I personally prefer Mozilla by far

Mozilla Firefox here, used to be a hardcore IE fanboy.. but now you can't even look up the news without getting 50 types of spyware on IE.

i can't live without extensions anymore! its gotta be Firefox for me

Opera = secure, customizable, powerhouse out of the box.

mozilla........

Mozilla Firefox 1.5

EDIT: I also like Opera too.

Mozilla Firefox

I must be old fashioned but I still prefer IE.
I dont know why, but I dont like tabs either. I open everything in a new window whether Im using IE or FF.

i obviously voted opera, if you have this , how would you need anything else

You need something to get rid of the afvertisements!
I use Internet Explorer with AdsFilter and I never have spyware and not many ads.

ads are ads. opera is free. u can get ad blockers if u want

What about the Maxthon browser, or have I got to vote IE???

used IE forever and always liked it, but got tired of having to constantly keep an eye on security settings and having run 2 or 3 3rd party apps to keep it clean (app for spyware, BHO's, etc., and another for ads) and still being at high risk. IE hasn't changed in in forever and it's just patch after patch after patch. i also never like the fact that MS insists on making it difficult to remove contents from the 'temp internet files' directory (index.dat files), which makes it easy for law enforcement to use it against you. although i don't participate in illegal activities, it's the principle of the **** thing. now, i no longer even have that dir (removed with autoruns).

tried Opera briefly, but found it's not nearly as configurable as FF IMO. however i'd recommenced Opera for anyone who wants a good, secure and fairly feature rich browser out-of-the-box with a minimum of fuss.

over the years i've tried FF a few times and couldn't see what all the fuss was about. now that i've been using it exclusively for probably close to a year, i DO see what all the fuss is about for me, there is no other browser. out of the box it's very slim and very fast. add all the extensions you want to give it the functionality YOU want. the downsides i've found is not sorting bookmarks alphabetically with folders first (there are work-a-rounds) and slower application loading times (and again, there are work-a-rounds). as far as not being able to access windows update, i consider that a plus. with IE, OE, WMP and many other windows annoyances and security hole riddled apps removed (nLite), there is far less use for windows updates. MFSN hosts a list of updates (http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=31886) and then there's an auto-update for FF users here: http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ .

I used IE for a long time, and always loved it. But it was boring to download and install Hotfixes or Patches for it every month or so.

Since I dont use Windows Update (and its possible to use it with FF now), I had no reasons to stay with IE.

Security was the main reason that made me change to Firefox ... Now, I dont even think about using another Microsoft browser!

Firefox all the way!

interesting you mention that. i had heard that MS released an extension or plugin for FF users to be able to access WU. i spent some time searching and found many articles, but no links. also didn't find anything on the M$ website.

For people who say that IE has pop up blockers and is the best, who cares, you still get a million spyware each time you go to a site! Opera and Firefox have built in popup blockers and you can take the ads off in opera and in firefox. They are much more safer to use on the net, and have more customizing options, such as; extentions, skins, ad ons, etc. I recently downloaded Opera and its quite good. Firefox has extentions, but opera has more options, like the wand, the voice, and you can take off images if you want.

Yes you do, because it runs on Internet Explorer engine. I assume you get the same amount of spyware, popups, adware, etc.?

Netcaptor Pro....

I haven't used another browser for at least five years......Although I've downloaded and played with all the others...Netcaptor Pro has a security configuration and toys that I can't find elsewhere...

So for my Personal Prefernce..It's Netcap Pro..

Stops the grungies.. http://www.netcaptor.com/

Click On *Take The Tour*....

can you elaborate on its security and "toys" that you can't find elsewhere?
just curious.

Take the Tour....

The tabbed system is by far in my preference....Clean up is immediate...Locks and Blocks anything you want to..

Just alot of little items I haven't found elsewhere.. I don't care for FF's Tabbed System...Nothing like NetCaps..

------------------------------------------------------------


You IE Folks might want to have a gander at this site..Secunia......As of Nov 21/2005


Secunia News

2005-11-21
Proof of Concept code has been released for a 6 months old Internet Explorer vulnerability. Criticality rating increased to Extremely Critical.

The vulnerability has been confirmed on a fully patched system with Internet Explorer 6.0 and Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Internet Explorer 6.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4.

http://secunia.com/advisories/15546/

Netcaptor kind of looks like IE, but it has tabs. I'm still sticking with my FREE browser though. Or should i say browsers, im kind of stuck between two. FireFox and Opera. They are both good but they both have there differences too.

I think i bought my copy of NetCap back in 2000.....It's seen alot of changes since the early days..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/Stetson11/NetL.jpg ...I am currently using Build 7.5.4

Never has let me down, once you buy the original licence you own it and all the updates for life...It's an IE powered engine with all the extras.

