whats the best web browser for windows?

CRAIG07

thanks for the replies in advance

yoyo

* Google Chrome is nice & fast, lacks large addons library like firefox has though
* Firefox has tons of addons & customisation abilities, although it does hog a good ammount of memory I find (I use it anyway but admit Chrome is faster)
* Internet Explorer 8 isnt a bad browser, much better than its previous versions, still a bit buggy though
* Opera is another option, never been keen on it myself though..

Nick

CRAIG07

well i have firefox at the moment and i too think its taking up alot of memory and my cpu is must higher when using it....

think i will try crome.....

thanks

mike65

Opera is the quickest and "lightest" on the old CPU, but it does take an age to unload after a busy day.

marco_polo

yoyo wrote: »

* Google Chrome is nice & fast, lacks large addons library like firefox has though
* Firefox has tons of addons & customisation abilities, although it does hog a good ammount of memory I find (I use it anyway but admit Chrome is faster)
* Internet Explorer 8 isnt a bad browser, much better than its previous versions, still a bit buggy though
* Opera is another option, never been keen on it myself though..

Nick

You have 4GB of RAM according to your sig, what are you sparing it for

Bob_Harris

CRAIG07 wrote: »

thanks for the replies in advance

Unpossible to quantify.

Whatever does the job for you really.

Do you want just a "plain and simple" browser? Try Chrome.

Do you want a good browser with a vast amount of add-ons (block ads to speed up loading time, automatic mail checker, add-ons which mimic every feature found in every other browser, etc)? Try Firefox.

The latest versions of the below are all good really.

Firefox
Opera
Chrome
Safari
IE8 (maybe)

time42play

I swap between Safari, Firefox, and IE8. Tried Chrome, but at the time it didn't let me block third party cookies so I dropped it.

Overheal

Im comfortable with Firefox myself. It gets bloated between major releases is the only thing, but each new version (2, 3) seems to always be lighter and faster than the competition.

Princess Zelda

I use Opera, simply for the fact I have a desktop and laptop, and you can do Opera Link so that all the bookmarks are shared handy. Haven't played around with that Opera Unite yet, but apparently you can Unite with mates and all watch the one video or something?

yoyo

marco_polo wrote: »

You have 4GB of RAM according to your sig, what are you sparing it for

I do indeed, even still performance of it is fairly poor tbh! Uses allot of CPU resources aswell, of course, instead of leaving all those wonderful extensions behind, I'm sticking with firefox, as the extensions provide usefull functionality

Nick

CamperMan

firefox

marco_polo

yoyo wrote: »

I do indeed, even still performance of it is fairly poor tbh! Uses allot of CPU resources aswell, of course, instead of leaving all those wonderful extensions behind, I'm sticking with firefox, as the extensions provide usefull functionality

Nick

In all seriousness I agree that it could do with a fair bit of optimization, it is quite a bit slower than it used to be a few years ago.

mark renton

Netscape...

Dorsanty

One performance tip for Firefox that doesn't see much light is,

enter 'about:config' and type 'sessionstore.interval' and set to a much higher value like 30000 or 60000.

Info on the setting : http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.interval

Essentially Firefox is dumping the browser state to disk every 10 seconds by default. This requires a write to disk which depending on the free space and amount of other apps looking for disk access could be slow. It is known to improve performance when using the flash plugin on some systems. I actually was able to remove stutter from a HD youtube video on a system with limited RAM by changing it to 60000

PogMoThoin

Chrome would be the best if it had a better lineup of addons, badly needs adblock

Adyx

marco_polo wrote: »

You have 4GB of RAM according to your sig, what are you sparing it for

Exactly! I can never understand this. It's the same with processor usage. If you're not doing anything else then all that RAM and processor power is just going to waste. I can't stand Chrome so Firefox gets my vote.

Ardent

Princess Zelda wrote: »

I use Opera, simply for the fact I have a desktop and laptop, and you can do Opera Link so that all the bookmarks are shared handy.

You can do the same thing firefox with the xmarks addon.

Overheal

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Chrome would be the best if it had a better lineup of addons, badly needs adblock

I cant see Google supporting an adblocker, do you?

conchubhar1

I can not believe people are even mentioning ie8

i thought bill gate or steve balmer even uses that useless piece of .....

PogMoThoin

Overheal wrote: »

I cant see Google supporting an adblocker, do you?

They've no choice when their browser is open source, the community is free to make whatever

gamer

Theres the iron browser its a version of chrome,more private, it doesnt send any browsing info back to google ,see here
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php .

yoyo

Adyx wrote: »

Exactly! I can never understand this. It's the same with processor usage. If you're not doing anything else then all that RAM and processor power is just going to waste. I can't stand Chrome so Firefox gets my vote.

The reason I'm pinicky about firefox is that the flashplayer keeps stuttering (google it, common problem in 3.5), so it would freeze for like a second every few seconds in firefox, I tryed so called fixes but they still dont work, I use Chrome if I'm using anything flash related

Nick

Overheal

yoyo wrote: »

The reason I'm pinicky about firefox is that the flashplayer keeps stuttering (google it, common problem in 3.5), so it would freeze for like a second every few seconds in firefox, I tryed so called fixes but they still dont work, I use Chrome if I'm using anything flash related

Nick

considering how much hulu I watch, thats the first really good reason ive heard to try chrome.

biko

john47832 wrote: »

Netscape...

Yeah and then the oldskool versions, before NS6 came

Adyx

yoyo wrote: »

The reason I'm pinicky about firefox is that the flashplayer keeps stuttering (google it, common problem in 3.5), so it would freeze for like a second every few seconds in firefox, I tryed so called fixes but they still dont work, I use Chrome if I'm using anything flash related

Nick

Yeah I've heard about that. Lifehacker had something about it a while ago. I can't say I've noticed it myself though so I'm happy enough. I do have an issue with some embedded videos (wmv I think) which only play if I change the rendering engine to IE.

PogMoThoin

yoyo wrote: »

The reason I'm pinicky about firefox is that the flashplayer keeps stuttering (google it, common problem in 3.5), so it would freeze for like a second every few seconds in firefox, I tryed so called fixes but they still dont work, I use Chrome if I'm using anything flash related

Nick

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/08/22/how-to-fix-flash-video-performance-in-firefox/

This fixed that for me

K-9

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Chrome would be the best if it had a better lineup of addons, badly needs adblock

Google Chrome now supports add ons, no adblock but there is alternatives:
http://www.mychromeaddons.com/

Overheal wrote: »

I cant see Google supporting an adblocker, do you?

Well, they allow other adblock add ons.

Chrome is going after Firefox, more so than IE.

Still prefer FF but in a year or so Chrome will be a serious challenger.

The new Opera is fast for midband users, quicker than Chrome, but the widgets seem old.

Anyway, still FF for me!

Black Swan

I split my screen between Firefox and Chrome. PMing, IMing, emailing, and checking boards on FF, with Chrome open for simultaneous googling. It's a snap with Windows 7, and you can also manage a split screen with XP and Vista with a few adjustments.

Cluster

CRAIG07 wrote: »

thanks for the replies in advance

Firefox, hands down. Its the one I use. Fast and reliable.

Dont take my word for it though.

http://www.technologygear.net/which-is-the-best-browser-ie8-chrome-safari-or-firefox-31.html

slowlydownwards

http://www.sharenator.org/If_browsers_were_women/

Cluster

slowlydownwards wrote: »

http://www.sharenator.org/If_browsers_were_women/

Brilliant