Poll: What web explorer do you use?

[AlexHarman]

currently using firefox 3.0

 

[trlkly]

Re: OPERA ADs

Still, they have the stigma. They can't change who they were. And how many people would try a browser after they used adware? I know I won't. Adware might as well as be a virus for all I care. You blew my trust.

(Also, I have a 2006 release of Opera on my old compy (just to remind me how bad it is), and it definitely has ads. Ads for the full version of Opera, but still ads. That isn't "years ago", as it hasn't quite been 2.)

So Opera is still facing down its stigma. I don't try a web browser twice. If you don't get it right the first time, I don't expect you to get it right ever again. When the competition works perfectly well, you don't get a second chance. And this philosophy has served me well since the Mosaic days.

 

[exocel]

safari.

oh yeah, thats right, im a rebel.

 

[shatnershaman]

Firefox is the best for average use
Opera is best for advanced users
Safari is the best browser on the mac (windows version notorious for security problems)
Internet Explorer is the best for compatibility

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Firefox all the way. Not IE for obvious reasons, I don't like the way Safari looks. And as far as Opera goes, I just tried it a few minutes ago. I thought, well it's okay looking, but it's not that much better. So I uninstalled it and that's when it cemented my distaste for it. as soon as I uninstalled it, it opened a tab in firefox and asked why. That means it installed software on my computer that let's them know what I'm doing. Invasion of privacy anyone?

 

[Pingrash]

I use IE at home because I can't be bothered to put Firefox on.
At school I use Firefox because it's either that or Safari and Safari keeps on screwing up so I decided "F#^* it".

 

[klarax]

I use Internet Explorer with IE7Pro to make it more like firefox including script blocking etc. It's fanny fantastic!

You should try it.

 

[Unusual_Bulge]

So I uninstalled it and that's when it cemented my distaste for it. as soon as I uninstalled it, it opened a tab in firefox and asked why. That means it installed software on my computer that let's them know what I'm doing. Invasion of privacy anyone?

I don't think it means they installed software on your computer that lets them know what you're doing. Rather, I think you installed the software (Opera) and the software knows when its being uninstalled. Then when you click 'Done' or whatever at the end of the uninstall its final parting instruction to your computer is 'Launch Opera website in the default browser'.

Anyways, I use Opera, but am forced to keep Firefox and even Internet Explorer around for compatability reasons for sites that have been specifically written for those browsers.

There are several negative myths surrounding Opera for some reason, and many positive myths surrounding Firefox. Opera has no ads any more, and historically it has been faster than firefox in a majority of speed tests (although different places use different tests so any of these things should be taken with a large chunk of salt, and I don't know about the very latest versions).

Opera has tons of customisability, destop widgets, practically any feature Firefox users have as add-ons comes built in, built in mail client, built in torrent client, and a level of browsing security that can only come from sitting pretty on 1.5% market share and thus never being targetted by anyone.

(Plus Opera had tabbed browsing before Firefox for the person who said otherwise, though such comparisons are fairly stupid since somewhere else likely had it before Opera, and someone before them etc etc)

 

[RetiarySword]

Hard to say, I like firefox becuase of its abilities to save videos embedded in the page, and its a great work-around a work implemented proxy firewall! But I do like internet explorer, as it is just so user friendly.

Saying that it has become unstable and crashes out sometimes, and the pop-ups break through the filter.

I would probly go firefox over IE, if I could be bothered to install it!

 

[SSJVEEN]

Anyways, I use Opera, but am forced to keep Firefox and even Internet Explorer around for compatability reasons for sites that have been specifically written for those browsers.

I'm the same and keep both around just in case. I've been using Opera for at least 4 years as I found it to be a brilliant alternative to IE. When it comes to Firefox, I'm pretty neutral in regards to it.I accept that it is a popular and high quality browser, but for me using Firefox isn't as smooth(best word I could think of) as using Opera.

