What browser do YOU use?

[Cowcaster88]

WOW, I just downloaded Opera to try out on some computer on campus, and it's FAST. FASTER than FireFox and Safari. I tried Opera out about a year ago but I wasn't too happy with the ads within the program and wasn't going to pay for a browser. But now I'm starting to wonders, Should I download this for my iBook as well? Anyone else use it in OS X and what did you think?

This is a shot in the dark, but do you happen to be a student that uses Blackboard portal services. My alma mater uses Blackboard for some of its portal stuff and Opera b0rks on the Blackboard rendering. Trying to find out if it's just an issue on my PC, or if there is some Blackboard/Opera incompatibility.

note: the above question is open to anyone who cares to give any information they have about it.

My school uses Blackboard and I just tried it out. It worked perfectly. Might want to check your computer.

 

[Pneuma]

I paid for Opera back around 6 or 7. Just got the free 8 the other day.

I love Opera... a lot.

P.

 

[abudhu]

Should I download this for my iBook as well? Anyone else use it in OS X and what did you think?

Just put it on our Mac OSX Tiger Machines at work. Its decent on it. It has some funky errors sometimes while browsing such as offset pages, that will only fix themselves when you hit refresh.

A little laggy as well.
Try Camino Instead, it was optimized for Mac and its ga-reat.

 

[Thanatos.]

i use firefox BTW whats the diff between 1.x and 1.5 beta 1?

 

[T0ddyH0oddy]

i use firefox BTW whats the diff between 1.x and 1.5 beta 1?

One is just that much more "1337"

 

[Rombus]

One is just that much more "1337"

Wrong, This is just a small list of whats going to change when 1.5 comes out

Also for this poll, Firefox 1.X is for all current firefox releases, (1.0.7 is most current) i should have made it a bit clearer with FireFox and FireFox Beta.

 

[Ice Czar]

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing
Let the dead dogs lie
and the flamebait too will die

 

[Axdrenalin]

Mostly use FF 1.0.7 here, but still ahve to use IE for updates & stuff.....

 

[Sgt Hobo]

Hardcore Opera user since 7.5 here. I also paid for Opera 8. I've also got Opera 9.0 Technical Preview 1 somewhere on this computer.

I do also have Firefox installed and I was trying out the Deer Park alphas until I recently reinstalled (haven't put Deer Park on yet).

 

[The_Mage18]

*cries* I feel like a Netscape outcast..... Oh....wait....

 

[Rombus]

Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing
Let the dead dogs lie
and the flamebait too will die

Thanks for keeping the thread clean Ice Czar, hope you dont think this thread is flamebate >.< Never ment it to be that way, was just real curious on what everyone used, so far its been very intresting.

 

[T0ddyH0oddy]

Thanks for keeping the thread clean Ice Czar, hope you dont think this thread is flamebate >.< Never ment it to be that way, was just real curious on what everyone used, so far its been very intresting.

You can't honestly believe that.

 

[Cowcaster88]

Wow, I'm surprised that more people aren't admitting to using Safari. Either that or not many Apple users come this way. Anyway it looks like I'm one of 4.

 

[Ice Czar]

You can't honestly believe that.

actually this is one of the better polls we have managed to pull off
considering each registered user is able to only vote once its likely reasonably accurate
some heated discussion is expected but thats not really "on topic"
just a related topic when it drifts too far its quashed.

 

[T0ddyH0oddy]

actually this is one of the better polls we have managed to pull off
considering each registered user is able to only vote once its likely reasonably accurate
some heated discussion is expected but thats not really "on topic"
just a related topic when it drifts too far its quashed.

You'll have to forgive me.

I subscribe to the notion that most people are inherently bad and start things like this to eventually piss people off.

In any event, I use IE6 just because my surfing consists of [H], gmail and campus mail, Penny Arcade, newegg, and a select few other sites.

Alt-tab pwns tabbed browsing, plus, I actually like how IE is integrated into almost all aspects of Windows XP (being able to type addresses into explorer windows, etc).

