It occurred to me the other day that I don't have a strong allegiance to any browser. Depending on the machine, Operating System or whatever direction my day takes me I seem to be using 3 or more different browsers on any day. ![]()
In general I tend to turn towards Firefox as my 'default' browser. Why Firefox? I guess it's the one I would have the 'most' allegiance to. I have it installed on all of my work PC's along with my Mac at home. I migrated to it a few years ago when I found that IE was just too much of a resource hog and who didn't love multiple tabs when they first started appearing? But it doesn't do everything I need it to do for work - and it's not the fault of Firefox.
At work we have lots of security 'features' in place (just like most places) and in some cases the security causes havoc with Firefox. In the beginning I used to find workarounds for most of these issues but eventually I just gave up. I would spend more time researching and implementing a workaround than actually doing what I was trying to do on the site. I know that Firefox even has plug in's which emulate IE but I eventually got worn down and used IE when necessary.
But then I would go home to my Mac and fire up Firefox but there sits Safari. What kind of Mac enthuasist would I be if I didn't support the tools that came with it? :) So while I don't use Safari every day I do use it periodically - it's just sitting there looking up at me with it's Compass asking to be used. And truth be told I have found some of the last few versions to be pretty speedy so there you go. But speed.. Speed is my biggest complaint with Firefox.
In the beginning Firefox was lightning fast - and buggy. But we all took that in stride. So over the years Firefox has had some major overhauls and upgrades. Many of the enhancements are great - but they come with a cost. Speed. Or the lack of it in some cases. I have a pretty quick connection at both work and at home and nothing is more frustrating than waiting for the status bar to fill up (or watching the Earth spin in IE). So what to do - well I guess we deal with it - and sometime I go to a another browser. Hoping that the experience on the site I was on is better using a different browser. But eventually my allegiance gets the best of me and back to Firefox I go.
And where is Chrome in this whole debate (or Opera or something else)? Well I just haven't gone there yet. Of course I have downloaded them all - and Chrome has some pretty slick stuff going on. But nothing I have seen so far has enchanted me enough to add a fourth (or fifth) browser to my arsenal. Don't you think 3 is already enough?
Ultimatley there there are millions (ok maybe not millions but there sure are alot) of blog posting explaining the benefits and features of all the browsers. With many of them make compelling rationales as to why I should use one over the other. But in the end - I use them all because I can - and that's OK with me !!
What do you use and why? I'd like to know !
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