Browser Survey

[Cynical Romantic]

I know lots of people who work for Microsoft and freely admit to hating Vista. They really must've paid you well.

[AFriendlyFace]

I'm a die hard Firefox fan!

 

I used IE, by default, for several years, but as soon as I heard about Firefox it streaked ahead and I've never even considered going back! IE sucks so bad compared to Firefox, IMO.

 

I too hate IE8 !! One day I was having problems with my DSL and the guy I was talking to on the phone suggested Google Chrome so I downloaded it and was working super fine! It's not as fast as I would like it to be but the one feature I can't do without is the fact that if by any reason the computer shuts down/reboots without warning (living in a 1930 house, old wireing, etc. it happens), when It boots up again, all the pages I had open will come back, even to where I left off reading! So, instead of cursing, I take a deep breath and wait for everything to come back.

Firefox will do that! LOL

 

I use iceweasel, it's the open source version of firefox. I love how it works and it also reloads the pages if something goes wrong. I love it

I've used Iceweasel on a friend's computer before and I like it because it is similar to FF.

 

 

I have tried Opera and Safari before, but while I didn't really dislike Opera, I didn't like it nearly as much FF. As for Safari, frankly I don't like it at all.

 

 

There's really only one thing I don't like about Firefox, I can't open a limitless number of tabs without it doing the scrolling to the side thing. I hate that! I wish it would just keep making the tabs progressively more narrow like it does with the first 10-12 or so. If there is a way to keep it from doing the scroll thing and just making the tabs themselves smaller and anyone knows please let me know! I shall be eternally grateful.

 

Indeed, I refuse to let my tabs scroll to the side. Whenever it starts doing that I grudgingly close stuff or just give up and open a second page of Firefox.

Edited June 10, 2009 by AFriendlyFace

[DragonFire]

There's really only one thing I don't like about Firefox, I can't open a limitless number of tabs without it doing the scrolling to the side thing. I hate that! I wish it would just keep making the tabs progressively more narrow like it does with the first 10-12 or so. If there is a way to keep it from doing the scroll thing and just making the tabs themselves smaller and anyone knows please let me know! I shall be eternally grateful.

I have to ask this, but why would you want more than 12 tabs open at any one time? Those tabs get real small and you can't see what's on them.

Maybe it would be easier to open more than 1 browser screen!

[Former Member]

My friend Tammy got me hooked on firefox. "Internet Exploder" as me and her call it was so slow for me sometimes. Then she told me about firefox and taught me tabbing. I use 1 window and tab GA Chat in it then Tab the GA forums so i can chat and forum surf at same time.

 

Then i'll open another browser window and tab away and search stuff in there. She works for an internet security company sometimes she'll have 100 windows open and tab tab tab lol. I don't know how she does it.

 

I tried Safari i found it too wierd and Macky lol since i'm a dell computer so i felt like a triator lol. Only time i use IE now is if for some really dumb reason a page is giving me a hard time in FF.

[Tarin]

I have a question for the FF and Chrome users. Can you save tab sessions? In Opera you can save tab sessions and then load them later. I've never used this, but it seems nifty. Also you can set a tab session as default at launch. I usually use Pandora, GA, GA Chat, and three browsing tabs. I've been thinking about using this feature. Do FF and Chrome have these options?

 

I forgot to mention Speed Dial. I never use speed dial on my phone. I use it on Opera. It displays 9 mini screenshots (live) of websites. I only have 8 on mine, but it is a one click connect rather than two clicks in favourites or typing a few letters in the address bar.

 

I've never had enough windows open that my tabs scroll in Opera, but then again I try to control my tabs.

[TalonRider]

I have to ask this, but why would you want more than 12 tabs open at any one time? Those tabs get real small and you can't see what's on them.

Maybe it would be easier to open more than 1 browser screen!

I was wondering the same thing.

 

I have a question for the FF and Chrome users. Can you save tab sessions? In Opera you can save tab sessions and then load them later. I've never used this, but it seems nifty. Also you can set a tab session as default at launch. I usually use Pandora, GA, GA Chat, and three browsing tabs. I've been thinking about using this feature. Do FF and Chrome have these options?

I've never explored that option, but I do know that if you click the X to close the browser, and you have multiple tabs, it will give me the open to save or close. Then the next time I open FF, it gives me the option to restore the previous session or start a new one.

[Phantom]

I have a question for the FF and Chrome users. Can you save tab sessions? In Opera you can save tab sessions and then load them later. I've never used this, but it seems nifty. Also you can set a tab session as default at launch. I usually use Pandora, GA, GA Chat, and three browsing tabs. I've been thinking about using this feature. Do FF and Chrome have these options?

 

I forgot to mention Speed Dial. I never use speed dial on my phone. I use it on Opera. It displays 9 mini screenshots (live) of websites. I only have 8 on mine, but it is a one click connect rather than two clicks in favourites or typing a few letters in the address bar.

