This is a sort of 2 part thread.

Firstly, I hear alot of people going on about the various security issues and whatnot that seems to be standard with Internet Explorer. I can testify to the problems with Internet Explorer since I switched to Firefox, namely - IE just seems much more prone to viruses, it runs muuuch slower than firefox and has trouble with some websites.
But which browser is best? To me Firefox is better than IE, but is firefox the best? Theres at least 2 others which I've never tried, namely Safari (the Mac based one) and Opera (dont know anything about this one). So, my good Escapists, which browser do you use and why?

As a sub-topic to this thread, for those of you on Firefox or any other browser capable of using add-ons. What add-ons do you use, and how many? I mainly ask this because my right click is filling up more and more of my screen with each passing week. Surely im not the only one whos right click menu is growing to epic proportions?

Just to add an example of how many addons ive got I'm going to add a little screenshot:
By the way on that screenshot just to the left of google theres an addon icon, and way down the bottom theres 3 different ones, 3/4 of these arent shown on the right click

EDIT: I added the other option, coz a few people came up with ones ive never heard of

I use IE, but just because it came standard. I don't know which is best. Dragonforce.

Firefox. IE lags so much.

also, you forgot about opera.

i use opera. The tabbed browsing is easier and it has a quickdial feature on your homepage with all your favorite websites for easy access. A few drawbacks are that a few flash objects wont work, idk if thats the browswers fault though. Firefox stopped workign for me, idk why. IE is just terrible.

When I first turned on my computer, I checked on all my favourite webomics with what was there, which happened to be Safari. Then I installed Firefox. So I use Firefox for everything except reading webcomics, because I'm too lazy to move my bookmarks. And I like the RSS news feature.

I would never touch IE though. Horrid thing.

Firefox user for 6 years and counting, with Thunderbird as my mail client same length.

Anything good in IE was stolen from Firefox and Mozilla, and yet IE still lacks many features 'Fox has. My personal favorite is Adblock, which not only blocks ads and undesired components of webpages, but completely removes the item from the code.

I use IE. I tried Firefox and I guess I never got it work properly on my computer because it lagged so much for me. Had a billion extras that honestly I didn't need. I'm a very simple Internet browser. Bookmarks, page tabs and the home button are all I really need. Never got into much else. IE has a pop up-blocker that's never failed me before. Been mixing it with Zonealarm and I've never had any problems. My brother loathes me for using IE but Firefox just aggravated me. I'm not really big on change so I think that affected the outcome as well.

^_^

Internet Exploerer all the way.
It may not have all of the fancy bells and whistles that Firefox does, but it works much better for me and always has.
I really find no use for most of the extra addons and such that other browsers come with and Firefox doesn't work on my computer.
I'm serious, though, it was the edition that is supposed to work (specifically) with Vista and yet it crashed my computer each time I tried to load it up. So I deleted the bugged thing and went back to IE (this took all of thirty minutes) (the only reason I considered it in the first place was because it was suggested for something for school and I tried it only to find it failed).
As for ad-block and such, IE doesn't do it very well, but in the latest edition it has an automatic ad-block-like-thing that it has attached in it which works fairly well if is a bit annoying because it displaces your screen.

I used to rely on Firefox, until I fucked up embedded flash, and only managed to fix it on Safari, so now I use Safari. I miss firefox, though. My brother uses Firefox as his porn browser.

I've heard good things about Opera, but I use Firefox. As for plug-ins, I use ad-block and downloadHelper. I haven't ever used IE on a computer I own, except once, when I used it to download Firefox.

Khell_Sennet:
[snip]

*points at his screenshot* AdBlockPlus for the win mate.

LordOmnit:
[snip]

I see where you're coming from but for me, since i spend alot of time on the interwebz most of the add-ons are worth it, some are just convenience such as the music player and the performance tweaks. Others are really handy because if you notice the red,blue + yellow symbol next to google on my screenshot that lets me download videos + music direct from the flashplayer they are embedded in, handy eh?

Also to stinkypitz theres a firefox add-on with that exact feature, just mentioning :P

I used IE for the longest time, and it worked for me.

Then I was introduced to Firefox, and enjoyed it.

Then I went back to IE because my computer finally shipped in.

