Browser wars Firefox, Chrome, IE and the rest

[Kym]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/moz...rer,15173.html

Mozilla has turned Firefox around. These numbers don't lie.

For the web browser, 2011 was an astonishing year. Google fundamentally changed our perception of what a web browser is and what it should do. According to StatCounter, Chrome gained 42.5 percent market share or 11.59 points, while IE lost 19.0 percent or 7.35 points, and Firefox lost 21.4 percent or 5.4 points. (For the remainder of this article I will only consider data provided by StatCounter, as it is the most comprehensive browser market share data set that is freely accessible.) You can love or hate Chrome, but there is little denying that Google's Chrome strategy, a combination of rapid browser development, convenient software delivery through silent updates, backwards compatibility, quick security fixes, and high-profile advertising, is working quite well.

Use Firefox, Chrome or whatever, just get rid of Internet Explorer

[OzzieTraveller]

Thanks Kym

Quite happy with F-fox ...
Very not happy with "anytime when in email I click on a link in an incoming message, bloody IE comes up" with multiple window images asking me to use it for this link & make it the default browser. I'm sick & bloody tired of the damn thing

Regards, Phil

[NoSideshow]

I can remember what it was like when one used Netscape on a Unix workstation, and its been downhill ever since. No ads, truth in searching (no fancy, commercial algorithm) and search results were accurate and not massaged according to how much ad money you spent.

Right now it sucks. I'm stll a fan of Firefox and as for Chrome, its so tainted by commercial interest, I deleted it.

What happened to Opera? That was like when Google just got started and it was simple.

[ameerat42]

Phil. That's because you have IE set as you default browser, or I'm a goose/duck/sausage. Make FFOX your default browser.

2 c how, look here.

Am.

[mongo]

....Use Firefox, Chrome or whatever, just get rid of Internet Explorer

MOngo agrees !

However, since starting to use a Mac this year, MOngo has not bothered to go back to FF. He is using Mac's Safari. Unless Mongo is wrong, Safari appears about the same speed as FF. Can anyone give me their experience about this because if MOngo is wrong, he will go back to FF.

[WhoDo]

However, since starting to use a Mac this year, MOngo has not bothered to go back to FF. He is using Mac's Safari. Unless Mongo is wrong, Safari appears about the same speed as FF. Can anyone give me their experience about this because if MOngo is wrong, he will go back to FF.

I don't believe Mongo is wrong! My experience (at least with these browsers - not with food sources) mirrors his! Haven't bothered with anything but Safari since switching to Mac.

[Ezookiel]

I had to stop using IE when it stopped working with a 4wd forum I'm on. The main menu is a mouseover thing that drops down "New Posts, My Posts, Unread" etc etc. I used ONLY that menu to browse nearly the entire forum, so I had no choice but to go to FF when IE wouldn't do the mouseover. I've used FF ever since.

[Art Vandelay]

What's the problem with explorer these days ?

I've been through a circle over the years of IE, netscape, firefox, chrome & the latest IE versions seem quite ok so just use them as is. What am I overlooking ?

[Kym]

IE9 is ok, but because of its architecture is a much higher risk.
Plus, do you really trust microsnot?

[Art Vandelay]

Plus, do you really trust microsnot?

No hahaha,

But the more time goes on the more I'm not liking the power google is getting either.

Maybe firefox is worth a look again.

[agb]

I don't believe Mongo is wrong! My experience (at least with these browsers - not with food sources) mirrors his! Haven't bothered with anything but Safari since switching to Mac.

I have IE, Chrome, Safari, and FF installed on my computer. The best one for me is FF.
If I have multiple tabs open, which I usually do, and I mean sometimes more than 20, there is a little down arrow at the end of the bar that lets me quickly choose which tab I want to view. Safari does not have it so far as I can find. Otherwise I like safari, seems quick enough. Chrome is the fastest though, but I refuse to use it any more and Kym has put me off IE, otherwise I would use it.
Firefox is faster for me. Opens and has the home page open in about half the time of Safari.
Don't ask me why I have so many tabs open at a time. just lazy I suspect and instead of bookmarking and then finding them and opening them its just easy to have them all where they are.

[wmphoto]

But the more time goes on the more I'm not liking the power google is getting either.

