client of choice is Gmail via Google Apps for business. Cost $50 per account per year but $100 for me and my wife is well spent...

Rod, such blanket statements (wet blankets for non-Chrome users) often benefit from the addition of a few "Y"s. This is one to start you off.
As for "well spent" money for those Gmail accounts, is my unlimited, free Yahoo mail a waste of money (in some negative sense)? I even didn't bother to change over to Moz. T'bird for mail.
:Dm.

[Xenedis]

Forget the rest, just go with Chrome.

Nah. I looked at it once, and it didn't impress me.


Personally, I think email clients are old hat these days

Why do you think email clients are old-hat?

[Kym]

12-18 months ago Chrome did not render AP very well.
It had a few glitches. That put me off.
What use is speed if it won't stay on the road?
It works well now but I guess I'm used to Firefox and have it tuned how I want it.
It's very quick (v12) and stable.

I only test AP work with IE8&9 and Firefox.

Please note in a couple of months IE < 8 will not be supported and these old versions will not render AP correctly, in fact I'm sure IE6 is already failing.


April stats for AP

Firefox 38.7 %
MS Internet Explorer 22.8 % (1.6% IE 6 but this is likely to be 'bots try to hack us)
Google Chrome 19.6 %
Safari 15.4 %
Opera 1.2 % (Ving :p)
Android browser (PDA/Phone browser) 0.7 %
Unknown 0.6 % (Tapatalk, Forumrunner etc. I think)

[Xenedis]

I stopped running Firefox a while back and switched to Safari.

I run a Mac, and having my browser bookmarks almost effortlessly synced across three Apple devices is a big must for me.

The user experience and page rendering of both browsers is very much the same. I didn't want to run two different browsers, though.

It's good to see, though, that Internet Exploiter isn't the number one browser around here.

[arthurking83]

I much prefer an email client to sort through my archived emails, rather than a web based email system.

I archive all of my important emails, attachments and stuff.
Have done so for over 10 years, switched between Outlook, Eudora and Outlook and Tbird a few times, and for various reasons ... Outlook only to connect with my personal portable devices .. PDA phone etc.

For connectivity Outlook was the best, but the program itself was bloated beyond belief!

All my software purchased through online sources with emailed activation codes are safe saved onto my PC and triple archived so that when i need to get back to that activation code or serial number it's a 10sec job to do a quick search via Tbird.

Nup! I like email clients.. easy to set up for almost all email types(hotmail make it hard but it still gets through) and easy to manage on your own terms .. even when the world eventually gets disconnected by the US state department! :D

I also set myself up with a Google account to have access to an online calendar planner .. but compared to Tbirds calendar thingy(forgot what's it called now .. something like Lightning or something) Google's calendar planning tool is less flexible when required.

Also tried Chrome, mainly for this apparent 'extra speed' on my tablet .. but I found no difference other than I was not familiar with it. No reason to change from FF, so I also dumped it.

[Mary Anne]

I have been using FF must be 6 years, anyway since I got my first new computer and I like it.
*My first was 2nd hand had IE on it* not sure though I dont think FF was around then.
Had Gmail since it first came out years back and having so problems with that either and its free.
Using FF on my Macbook pro to..

[rodw]

Why do you think email clients are old-hat?

I don't just use one computer and move around. With Google apps, emails come with me to my Android 4g phone, to my IPad, my laptop if I actually bother to turn it on and to my work pc if I am in the office. google apps gives me 25 gb of storage and in 2 years I'm only using about 3% so far, I have the full power of Google to search my emails and the way that gmail works, you can establish rules to file your emails as they arrive. That means when you archive an email from your in box (instead of deleting it), it gets filed in the folder you set it up. Plus Postini's spam control and daily spam email digest and Google's virus checking are really great things.

I also use Google apps to share documents and it works well as it gives me access on my iPad and from anywhere.

