Which is the best web browser...

I see more and more people seem to be using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer - is it 'better' than internet explorer in any way or is it just a trend or passing fad?

Chris

Re : Which is the best web browser

Chris

A lot of people say they experience a quicker page load with Firefox, and there are also lots of useful add-ons or plug-ins; some of these are particularly useful for web developers.

Cheers

Dan
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Web Design

Re : Which is the best web browser

Perhaps I'm old fashioned but I just stick to the one it comes with, or changes to, which of course is now IE7!

The only difference I noticed with the new version was the tabs, but presumably there must have been more to it?

Sasha

Re : Which is the best web browser

With regards to matching FireFox with Internet Explorer, the main difference has always been with standards and security.

Mozilla (the people who make Firefox) designed their web browser to be 100% compliant with the open W3C standards that are used to build web-pages. However Internet Explorer 7 does not entirely comply, notably of improper support for CSS. Most web designers I know have vented their frustrations over these inconsistancies.

The other difference is security. Again, Internet Explorer has generally been behind Firefox when it comes to security holes in the software. Even today, it is rated by Secuina as "Moderately Critical" (http://secunia.com/product/12366/).
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Tema Hassan - Gravity Internet - www.gravity.net.uk Upgrade to business class.

Re : Which is the best web browser

Thanks Tema - that's very interesting!

Chris

Re : Which is the best web browser

There is no best browser they are simply different.

I would argue that IE is not any less secure than FireFox but simply because it is more common there are more people out there attempting to hack it. After all if you want to get as many computers infected as possible you are much better off going after 80% of the market that IE represents than the 1% that Safari represents.

Personally I like FireFox due to the tabs and the add ons. Now IE can support many of the same however FireFox has all my cookies and settings in it (and loads from a memory stick so I can use it on any of the PCs I use) so is a pain to switch to another browser.

Re : Which is the best web browser

I prefer to user Firefox because of all the add-ons and customisation available to it. Also I belive that IE tends to lag behind the other browsers in terms of features; for example, tabbed browsing only came to IE in version 7 yet it has existing in Firefox since version 2 I believe.
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