And then I went back to Firefox because of the little 'quick link bar' thing. I just made it so the names don't show up unless I mouse over, and I have 15 links in there that I can (usually) identify with just a glance, and confirm with a mouse over. Oddly enough, most of them are web comics. And one lolcatz.

AnGeL.SLayer:
I use IE. I tried Firefox and I guess I never got it work properly on my computer because it lagged so much for me. Had a billion extras that honestly I didn't need. I'm a very simple Internet browser. Bookmarks, page tabs and the home button are all I really need. Never got into much else. IE has a pop up-blocker that's never failed me before. Been mixing it with Zonealarm and I've never had any problems. My brother loathes me for using IE but Firefox just aggravated me. I'm not really big on change so I think that affected the outcome as well.

^_^

Odds are, Zonealarm was the lag, not Firefox. ZA rewrites the pathways that IE/Fox use to connect to the internet, its more IE friendly than it is Firefox. 'Fox comes pretty stripped down in the latest versions, all addons are user-chosen, you probably should give it another shot...

And sidenote, Zonealarm fucked up TWO of my previous computers, I wouldn't touch that overhyped virus any sooner than I would Vista.

Internet Explorter. It does what I require and that's enough. I have AVG and am generally far to intelligent to be caught out by a virus regardless. My e-mail is almost exclusively used for identification purposes; I don't communicate via it so any mail I get almost immediately gets deleted.

Firefox. On an Eeepc. How underground am I! Eh? Gimme some!

AnGeL.SLayer:
I use IE. I tried Firefox and I guess I never got it work properly on my computer because it lagged so much for me. Had a billion extras that honestly I didn't need. I'm a very simple Internet browser. Bookmarks, page tabs and the home button are all I really need. Never got into much else. IE has a pop up-blocker that's never failed me before. Been mixing it with Zonealarm and I've never had any problems. My brother loathes me for using IE but Firefox just aggravated me. I'm not really big on change so I think that affected the outcome as well.

^_^

Pretty much the same for me... The same way I bitch about Windows Vista and never get around to using Linux like I always say I am going to... I don't mind change, I just can't abide having a bunch of shit that I don't use clogging my hard drive...

When I got my shiny new laptop, the only time I used IE was to get Firefox.

Firefox for all of two weeks. I finally took my friends'advice and abandoned that dang IE.

Chemicks:
When I got my shiny new laptop, the only time I used IE was to get Firefox.

Isn't that like rubbing it in to poor IE... How worthless it must feel.

Khell_Sennet:
Isn't that like rubbing it in to poor IE... How worthless it must feel.

But it is worthless... And I'm guilty of the same thing (using IE only to get FireFox).

I just prefer FireFox, 'cos it's got some pretty good ad-ons (such as the dictionary). That, and with me still running SP1 on XP, I can't get IE7...

Darth Mobius:

Pretty much the same for me... The same way I bitch about Windows Vista and never get around to using Linux like I always say I am going to... I don't mind change, I just can't abide having a bunch of shit that I don't use clogging my hard drive...

Vista sucks donkey balls, but once you turn off User Account Control (its even on admin accounts ffs) it isnt that bad, although you will be running a minimum of 50processes and they will keep restarting even if you dont tell them to, bastard vista...
Also try Ubuntu Linux on a virtual PC its a good way to get a trial run.

"Vista sucks donkey balls, but once you turn off User Account Control "

Really? I run Vista and I find it to be great. Even though the person you quoted says they don't mind change.. I'm almost positive that's exactly what's holding them back from finding Vista to be a good OS.

"although you will be running a minimum of 50processes"

I tell Vista what I want on or off, and that's it. They're off or they're on. Not really sure where you're running into problems. I find the memory management to be much better, and compatibility has so far suprised me.. certain old games work that I didn't think would.. (except Simcity 4 for some odd reason.. and I refuse to reinstall the garbage known as Simcity Societies. so i guess I'm out of luck there.)

@ Darth Mobius

"I just can't abide having a bunch of shit that I don't use clogging my hard drive..."

Like what, exactly? I really want to hear what's "clogging my hard drive..." Sounds like you need a plunger. Or a tutorial. Actually you just sound like one of my customers.

Oops I got off topic. Firefox, all the way!