A browser becomes an attachment to many of us, that soon becomes *Home*..As long as the security features are intact and strong I think Personal Preference carries a big issue in choosing the right one for the individual.

Netcap was the first browser years ago with tabbed browsing, it's always updating itself and Mr. Stiles of Stilesoft.Inc has always treated me good/fair and with strong morals in protecting my privacy...

That says alot in my eyes....Always will.

Like I say though..Personal Preference has alot to do with what we soon become comfortable with.

I run Adaware SE Plus on one of my machines....Webroots Spysweeper on the other two machines...So I don't concern much about what happens to try and infest my browsing habits.

(By the way..Adaware SE Plus is my fav out of all the sweepers I've tried over the years..)

Browse with your preference...Make sure your butt is well covered...Chasing pests is boring.. LOL!!

My wife's New IBM T40...(Which her work purchased for her...I know, I know)...Always has it's share of cleaning for me to do....She runs on a closed system with about 2800 or so others on the internal server....They are always telling her, everything is well maintained... *Snickers*..

i did, which is why i asked
don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to say this is better than that, but i'd like to point out differences and shortcomings of other browsers (mainly IE, not NetCaps). see this screenshot as an example.

upper left is the main menu, of course. to the right, i've arranged most of the standard buttons on the same toolbar to save space. two i'd like to point out are the arrow with the red circle and the gray icon. the former toggles redirect URL's (bypassing redirects) and the latter is the User Agent Switcher which makes FF appear to webservers as whatever browser you want it to appear as.

below the main toolbar is the GoogleBar Lite toolbar. this is NOT from Google and does not update itself automatically and install annoying crap. optionally, it displays a webpage context menu as well.

below that is the All In One Sidebar where i'm showing the extensions. that thing, by itself, is incredible. it is highly configurable and can display extensions, bookmarks, history, a web page and much more. easily opened/closed several ways. this can also display a webpage context menu with some useful tools.

overlaying the sidebar is the standard options dialog, showing off the FasterFox menu.

further down is the Bookmarks Manager and below that is the Adblock Filterset.G options dialog which goes hand in hand with Adblock Plus (upper right). the Filterset.G updater syncs with a well maintained ad blocking list and does so automatically, at the users option. it also saves my user created filters after an update.

Adblock Plus can easily be used to block most anything at all and is easily accessed, configured and turned on/off from the "Adblock" text button on the lower right side of the status bar. custom blocking is easily accomplished by right-clicking on the offending element of a webpage. supports black and white listing as well.

also located on the status bar, the green "C" is a cookie manager that is super easy to use for allowing (always, session), blocking or removing cookies on a per-site basis.

to the right of it is a blue "S" (covered by a red circle because i didn't allow JS for MFSN). it is similar to Adblock, but is used to block/allow JS, Flash, Bookmarklets, etc., on a per-site or global basis.

in the lower middle is the DOM Inspector which is good for web developers and above it is the JS console.

to the right of DOM is the Themes manager for skinning FF (i have none installed).

and there's a lot more as well. the heart of FF, it's configuration files, are not shown. for instance, 'about:config' can be typed in the address bar to access many additional settings.

Yep..... FF is a good browser...I've had it off and on a few times. It'll never be my main browser, but it's nice to have choices..

I chose Firefox 1.5.

Firefox all the way.

Firefox, but I keep IE because some (very few!) sites work better with it.

Firefox:s handling/placement of settings and bookmarks (files deep down in the folder structure compared to the registry and the userprofile in IE) is its biggest disadvantage.

Fairly feature rich? Talk out-of-the-box experience, since that's what most people know about. The only people I know who actually use extensions for Firefox are people who are semi-tech-savvy. The rest of the people have just come along for the ride, and run plain-jane Firefox.

Opera has most of the features that common people add extensions for anyways:

- Proper tabbed browsing (target="_blank" --> New tab, not new window)
- Mouse Gestures
- Wand (password manager)
- Smooth Scrolling
- Fully customizable keyboard shortcuts

Sure, you don't have the possibility of expansion like you do with extensions, but they're a double-edged sword. Most of the crashes that people get in Firefox are from either poorly written extensions, or conflicts between two extensions.

