The Chrome Wars

[Red Roja]

So what is your favorite web browser to use and why?

By far, my favorite is Mozilla Firefox because it is light on RAM, fairly customizable with a lot of extensions, is opensource software, has strong privacy tools, is pretty fast, and they have no history of selling users' data to any third party groups. Of course, as a non-profit organization, Mozilla has very little incentive to do so.

Although Chrome is the most popular web browser, it is my least favorite. Although it is fairly customizable with a lot of extensions and is pretty fast, it is also heavy on RAM and Google has a troubling history of routinely selling their users' data to various third-parties (including shady ones) without their knowledge. Some people even go as far as to say that it is little more than spyware pretending to be a web browser. Also, when I tried Chrome it seemed kind of buggy compared to Firefox. Overall, I don't recommend it.

There are some good things to say about Opera such as their strong privacy tools, built-in VPN, and them not selling any of their users' information to third parties. However, Opera is a lot less customizable than Firefox and Chrome and it is slightly slower.

Microsoft Edge comes built in all Windows 10 PCs. Aside from a modest number of extensions, it has nothing really remarkable about it and it is kind of slow. Due to its lack of use and popularity among users, Microsoft is going to discontinue Edge later this year.

Internet Explorer was the reigning King of web browsers until about 10 years ago and is now among the least popular and least well-known. But, it still exists and it has actually improved in the past decade. It now has decent privacy tools, decent speed, and it is light on RAM.

[The New California Republic]

Microsoft Edge comes built in all Windows 10 PCs. Aside from a modest number of extensions, it has nothing really remarkable about it and it is kind of slow. Due to its lack of use and popularity among users, Microsoft is going to discontinue Edge later this year.

Source?

[Nuroblav]

Chrome is the one I've always used so I guess I've stuck with it. Firefox is alright but I'm not a fan of Safari at all.

[Pax Nerdvana]

I would use Firefox, but I think my phone's too old to download it. So I use DuckDuckGo.

[The New California Republic]

I would use Firefox, but I think my phone's too old to download it. So I use DuckDuckGo.

Duck is a search engine rather than a web browser, is it not?

[Stellar Colonies]

I use whatever's available (Safari on tablet and phone, etc.), but a relative of mine makes a point of using Waterfox.

[Noel]

It really depends on the context for me.
- Chrome is good because they have in-browser options to disable and whitelist javascript and images. That's really good if I'm visiting all kinds of websites and want faster page loads and not to be assaulted by gross images. (I know you can sort of do this with add-ons or extensions in firefox too [not as neatly], but I really hate having to deal with add-ons.)
-- On the other hand, I see them pulling an Apple and removing features for the sake of minimalism or ease of comprehension, which really bugs me, and makes me think I cannot rely on Chrome to always have the same features. (Compare the most recent settings menu with older ones, some functionality is gone or dumbed-down.)
- Firefox is good because they're the only big web browser developer that seem totally benevolent at the moment and willing to play nice with smaller browsers. I would feel a lot more comfortable about the future of the web if Firefox had the largest market share, so I pitch in and use it when it's most convenient.
- If I'm on Windows I like K-Meleon because it renders pages much more quickly than Firefox, Chrome/Edge, or IE do. Starting around 2015 it became almost impossible to comfortably browse the web on my machine, but K-Meleon makes it almost as fast as it is on Linux.

Unfortunately, in the last couple years many websites are explicitly dropping support for all but Chrome/Firefox/Edge, ESPECIALLY in the way recaptcha works now. So I feel a deep burning enmity for those big dominating bastards.

[Imperial Joseon]

Firefox used to be the best, but now it lags for me. So, I don't use it anymore. Chrome wins!

[Saiwania]

I use Mozilla Firefox primarily because of its customization/add ons that I wouldn't get from other mainstream browsers. I also need a browser that supports Adobe Flash until its End of Life date for this year. Mozilla does this with an Extended Support Release (ESR) version of its browser.

I find that it is usually worthwhile to have each browser with any substantial market share installed, because different websites will perform best with different browsers. But I only use one as my main for web surfing. If a browser has 1% or less of market share, it is niche and thus can be ignored in most cases.

I don't like Google Chrome, but I still have it in case I'll need it. Its logical anyways, if Chrome is at 69% usage globally speaking. Its too important for me to dismiss because, what if a certain website wants it?

The mainstream browsers that have major market share (as of 2020):
Chrome- 69%
Firefox- 9%
Safari- 8% (you won't get it unless you use Apple products)
Edge- 4%
IE- 4%
Opera- 2%

All of those together cover around 96% of the web with nearly everything else being niche or obscure.

[Imperial Joseon]

I use Mozilla Firefox primarily because of its customization/add ons that I wouldn't get from other mainstream browsers. I also need a browser that supports Adobe Flash until its End of Life date for this year. Mozilla does this with an Extended Support Release (ESR) version of its browser.