 

[Virgil]

For the curious, here's the actual breakdown of Escapist readers:




Browser
Percent




Firefox
62.38%


Internet Explorer
28.22%


Safari
4.98%


Opera
3.74%




The office tends to lean towards Firefox, with some IE stalwarts. Nobody uses Safari or Opera for anything other than testing.

 

[KamikazeSailor]

Cool input Virgil, thanks for the stats

 

[cleverlymadeup]

a level of browsing security that can only come from sitting pretty on 1.5% market share and thus never being targetted by anyone.

actually that's wrong, just because no one's found an error doesn't mean there isn't one

the big difference between firefox and opera is firefox is free as in beer, opera is not, it's closed source. so while firefox has had less market share than other browsers for a while, it's more secure because it is open sourced, while it doesn't always make it more secure it allows for a better freedom to find said bugs and holes

and over the years i've heard several very nasty bugs in opera that went unpatched for years. so it's actually even less secure than firefox

 

[Pebsy]

I currently use opera but on "download day' im going to dl firefox 3, just hope the servers dotn crash or something by a flood of visitors who want to download it

 

[Eagle Est1986]

How do you mean? Please elaborate on this comment!

Well, as far as I know, Safari is really only useable by Macs. I don't own a Mac. Even if I did, I'd probably try Firefox anyway. Every time I've ever tried using a Mac with Safari, I get Zerged by ads. Honestly, every time I hit a new page, I get at least 20 pop-ups. That's even worse than Internet Explorer.

You should probably just stop looking at porn then. I rarely get any pop-ups using any browser I've got, Safari, Firefox or Opera.

 

[Unusual_Bulge]

actually that's wrong, just because no one's found an error doesn't mean there isn't one

the big difference between firefox and opera is firefox is free as in beer, opera is not, it's closed source. so while firefox has had less market share than other browsers for a while, it's more secure because it is open sourced, while it doesn't always make it more secure it allows for a better freedom to find said bugs and holes

and over the years i've heard several very nasty bugs in opera that went unpatched for years. so it's actually even less secure than firefox

I know, that's why I say the security comes from having a small market share, not from superior code. In the same way Linux rarely (never?) gets attacked by virii (its not worth it for such a small target when you have other larger targets you can take a swing at), Opera isn't going to receive anywhere near as much attention from people looking for exploits as the larger browsers so you get some kind of 'natural' layer of defence.

I fully agree that the open source community can react faster and better to threats (another reason nobody would bother writing a virus for Linux - it'd be fixed within hours!).

Also, I think you mean to say that while both Firefox and Opera are free as in free beer, it is only Firefox that is free as in free speech.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I know, that's why I say the security comes from having a small market share, not from superior code. In the same way Linux rarely (never?) gets attacked by virii (its not worth it for such a small target when you have other larger targets you can take a swing at), Opera isn't going to receive anywhere near as much attention from people looking for exploits as the larger browsers so you get some kind of 'natural' layer of defence.

I fully agree that the open source community can react faster and better to threats (another reason nobody would bother writing a virus for Linux - it'd be fixed within hours!).

Also, I think you mean to say that while both Firefox and Opera are free as in free beer, it is only Firefox that is free as in free speech.

ok thing about linux is it's not the marketshare of it that stops virii from being written for it, it's the fact virii can't live on a UNIX system, this includes linux and all bsd systems, unless you happen to run everything as root, which any smart *nix user doesn't do.

as for the marketshare, linux and unix both have a much juicier slice of the pie than windows does. linux and unix are both used in big business, wall street, the stock exchanges, banks, google, the city of munich, many many websites, apache has been the #1 webserver for at least 10 years or so, oh and all the top computers in the world run a either linux or unix. so for crackers, they are much juicier to go after for money gain

the security of the systems have nothing to do with marketshare, unsecured linux got a higher rating than windows xp did. xp only got the "you showed up and it worked award", secured linux (more than the default install) has gotten one of the highest security ratings for tested operating systems. openbsd is one of the few os's i know of that i can use my fingers and toes to count the security holes in the default install in the past 10 years and i might not even need my toes

 

[Unusual_Bulge]

unless you happen to run everything as root, which any smart *nix user doesn't do.