I can see the need for alternate browsers, but I like to keep things simple. I'm not a web surfing pro like many in here

Oh, and no malware and spyware as of late, at least none that the good folks at Microsoft, Lavasoft, and Spybot can dig up.

 

[MediaRocker]

Thanks for keeping the thread clean Ice Czar, hope you dont think this thread is flamebate >.< Never ment it to be that way, was just real curious on what everyone used, so far its been very intresting.

i dont think its flame bait.. i just think that some people are overconfident of themselfs on security. i dont think i am secure at all.. i just think i'm protected till the next patch's patch patch.

You'll have to forgive me.

I subscribe to the notion that most people are inherently bad and start things like this to eventually piss people off.

In any event, I use IE6 just because my surfing consists of [H], gmail and campus mail, Penny Arcade, newegg, and a select few other sites.

Alt-tab pwns tabbed browsing, plus, I actually like how IE is integrated into almost all aspects of Windows XP (being able to type addresses into explorer windows, etc).

I can see the need for alternate browsers, but I like to keep things simple. I'm not a web surfing pro like many in here

Oh, and no malware and spyware as of late, at least none that the good folks at Microsoft, Lavasoft, and Spybot can dig up.

well i see your point, i am a frequent googler, i google just about any question that pops into mind. so i'm bound to run across some of those load-u-down sites, i especialy hate those "YOU HAVE SPYWARE ON YOUR SYSTEM" flashing official looking dialoge boxes. those will be the death of me. i dont trust them but many users down here do. i end up fixing their computers due to them and their inquisitive nature. its good for me because i get moola but i hate seeing people suffer to this rash attempt to promote their products. i will continue to use firefox and ie (for those windows updates) i dont really trust that firefox plugin with my windows machine. i have already suffered 4 hard drive deletions due to malware trojans. (prior to my knowledge of firefox)

i am starting to see an increasing trend of users who are microsoft freaks saying that "If you were more careful you wouldnt get trojans or spyware" the fact is. its out there. mispell something and you have a high chance of getting spyware, and trojans. no one is perfect. not even the great bill gates himself could avoid all the pitfalls in the internet. if you think that your all that and a bag of chips, then why did they come out with firewalls, spyware scanners, anti-virus apps, and pop-up blockers? you may say false sense of security but as of now i think diffrently. i admit, some companys like Symantec(norton) blow things out of proportion especialy the news media, thats all you hear "CRITICAL HOLE!" or "VIRUS ATTACK!" and i have home users saying they "dont go to things like that" or "they use it for reasearch" and then i scan their computer and the thing is loaded, then they blame it on their kid when all they looked at was cartoon network and nickalodeon. it turns out by chance that firefox is living heck for advertisers everywhere and i have notice that many sites now deny open souce browsers. just because they can loose money cause of firefox's natural pop-up blocking. microsoft is trying to make their things more secure and reliable but i have noticed a steady trend to the MORE open side of the internet. preety soon you can buy a pizza and then have it at your door in 30 mins or less. but the problem is that your going to have bigger security breeches the more connectivity you give. IE has naturaly open holes for its interconnectivity, and IE does NOT support 256-bit encryption, so if you were to look at IE it would be a swiss cheese block, holes going everywhere. you close one.. BUT LOOK! That other hole leads to 2 or more! and then those 2 or more lead to 6 or more! but what i have seen in firefox is reinforced. everything is tight, often times i have problems with sites because firefox wont allow it to use certain scripts and such. and i have appreciated it. so just think. Firefox is one good way of protecting yourself. if you use IE, you better have some software to keep it standing. I got IE HiJacked alot. thats why i tryed firefox. and so far i stick with it. you can think what you think. this is what i think.

 

[SiathLinux]

Both Windows and Linux FC4 I run Mozilla (not FireFox)

 

[mosin]

i dont think its flame bait.. i just think that some people are overconfident of themselfs on security. i dont think i am secure at all.. i just think i'm protected till the next patch's patch patch.

I believe that yours is the best attitude to take. Most people take computer security lightly, and that is what gets them into trouble. Thankfully, most here are at least taking the first step, and that is by using a reasonably secure browser.