I know you and I have had other debates about this, but I thought I'd defend the Opera standpoint once more...

heck man, i thought i WAS defending Opera
it's a good **** browser. period. but for the tech savvy, as you put it, who enjoy tweaking and virtually unlimited customization (me), i would recommend FF.

also, FF either natively has (proper tabbed browsing -- new tab, not window, a password manager, smooth scrolling), or can have with tweaks or addons (if you want it), all the items you listed.

and yes, poorly written extensions can be a problem. i've experienced that myself. they also slow the loading of the browser. however, for me anyway, the very rare problem with extensions and the slightly slower loading is worth every bit of the additional functionality. i always read the reviews of extensions before trying them, plus, the more i use FF, the better idea i have on what extensions may conflict with others and how to configure them.

still, in the end, it's all up to you!

@atomizer - Yup! That pretty much sums it up.

I've been using IE 5.0 for nearly 6 years with no problems of adware/spyware/popups etc.

That's because I secure it for Internet zone (*everything* that could potentially cause harm is disabled) and add only sites that I trust to Trusted Sites Zone (almost everything enabled).

Tried the latest Opera recently. The configuration is confusing and less configurative than IE.

Tried FF too... it seems slower than IE.

Download firefox and get the fasterfox extension, it will make firefox much faster.

Must admit I've never tried Opera....
Before I discovered Firefox/Firebird/Phoenix... (Think I started @ version 0.7), I was partial to the new Netscape 6 although it kinda sucked as it was buggy (or should I say sucked as it was kinda buggy?) Netscape 7 was real cool... (much more stable)

It started with the ditch MS and try to use free stuff, but after using both, I've found my two top (real) reasons I like Firefox (over IE).....

1. Since Firefox stores it's bookmarks in one file (html), it let's me have two different bookmark pages with the same title!
   Since IE stores a favorite as a file, if I want to bookmark a web page and the site keeps the same "title" tag, I have to rename the previous favorite before I can save the current page.
2. When I visit web sites with micro fine print, I can resize any text whereas with IE, it seems to only enlarge a limited amount of text on the screen.

before i liked only IE but when I got FF i just loved it.

anyone have any problems with crashing or accidentally closing windows/tabs or electricity going off causing u to lose all your tabs/windows?

then use opera, if u manage to crash it + other stuff i said, your tabs/windows will come back when u run opera again. and since it reads them from cache its pretty fast...

also now with opera 9 u can customize a lof of things just like FF.
i use all the functions in opera.
there are links in a page? in ff and in ie u'd have to copy them 1 by 1. but with opera just press f4 and click on links and it'll have to the links listed. and u can even search copy/paste..
usefull when i'm dling stuff.

also other feature i use often is the show pictures/hide pictures tab. i sometimes just want to read stuff no need for pictures, faster!!.

ow do i need to tell u about the built in RSS support, lovely!
+ browsing back the history is so fast!,

ALL of the above is available in FF as well, some natively and some through extensions, IF you want them

i tried Opera as well, just a month or so ago (would that have been v9? - the one available when they were giving away licenses). like i said in an earlier post, if you want a browser that requires little fuss and has a decent amount of features built-in, then stay away from FF. Opera is the way to go. if you don't mind getting your hands just a tad bit grimy and you want the capability to customize 'till your teeth bleed, then nothing in the main stream can touch FF -- nothing i've found anyway. FF is what ever YOU want it to be.

Yup, i tried Opera about a week or two ago, and 2 things ticked me off.

1. Opera is much slower than firefox (i use the fasterfox extension).

2. The stupid image toggle button, i would always have to go back and toggle it to view cached images, or normal images.

So right off the bat i uninstalled Opera and went back to my beloved FireFox (ahhhh yea)!!

yeah, it's difficult to break old habits. i did the same thing with FF and promptly went back to IE. not anymore though

I prefer and voted for Firefox. But its close.
I prefer the look of Firefox, dont ask why.
I like having my bookmarks in a toolbar with drop down folders. Ive heard this can be done with Opera.
I like the page info window which lets me download stuff easier.
More websites work with Firefox, gmail doesnt work that good with Opera.
Firefox has some powerful extensions ex) All-In-One Sidebar, TabMixPlus, WebDeveloper, Sort Bookmarks, Chatzilla, CuteMenus - Crystal SVG.

I also use OperaUSB, a portable version of Opera. Opera does have its pluses:
when i minimize it the memory usage goes down by ~90%
Opera still goes back and forth between pages faster
the scrolling is very nice
integrated Email & IRC
Smooth glowing buttons

Has anyone heard of Mozilla firebird? The "next generation" browser? If anyone has, and is using it, can you please give me more info about it? thanks.

I've been using IE since windows 98, but I'm now a true FireFox fan for more than a year

Opera - sweet as

I used to used both IE7 and Firefox, but now i only use IE . i never got a problem or spyware with it and there is no need for 2 browsers on my pc


plus most spyware is picked up on xxx.sites <---- 18 and over lol . hmm....