+1... I don't even use them as a search engine anymore, and don't get me started on Google books, following several heated email exchanges over about a month to do with an issue over an e-book, I now refuse to purchase any e-books from sites that use Google books (are you reading this Dymocks!!!)

I've tried all the other web browsers and keep going back to IE. It provides all the features that I want and I have no reason to change.

[Ezookiel]

....The best one for me is FF. If I have multiple tabs open, which I usually do, and I mean sometimes more than 20, there is a little down arrow at the end of the bar that lets me quickly choose which tab I want to view.....

Damn. I've been using FF for ages and never noticed that. You've just made my day. I have FF set up so that everytime I open the browser, it opens SIX tabs (Google, AP, FB, and 3 4wd forums), and that's just what I start with. I also use heaps of tabs. I had no idea I could get to them like that. Cheers!!!

[Mark L]

I'm no expert here, however.
You get used to what you get used to.
I have no real need for speed, 1 second or half a second, who cares.
I'd rather have as little as possible to do with a multinational corporation (other than Microsoft Security Essentials), and FF has what I want. And you get used to what you get used to.
I also like to change how things look every now and then....

8.JPG

7.JPG

6.JPG

Since changing from IE to FF we've had no scareware etc intrusions.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day am - et al

Phil. That's because you have IE set as you default browser, or I'm a goose/duck/sausage. Make FFOX your default browser. 2 c how, look here. Am.

Gosh - hasn't there been a lot of chatter on this topic ...
Sorry am .... yurra goose mate

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers

Here's a screen dump from today showing my defaults:-



So I return to my previous statement - I get very upset that a program which has no defaults loaded and that has never been activated by me, that upon me clicking on a link in a website [like AP] or an email message, it insists upon loading its splash screen and wanting to a) load the linked item, and b) wanting to become the default web browser

Regards, Phil

[arthurking83]

Hi Phil,

I notice that you have Eudora there for email purposes.

I used to use Eudora about 5 or 6 years ago, but eventually switched to T-Bird .. a whole lot nicer once you get used to it.

Anyhow, Eudora was also quite good, but the purpose of my reply was to ask if you have set any prefs in Eudora for opening links within emails?

The problem to me sounds like it's not a Windows setting problem as such WRT defaults and suchlike, but the problem with the program used for clicking on the links.

From what you say, the initiating software is invoking IE. IE. is then opening up as commanded too, and it knows it's not default, so will ask if you want it to be because of the request to open in the first place.

That'd be my first point of call.

Other programs also do this, and there is no option to set any other browser as the default. The software(usually an old program from when M$ ruled the known universe) just wants to open a browser for your purposes.

[ameerat42]

...Sorry am .... yurra goose mate

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers...

(Honk! <- a goosine Hmm!) But I don't mind if I learn something from it.

But this...

IE has N-E-V-E-R been loaded or set as a default program on this or my previous 4 computers

needs addressing.

AFAIK, when you install Windows (of any X) you do install IE and it does become your default browser until you change that. (I see you have Win 7. Has it changed for that?) Somewhere along the line Win is treating those links as IE only, in spite of those settings.

So, I will return to my previous statement: have you had a gander at the settings inside FF?
(Note, only two options left for transformations are duck and sausage.)
Am.
PS: now I see the link in my previous post does not work.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day fellas

1- thanks both for your responses & I will try to investigate a lot further
2- it may not be immediate tho - I need to find a linked message that causes it to occur & note the circumstances
3- it is definately not confined to eudora ... there are other times > but I need to revisit to confirm them.
Future discoveries I will chat via PMs > it may be easier to criss-cross the options that way

Arthur- I tried Tbird and gave it away as I could not get its address book to behave as eudora does - via retaining groups of names under their group-header > it wanted to list every person in a group as an individual as well. Many of my group contacts have 20-30 names within the group, and while I know "sue from the credit union" list, when sue + another sue + then yet another sue turn up as individuals in the address book, it just became unworkable

Regards, Phil

[Mark L]

Maybe this is to simple and so obvious that you would have done this , but just in case.
You need to set FF as your default. So in your screen dump, click on Set this program as default top right.
I'm sure you know this, but just in case.

[Eberbachl]

Enjoy Chromium very much on Ubuntu with Firefox as a backup for the odd occasion when Chromium doesn't render as it should. Placing pictures in eBay ads for example.