I've been...turned...

[Glitchfinder]

Well, Microsoft's newest and last version of Internet Explorer, IE 8, has finally forced me away from IE. I've always been fine with the formatting errors, and the tendency to catch bugs and viruses has never been a problem, because I have enough know-how to fix the problem if it arises. I've never had problems with the layout or format, and was perfectly fine with the fact that, to most of the tech savvy, I was behind.

What turned me was problems I was having with IE 8 that should never have gotten past the programmers, much less the beta testers. It wasn't any kind of standard problem, it was just the fact that about half of the text input boxes and buttons I found on the internet, including Google's, RMXPedia's, and those of many other sites I visit were displaying incorrectly. Specifically, they will display at a much smaller size, with fonts so small that a letter displays as 1 pixel by 1 pixel, at most. That was the final straw. Being a common visitor of forums, wikis, and google, I need those text boxes to display correctly, and I have no idea what Microsoft was thinking. I didn't even bother searching the options to see if that could have something to do with it, and instead switched to Firefox with an addon to make it look like IE.

So, if anything, what made any of you switch away from IE to another browser, or why do you still use IE?

 

[candle]

I switched from IE6 to firefox2 when I was reading a lot of fanfiction. I didn't want to have a shitload of windows open, and ie didn't have tabbed browsing then. I stayed after I found ad-ons that allowed me to save my tabs and various pages when I closed the window. Now, of course, that is a standard feature of firefox3, which is what I currently use. I also really like Firefox's layout.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Opera. It is fantastic, it is great. No other browsers can relate. Use Opera.

It's just got so many likable features (speed dial, memorizes what tabs you have open even if you restart computer, very fast) that I don't see present in other browsers. Not to mention the fact that there are dozens of different themes you can change it to if you feel like it. I don't really have many problems with Opera other than the fact that it will sometimes stop responding for no reason (which may have something to do with the fact that I usually have ten tabs open at once!), downloads seem to be slow, and it doesn't handle .pdf's very well.

I sometimes use Internet Explorer but only for certain features that work in IE but not in Opera. (ex: you can't look inside books on Amazon in Opera)

 

[Glitchfinder]

I would never use Opera. Not for any specific loathing for the browser, but simply because I've tried the version made for the Wii. That version is useless bloatware that is obscenely slow, freezes quite often, and takes up an immense amount of data, much more than anything else I've looked at. I've never tried the actual browser for PC, but, based on the fact that the company that created it has just initiated double jeopardy for Microsoft by the European Union, I don't really trust their business practices either. (Specifically, they have filed charges against Microsoft for anti-competitive practices related to bundling IE with Windows, which Microsoft has already been convicted of, both in Europe and the US)

 

[psiclone]

Opera. It is fantastic, it is great. No other browsers can relate. Use Opera.

It's just got so many likable features (speed dial, memorizes what tabs you have open even if you restart computer, very fast) that I don't see present in other browsers. Not to mention the fact that there are dozens of different themes you can change it to if you feel like it. I don't really have many problems with Opera other than the fact that it will sometimes stop responding for no reason (which may have something to do with the fact that I usually have ten tabs open at once!), downloads seem to be slow, and it doesn't handle .pdf's very well.

I sometimes use Internet Explorer but only for certain features that work in IE but not in Opera. (ex: you can't look inside books on Amazon in Opera)

Rofl. It crashes from 10 tabs open at once? Yeah.. have fun with that.

Firefox is the browser to go with. No crashes, has all the things mentioned by Dadevster above about Opera, and many more. There are tons of addons and shit for the browser to make it exactly to your liking. You really can't go wrong at all.

Google's Chrome browser has some nice features, but, again, all of them you can get from Firefox addons. I just don't like Chrome. You can't even middle mouse click scroll with Chrome... it just does nothing. I use middle mouse scroll so much, it's basically an essential thing for me.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Rofl. It crashes from 10 tabs open at once? Yeah.. have fun with that.

Firefox is the browser to go with. No crashes, has all the things mentioned by Dadevster above about Opera, and many more. There are tons of addons and shit for the browser to make it exactly to your liking. You really can't go wrong at all.