 

[niccoli]

I use Firefox 1.x, only problem that I've had is that when I have the extensions loaded the thing slowly just gobbles up memory(500+MB at times). I still use IE on quite a few sites that I need to use at work (old java apps that don't run very well in firefox for some reason).

 

[T0ddyH0oddy]

i dont think its flame bait.. i just think that some people are overconfident of themselfs on security. i dont think i am secure at all.. i just think i'm protected till the next patch's patch patch.



well i see your point, i am a frequent googler, i google just about any question that pops into mind. so i'm bound to run across some of those load-u-down sites, i especialy hate those "YOU HAVE SPYWARE ON YOUR SYSTEM" flashing official looking dialoge boxes. those will be the death of me. i dont trust them but many users down here do. i end up fixing their computers due to them and their inquisitive nature. its good for me because i get moola but i hate seeing people suffer to this rash attempt to promote their products. i will continue to use firefox and ie (for those windows updates) i dont really trust that firefox plugin with my windows machine. i have already suffered 4 hard drive deletions due to malware trojans. (prior to my knowledge of firefox)

i am starting to see an increasing trend of users who are microsoft freaks saying that "If you were more careful you wouldnt get trojans or spyware" the fact is. its out there. mispell something and you have a high chance of getting spyware, and trojans. no one is perfect. not even the great bill gates himself could avoid all the pitfalls in the internet. if you think that your all that and a bag of chips, then why did they come out with firewalls, spyware scanners, anti-virus apps, and pop-up blockers? you may say false sense of security but as of now i think diffrently. i admit, some companys like Symantec(norton) blow things out of proportion especialy the news media, thats all you hear "CRITICAL HOLE!" or "VIRUS ATTACK!" and i have home users saying they "dont go to things like that" or "they use it for reasearch" and then i scan their computer and the thing is loaded, then they blame it on their kid when all they looked at was cartoon network and nickalodeon. it turns out by chance that firefox is living heck for advertisers everywhere and i have notice that many sites now deny open souce browsers. just because they can loose money cause of firefox's natural pop-up blocking. microsoft is trying to make their things more secure and reliable but i have noticed a steady trend to the MORE open side of the internet. preety soon you can buy a pizza and then have it at your door in 30 mins or less. but the problem is that your going to have bigger security breeches the more connectivity you give. IE has naturaly open holes for its interconnectivity, and IE does NOT support 256-bit encryption, so if you were to look at IE it would be a swiss cheese block, holes going everywhere. you close one.. BUT LOOK! That other hole leads to 2 or more! and then those 2 or more lead to 6 or more! but what i have seen in firefox is reinforced. everything is tight, often times i have problems with sites because firefox wont allow it to use certain scripts and such. and i have appreciated it. so just think. Firefox is one good way of protecting yourself. if you use IE, you better have some software to keep it standing. I got IE HiJacked alot. thats why i tryed firefox. and so far i stick with it. you can think what you think. this is what i think.

It's funny you should mention that. Here in the fraternity house I'm the resident computer expert. Whenever people have problems, I usually install Zonealarm, MS Antispyware, and AVG Antivirus and schedule them to scan every night at like 5 am or so. Suddenly, all their problems seem to disappear.

Those three installs as well as a Firefox .exe are on a flash key at all times for this explicit purpose.

The great thing about security these days is that while those with malicious intent grow every day, so do those who fight the good fight. The fact that the three aforementioned programs are available for free and do a fantastic job tells me, anyway, that the fight against the bad guys is far from hopeless.

But like you said, there are some people that can't help themselves, the types with like 4 different browser "bars" and whose startup is muddled beyond belief. I like the guys that tell me they don't install Windows updates becuse "it takes too much time", even when the little icon is flashing in their taskbar for weeks on end. There's one guy I know who staunchly defends WeatherBug and insists on having it yet wonders why his comp is always crawling even after my explanations.

 

[br0adband]

The smartest thing that any Windows-based computer owner can do in this day and age and at this very moment is stop using plain old vanilla Internet Explorer. Switching to pretty much anything else is just the most amazingly intelligent thing you can possibly do for yourself and for your computer, if you care at all.

