Which Browser? threads aren´t specific

[zeroth]

I´ve searched and found a couple of ¨which browser?¨ threads and I don´t get much out of them. One poll only had 31 responses. I was hoping to make an intelligent decision based on what I found without having to do testing on each of them to determine which one was really ¨better¨...

I had a lot of trouble with IE and bugs on one machine until I just gave up on hours of trying to get the spyware, etc. out and reformatted - I´m running Firefox on that one and it works fine. On other machines I have no problems with IE at all. (I did notice something with spyware maintenance - no matter how many times I run adaware and spybot, I always find something - but really notice no problems or slowdowns on the majority of machines on my net.)

The question is: Why do you guys like the different browsers you use. There´s never any detail in the descriptions. I see ¨IE too insecure¨ , but why? I see ¨Opera too pretty¨, but Crunchie likes it and I trust his opinion.
One post say ¨Mozilla too much¨ and in the next paragraph, ¨Firefox rocks...¨ - that makes a lot of sense...

So, if I haven´t offended everyone now, can you guys please tell me, in detail, why you like the different browsers and, with some specific examples, what the differences are?

[steveneven]

I use Firefox for 2 main reasons:

1: A friend recommended it to me
2: I Like tabbed browsing.

lets start with 2 first of all.

Tabbed browsing is awsome, I can have loads of sites open at one time, but only take the place of one program on my task bar or start bar.

But tabbed browsing is available with nearly all other browsers excluding IE.

So Why choose Firefox instead of Mozilla/Opera/etc..

Answer: = 1: A friend recommended it.

I used Mozilla in Fedora Core 2, and I used IE in Windows. I went to a friends house and he was using Firefox, he was getting no pop-ups and no spyware problems.

I could have installed Mozilla, but Firefox was growing at the time, people had only just started sticking those little Firefox logo's all over their sites and my friend recommended it.

As soon as I returned home I downloaded and installed Firefox on both my Windows and my Linux machines.

I have used Firefox ever since, and I am very happy with it.

I have seen some sites that Firefox can't display correctly, usually sites that have been created with Frontpage or Word or some other MS product that does not follow the rest of the worlds HTML styles/rules. In this case I need to use IE. But then I have seen other sites (including one of my own) that will not display/function correctly in IE, but will work fine in Firefox and most other browsers. (again this seems to be a MS issue more than anything else.)

One of my sisters only ever uses Internet Explorer, even though she asked me to install Firefox (back when it was getting loads of hype in the media) She simply does not like Firefox, I have no idea why, I don't even think she know why.

Another of my sisters, a little more computer savvy, and the youngest of our crowd loves Opera.

Again I don't know why, but her opinion seems to be based on personal preference, as she has Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and Epiphany installed, and she uses them all, but she just prefers Opera.

I guess that with the exception of IE, all browsers are pretty much as secure as one another, so it comes dow to personal choice, what do you like working with or looking at the most?

I don't like to MS bash for no reason, so to justify my exclusion of IE from the last paragraph i leave you with this:

ScanIT, a consultancy in Belgium, said Microsoft's Internet Explorer was unprotected for all but one week in 2004 — between October 12 and 19, the Inquirer, a U.K. tech pub, reported.

ScanIT said IE was the most exposed browser because of the length of time between vulnerabilities becoming known and patches being issued.

The firm said IE was exposed for 98 percent of 2004. Mozilla's Firefox was unsafe for 56 days, or 15 percent of the year, and Opera's browser was unsafe for 17 percent of the year, or 65 days, the report said.

The Seattle Times - Complete Article

SE

[Dani]

I'm an IE user, but I agree it's more insecure than Firefox is. The reason being that Internet Explorer is so integrated with Windows that it's easy to "hack" ... there are browser hijacks, spyware, etc. that seems to mesh itself into IE. If you take one look at our Viruses and Spyware forum you'll see all of these "browser hijacked" threads and it's all due to security vulnerabilities with Internet Explorer.

[dlh6213]

I've only used three browsers: Netscape, IE, and Firefox

Netscape was first because, as far as I know, it was the only one available. I didn't really have any problems with it that I recall, but when IE became available, I liked it a bit better; can't say why exactly, like was mentioned previously, just a matter of preference, I guess.

I recently installed Firefox because I had heard it was better and safer. Compared to IE, here are a few things I like and don't like:

First of all, it's noticably slower, which surprises me because most people say it's faster for them. IE + Firefox -

Even though it's slower, I still use it for most browsing because attackers spend less time trying to attack it -- concentrating on the bigger fish, which (for now) is IE. IE - Firefox +

I use "Find on this page" in IE a lot, and I don't like the Find box that pops up in the middle of the document and seems to always be in the way. The same function, called "Find in this page" in Firefox, puts the box down in the task pane out of the way. IE - Firefox +

But, IE will let you know when it get to the end of the page, and then you can choose to search Up if you wish to look through it again. Firefox, although you can choose "Find Next" or "Find Previous," when you get to the end (or top) of the page, it will reverse and if your not paying attention to the scroll bar, you won't know where in the page you are. IE + Firefox -

Nearly everytime I close my browser, I first clear the Temp files, Cookies, and History; in IE, this takes four steps, with the Clear History taking far longer then I think is necessary. Firefox has one button to Clear All, and it does so almost instantly. IE - Firefox +

There are many pages that do not display correctly with Firefox; they can be viewed, but not as intended. Also, IE is needed to get Windows Updates. IE + Firefox -

Right now I prefer the Favorites in IE, over the Bookmarks in firefox, but that could just be because I'm more used to it. I'll have to see after I get used to it. When you download Firefox, you are given the option to import your Favorites from IE which is a very convenient option. IE N/A Firefox N/A

That's about all I can say for now, I may have more after I've used Firefox a while longer. Someday I'll even give Opera a try :)

For an interesting view of DaniWeb, try Netscape v.4.5

[zeroth]

Thanks for the feedback so far. dlh, I have had the same experience with Firefox you have. Before going farther, I must say that I´m trying these others only because I had some problems with spyware with IE. But I continue to like IE just fine.

