What browser's are you using

Browser test 2006

[Bennie]

I use Camino and have done since 2003, it's fast and generally renders pages very well, better than FF and IE. The only issue I have ever had is lack of multiple passwords to the same page. If this was implemented I'd say Camino was close to perfect!

So what browser are you using, why and what would make you switch to a different one?

[timster]

I use FireFox most of the time, and sometimes Safari. One reason is that it it's a cross platform browser, and it's nice to be using a browser with a significant marketshare.

Its handy to track my positions in SERPs, just switching the search engine in the FF search box. I also like the extensions that let you see the Google Pagerank/Alexa popularity -- that's especially handy when looking for link partners.

Safari is fast and very stable, and some video/flash stuff seems to work better in Safari than FF.

[travelin cat]

Firefox 98% of the time, Safari/Opera/IE the other 2% for testing.

[jcmoon]

95% of the time, Firefox - daily browsing
4% of the time, Internet Explorer - to dissociate certain profiles from eachother, or to deal with stupid webmail attachment issues *
1% of the time, Safari - for grins, once in a while, I use it ... it's where I first used tabs, and is "not bad"

I don't think any of the browsers are more recent than, say, late 2003. The machine is a PowerBook G3 Lombard, running OS X 10.2.8.

(* this means you, IMP Horde!)

[whoisgregg]

Work: Safari 80%, Firefox 20% (slowly transitioning to more firefox)
Home: Firefox 95%, Safari 5%

Friend's computers? I install Firefox and use that. :)

[tstaheli]

Firefox 90% Safari 10%
Only use Safari for some secure sites. FF won't work on some of my SSL sites.

[Pfui]

Desktop: Netscape 7.02
Laptop: Netscape Communicator 4.8
Testing: Wanna-Be [mindstory.com]; F-Secure [f-secure.com] (command line); Lynx Viewer [delorie.com]

(Yeah, I run OS 9.2.2 on my lamp, and my old, reliable laptop tops out at 8.x. Shaddup:)

When either of the above Netscapes choke, typically on what I'm guessing is Java underlying Google's Welcome Webmasters [google.com] and other non-SERPs pages, and even games sites like POGO [pogo.com], I use --

Internet Explorer 5.1.7

Seriously. It's circa 2001 but actually still works when other browsers don't.

And when forced to run OS X? I have 'em all: Safari, Netscape, Explorer, Firefox, Opera. Firefox has a slight edge because of all the extension/doo-dads.

What would make me switch (to any of those) for good?

OSX was 500% more rapidly responsive (1 Gig of RAM and the keystroke lags feel like 5-second echoes), and all of the programs I work with worked with it.

[pageoneresults]

So what browser are you using?

IE of course.

Why?

Because IE has the largest market share at 80%+.

And what would make you switch to a different one?

When IE drops below 60% market share, I may begin to keep two of the majors open at all times. I try to keep FF open during the day now but most of my work is done in IE. I then browse via FF to adjust any CSS issues that may have cropped up and then we are good to go.

I also view on the Mac (Safari) at times when I have access.

[whoisgregg]

I also view on the Mac (Safari) at times when I have access.

Whoops, I had taken for granted that the OP was looking for Mac Webmaster [webmasterworld.com] browser usage.

When I run Windows (on my MacBook), I use IE. Of course, the only reason I'm running Windows is to find and fix IE rendering errors, so I'm not sure if that counts.

I almost never check my code in Firefox for Windows. So far, I've found that Firefox never has a significant rendering difference between different OS versions.

[pageoneresults]

Whoops, I had taken for granted that the OP was looking for Mac Webmaster browser usage.

You're right. It didn't even occur to me until you posted your reply. Oh well, at least I get some Mac time in. ;)

IE on the Mac has all sorts of issues, especially if you're using a 5.x version. Yuck!

[Pfui]

Speaking of browsers and types and platforms and market shares and such:

Market Share Report - By Browser
[marketshare.hitslink.com...]

Also, FWIW:

Market Share Report - O/S Share Trend
[marketshare.hitslink.com...]

:(

Maybe if Apple gave every iPod buyer a mini...

[techrealm]

At work I use Safari, Firefox, Opera all day on the same sites with tabs for each area I need to view as different users...

Then I RDP to my windows boxes in a third monitor and do the same there with IE, Firefox and Opera I use the tabs and then alt tab between browsers.

No browser/os really gets my vote as the best, there allot like blades in a Swiss army knife to me.

[timster]

Pfui, why are you frowning about Macs accounting for 4.5% of web browsers? That's the best it's been this century, and the number is steadily climbing.

There was a time a few year back when lazy web developers who could justify creating sites for Windows MSIE only. Now with FF and Safari accounting for close to 30% of the web usage, developing web sites that "just plain work" is a business imperative.

[Pfui]

I honestly thought we had a greater platform share given the sustained popularity of all things iPod. Then again, my frame of Web-reference dates back to when we hovered around 10%, in the early 1990s era of NCSA Mosaic [livinginternet.com]... So heck, if 4.5 is a rebounding share, three cheers!

[whoisgregg]

Market share is almost always calculted based on units sold only during a certain time period. (To inflate the appearance of trends, which is valuable information to have.)

The installed base [en.wikipedia.org] is a different beast entirely.

[mboydnv]

I design for firefox, seems it renders just like a pc user would see. Safari did not show many errors in design that firefox did.

[caveman]

Well I just started using Camino, because I need more than one browser for my Macs, and while I love FF, I was NOT satisfied with Safari, IE, or Opera. I like a lot of Opera's features, and its speed, but it's buggy at times and the recent update is a disaster. Tons of sites not displaying properly.

So I went in search of a good #2 for those times when I'm not using FF, and Camino, so far, is it. And Camino works even better since I installed code in the user.js file to change the user agent to FF. ;-)

My 2 cents.

[stormy]

I have them all (Safari, Firefox, Camino, Opera, IE 5) and use Safari 95% of the time.

Firefox is handy with the webdesign extensions (I forget the name), but I prefer Camino when I need to use a different engine. Gave up on Opera a long time ago (I was a paid user on PC). IE is still handy for those really old, badly coded javascript-only sites, which I tend to avoid altogether! :-)