Avant is based on the IE core, it adds so much it's not even funny for such a tiny download (typically 1.5MB). Tabbed browsing, Popup blocking that makes the IE SP2 "popup blocker" look like it's standing still, Ad blocking (same thing), mouse gestures, groups, RSS/ATOM feed reader, etc etc ad nauseum. It's just what IE could have been had Microsoft given a shit about it. IE 7 is just another experiment gone wrong at this point and I don't expect it to get better.

Firefox is the other side of the coin. Some people love it to death. My own experience showed me it's slower than Avant, slower than Opera, and slower than Maxthon (only tested Maxthon once, too many resources consumed and it's slow). I've tried most of the Firefox releases, if for no more than a few minutes. It just doesn't work for me, so YMMV. I respect the fact that it's popular and it's useful; it's just not for me. As it steadily gains market share (free market share, I suppose) it's going to become more of a target than it already is - this is simply a fact of life.

Opera is interesting but it never had that *uNF* to really take over when it had the chance. It reminds me of the Sony MiniDisc in some respects.

When Sony first introduced the MiniDisc way back in late 1992, I thought, "Wow, this is the coolest thing ever. Rewritable discs that store music on them, simply amazing." And I saw it as an opportunity for Sony to replace the floppy disc with the MiniDisc. It could have happened. The standard MD for 12.5 years stores about 140MB of raw digital data, more capacity than the Zip disc that Iomega introduced in late 1994 that quickly took over as the removable media of choice. Sony shot themselves in the foot by not pushing MD nearly as hard as they could have. It was the perfect removable media, by and large. And no "Click of Death" either.

That's how I feel about Opera. For a long time it was really the only other option to IE once Mozilla just fell apart and Netscape did too. But Opera never pursued it with the gusto it really deserved. It's a great browser, and it's pretty quick (not as fast as Avant in my experience), and I even took advantage of the 10th anniversary free giveaway and got a reg code a few weeks ago - just in case.

Maxthon, as stated above, is just one I haven't used enough to like, I guess. It used to be MyIE2 but I think Microsoft stepped in ala Apple and their trademarking "iPod" and said 'you can't call your product *IE* anything so change the name, quick'. I could be wrong about that but I'd bet I'm right. I tried it a long time ago as MyIE2 and didn't find it appealing. Again, as with everything else I've said, YMMV.

I like Avant. I've recommended it so many times I almost think I deserve a kickback of sorts but it's worth recommending to people, especially those that are totally sick of adware/spyware/popups/etc without needing to install:

Ad-aware
Spybot
Microsoft Antispyware
etc etc ad nauseum

I don't use any of those apps; they're a waste of hard drive space and resources in my opinion. I hit Housecall 3 times a week and this laptop stays clean, period. While I am not saying this methodology will work for you (remember, YMMV), I'm just saying look at it this way:

Instead of your machine being loaded up with adware/spyware/popup blockers (which we all hate) because they sap the resources, slow the machine, causes issues, are irritating...

Now we all find ourselves loading up our machines with Ad-aware, Spybot, Microsoft Antispyware, Norton SystemWorks, personal firewalls, etc etc etc ad nauseum.

See my point? You traded off the bad stuff for something that really isn't that much better in most respects. Try this analogy:

We all know that people own guns, especially in the US. Does that mean we walk around wearing bulletproof vests 24/7? No, it doesn't, because the chances of you actually being shot are still relatively low.

But online, all you have to do sometimes is fire up your web browser and check your email and wham, you're in deep shit as far as adware/spyware/popups/etc. Does that mean you have to run all that software I've mentioned several times? Not necessarily, because your bulletproof vest is your web browser, whichever one you choose.

This 'bulletproof vest' browser may stop the bullet as a real bulletproof vest will do, but it doesn't mean you're not going to take damage from the impact. It's a tradeoff in most respects:

Protect yourself and give yourself some sense of security (use a better browser and the above mentioned software tools), or...

Brave the horror and take your chances (run plain old vanilla IE and hope for the best)

The choice, as always, is up to you.

