What web browser(s) do you use, and why?

[segaprophet]

What is your web browser of choice? Why do you prefer it?

Optionally, what web browsers have you used in the past - when and why? If I've forgotten your favorite browser and you think it should be in the poll, let me know.

Edited December 6, 2014 by segaprophet

[segaprophet]

I've used Chromium exclusively for a few years now - mostly because I was very enamoured with Google's vision for a browser when it was first announced (single process tabs, interface responsiveness, extensions) but I can do without the corporate snooping into my browsing history etc.

I use Firefox as a secondary browser and I've used it as my main browser before switching to Chrome/Chromium. Before that Camino (Mac OS X exclusive, Gecko-based browser), before that Safari. I could go farther back, but it gets less and less relevant.

Edited December 6, 2014 by segaprophet

[Kryten]

I use chrome because it usually works.

[MartGonzo]

Firefox because beaucoup plugins

[ZedNova]

Google ultron because 60FPS YouTube and tons of extensions. Also, NASA uses it.

[maltesh]

Once I started using windows computers, I started out with Internet Explorer. It may have been 5 back then, I don't recall.

Then Mozilla.

Then Firefox.

I donwloaded Chrome when the Scott McCloud comic came out, but was using it as a secondary browser.

When Chrome OS was annouced, I set it up i n a couple virtual machines and toyed with it for a little while, but went back to Firefox as the primary.

When the CR-48 machines were announced, I started using Chrome as a primary browser, though I used XMarks to sync my bookmarks.

When I wound up being sent one of the CR-48s, Chrome became my main browser.

I haven't run Firefox seriously in years. I used to keep tertiary browsers such as Opera and Safari around, but I haven't installed either one on my current machine, and I'm significantly more likely to wind up using IE11 at this point that Firefox. And that's because I've run into an order of magnitude more sites that require IE explicitly than I've ever seen that require Firefox explicitly. Chrome's the browser that works in all the devices that I own and am likely to use to get online, so I use Chrome.

[Norpo]

Chrome, because for some weird reason (I have no idea why), firefox crapped out on me. Text fields took a while to update, delays were abundant, etc. etc. Eventually I just went ahead and got Chrome, and it's faster (for me, at least) now.

Of course, I have some weird browsers installed on my comp, Qupzilla... Midori.. I think technically Qupzilla might take up less RAM (maybe a bit more CPU), but I really don't like it's user interface. And Midori just refused to run for some reason O_o

[WinkAllKerb'']

Using one not in the list:

for the same result so it is ... xDr

[Capt.Joseph Kerbertson]

Nice try NSA.

[Mehak50]

Chrome

Chrome

Chrome is the best

[MartGonzo]

Nice try NSA.

lol, the NSA knows what colour undies you're wearing

[WinkAllKerb'']

ho(w) sys(t(h)em(e)) brother don' bother about browser but bowser jr jr don't want an'other' godzilla

Edited December 8, 2014 by WinkAllKerb''
i do not need a cut queen of hearth not at all :/ ... ... ... &

[AcidSludge]

I'm using Opera since 1999, can't tell exactly why I favor that browser over the others, I assume I use it out of habit. I tested other browsers now and then, resulting in uninstalling them again after two or three days, ranting "what is this s...t?".

As a secondary I use Chrome, and after testing the completely new developed Opera Versions after v12.17 (and uninstalling them again, ranting "what is this s...t?") Chrome gets more and more "screen time" over my beloved "old" Opera 12.17.

Srsly, the latest Opera Version feel and look like a stripped down Chromelike deranged roadkill of a browser, and I say that as an Opera-Fanboy. Sad thing.

[lukeoftheaura]

What is google ultron?

I use chrome

[EdFred]

Way back in the day I used Netscape. Then went to IE, then went to Chrome. Then Google decided it wanted to catalog everything about me, ever. I then went to FireFox, and have used it ever since.

[r4pt0r]

I use iron, its chrome but it doesnt send your data to google. though i need a new browser because the last iron update made it incompatible with chrome extensions.

[WinkAllKerb'']

querys are coded the same way in the end ... no point ... a browser is a browser ... and that's all folks

[Guest]

And why there is no "lynx" browser in list?

What about persons, who create and parse HTTP(S) packets by hand?

[Norpo]

What about persons, who create and parse HTTP(S) packets by hand?

Relevant xkcd:

Title text: Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.

Anyways, I honestly don't care if google is farming my data, considering they're farming millions of other peoples data, I doubt some random programmer at Google is going to be like "Whoa, check this out, this person is looking at Forum Games AND programming c# AT THE SAME TIME!?"

Besides, google has other things to worry about.

Like world domination.​

Edited December 8, 2014 by Norpo

[WinkAllKerb'']

Anyways, I honestly don't care if google is farming my data, considering they're farming millions of other peoples data, I doubt some random programmer at Google is going to be like "Whoa, check this out, this person is looking at Forum Games AND programming c# AT THE SAME TIME!?"

Besides, google has other things to worry about.

Like world domination.​

agree, that's also why my own system is poorly protected, neither the comp.(i mean training in that speciality domain) neither the time (i m speciliazed in "weird docking" thing, don't ask me why i don't know but may be google do xD)

[rodion]

i use chrome. data harvesting doesn't bother me either, mostly because i don't use any services, google or otherwise, that employ targeted advertising or media filtering algorithms (which i do have a problem with). i'd switch to a good open distribution such as waterfox if i had nothing to lose but there are certain extensions and other comfort factors i have on chrome which i find aren't easily replaceable on other platforms (not that i've looked exhaustively).

[Drunken Hobo]

Firefox with a few extensions to make it look like pre-Australis Firefox (the update that basically just copied Chrome). I like having easily-accessible buttons and menus that make sense. I find minimalist browsers horrible to use.

I did try Pale Moon for a while as that also uses pre-Australis Firefox as a template, but it was just buggy as hell. Crapshoot whether or not YouTube videos would work.

[Randox]

I use chrome. When I upgraded from my laptop to my current PC, firefox on my laptop was having a lot of problems displaying youtube videos correctly (or at all, depending on the day). Chrome can run all the extensions I want, so chrome is what I switched to. Chrome also takes up less of my screen than firefox, and I am firm believer that less is more when it comes to web browsers.

[LordFerret]

Relevant xkcd:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/real_programmers.png

Title text: Real programmers set the universal constants at the start such that the universe evolves to contain the disk with the data they want.

Anyways, I honestly don't care if google is farming my data, considering they're farming millions of other peoples data, I doubt some random programmer at Google is going to be like "Whoa, check this out, this person is looking at Forum Games AND programming c# AT THE SAME TIME!?"

Besides, google has other things to worry about.

Like world domination.​

Hey wait a minute!... I like vi / vim... you can find it on every Unix/Linux box in the world. lol

[Superfluous J]

Chrome for general Internetting. Firefox for YouTube because I like to download the videos for watching later (Usually at 1.33x speed and frequently while offline) and the video downloader I found for Firefox has worked flawlessly for years while the Chrome ones seem to keep getting broken - I suspect by Google every Chrome update.