Chosing a web browser

**Pannonian** · 03-29-2010, 19:57

Originally Posted by Peasant Phill

I had a feeling it would go between Opera and Firefox.
All those add-ons are all nice and all but quite frankly I'm to lazy and don't care enough to look for good add-ons or change settings when on a different website.
I can see myself making extensive use of the search keywords though.

Are these two browser vastly different from explorer in terms of use? And if so are they intuitive enough to get the hang of it quickly enough?

All browsers are broadly similar, with the exception of Google Chrome, which is very different in design. Of Firefox and Opera, Firefox is probably closer to IE in design.

And about add-ons: they don't require much effort to find. You can use the vanilla browser if you don't want to add anything. Then if you want additional functionality, find an appropriate add-on. Once it's installed, you don't need to do anything else, unless you want to further customise it. What marks out Firefox is its potential. You can use as much or as little of it as you want.

**Subotan** · 03-29-2010, 22:47

Firefox, both for the sweet, sweet Adblock and the impregnable fortress that is Firefox's security. Once you get comfortable with that, you may decide to get other addons to totally customise your browsing experience.

I have no experience with Opera, so I can't comment, but Chrome is like a streamlined, fast Firefox, without the Adbloc, so that's my secondary browser (Incognito is useful as well....) You should definitely dump Internet Explorer though. You'll be continually asking yourself why you didn't do it earlier.

**Husar** · 03-29-2010, 23:30

Opera.

Tellos Athenaios already gave a good list, but there are some more features he didn't mention(maybe he doesn't like them as much?).

- Opera link, synchronizes your bookmarks etc. between all your Opera browsers (does seem to go wrong a bit now and then though, will have to re-sort my bookmarks, but it's really nice when it works)
- Opera unite, allows you to host content on your PC for your friends etc. rather new, not sure how secure it is
- works on more or less every device, I got it in Windows, in Linux, had it on my old windows mobile-based smartphone and would love for Apple to approve it for the iPhone, not that I got my hopes up though...

Concerning adblock...
http://arstechnica.com/business/news...s-you-love.ars

**Tellos Athenaios** · 03-30-2010, 00:26

Good point(s). I left out quite a few features of Opera (haven't yet tried Opera link and unite). To be fair on Firefox it does run reasonably well outside Windows; but there is no denying that Firefox is first and foremost a Windows browser.

A myth worth dispelling is that Firefox (or Browser-Of-The-Month) is somehow a magical impregnable fortress of invincible security. It isn't. It really isn't. No particular browser is. (It takes but a faulty Flash version to vanish any illusions.)

In actual fact Firefox (in particular) is vulnerable to types of attacks that are otherwise quite specific to Microsoft products: those that rely on a faulty ActiveX component. ActiveX is how programs can be embedded inside other programs in the Microsoft world and it is how plugins work in Internet Explorer. Firefox supports a slightly different flavour of ActiveX called XPCOM. Since ActiveX is quite a thoroughly canvassed subject in the realm of drive-by-download and similar ploys it should take a majority market share in a sufficiently lucrative market (e.g. EU) for the XPCOM equivalents to crop up.

**drone** · 03-30-2010, 01:25

Originally Posted by Husar

Concerning adblock...
http://arstechnica.com/business/news...s-you-love.ars

Until sites take responsibility for the ads that get put on their pages, I'm sticking with my AdBlock. Even big, respected sites get malware infested ads occasionally.

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 03-30-2010, 02:28

Firefox has a lot of the features in that Opera list (or plug-ins that do them if the core doesn't). Opera is definitely faster than FF, but I cannot get used to the layout (and it's no-script equivalent is next to non-functioning in terms of ease of use). I'm willing to trade speed for a better user experience, which boils down to what you're used to.

And FF has private browsing like incognito - Ctrl + Shift + p

**Subotan** · 03-30-2010, 09:41

Originally Posted by Husar

Concerning adblock...
http://arstechnica.com/business/news...s-you-love.ars

Well they shouldn't host adverts that are disgusting (E.g.Teeth whitening adverts....ugh), annoying (E.g.Anything that plays sound) or malicious (E.g. GET RIPPED IN 14 DAYS YOU FATASS)

Originally Posted by Alexander the Pretty Good

And FF has private browsing like incognito - Ctrl + Shift + p

Hm, interesting

**Pannonian** · 03-30-2010, 09:47

Originally Posted by drone

Until sites take responsibility for the ads that get put on their pages, I'm sticking with my AdBlock. Even big, respected sites get malware infested ads occasionally.

I mainly find adblock useful for blocking 5MB animated sigs. If a page loads slowly, I check to see what's loading. If I see any animated gifs, I block them and refresh. People seem to think that, now that the age of broadband is here, their sigs have to expand accordingly. Prats.

**Husar** · 03-30-2010, 09:59

http://lifehacker.com/5432054/opera-...ivate-browsing

The final version of this is already out, on Windows at least.
So Opera has private browsing, too.