So all in all, I like the email system I use a lot. This is also why I first decided to try Chrome. Today, it is very robust and is continually upgraded and you can configure it to remember your favorites etc regardless of which PC you use it from. There is only one site I have found that won't work with Chrome and that is an internal system at work. Google apps may not be for everybody but for me, it is well worth the $50 a year as in addition to the things above, it saves me from running my own mail server for my domain.

[Xenedis]

I don't just use one computer and move around. With Google apps, emails come with me to my Android 4g phone, to my IPad, my laptop if I actually bother to turn it on and to my work pc if I am in the office. google apps gives me 25 gb of storage and in 2 years I'm only using about 3% so far, I have the full power of Google to search my emails and the way that gmail works, you can establish rules to file your emails as they arrive. That means when you archive an email from your in box (instead of deleting it), it gets filed in the folder you set it up. Plus Postini's spam control and daily spam email digest and Google's virus checking are really great things.

I'm quite familiar with Gmail, and it's great; but you're not restricted to using a Web interface.

It fully supports IMAP (I use it), so you can leave your email on its servers, as well as access it locally or on a mobile device using a mail client.

It also supports POP3, but that's less useful than IMAP.

I have email dating back to 1996, and I've used quite a few email clients since then. Of those 16 years worth of email, the last 12ish are online and easily accessible from my MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad.


I also use Google apps to share documents and it works well as it gives me access on my iPad and from anywhere.

The mail client on the iPhone/iPad works very well with Gmail.


So all in all, I like the email system I use a lot. This is also why I first decided to try Chrome. Today, it is very robust and is continually upgraded and you can configure it to remember your favorites etc regardless of which PC you use it from. There is only one site I have found that won't work with Chrome and that is an internal system at work. Google apps may not be for everybody but for me, it is well worth the $50 a year as in addition to the things above, it saves me from running my own mail server for my domain.

I've not looked at Chrome since it was fairly new, and while it may have improved considerably since then, I have three Apple devices which all run the same browser and which behave the same way; and there's really no need to change. Ditto for mail and calendar.

Whatever works for you (or anyone) works for you.

I was just curious as to why you considered email clients old-hat, given they allow the sort of functionality you want and need, and integrate quite well with online mail providers.

[rodw]

And gmail will also collect emails from others like bigpond or any other POP3 or IMAP Server. Mail clients imply you need to collect you email onto a PC which is fine if you always work from me site.

[Xenedis]

Mail clients imply you need to collect you email onto a PC

Not if you're using some server-based protocol such as IMAP4. The iPhone/iPad/Mac mail client does so very well, so you're not confined to a given device.

[ApolloLXII]

I won't use IE simply because that's the browser all the hackers who want to infect your computer with Trojans and Viruses target. I tried Google Chrome for a while but it won't allow me to download PDF files so I stick with Firefox simply because it has all of the functionality and features that I need.

[rodw]

I won't use IE simply because that's the browser all the hackers who want to infect your computer with Trojans and Viruses target. I tried Google Chrome for a while but it won't allow me to download PDF files so I stick with Firefox simply because it has all of the functionality and features that I need.

Strange, it works for me. If a site Pops up a new window with a PDF file in it, like my accounting software, you need to create an exception to the rule that stops all popups opening that is enabled by default.

[ApolloLXII]

Strange, it works for me. If a site Pops up a new window with a PDF file in it, like my accounting software, you need to create an exception to the rule that stops all popups opening that is enabled by default.

It has nothing to do with new windows popping up. Chrome won't allow me to download PDF files if I click on the designated download link. I've never had to make any such exceptions with Firefox.

This thread is very much like discussing camera brands and I follow the same principle with those as I do with browsers. Just use the one that does the job that you want it to do. :)

[Jcas]

I have been using Firefox for years now, still love it and the extensions one can get for it.

I tried IE over the years as my sister is an IE fanatic and kept telling me i was mad not to try it, don't know why i just didn't like it after FF.

I haven't tried any of the newer ones out apart from one i have on my Toshiba tab whose names totally escapes me...:)