If, for example, you run Windows offline and check every piece of media you put in the computer for virii before you put it in, then you won't get infected either. Just because you can put in a condition under which you'll never get a virus, doesn't mean nobody can ever get a virus.

as for the marketshare, linux and unix both have a much juicier slice of the pie than windows does. linux and unix are both used in big business, wall street, the stock exchanges, banks, google, the city of munich, many many websites, apache has been the #1 webserver for at least 10 years or so, oh and all the top computers in the world run a either linux or unix. so for crackers, they are much juicier to go after for money gain

Now I'd have to admit that I don't know a lot about these sorts of things, so I'm trying to make some guesses. Wouldn't Stock Exchanges and Banks be run offline (or at least in a closed network)? I'm sure they have some truly online component, but the bits where all the money sits I've always thought would be isolated. Also, I'm sure most people have heard stories about websites being attacked, I'd be surprised, given their market share, that Apache based websites haven't been among them. However, as I said, my knowledge of the types of attacks and server architechture are fairly limited.

the security of the systems have nothing to do with marketshare, unsecured linux got a higher rating than windows xp did. xp only got the "you showed up and it worked award", secured linux (more than the default install) has gotten one of the highest security ratings for tested operating systems. openbsd is one of the few os's i know of that i can use my fingers and toes to count the security holes in the default install in the past 10 years and i might not even need my toes

But the number of security holes you know of isn't going to be the actual number of security holes. If there were as many people scouring BSD or Linux for security holes as there are for Windows, sure they might come off much better than Windows, but I'd be willing to bet you'd get many more security holes appearing than you do currently. Also, doesn't BSD have an even smaller market share than Linux (or is it grouped together with Linux? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_market_share ), so the fact you have seen less security holes for it than any of the others fits in nicely with the theory that market share has some impact on security.

Sorry if I'm a bit off with any of this, as I said, my knowledge isn't tremendous in this field, but your arguments are yet to convince me.

Edit: Got a bracket on the end of my link, stopped it working properly!

 

[shatnershaman]

I like vista and firefox it makes me happy. =)

 

[cleverlymadeup]

unless you happen to run everything as root, which any smart *nix user doesn't do.

If, for example, you run Windows offline and check every piece of media you put in the computer for virii before you put it in, then you won't get infected either. Just because you can put in a condition under which you'll never get a virus, doesn't mean nobody can ever get a virus.

running as root could possibly infect things HOWEVER they won't exist, that's the beginning of it

Now I'd have to admit that I don't know a lot about these sorts of things, so I'm trying to make some guesses. Wouldn't Stock Exchanges and Banks be run offline (or at least in a closed network)? I'm sure they have some truly online component, but the bits where all the money sits I've always thought would be isolated. Also, I'm sure most people have heard stories about websites being attacked, I'd be surprised, given their market share, that Apache based websites haven't been among them. However, as I said, my knowledge of the types of attacks and server architechture are fairly limited.

nope not closed network, they are on the internet, so are banks and they run unix, not windows

But the number of security holes you know of isn't going to be the actual number of security holes. If there were as many people scouring BSD or Linux for security holes as there are for Windows, sure they might come off much better than Windows, but I'd be willing to bet you'd get many more security holes appearing than you do currently. Also, doesn't BSD have an even smaller market share than Linux (or is it grouped together with Linux? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_market_share), so the fact you have seen less security holes for it than any of the others fits in nicely with the theory that market share has some impact on security.

Sorry if I'm a bit off with any of this, as I said, my knowledge isn't tremendous in this field, but your arguments are yet to convince me.

ok those stats are DESKTOP not a true market share, try also including corporate servers, web servers and such, the market share changes at that point, cause i'll show you stats for web servers and cherry pick who has a larger share of the market

the fact there are fewer bugs and more people are actually huntinng *nix bugs, this has been proven many times over, than for windows, there are more developers for open-source *nix apps than for windows apps.