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Firefox. Only been using it for about 2 months now, but with the Adblock extension, I don't see ads. With the WeatherFox extension, I have a non-spyware way to keep the weather handy. The built-in search functionality is masterful -- Google, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc. As a former IE devotee, I am shocked to be saying this, but it's not even close.

# posted by Anonymous 10:57 AM

In 1995 Netscape 1.6 came with our Pentium 100 and so did IE. While Netscape looked like it was "designed", IE looked like it was developed from a Fisher-Price learn-to-spell book. Same again for every other version of IE since. It just looked stupid. I never migrated to W98 until "98lite" allowed IE to be "uninstalled", a feat that remains "impossible" for MS engineers. We used Netscape thru ver 4.08 because it was always "smaller" and never seemed to slow down the meager performance of the P100. IE was always banished from any subsequent installation within which we had influence. Then came Win-XP! We came, we saw, we rejected! Too much overhead. Our hardware grew more capable slowly over time tho' our personal computer budget grew even slower. We decided that XP was too much, more than we needed so it was W98se for the foreseeable future. The new IE seemed like the worst product ever inflicted upon the public yet. President Kennedy pledged to make it to the moon in 10 years (made it in 9). I don't think a crappy little web-browser should be any harder to fix in the same period of time. We looked upon WinXP with trepidation and wholey rejected an upgrade. Now I've noticed that "XPlite" has finally made its appearance and when our meager budget allows we feel safe to make the switch to XP "WITHOUT" IE. Since our W98se addoption we have made use of "Opera" versions thru to the present. We have never had any of the problems associated with IE and its historical catastrophies. Once in a long while a page may not render as it should but we don't consider that much of a "problem". Sometimes you need to pay for a decent product. We have recently tried Mozilla but there is no direct importation of Opera bookmarks yet so it'll be a while before we add this to our toolbox.

Not everyone has the resources or interest to step up on the spiralling hardware staircase. A different point of view to be sure but not so unusual in fact.

Yours truly
Spiro T Lagscrew

# posted by Anonymous 11:38 AM

Been using FireFox since it was Firebird 0.7 Also using Safari for over a year now. Still unsure which one I like more. I like that FireFox allows themes, but at the same time, Safari's interface is utilitarian and uncluttered, so it doesn't get in the way. Hmmmm... Anyway, let's hear it for web standards!

# posted by malfunction54 11:51 AM

Firefox, of course.

# posted by Cyrus 12:16 PM

Currently Firefox. Was using Opera on one system and Firefox on another for a while, and eventually standardised on Firefox. I couldn't really point to a specific reason why - Opera certainly did the job well enough. Firefox feels a little less cumbersome, but it's a really subtle, subjective thing.

# posted by Anonymous 1:31 PM

I've been using Mozilla well before Mozilla reached 1.0. However, I don't use the old Mozilla suite hardly at all anymore because of Firefox and Thunderbird. I have been using "Firefox" since it was called Phoenix. I love it!

# posted by lazyking 2:03 PM

I've been using Firefox since it was called Pheonix. And before that I used Mozilla. I made the switch from IE to Mozilla at least 2 years ago, when a friend recommended it and I discovered tabbed browsing for the first time. The real clincher was how sleek and fast it was though. Then I made the switch to Pheonix for the same reason, and I've been hooked ever since. I love Firefox because it is a browser first and foremost, and strives to be best at that. It doesn't have any extra bloat in it unless I download it as an extension. It has just the features I need, but I can add the features I want. As far as Opera, it's a step up over IE, but it's still way too bloated for me.

# posted by Anonymous 2:58 PM

We don't need another browser war. At least not unless the all the browsers can all use the same DOM model. Programming web applications currently for the 10% non-IE users takes twice the effort. There needs to be consitancy across browsers. They all implement the W3C DOM standards in different ways.

# posted by Anonymous 5:20 PM

I have been using firefox, and mozilla for about 2 years. The only time I use IE is when I have to view a site with ActiveX or some lazy coders site.

# posted by jtintle 6:18 PM

Firefox 1.0 of course. I was a little worried while using earlier versions that didn't work with my banks website, but 1.0 seems to work with everything I've thrown at it so far. Good work. Goodbye IE.

# posted by rrusso 8:05 PM

I've been using Firefox for about a month, though I still have to use IE on a few sites. As well as the advantages others have mentioned, the big thing for me is that you can re-scale the size of print indefinitely. With IE you can choose "largest," but that's not always big enough for some tiny sites. I used Opera for a couple of years, but I like the look of Firefox better.

# posted by Anonymous 8:11 AM

Generally use Opera with no difficulties. Howcum my username &assword don't work?

# posted by Anonymous 7:18 AM

I am running an xp machine p4 3ghz with sp 1, and I am seeing script content instead of the page when I first try to view these comments in firefox. When I reloaded a couple of times, it rendered correctly. The spacing of the page was off on the first load as well.
I like the idea of using a different product than IE, and I'll be happy to eliminate activex from our company's online pages, but I'm going to have to see more stability. I have tested it out on several other sites, and the load time is much faster. Probably because there aren't any activex widgets in the way.
The speed alone will keep me watching this browser.

# posted by metermax 2:01 PM

Started using Firefox when it hit version 0.9 and haven't looked back (ok, technically I have had to use IE for a few ActiveX controls I've needed to access).

I also noticed the strange script-loading problem on the aliceandbill.com site today... but it has never happened before in all of my previous visits. I think something might be up with the host.

# posted by ChinaOwensFam 5:20 PM

Opera 7,54
Been using Opera for years. Tastes great, less filling.

# posted by Dave Barnes 5:52 PM

Ok, this is funny...

Just downloaded Firefox and I love it. Works great everywhere I have been, except...

Alice & Bill's Site!

Keep getting a black page to start, have to reload, lots of odd scripts, very slow switching between pages.

# posted by midmofan 9:43 PM