Firefox is noticably slower than IE. I can´t say I like or dislike it more than IE because I don´t use many of the advanced features in either, I just browse. But I have firefox on one computer and IE on the other and the speed is a deciding factor for me. I now tend to go to the IE computer more than I used to.

Opera is OK, too, no real speed problem that I can see, however, the interface just doesn´t feel right. And, although it does bring up additional pages in a different way, seemingly as if you were running them from the same iteration (don´t know if this is the case), I prefer the was IE does it. Like dlh, it may just be what I´m used to.

As far as the spyware problems go, the computer I´m using right now with IE, is a new installation, a week or so, and I´ve had no problems, even though I´m not using an anti-virus program. I´m doing this as a test, not loading too much on this computer so I can just do a reformat if things bugger up. I AM running panda on it every other day or so and I am running Spybot and Adaware on it.

And there is the strange thing, which I invite comments on.

Panda, thus far, has found no viruses. Adaware and Spybot find something every time I run them!! Even when I run them two or three times without accessing the web, they still find things. I don´t quite understand this and would appreciate some feedback.

I have some suspicions about this but don´t want to voice them until I hear from somebody else on it...I´m thinking about starting a new thread under virus.....

[dlh6213]

There are differences between viruses (which include trojans, worms, etc.), adware, and spyware. Until recently, anti-virus programs concentrated on viruses, but some of them are now beginning to include adware and spyware.

Ad-Aware concentrates mainly on adware, while SpyBot does the same with spyware, there is some overlap between the two programs (and some AV programs), but they will all find different things; unless, of course, there's nothing for them to find :)

[zeroth]

Hi dlh, this probably doesn't belond in this forum, although it is supposed to be for anything. Anyway, I've posted it in virus forum - but I DO realize what you are saying about the different tools. And I just ran them and noticed that most of the things Spybot finds are not serious threats. I´m even wondering now if most of the things it´s finding are really necessary to eliminate. I´ll have to take more time to check that out.

I did just run panda on the new test computer without anti-virus and it´s supposed to check for spyware and such - it found nothing - spybot and adaware found about 10 each. Again, I´m not checking out the individual items and I should.

[Sheilajk]

I use opera because IE brings in too many viruses

[zeroth]

I use opera because IE brings in too many viruses

Here's the point of my thread. How do you know that?

[jwenting]

I've been running IE exclusively since 1996 (before that I used Netscape 3) and have NEVER had a virus, spyware, or other malware infestation (and never had any attempt at infecting me that I would not have had running any other browser, meaning a piece of software trying to install itself that happened to have been infected, this kind of infection doesn't depend on a particular browser).

My secret? I know what I do and don't visit warez sitez, I don't use Kazaa and other P2P programs to get pirated music and software, and I don't click on links to sites I don't know in banner ads.
I also never open email attachments I didn't expect to get and kill all email I don't trust on the server (or have it killed by my spamkiller and email virus scanner).

It's not IE that is inherently insecure, it's the people using it. Were those people to use another browser they'd still click "yes" when asked to install Kazaa or RealPlayer or some download accellerator...

[kc0arf]

Hello,

I am a Firefox user, and a former Netscape user. I only use Internet Exploder (IE) when forced to at gunpoint.

I like Firefox's pop-up blocker, and the speed it renders materials. I am also cross-platform, and have not seen Internet Exploder for Linux yet. Perhaps it is because Linux lacks the code to display a Blue Screen of Death that the Windoze people crave.

I have worked with Opera before, and liked it, but there were pages that did not display properly.

I also enjoy using lynx.... especially when downloading recurring files via scripts.

Christian

[zeroth]

There ya go, 42. THAT's the kind of response I was hoping for. Details...

And I agree with you. I don't believe it's the browser's fault that virus's get in; maybe it happens occasionally. I think it´s the fault of email. Is there a list of bad companies or something posted somewhere?

[dlh6213]

Is there a list of bad companies or something posted somewhere?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this, but SpywareBlaster will put a list of known bad websites into the Restricted zone of your browser.

Just FYI, here's a list of rogue 'spyware' companies:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

[zeroth]

That´s good stuff, dlh, but not what I was referring to in my less than adequate description. I was trying to get at who is responsible for those emails you start getting when you mistakenly clic on something that you shouldn´t have. You don´t ever know exactly where you got them, really.

I don´t have them now but have in the past. And, unfortunately, they know your email address, so it´s next to impossible to get rid of them without changing your email address. If you try to ¨unsubscribe¨ you don´t know if that´s what you are doing or if you are actually adding yourself to yet another mailer. And they keep propogating to other mailers, etc.

Sorry I was vague...

[jwenting]

I get reams of spam, that's the problem with having an old account (the address is in so many usenet archives it's impossible to get rid of the crap).

You won't get spam unless you let someone or something know your email address who then sells it (or otherwise passes it on) to spammers.
The surest way is still to post your address to usenet or websites for all to see, but with the advent of email virusses address books are now also at risk from harvesting.