Ye Olde Browser Debate

[F4]

I know this has been discussed to death, but apart from speed and pop-up blocking, what do you look for in a browser?

I just made a switch back to netscape (I haven't used this thing since 4.7, it's made some big jumps), and I'm liking it so far. But then again,. apart from the pop-ups, I never had a reason to dislike IE either.

What is it that makes so many people like Firebird and Mozilla?

[bluestreakLB]

I have mozilla but never use it, i just dont like how it loads stuff ironicly i dont like netscape for the same reason :D. IE is simple, clean, and it gets the job done...i have no reason not to like it.

[srs]

I used Opera fora while, but I found that many sites weren't exactly compatible. Bill pay sites are where I had most of my problems. They are specifically written for IE or NS most likely.

[james.miller]

myie or avant browser. both are based on IE so they load just about any page you want, but also have tabs, hand gestours and add-blocking built in.

[AGampher]

I use both Firebird and IE. I have found that Firebird loads pages faster once they are in the system cache (i.e. they have been visited at least once). I use IE for the sites that only support (or are optimized for) IE.

I used to loath Firebird because it would take close to a minute for its initial load, but now that I have my raptor RAID it loads minutely slower than IE. :D

Once it loads once it blows IE away in terms of speed.

Edit: As a side note....I noticed also that I don't get the weird "400 page not found" error with ocforums while using Firebird. IE gives me errors every time I post/edit or search.

[DDR-PIII]

I liek IE, ahs everything i need and isnt slow, much.

[9mmCensor]

I use Mozilla and IE (as little as possible).

[{PMS}fishy]

Im using Mozilla on this computer (laptop) and it works great. Kills the Pop-Ups. Also use Mozilla on my Mandrake box. Im trying out firebird too on my NF7, its super fast and really streamlined. I think I am going to move everything to firebird.

[unreal]

hmm i used to use netscape, now trying out Mozilla

[macklin01]

IE with the google toolbar to block popups. I figure since you're already paying for IE in terms of memory use, might as well use it to your advantage. (esp. w.r.t fast load times.)

-- Paul

[larva]

Check out MyIE 3.2 or whatever the current version is. It uses the IE engine so compatibility and speed are first rate, but offers all kinds of interface goodies and effective pop-up blocking. It's free as well :)

I personally don't have any patience for using a non-IE browser in an IE world, so when I feel the need for a more fully featured browser MyIE is the clear winner as it has the full measure of interface enhancements without sacrificing compatibility to get them. In the end I went back to plain old IE6 as I just don't really have a problem with it, but I liked what I saw of MyIE when I had it installed and don't hesitate to recommend it.

[Damage.Inc]

Use mozilla for pretty much everything, blocks popups, ads and cookies :)

Although a MMoG i am beta testing atm REQUIRES IE to use it :/

[Minjin]

I use Opera purely for its customizability and rich features. There are just so many built-in conveniences that make it worth it to me. A simple right click on an open browser window will show some of what I'm talking about. I wish Opera was more stable and could display some sites as well as IE. However, the tradeoffs are well worth it and I have no problems using IE once every other day for the odd site that doesn't like Opera.

Mark