It very rarely crashes, and I'm always running twenty things at once. It does this with other browsers too. And it takes all of five seconds to open Opera up again, so it's not really that big of a deal.

I just like Opera's features more than Firefox's, personally. It has a neat little thumbnail preview so that you can go from tab to tab easier. Doesn't sound like it's that great but it's actually really helpful. Not to mention Opera had the "memorize your tabs" thing going on in 2003.

And I find that Opera is just a lot more configurable than the other browsers. It's extremely easy to change and customize it to however you want it to be. The other browsers probably got this too so it's not really much of a point but I just thought I'd mention that. Overall, Opera just feels faster, and I dunno why, but it does.

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Diedrupo]

firefox probably is the best browser but i like having a browser that is completely barebones, and that's why i stick to IE6 primarily. you can get rid of everything on the taskbars except for the bare essentials (address bar, home/forward/back buttons) to the point where it looks just like an explorer window.

i do use google chrome for when i go to riskier websites (like torrent sites) but in general, i don't care for tabbed windows or firefox's clunky tons-of-icons toolbars. plus, i like how IE6 looks like it's integrated with the OS. and really, the only feature absent in IE6 that i care about is transparent pngs. i could care less about web standards that affect only a small percentage of websites coded by hardcore design geeks.

but i don't recommend IE6 to people or anything. it is just my personal preference and the so called security flaws and lack of standards and crap aren't good enough reasons for me to switch (except for ocassional Chrome use).

 

[Venetia]

firefox2+addons like noscript, fasterfox, etc. for me.

at home i have firefox 3 but that's because my ex upgraded without telling me and i'm too lazy/don't care enough to downgrade. though it doesn't really irk me outside of the pixel resizing issue.

i had opera and it worked well enough but for some reason this website and certain other websites seemed to hang a lot??? idk if that was just me but it didn't on ff so i just uninstalled it.

ie doesn't have noscript and that's why i don't use it. also i think the interface (esp as of late) looks like a monkey's ass. ("hi i just graduated from art school and i think web2.0 graphics are TIZ-IGHT!!!! lemme clog everything up with swooshy pretty shiny bullshit")

i am mostly what anyone'd consider to just be an "average internet user". i use it to peruse forums and image blogs and do my online banking. and that's about it, really. excluding the odd porn site or torrent site. so honestly i don't give a whole lot of shits about it, and im too lazy to even bother looking elsewhere.

 

[silver wind]

Been using Firefox since the 'new' tabs feature. It also seems to load sites faster.

 

[psiclone]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the noscript addon. I've been using that since.. idk when. It's a really good addon. Should never leave home without it.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Pffft. You're guys are just jealous is all.

 

[united washcloth express]

I use SeaMonkey because I like the name...

Oh, it's crap. Trust me. It's basically an outdated FireFox with a cool name, built in web development consoles, and a built in translator that I can build.

But something about the name keeps me coming back.

 

[Jason]

Pffft. You're guys are just jealous is all.

Don't worry buddy, I share your love for Opera too, I'm using it right now, it's actually really great, and the memorising feature is pretty awesome for when your computer crashes !

 

[Venetia]

firefox3 does that too btw

 

[Nachos]

just... Opera, the latest version consume more resources but its still better.
btw, i only use IE to reconnect my modem and mess around with its bugs, i've NEVER used it for web-browsing

 

[candle]

firefox3 does that too btw

Firefox 2 did it as well with an add-on. In fact, I think I still have it installed.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

Pffft. You're guys are just jealous is all.

Don't worry buddy, I share your love for Opera too, I'm using it right now, it's actually really great, and the memorising feature is pretty awesome for when your computer crashes !

Us Opera users gotta stick together, ya know??

 

[Ulqiorra]

I use FF3 optimized for yahoo, and AVG link scanner. It's a pretty nice little browser(that made a Guinness world record, if I'm not mistaken), and I can do just about whatever I want with it.

Also, the Tamper Data and Live HTTP Headers are useful add-ons :wink: .

But I absolutely hate IE, it's a virus prone, crash-happy piece of crap.
And that is your new opinion of IE. j/k

 

[Glitchfinder]

Anyone know why firefox won't minimize when I click the button in the top right? It disappears for a second, then is back, just like before I clicked the button. Its really weird.