I find that it is usually worthwhile to have each browser with any substantial market share installed, because different websites will perform best with different browsers. But I only use one as my main for web surfing. If a browser has 1% or less of market share, it is niche and thus can be ignored in most cases.

I don't like Google Chrome, but I still have it in case I'll need it. Its logical anyways, if Chrome is at 69% usage globally speaking. Its too important for me to dismiss because, what if a certain website wants it?

The mainstream browsers that have major market share (as of 2020):
Chrome- 69%
Firefox- 9%
Safari- 8% (you won't get it unless you use Apple products)
Edge- 4%
IE- 4%
Opera- 2%

All of those together cover around 96% of the web with nearly everything else being niche or obscure.

Wow, there are people who actually use Edge.

[Agend]

Tor, The Onion Browser.

[Saiwania]

I use whatever's available (Safari on tablet and phone, etc.), but a relative of mine makes a point of using Waterfox.

There is no point of using Waterfox anymore over Firefox (unless it has a major feature that distinguishes it). Mozilla Firefox is now 64-bit instead of just 32-bit.

The problem with using a fork or niche browser is that a lot of websites might break or not perform as well in practice, because most websites' source code will be expecting a mainstream browser and the web coding is typically designed to anticipate users of popular browsers more.

[Agend]

You should include tor as a poll option.

[Cekoviu]

I use Vivaldi. It being partially closed source is not ideal, but it's got some indispensable features and I love the customizability (that's a big deal for me - also why I use KDE).

I would use Firefox, but I think my phone's too old to download it. So I use DuckDuckGo.

Duck is a search engine rather than a web browser, is it not?

There's a DuckDuckGo mobile web browser. I don't think there's a desktop version.

[Cekoviu]

Tor, The Onion Browser.

i.e. Firefox

[Xmara]

I use Safari when using my computer, phone, and tablet. If I’m using a Windows computer (which is generally at school), I use Chrome. I used to use Chrome on my MacBook, but it just drained the battery life from it.

[The New California Republic]

Tor, The Onion Browser.

i.e. Firefox

While it is Firefox based, I'd argue that its functionality is different enough to warrant distinguishing it.

[Saiwania]

Tor, The Onion Browser.

Tor isn't going to keep anyone anonymous if the intention is to do illegal stuff as opposed to something like evading bans or bypassing censorship. The police easily bust people with ISP help if they're cracking down on something. In countries with internet censorship, its not all that certain whether people can really use Tor to surf the internet as they want, and not get noticed.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

I've used Firefox since it came out. Haven't had any reason to switch and I literally have zero complaints. It's the best.

[Stanier]

I personally use the Chromium-built Microsoft Edge after bouncing around for a while with every major browser. Chrome ate all my RAM and was slow as crap on my ten-year-old PC, Firefox gobbled up my dual-core CPU, though it was fast, it hung up rather frequently due to CPU over usage, I never liked Opera, and then there's the original EdgeHTML, which barely worked because it's, apparently, heavily reliant on a GPU, which I didn't have at the time. So when Microsoft released the first preview builds I gave it a shot because I had nothing to lose except looking for a non-mainstream browser that most of the time I wouldn't be able to sync with a mobile app. The new Edge is unironically fast and light on resources, syncs properly even with the shitty internet of Venezuela, collections is very useful when browsing around looking for YARR ARR stuff , and last but not least, Microsoft might collect some of my data, but with that tracking protection it doesn't let third-parties get a long whiff of it like Google does.

I am intentionally... Edgy, so to speak.

[Imperial Joseon]

I've used Firefox since it came out. Haven't had any reason to switch and I literally have zero complaints. It's the best.

I heard Chrome is the fastest for browsing things on Google.

[The New California Republic]

Tor, The Onion Browser.

Tor isn't going to keep anyone anonymous if the intention is to do illegal stuff as opposed to something like evading bans or bypassing censorship. The police easily bust people with ISP help if they're cracking down on something.

Wrong. If used correctly then your ISP will not know what sites you have visited.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

I've used Firefox since it came out. Haven't had any reason to switch and I literally have zero complaints. It's the best.

I heard Chrome is the fastest for browsing things on Google.

Yeah, well, I'm a gamer. I need that RAM for more important things - like patrolling the Mojave and wishing for a nuclear winter.

[Saiwania]

Wrong. If used correctly then your ISP will not know what sites you have visited.

Anything that is downloaded can be traced to an approximate location if an ISP tries hard enough, assuming it went through their network. Much like how the phone company is going to have your phone records for a time, if the state really wants it and they comply.

[The New California Republic]

Wrong. If used correctly then your ISP will not know what sites you have visited.

Anything that is downloaded can be traced to an approximate location if an ISP tries hard enough, assuming it went through their network. Much like how the phone company is going to have your phone records for a time, if the state really wants it and they comply.

It's end-to-end encrypted, so no.