Just my $.02 and change...
bb

 

[1c3d0g]

Been trying out a Firefox clone now, called Flock. It's a pretty nice browser, I just wish its theme was available for Firefox/Thunderbird too...

 

[mystic demon]

I use firefox and like it alot.

 

[boredguyatcomp]

firefox all the way. ive used it for like...forever

 

[Mav451]

I use Avant IFF (if and only if) I'm on a slow-ass computer (e.g. 300Mhz Celeron at work, holy freakin' god haha).

OTOH, if it's a decent computer, then FF all the way. Opera was fun for a little bit, but until certain things get "ported" to it, then I won't be using it.

 

[T0ddyH0oddy]

The smartest thing that any Windows-based computer owner can do in this day and age and at this very moment is stop using plain old vanilla Internet Explorer. Switching to pretty much anything else is just the most amazingly intelligent thing you can possibly do for yourself and for your computer, if you care at all.

Avant is based on the IE core, it adds so much it's not even funny for such a tiny download (typically 1.5MB). Tabbed browsing, Popup blocking that makes the IE SP2 "popup blocker" look like it's standing still, Ad blocking (same thing), mouse gestures, groups, RSS/ATOM feed reader, etc etc ad nauseum. It's just what IE could have been had Microsoft given a shit about it. IE 7 is just another experiment gone wrong at this point and I don't expect it to get better.

Firefox is the other side of the coin. Some people love it to death. My own experience showed me it's slower than Avant, slower than Opera, and slower than Maxthon (only tested Maxthon once, too many resources consumed and it's slow). I've tried most of the Firefox releases, if for no more than a few minutes. It just doesn't work for me, so YMMV. I respect the fact that it's popular and it's useful; it's just not for me. As it steadily gains market share (free market share, I suppose) it's going to become more of a target than it already is - this is simply a fact of life.

Opera is interesting but it never had that *uNF* to really take over when it had the chance. It reminds me of the Sony MiniDisc in some respects.

When Sony first introduced the MiniDisc way back in late 1992, I thought, "Wow, this is the coolest thing ever. Rewritable discs that store music on them, simply amazing." And I saw it as an opportunity for Sony to replace the floppy disc with the MiniDisc. It could have happened. The standard MD for 12.5 years stores about 140MB of raw digital data, more capacity than the Zip disc that Iomega introduced in late 1994 that quickly took over as the removable media of choice. Sony shot themselves in the foot by not pushing MD nearly as hard as they could have. It was the perfect removable media, by and large. And no "Click of Death" either.

That's how I feel about Opera. For a long time it was really the only other option to IE once Mozilla just fell apart and Netscape did too. But Opera never pursued it with the gusto it really deserved. It's a great browser, and it's pretty quick (not as fast as Avant in my experience), and I even took advantage of the 10th anniversary free giveaway and got a reg code a few weeks ago - just in case.

Maxthon, as stated above, is just one I haven't used enough to like, I guess. It used to be MyIE2 but I think Microsoft stepped in ala Apple and their trademarking "iPod" and said 'you can't call your product *IE* anything so change the name, quick'. I could be wrong about that but I'd bet I'm right. I tried it a long time ago as MyIE2 and didn't find it appealing. Again, as with everything else I've said, YMMV.

I like Avant. I've recommended it so many times I almost think I deserve a kickback of sorts but it's worth recommending to people, especially those that are totally sick of adware/spyware/popups/etc without needing to install:

Ad-aware
Spybot
Microsoft Antispyware
etc etc ad nauseum

I don't use any of those apps; they're a waste of hard drive space and resources in my opinion. I hit Housecall 3 times a week and this laptop stays clean, period. While I am not saying this methodology will work for you (remember, YMMV), I'm just saying look at it this way:

Instead of your machine being loaded up with adware/spyware/popup blockers (which we all hate) because they sap the resources, slow the machine, causes issues, are irritating...

Now we all find ourselves loading up our machines with Ad-aware, Spybot, Microsoft Antispyware, Norton SystemWorks, personal firewalls, etc etc etc ad nauseum.

