I have recently given up on the IE internet browser. Andddddd i was wondering what browser would you suggest me to change to. I know about Firefox and Opera but i don't know the finer points of either.

Firefox 2.0 is good. I actually prefer the IE interface but Firefox has lots of bells and whistles and lots of free add-ons. I use IE7 by preference, but sometimes use Firefox 2.0 for sites that don't behave well in IE7. I can recommend Firefox 2.0 if you are looking for a new browser. I've heard bad things about Firefox 3.0, but that's undoubtedly because it's a new interface and has some new-release bugs still to work out.

I haven't used Opera enough to really judge it, but I find it to be less intuitive than the others.

Firefox 2-Lots of add-ons more secure than IE memory problems faster than IE
Firefox 3-Not many add-ons (for now) more secure than Firefox 2 and IE fixed memory problems faster than firefox 2 and IE
Opera- The ultimate browser if you know alot about browsers so you can tweak it perfectly
Safari for PC-Faster than IE and both firefoxs brutal security
Safari for Mac-Best Mac browser unless you want add-ons

firefox 3, best and most secure browser there is

FireFox 3; while many of the add-ons and themes for FF2 are still incompatible the base install is good enough on it's own.

And I wouldn't care too much for "speed", browsers have very little to do with it and if it does it doesn't make a noticeable difference.

Opera and Safari are decent alternatives as well but I've always preferred FF.

*agree with all of you* firefox! 2 or 3, both are really good!

Try ff3 and opera and see which you like better

Firefox 2 in my opinion. I tried Firefox 3 the other day but it's a little buggy and doesn't have as many Add-ons (then again it is new).

Firefox 2: Good, secure browser with a plethora of add-ons. My personal favourite. has an issue with vista where it takes an extra 15 seconds to start up.

Opera: Good, slightly less secure browser with fewer add-ons, but it works faster, and has no issues with vista.

Firefox 3: I have no experience with this, but from what I've heard, it's as good as firefox 2 with a different UI and fewer add-ons.

I've used FF and Opera extensively (both for several years).
Personally I prefer Opera of the two - it includes some functions which you need extensions for in Firefox, and historically it has performed better for me in terms of memory use (and to a slight extent speed and stability).

Firefox 3's new bookmarking system however is a fantastic upgrade, allowing easy bookmarking, tagging of bookmarks, and anything you type into the address bar searches through your bookmark tags and the words in the bookmarks themselves to suggest results. This makes things much easier to find in previously visited websites.

Suggestion: try both, since they're both free and readily available - you should be able to do stuff like import bookmarks between them, so see what you like best.

Thanks for the help!!! I haven't tried ff3 yet so i am going to mess around with that

Once you go firefox you never go back.

I've tried fire fox, and while all the add ons are nice, I realy did not like it's heavy toll on the system (it's not that much, but compared to Opera, it is a lot). I personaly swear by opera, since it's light and fast, and in my own oppinion, easy to use.

I tried FF3 but to my dismay its address bar (the "awesome bar")did not search the search history, but rather the bookmarks and, well, everything else but what I wanted to search. That I consider completely wrong and dysfunctional and definitely not awesome. So I downgraded to FF2 and now I'll probably jump ship to safari or something.

H0ncho:
I tried FF3 but to my dismay its address bar (the "awesome bar")did not search the search history, but rather the bookmarks and, well, everything else but what I wanted to search. That I consider completely wrong and dysfunctional and definitely not awesome. So I downgraded to FF2 and now I'll probably jump ship to safari or something.

ummm it does search history, if you have any, it still picks up my ff2 history, you probly removed firefox and installed the old one instead of installing on top, either that or it had no history to work from, ie you have an addon that clears your history each time you exit

as for opera being faster, it's not and has a larger mem footprint than ff3

FF + Addons (Foxymarks, Mouse gestures, IE Tabs, Chatzilla, Dictionary, etc) > *

Every time I use IE7 on any computer it always seems to crash or go wrong, gave up on it.

Novajam:
Firefox 2 in my opinion. I tried Firefox 3 the other day but it's a little buggy and doesn't have as many Add-ons (then again it is new).

Firefox 3 lagged my laptop horrible, so I switched back to 2... Which works perfectly for me. Definitely better than Internet Explorer...

I'd suggest FF2, and then wait till FF3 gets all it's bugs fixed. It's working fine for me, but, like some other users have stated, it does have those pesky bugs.

Oh, and one question mark will suffice.

cleverlymadeup:
as for opera being faster, it's not and has a larger mem footprint than ff3

Doing a quick test on my currently opened tab set, ff3 and opera 9.5 were virtually identical. I have come across several websites in the past (mind you, with release candidates for ff3, so it might have changed since the final version came out) which still made ff chew up much more memory than usual. I haven't had the same problems with opera.

One thing I will say about ff3 though is that Gmail is about a billion (mild exaggeration) times faster.

Either way, both are very good browsers and there's not much point arguing over personal preference and minor differences.

Firefox 3... except that when I scroll down it lags on heavy-duty pages like this...but not on Youtube (WTF?!)

I suggest Opera. You have mouse stroke commands, you can add on widgets like Torus (A 360 version of Tetris), and Speed Dial gets you to up to 9 of your favorite pages in an instant.

Gavo:
Firefox 3... except that when I scroll down it lags on heavy-duty pages like this...but not on Youtube (WTF?!)

Youtube is fairly "low-impact" when you think about it. Here at The Escapist you've got all kinds of layers and smooth navigation, whereas Youtube is a couple of columns, and a bit of CSS. Very different.

Firefox is a safe bet.

zari:

Doing a quick test on my currently opened tab set, ff3 and opera 9.5 were virtually identical. I have come across several websites in the past (mind you, with release candidates for ff3, so it might have changed since the final version came out) which still made ff chew up much more memory than usual. I haven't had the same problems with opera.

all the sites i've looked at have pointed that ff3 has a lot less mem usage that opera

the release canidates were still going thru the mem reduction, hence a bad thing to test against

cleverlymadeup:
all the sites i've looked at have pointed that ff3 has a lot less mem usage that opera

the release canidates were still going thru the mem reduction, hence a bad thing to test against

There are so many acronyms I don't know where to begin.