What Browser do you use

Mike Lucey · 13 Jan 2017, 14:46

I've been using Opera for some time, mainly because I find the 'side panel' useful for note-taking and bookmarking. At one point Opera dispensed with side panel in an upgrade and I started looking around for a replacement. Rich O'Brien steered me to Vivaldi and I looked at it but it was in beta and at the same time an Opera extension came on the scene which allowed me to have my side panel again so I stuck with Opera.

Over the weekend I looked at https://vivaldi.com again to see how things were moving along and I was pleasantly surprised to see how many advances they have made so I decided to download and configure the setup to my liking. I'm still in somewhat of a learning curve albeit shallow but I think I will be using it for the foreseeable future.

solo · 13 Jan 2017, 14:57

Tried it out a few weeks ago, It's pretty much built on the Chrome engine by ex Opera devs.

It's best used on a larger display as on a small laptop it's panels and windows quickly make it impractical and when you have multiple tabs and panels open it slows down to a crawl.

At this point it does not compete with Chrome, better than edge and Opera however.

Rich O Brien · 13 Jan 2017, 15:22

I use Chrome and Tor.

Chrome is such a memory hog though. I tried Edge but couldn't adopt it.

solo · 13 Jan 2017, 15:26

@rich o brien said:

I use Chrome and Tor.

Chrome is such a memory hog though. I tried Edge but couldn't adopt it.

Tor? is that not one of those anonymous browsers that hide your IP? what do you get up to on the web that needs hiding?

Rich O Brien · 13 Jan 2017, 15:59

@solo said:

Tor? is that not one of those anonymous browsers that hide your IP? what do you get up to on the web that needs hiding?

There are many sites that prevent our ISP from seeing them. BBC iPlayer for instance. Or NetFlix US.

I've a NetFlix subscription but the Irish choice is wildly different from the US choice.

Why should I let them decide what I can and can't see?

Same thing for iTunes. It detects where you are and says you can't play with us.

Tor and Duck Duck Go

solo · 13 Jan 2017, 16:11

That makes sense.

I read something about using an anonymous browser when buying plane tickets and booking hotels as they take your location and device used as an indicator of your wealth and apparently (as I read) rates can be night and day different by location and device.

Rich O Brien · 13 Jan 2017, 16:28

Your browsing habits dictate ads, search results and on and on...

It's just not as leisurely to browse the web these days.

andybot · 13 Jan 2017, 18:09

I recently installed Light Mozilla browser on a computer that was having issues with Chrome. https://sourceforge.net/projects/lightfirefox/
Very lightweight, the goodness of firefox (can use add-ons) with a lot less bloat.

ntxdave · 13 Jan 2017, 21:02

Interestingly enough, I went and looked up the statistics and Chrome is the most used according to several sites. Having done a lot of work in the web environment going back to the mid 90's I have always used IE and in most business environments was always forced/guided to use it because it was the most prevalent in the business world. Guess things have really changed. On my business machine, I have IE, Edge and Chrome. Just made Chrome my default.

Rich O Brien · 13 Jan 2017, 21:13

@ntxdave said:

Just made Chrome my default.

Did it animate your car wash?

ntxdave · 13 Jan 2017, 22:35

@rich o brien said:

@ntxdave said:

Just made Chrome my default.

Did it animate your car wash?

That is another whole issue................ Someday I will get there.

Mike Amos · 22 Feb 2017, 21:14

Firefox at the mo, IE is pretty much dead and Edge can go and play in the fast lane of the M1 northbound. I did try chrome but the constant nagging to sign in got to me. Firefox is far from perfect but I would go batty trying out all of the browsers out there.