See my point? You traded off the bad stuff for something that really isn't that much better in most respects. Try this analogy:

We all know that people own guns, especially in the US. Does that mean we walk around wearing bulletproof vests 24/7? No, it doesn't, because the chances of you actually being shot are still relatively low.

But online, all you have to do sometimes is fire up your web browser and check your email and wham, you're in deep shit as far as adware/spyware/popups/etc. Does that mean you have to run all that software I've mentioned several times? Not necessarily, because your bulletproof vest is your web browser, whichever one you choose.

This 'bulletproof vest' browser may stop the bullet as a real bulletproof vest will do, but it doesn't mean you're not going to take damage from the impact. It's a tradeoff in most respects:

Protect yourself and give yourself some sense of security (use a better browser and the above mentioned software tools), or...

Brave the horror and take your chances (run plain old vanilla IE and hope for the best)

The choice, as always, is up to you.

Just my $.02 and change...
bb

Hey I'm definitly with you man...I hate system slowdowns...and with a system like mine (sig), I can tell you that I only run what I feel is absolutly necessary. The only four icons in my taskbar are AIM, ZoneAlarm, MS Antispyware, and AVG Antivirus.

I somewhat agree that if you supplant installed antivirus and antispyware software with Housecall, you should be OK, provided you visit it frequently. However, I do think that every computer needs firewall protection, be it hardware or software, preferrably both.

The reason I have programs running is so I don't have to check Housecall every other day or so. These three progs do it for me. Having said that, Housecall is a really great service It picked up some cookies I had (bought some stuff off Dell and Newegg recently ), but other than that it said I was clean. I think that says alot about my current bevy of security software.

 

[MediaRocker]

The smartest thing that any Windows-based computer owner can do in this day and age and at this very moment is stop using plain old vanilla Internet Explorer. Switching to pretty much anything else is just the most amazingly intelligent thing you can possibly do for yourself and for your computer, if you care at all.

Avant is based on the IE core, it adds so much it's not even funny for such a tiny download (typically 1.5MB). Tabbed browsing, Popup blocking that makes the IE SP2 "popup blocker" look like it's standing still, Ad blocking (same thing), mouse gestures, groups, RSS/ATOM feed reader, etc etc ad nauseum. It's just what IE could have been had Microsoft given a shit about it. IE 7 is just another experiment gone wrong at this point and I don't expect it to get better.

Firefox is the other side of the coin. Some people love it to death. My own experience showed me it's slower than Avant, slower than Opera, and slower than Maxthon (only tested Maxthon once, too many resources consumed and it's slow). I've tried most of the Firefox releases, if for no more than a few minutes. It just doesn't work for me, so YMMV. I respect the fact that it's popular and it's useful; it's just not for me. As it steadily gains market share (free market share, I suppose) it's going to become more of a target than it already is - this is simply a fact of life.

Opera is interesting but it never had that *uNF* to really take over when it had the chance. It reminds me of the Sony MiniDisc in some respects.

When Sony first introduced the MiniDisc way back in late 1992, I thought, "Wow, this is the coolest thing ever. Rewritable discs that store music on them, simply amazing." And I saw it as an opportunity for Sony to replace the floppy disc with the MiniDisc. It could have happened. The standard MD for 12.5 years stores about 140MB of raw digital data, more capacity than the Zip disc that Iomega introduced in late 1994 that quickly took over as the removable media of choice. Sony shot themselves in the foot by not pushing MD nearly as hard as they could have. It was the perfect removable media, by and large. And no "Click of Death" either.

That's how I feel about Opera. For a long time it was really the only other option to IE once Mozilla just fell apart and Netscape did too. But Opera never pursued it with the gusto it really deserved. It's a great browser, and it's pretty quick (not as fast as Avant in my experience), and I even took advantage of the 10th anniversary free giveaway and got a reg code a few weeks ago - just in case.

Maxthon, as stated above, is just one I haven't used enough to like, I guess. It used to be MyIE2 but I think Microsoft stepped in ala Apple and their trademarking "iPod" and said 'you can't call your product *IE* anything so change the name, quick'. I could be wrong about that but I'd bet I'm right. I tried it a long time ago as MyIE2 and didn't find it appealing. Again, as with everything else I've said, YMMV.