My basic rundown goes something like this.

As a web developer, I try out and test a fair number of browsers. I use Opera for my daily browsing because of one killer feature for me: the ability to move bookmarks from a search. I have over 4500 bookmarks, and so being able to sort and organize bookmarks is crucial. I mainly use Firefox for development, because nothing's better than Firebug.

• Amaya: Worthles, only good for standards testing.
• Avant: Basically just an IE extension. Waste of time
• Firefox: Memory heavy, and can be slow when page loading. Balanced by community support and popular conformity.
• iCab: Tiny, and with a few good fetures, but not very widely suported, and kinda silly.
• IE: points for integrtion, but slow, and still not quite standard. haven;t tried IE 8 though
• Opera: Too many features, but that means there's something for everyone. The program is huge, but doesn't leak to much memory, and new beta has very fast page loading. Some issues with JS though.
• Radon: Not a bad microbrowser, but not too much to write home about.
• Safari (Win): Does not play nicely with Windows. ood for development, but that's about it.
• Safari (Mac): The IE of Mac OS. Moderately fast, integrated, but has JS issues and some unsupported features. Same for pretty much all the WebKit browsers

Ayway, that's what I could think of off the top of my head.

runtheplacered:
[snip]

i do hate large quotes hehe, and if you say end a process in taskmanager, come back 20mins later it will have restarted and ill be damned if i can find the screen where i choose what processes run automatically. For example the "windows media player network sharing service" i never saw that on my XP but on vista the bastard thing keeps reappearing, i cant find an option to turn it off full stop. But seriously end a few processes you know you dont need, come back after a few minutes and most of them will have restarted and probably some new ones as company.

firefox all the way

i use mozgestures (mouse gestures), tab mix plus, the google toolbar and a gmail notifier

i refuse to use internet explorer the fact that it will install software regardless of your settings is unacceptable

konqueror was pretty cool on linux, saldy safari stole a bunch of it's code

I use prefer Opera, but use Firefox a fairly large amount, too. Opera has a better feel, whereas hotmail doesn't suck on Firefox, and it can handle more tabs.

For porn, IE. It's bad in general, but can open infinite tabs, unlike Opera, and doesn't lag when you save an image, like Firefox.

Safari? Eh. Don't like the look.

I use Opera. Rarely I use Firefox, but that's only when some bastard site tells me browser not supported. I like Opera for the speed-dial. It's really good, as I only visit daily a couple of sites, ussually the same 2 (this and a 3d forum). I like the tabs and the transfer tab which is always the first tab from the left. Don't use any plugins except FLVDownloader, and I use that very rarely. I switched from Firefox, as it seemed too slugish in loading sites and such. I used for a short period of time SeaMonkey on Linux. It was ok. I prefer using IE in net-caffes as I'm positive it WILL infect the PC. And since it's not mine, I rather enjoy ruining it. One of the few errors I had with Opera was with JS because I was using a public beta.

PS: You also forgot Netscape, but it sucks imo as it doesn't support a lot of sites.

Firefox. And stumble... possibly the best browser add-on ever. So much fun!

WillItWork:
I have over 4500 bookmarks, and so being able to sort and organize bookmarks is crucial.

Holy bookmarks! I'd like to look through that list...lol Just don't say it's mostly porn.

^_^

Firefox for me! I hate most Microsoft products which rules out IE and I don't see the point of Opera's quickdial feature (just use put a bookmark list on the side of the page!) as I can't keep my favourites down to 9 pages. As for Safari.... a bit too basic for my needs but I do use it on the odd occasion.

Firefox wins the fight.

What fight? Opera didn't load in time to compete, and IE came down with a virus.

I'm using Opera as I write this. It's good because it uses very little memory, but it's annoying when it wants to handle my torrents and irc channels. Having a million tabs annoys me, and for some reason the dl speed is faster on Vuze than on the integrated torrent program.

I keep Firefox around for when some movie or what have you won't load. I don't touch Explorer anymore, because whenever I do something goes horribly wrong. I get a virus or my computer crashes ~~

I prefer Firefox, and not just because of the safety aspect. If my internet crashes (which it does with annoying regularity), Firefox saves the tabs etc. I was browsing which saves so much time. I know IE never did that (not sure about the others though...)