 

I've never had enough windows open that my tabs scroll in Opera, but then again I try to control my tabs.

 

There's two ways to get a similar Speed Dial option using FF. You can use the Google Toolbar (WOO Google!) or you can download an extension for Firefox to get the same thing.

 

Eric

[KJames]

Rob & I are still using IE7...we have a travel agency application that hasn't cleared their interface products for IE8 yet, so we're stuck waiting...

[Phantom]

Rob & I are still using IE7...we have a travel agency application that hasn't cleared their interface products for IE8 yet, so we're stuck waiting...

 

There's an option on IE8 that set the browser in compatibility mode for IE7 if your interested (though you should switch to FF )

[JSmith]

I have a question for the FF and Chrome users. Can you save tab sessions? In Opera you can save tab sessions and then load them later. I've never used this, but it seems nifty. Also you can set a tab session as default at launch. I usually use Pandora, GA, GA Chat, and three browsing tabs. I've been thinking about using this feature. Do FF and Chrome have these options?

 

I forgot to mention Speed Dial. I never use speed dial on my phone. I use it on Opera. It displays 9 mini screenshots (live) of websites. I only have 8 on mine, but it is a one click connect rather than two clicks in favourites or typing a few letters in the address bar.

 

I've never had enough windows open that my tabs scroll in Opera, but then again I try to control my tabs.

 

Actually with the new Opera 10.00 Beta that's out, you can customize your Speed Dial now. You can increase or decrease the amount of websites you have listed. Which is perfect for me because I usually had 10 or 11 and had to trim down a couple so I could fit them in the 9 spaces. I rarely use my bookmarks folder unless it's something I'm saving that I'll never really need. Using Ctrl+1 to switch to my first speed dial site comes in handy a lot too when I'm at work and don't want people reading over my shoulder so I quick switch.

 

I love being able to open Opera and have all my regular sites opened in tabs so I don't have to open them all. Call me lazy, but it's freaking amazing.

 

Every once and a while I'll run into a site that doesn't work with Opera, but it's getting more and more rare. The only time it doesn't allow me to use the website is when the programmers specifically make you use IE or FF and disallow any other browser. Which pisses me off because if they would follow the most recent web compliant standards, they wouldn't need to do so. But some programmers are just too lazy and program only for IE and FF and don't care about the others because they have such a low market share.

 

Granted when I code websites for GA I tend to do the same thing, but for Opera. The thing is, if it works in Opera, it usually works in all the other browsers. Every once and a while I'll have to add IE or FF specific code to get everything perfect, but Opera is the most web compliant when developing IMO.

[Emulated]

Firefox for me. I've tried all the latest builds of Safari and Chrome, but Firefox is my favourite.

 

I really like the speed of Chrome, but I'm totally against all the 'usage tracking' information that Google collects from it. I'd like to have at least some privacy while on the net.

 

Safari is also kinda quick, but the interface takes a bit of getting used to. And I wasn't very pleased with the mandatory cleartype that the whole browser would use. (Fortunately they let you turn this off in version 4).

 

Techie rant:

I'd really, really like it if Firefox was based on webkit. Every webkit browser seems to be MUCH faster, yet, Mozilla stick with Gecko...

 

Oh and we mustn't forget that Firefox is open source! Yay!

[DragonFire]

There is a glitch with Opera as regards GA. When I went to post something in eFiction all went well until I had a look at the final result. Somewhere, the code went tits up and all ' were replaced with ;;7 , go figure. Had to switch to IE to clean up the mess.

[Cynical Romantic]

Yeah, that's the problem with using the less popular browsers. They have some great features, but many developers (and I can tell you this from experience) are less than diligent about testing their sites and applications adequately for all of them. So, while you'll see very few bugs on Firefox for most sites, and Microsoft-platform / asp.net sites will generally work really well in IE, the others such as Chrome and Opera are a bit of a crapshoot.

[Maddy]

I love firefox... but, while I may use it to visit GA, when I have to browse through a topic I HAVE to switch browsers. I don't know if it's only my settings, but whenever I browse through a topic with more than the opening post, FF makes tabs out of all responses (i.e. it looks like a f**kin outline). It pisses me off to no end, especially since I'm a skimmer... can't really do that if I can't see the entire chunk of text.

 

If anybody knows how to fix this problem, please oh PLEASE tell me.

 

Maddy (:

[Graeme]

If anybody knows how to fix this problem, please oh PLEASE tell me.

At the top of the thread, on the right hand side, there's a button called "Options". Check it and see what you've got the "Display Option" set to. It sounds like it's been set to something other than "Standard" mode (possibly Outline mode, though I've never checked out that, or Linear mode -- the other option). I don't think it's a browser issue, per se.

[Maddy]

At the top of the thread, on the right hand side, there's a button called "Options". Check it and see what you've got the "Display Option" set to. It sounds like it's been set to something other than "Standard" mode (possibly Outline mode, though I've never checked out that, or Linear mode -- the other option). I don't think it's a browser issue, per se.

