Suggestions for a browser.

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Last week, I downloaded IE9 at the suggstion of Yahoo and its not quite all it was made out to be. I wanted to know what would be a good replacement. should I download Firefox, Google Chrome, or something else? I have heard good things about both. Suggestions and advice please.

It depends on WHAT you want to do. If you love to tinker with things, Firefox is probably your best bet, whereas Google Chrome is very simple and very fast. Internet Explorer, however, is a different case. Microsoft makes some good software, but Internet Explorer is quite possibly the biggest failure in terms of browser capabilities and overall weaknesses when compared to other browsers. In other words, you should choose either Firefox or Google Chrome.

I myself prefer Vimperator, Conkeror, and Uzbl. All have the feature of being highly keyboard-centric, minimalist, and very customizable.

When using Chrome, I install the Chromium addon which gives it vim shortcuts.

Your mileage will vary. I love to tweak and hack at things. Uzbl, for instance, only renders web pages. Every other piece of functionality such as history, bookmarks, etc, is accomplished through scripting.

I agree with the notion that it depends on what you want to do. I've used Firefox for a long time, but lately have been trying Chrome and Opera.

Firefox has a lot of features (add-ons) that I've grown accustomed to, but it's slow. It also sometimes starts using a ridiculous amount of CPU time and needs to be terminated with the task manager. And the text-entry boxes 'bog' sometimes for no obvious reason.

Opera and Chrome are faster, but lack some of the features of Firefox. With Opera there is "session management," but I haven't gotten it to work consistently (no problem with FF). I haven't use Chrome as much, but my impression is that it is intended to be pretty "bare bones," and if you add a lot of features the control panel (address bar, etc.) starts getting cluttered/ugly.

I like Firefox. I have been a long time user. Compared to IE, I have read that the Firefox team takes care of weaknesses/exploitations much faster- the order of days, while IE is known to sometimes take weeks or months. I can't say anything about Chrome or Opera, as I have never used them

I use firefox. I used chrome a few times but I wasn't impressed.

I'm a huge fan of Chrome. It's very lightweight and multiplatform.

It also creates a separate process for each tab so, in theory, the entire browser should never crash.

I'm mainly looking for a browser that will improve this site. With IE, it can be slow at times. I read some of the info in WP.net discussion that indicates that there are features of this site that IE does not support, thats the main thing prompting the change. I have also heard that Chrome works better for the forums than Firefox. Is any of this true?

I use both Firefox and Chrome, though primarily Firefox. Firefox is great for the sheer number of plug-ins and ways to customize it - I use AdBlock Plus, Flashblock (replaces Flash objects with a button so they only play when I say they can), a short URL expander (I am reluctant to click on "obfuscated" URLs, such as bit.ly or tinyurl), and some GreaseMonkey scripts.
I tried using Chrome as a primary day-to-day browser for a while, but found that it could not completely replace FF. Chrome is fast and lightweight and does not get as "bloated" as Firefox does sometimes.

The only benefit that IE provides to most people is the ability to use some Microsoft features, such as ActiveX, which in itself is prone to security issues.

IE is only about 10% ahead of firefox these days, its days as being the browser to design for are numbered.

http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php

Well, I used to love Firefox. But the newest version is rather aggravating! I don't like so much clutter at the top of my browser window. And the fact that there is a description of the current page being browsed, (way at the top of the page) seems redundant since the same description is visible in the task bar. I hate clutter...

That being one of the most objectionable things about it.
The first 'W' in 'WWW' does not stand for 'Windows', despite what Microsoft is attempting.

Speed-wise IE9 is actually pretty close to its competitors. I think the main thing slowing down WP is the ads.

I use Firefox on WP. Only because it has a built in spell checker for the text boxes.

As far as other web browsers, I use IE, Opera, Chrome, Safari and SeaMonkey. I find no advantage to make me decide to use one exclusively.

I AGREE!! !! Nothing worse than Flash based advertisements to slow down the web browsing

One word: Flashblock.
It works perfectly.

That works great for Firefox. You could just disable the plugin (or addon in IE) and enable it when needed without using another plugin.

A better way would be if they killed off Flash all together. Besides slowing down the web browser, it can be a security problem at times having it installed.