Forum Moderators: open
And Why?
I think this topic's been done to death.
Right now I'm using FireFox. Its lightweight, very fast, immune to 99% of spyware and adware, and there are a ton of mods available which make it customizable in the extreme.
I like FireFox a lot, but the IE "Internet Macros" plugin keeps me from switching.
UB
Maybe the topic has been done to death, but maybe not
Yes, it's been done to death.
Please leave it at that and read the other posts before adding to this thread.
I think the question should be, what browser do you use and how does it effect your web design. Since you use a certian browser, does that apply to making your site more user friendly for all browsers. If you use an obscure browser, does it make you code for other obscure browsers.
CompWorld
Seriously... There is not one browser that is better than the other. They are just different. It's like arguing about which car is best. They are all different, and one has something the other doesn't. When it comes to cars, you just pick whatever you prefer, and then live with it. The government makes sure that the roads are paved, and the gas companies know that the same gas can be used to fuel all cars, no matter if they are Volvo, Ford, GMC, or Skoda. Same thing with browsers -- they're different. Choose whatever you want, live with it, be happy. Internet works in all browsers! If you happen to be a Web developer -- then it's your job to make sure your page can be used in all browsers, no matter if they are IE, Opera, Mozilla, or Lynx.
That's life. Deal with it.
Personally, I could care less which browser my visitors are using. I make sure the site is accessible and usable. That's all that matters... Whether IE or Lynx is the most commonly used browser is less interesting. True -- it determines the type of experience your visitors will have. But, if 80% of all Internet users started using Lynx, I sure as heck wouldn't cater to a text-only browser. I'd make sure it had bells and whistles for browsers that can handle them.
For testing, I use:
- Mozilla Firefox
- IE 6
- Netscape 3.0
The problem for many users is that they do not have a choice as to which browser to use (because of company policy etc.). Many universities do not allow their students to use IE, because of security issues. Others only allow IE because of the system integration with Windows. Yet others simply use a particular browser because of familiarity. They many not be 100% happy with it all the time, but they are used to it, and they know how it works.
You can't teach old dogs new tricks...
To anyone that is thinking about trying a new browser - do NOT try it for just a few minutes or even hours. Play around with it for at least a week, even a month. Familiarize yourself with it and its functions. Change is hard, but once you start getting used to another browser, you may find that you like that one more than your previous one. This is exactly what happened to me when I made the transition to Opera from IE (oops, answered the question anyway) - I had to give it a chance.
Jennifer
I think the question should be, what browser do you use and how does it effect your web design. Since you use a certian browser, does that apply to making your site more user friendly for all browsers. If you use an obscure browser, does it make you code for other obscure browsers.
I was already trying to code for a few different browsers. That's when I read several posts herein about others, and sat down one night with Firefox. I'm still using it. IE is still on my machine, used for testing purposes only (*sigh* except for the occasional necessary site which REFUSES to allow use by anything but IE - and that's not, btw, just limited to MS....)
And now that I more fully understand the fact that IE is in the "wrong" 90% of the time, I'm even more careful about coding for "other" browsers.
[Dr Doc: yes, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, of which cliché I am living proof.... I'm 56, had been using IE since maybe 1990 - and I quite happily switched just a couple of months ago or so....]
My own choice for primary browser is Opera - because the usability choices they made, and deep functionality are so well suited to web development. Using Opera is like getting an extra hour in my work day.
'cept when I'm developing in which case it's the Fox.
To anyone that is thinking about trying a new browser - do NOT try it for just a few minutes or even hours. Play around with it for at least a week, even a month. Familiarize yourself with it and its functions. Change is hard, but once you start getting used to another browser, you may find that you like that one more than your previous one. This is exactly what happened to me when I made the transition to Opera from IE (oops, answered the question anyway) - I had to give it a chance.
Good point. (And probably about the only new thing that could be added to a discussion that's been had as much as this!) It took me a week to get used to FireFox (actually FireBird at the time), but I stuck it out and haven't looked back since. What tedster said about Opera is, in my case, equally true with FireFox. As an extra bonus, using a non-IE browser keeps me from getting sloppy with my code! ;)
By the way, all of you W3C geeks - my non-compliant site still looks great. ha!
I picked up Moz and Moz FF on the same day, because I was having a "ticked off at Redmond" day. At first it wasn't a rational choice, but in the end, I've ended up going with FF because, well, its a better browser (for the way I surf, IE still might be better for a lot of people). Since then, I've gotten some hacks and plug-ins, and now the mere thought of having to go back to IE frightens me.
So the question is this: How many people switched for (initially), not terribly rational reasons, in the end to stick with another browser because they simply liked it better?
But I never looked back. Even version 3 was already better than the alternatives for me. And everytime I'm testing in IE, I rememebr all over again all the things I like about Opera.
I downloaded Firefox yesterday and I gotta admit, I really like this browser. The tab thingys are cool. Assuming there are no problems with viewing websites I think I'll make this my default browser in a couple more days.
You might want to check out the following extensions too:
webdeveloper tool bar 0.7 [lets you make a tool bar with things like resizing of screen for one click checking of 800x600, 1024x768.. one click validation of html/css [for debugging purposes of course...]
tabbrowser extensions and tab browser preferences, these give you huge number of choices in how your tab behaviors work, for example, go back to last tab open on closing a tag.
all in one gestures, lets you control mouse gestures more precisely, timing, movements etc.
also if you haven't done so, check out the themes, the default mozilla/firefox stuff is a little boring.
So the question is this: How many people switched for (initially), not terribly rational reasons, in the end to stick with another browser because they simply liked it better?
I kept testing browsers until I found one that worked better, opera was faster for example, but had display issues on 5 and 6, early mozillas were ok but far too slow, phoenix/firebird finally convinced me to dump IE and switch, especially with the added tab and mousegesture features.
Instead, get the following extensions to duplicate TBE options:
Tab Browser "Preferences" (not "Extensions")
MozFBRH
Restore Session
MiniT
undoclosetab
You'll find that your FireFox installation doesn't suffer from that combination like it will from Tab Browser Extensions, and provides virtually all the tab functionality you're likely to want. (Tab Browser Extensions does have more options, but I don't know of anyone who actually uses them all.)
You'll also notice vast speed improvement by typing about:config in the address bar, searching for "pipelining" and turning on all pipelining options. For maxrequests, put in something like 32. More info on how to tune FireFox to your system to maximize performance can be found at mozillazine.org forums by searching for "Tuning FireFox."
I also use Mozilla from time to time...and sometimes Lynx.
When developing I test in Safari, Mozilla, Netscape, and IE. If you can't tell, I'm a mac user...and I like it:)
about:config in the address bar, searching for "pipelining" and turning on all pipelining options.
I couldn't find this in firebird or firefox, no 'pipelining' anywhere, about:config worked fine, long list of items. Could you be more specific, what exactly is supposed to be there?
I'll see if I can find a speed difference between using the tab extensions you suggested on firefox, for some reason firefox started working now, probably because I finally set up a new profile for it...