Huhuhu. Thank you so much! *kisses*

 

It's a nifty mode, but only for certain things.

[DragonFire]

What I'm finding increasingly frustrating about Opera is that it keeps logging me out of this site. Every time I click on the forum tab I'm logged out. Quite frankly I've given up on it. Have switched back to IE for now, with the new updates, it seems to be more stable.

I'm not sure if it's just the 10beta that has a dislike for Vista, but never had the problem with ver 9.6.

[Sir Galahad]

You want my advice. Whilst Opera 10 beta has some really nice features, it has more bugs than a rain-forest. Also it doesn't seem to like Vista so much. My advice, either keep to version 9.6 or wait until 10 is the proper release.

[AFriendlyFace]

I have to ask this, but why would you want more than 12 tabs open at any one time? Those tabs get real small and you can't see what's on them.

Maybe it would be easier to open more than 1 browser screen!

Like I said, opening another browser screen is what I usually grudging end up doing.

 

The primary time more tabs would come in handy is at work. I always keep 3 separate FF window open for 3 separate on-going tasks that I have. At least one of them (and occasionally the other two) usually requires a lot of tabs though. If I can't keep it under 12 I usually do give in and open another screen, but then I'm invariably clicking on the wrong window all day or getting mixed up about where something is. Apart from that, besides the 3 FF windows, I usually have an IE window a Safari window, and quite a few other programs running. I hate adding to the clutter with more FF screens than the minimum 3 that I pretty much have to have.

 

Anyway, to answer the other part of your question, I don't need to see what's on them because I open them in a very specific order and I know what's there, apart from which I usually go through them in order and close them out as I complete my tasks (so it's helpful to have them all there to give me an idea of how much is left, but unnecessary to hop around that much within that same FF window).

 

Eh, I'm just a bit hyper-organized when it comes to some things, and having the scrolling tabs or being forced to open extra windows really screws with my system.

 

Even for personal, home use it's helpful though. For example I might like to have one browser window that is nothing but GA tabs, but very often I've wanted to have more than 12 GA tabs open at once, and I don't really want to open another browser window because again I'm apt to keep "misplacing it" on my computer's taskbar and continually open the wrong window.

 

The same goes for YouTube; I've often wanted to have more than 12 YouTube tabs open, but I only want one "YouTube" window.

 

 

Safari is also kinda quick, but the interface takes a bit of getting used to. And I wasn't very pleased with the mandatory cleartype that the whole browser would use. (Fortunately they let you turn this off in version 4).

I agree with you completely on Safari! I kinda have to run at least 3 separate browsers for work so that I can log into the same places with different settings and info, but I really can't stand the Safari interface at all. Actually I do like Opera much better and should make that my third browser instead, but I'm lazy and I.E. and Safari were already on the computer.

Edited June 15, 2009 by AFriendlyFace

[FrenchCanadian]

Safari 4 is my main browser, tho when I go to a site that doesn't like safari well I use firefox,,, and at work we'll have to use IE from time to time

 

Firefox I've just about given up on, maybe it doesn't like Vista so much, but it keeps jamming with Java.

 

ya well that's cause of Vista,,, but that's another subject

Edited June 15, 2009 by FrenchCanadian

[Emulated]

My old high school is still using IE6!! Beat that!

[scoopny]

I don't even know if I have IE on my computer that's how rarely I use it. I use Safari 4, but I have to edit "top sites" because I don't want people to know some of the "top" sites I visit. In a pinch I'll use Firefox because I like it too.

 

I find it very funny Frenchcanadian uses IE at work .

[Cynical Romantic]

A tip regarding "top sites" or "bookmarks": I use Delicious to store my bookmarks. Then, if I need my computer to be public-friendly, I can just sign out, and sign back in later and all my bookmarks are right back waiting for me.

[glomph]

I use Safari mostly. I'll also check web pages in Firefox. It doesn't support some of the old ways of doing things, so I have to add some CSS for Firefox that I can get away with leaving out for people using other browsers. I don't have access to a computer running IE 8, but I see that its usage to access the main site I maintain has gotten a foothold. I was so relieved when looking at the stats for that site to see that nobody comes there via IE 5. I've quit putting in the hacks you have to use to make it act semi-normal. There's still a fair amount of IE 6 traffic, so I do support it. Dreamweaver now takes care of adding the main hacks you need for that. On average, the neighborhood site logs hits that are around 60% IE, 25 - 30% Safari, and 10% Firefox, and small amounts from the others, including Konqueror. I figure it helps to know what your visitors are using and to try to support them.

 

I'm not used to all of the quirks of Safari 4, but I recognize that it is an improvement. I got used to the progressive bar in the URL line, and still wonder why something is not coming in when I don't see it. 4 is more compatible with Mother's bank's website than was 3, so that's one less use of Firefox for me.

[Benji]

........Firefox, no problems