I like Avant. I've recommended it so many times I almost think I deserve a kickback of sorts but it's worth recommending to people, especially those that are totally sick of adware/spyware/popups/etc without needing to install:

Ad-aware
Spybot
Microsoft Antispyware
etc etc ad nauseum

I don't use any of those apps; they're a waste of hard drive space and resources in my opinion. I hit Housecall 3 times a week and this laptop stays clean, period. While I am not saying this methodology will work for you (remember, YMMV), I'm just saying look at it this way:

Instead of your machine being loaded up with adware/spyware/popup blockers (which we all hate) because they sap the resources, slow the machine, causes issues, are irritating...

Now we all find ourselves loading up our machines with Ad-aware, Spybot, Microsoft Antispyware, Norton SystemWorks, personal firewalls, etc etc etc ad nauseum.

See my point? You traded off the bad stuff for something that really isn't that much better in most respects. Try this analogy:

We all know that people own guns, especially in the US. Does that mean we walk around wearing bulletproof vests 24/7? No, it doesn't, because the chances of you actually being shot are still relatively low.

But online, all you have to do sometimes is fire up your web browser and check your email and wham, you're in deep shit as far as adware/spyware/popups/etc. Does that mean you have to run all that software I've mentioned several times? Not necessarily, because your bulletproof vest is your web browser, whichever one you choose.

This 'bulletproof vest' browser may stop the bullet as a real bulletproof vest will do, but it doesn't mean you're not going to take damage from the impact. It's a tradeoff in most respects:

Protect yourself and give yourself some sense of security (use a better browser and the above mentioned software tools), or...

Brave the horror and take your chances (run plain old vanilla IE and hope for the best)

The choice, as always, is up to you.

Just my $.02 and change...
bb

Ah. well Spybot and AdAware dont run on bootup (although many newbies tend to do it) i only run it about every week or so (havent done it in a month or so ) so far my laptop has lasted me 5 years.. many virus crashes. but thanks to open source and opinionated communities like here i've more recently kept it running better. the only problem i have with it now. its the Heatpipe Cooling fans, fan 2 is making extreme noise. but thats a hardware issue.. planning on buying a new set next month..

but so far. ever since i've switched to firefox i've been having less issues.

and yes i understand your point ^^ i'm just the kind of person that would wear a bulletproof vest all the time.

oh and about your speed issue. try the firefox extension "FasterFox" it really works..

This page (post edit) loaded in 1.620 seconds and the post page pulled up in 1.110 seconds

 

[sanj101]

AVANT all the way brilliant stuff i prefer it to firefox, can't believe it wasn't a option!!

 

[Artluo100]

Firefox all the wayyyy

 

[Rombus]

AVANT all the way brilliant stuff i prefer it to firefox, can't believe it wasn't a option!!

im glad you cant believe it since it WAS an option (3rd one down, Avant is IE based)

And another thread from the dead bump eh? I was just thinking about this thread today too!

 

[Cowcaster88]

I was just thinking about this thread today too!

I was thinking about this thread too, because I've been downloading and trying a couple of different new browsers. I'm still sticking with my answer of Safari. Firefox for OS X isn't bad but its not as clean as Safari. But still looking for a browser that works with Yahoo Music so I could watch the videos but don't care that much.

 

[sirholio]

I have switched over to using opera for work and home. But I still use firefox, IE, netscape, mozilla, and maxthon for various reasons. just testing mostly.

 

[sanj101]

im glad you cant believe it since it WAS an option (3rd one down, Avant is IE based)

And another thread from the dead bump eh? I was just thinking about this thread today too!

*puts head in shame*

 

[CompuDrew]

Another Firefox user here.

 

[tazman4]

Firefox.
Started when it was phoenix, kept it through firebird, & still running it.
FF rules.
IE... what's that?

 

[nowshining]

Since this is old and Firefox 1.5 is out, i use that so I voted close on the poll of the 1.5 beta version