gdgt

This started as a reply to coologuy1957 in the topic "I returned my Zune HD for this bad boy". But before I posted it I thought, this needs its own discussion.

Tabbed browsing was introduced by Opera as a native feature of the browser in 2000 (IE has skins with tabs before then but thats 3rd party).

CSS support still has (had?) been lagging on IE for years.

Any other scorn for IE?

Posted 5 months ago

By philjohn

Comments: 13
Joined: Jul 15, 2009

They have indeed, when it was released, IE 5 for Mac OS was one of the more standards compliant browsers around.

Posted 5 months ago

By grizato

Comments: 17
Joined: Oct 2, 2009

IE is terrible and always crashes. If I ever start using windows again, I'll get Chrome

Posted 5 months ago

By greedobuck

Comments: 249
Joined: Aug 8, 2009

Which IE? IE for me (IE8 on Win Vista and 7) never crashes. Unfortunately I recently was forced to start using Firefox due to a password bug in IE8. Firefox is the only program on my PC that crashes. It is a memory hog and buggy compared to IE8 using the same websites.

And 'compliant' or not, IE8 never has trouble displaying the pages I visit, whereas Firefox occasionally does (and I had to install the IE tab plugin due to the problem).

Posted 4 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

Notice how every one is talking up Chrome and not Firefox. Yeah get off the fan boy train and tell us some advantages of IE8 other then compatibility (Which scares me) and Stability (Which shouldn't be a problem). And the RAM thing is ridiculous.

http://dotnetperls.com/chrome-memory - This has been critsized for double counting chromes usage due to its strange architecture. But looks good.

Posted 4 months ago

By dave

gdgt admin

Comments: 1517
Joined: Jun 3, 2009

I don't know exactly when this happened, but Firefox is garbage. It crashes all the time, handles flash extremely poorly, and has more memory leaks than a sinking ship. I refuse to use it anymore. It's sad. Remember when it was "Phoenix" and it was oh, so nice?

Posted 4 months ago

By ArmpitOfDeath

Comments: 655
Joined: Jul 4, 2009

Isn't this because you have a ton of plugins added? I find that many people make a similar comparisons while the playing field is uneven. Plugins is what makes Firefox as useful as it is, and unfortunately - as users of any platform with open development knows - it can also make the platform unreliable.

Posted 4 months ago

By dave

gdgt admin

Comments: 1517
Joined: Jun 3, 2009

Yeah, that's exactly why. I've had to give up using Firefox and the many useful plugins because of how slow it gets. Yeah, you can always restart Firefox, but having to do this at least every hour is so inconvenient. It's unfortunate too, because there *are* so many useful plugins, especially when it comes to testing and debugging for web development.

Posted 4 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

Yeah moving to the Chrome Dev build and scripts instead of plugins has been the best for me. Most of the power with none of downfalls. Other then the occasional instability like once a month.

In fact I'll say it first, in my experience Chrome Dev is more stable then a Firefox or IE stable release. With the bonus of weekly gut improvements. (It gets bugs fixed fast. Sometimes overnight.)

Posted 4 months ago

Comments: 4100
Joined: Jul 2, 2009

I wish I could use Chrome at work. I use it the most at home, and yes, even without plug-ins, Firefox has been crashing on me a lot lately too. IE 8 has crashed on me occasionally, but at least it just crashes THAT SPECIFIC TAB and not the whole browser. Chrome is the fastest, most stable, lightweight browser out there!

Posted 4 months ago

By dave

gdgt admin

Comments: 1517
Joined: Jun 3, 2009

@grizato - What are you using now? You can get nightly builds of Chrome for both Linux and Mac, which are actually very stable!

Check it out:
http://build.chromium.org/buildbot/snapshots/

Posted 4 months ago

Comments: 4100
Joined: Jul 2, 2009

I mean IE has always sucked real, real bad. Like you said, it only recently got tabs and the newest version finally doesn't crash the whole browser - just the bad tab. It has finally become an approximation of Firefox after all these years.

I was just originally saying that Microsoft has been making browsers for years and they still didn't get it right on the Zune HD (from what I've read). I just find it ironic. I never said they made "good browsers" for years!!

(personally I find Chrome the fastest, most lightweight browser to use. then I use firefox when theres a compatibility problem. then, as a last resort, IE 8...)

Posted 5 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

If your a browser-phile and not useing Chrome's Dev build, your nuts. It makes IE8 seem archaic and IE 6 Pre-historic (It kind of is).

Posted 5 months ago

By greedobuck

Comments: 249
Joined: Aug 8, 2009

Firefox crashes way more than IE8. I've used both as my main browser recently (I switched from IE8 to Firefox due to a bug in IE8). Comparing them I have found Firefox to be unstable compared to IE8. IE8 is rock solid and displays all the web pages I visit. Firefox crashes occasionally, doesn't always display all pages properly, and can sometimes
hog so much RAM that it affects performance.

Posted 4 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

Your obviously not a bowserphile. Chrome takes the Cake right now. Its one update away from being untouchable.

Try it.

Posted 4 months ago

By ArmpitOfDeath

Comments: 655
Joined: Jul 4, 2009

I have. Given the choice at the moment I prefer IE8 in the real world, and Firefox is more useful over both with a carefully chosen group of plugins.

Posted 4 months ago

Comments: 4100
Joined: Jul 2, 2009

IE 8's bulkiness makes web browsing feel like you are walking through mud. And though the plug-ins make Firefox a do it all browser, they also slow it down and have been lending to browser crashes for a lot of people on here. Chrome is simple and fast and the best experience of the three.....

Posted 4 months ago

By greeny

Comments: 25
Joined: Jul 6, 2009

I tried out all the current browsers and IE8 was by far the worst. I liked the addons of firefox, but i ended up having sooo many I could barely see the web page. Google chrome was a revelation after IE8: it was faster, lighter, better looking, easier to use and less intrusive, and I have used it to this day (except at school where we were forced to use IE7 until only recently). i doubt I'll ever use any Internet explorer again after chrome

Posted 5 months ago

Comments: 4100
Joined: Jul 2, 2009

we started thinking about how good/bad microsoft's web browsers were when we were talking about mobile versions - like on smartphones and the zune HD... but ya, just in general they have a bad run even though they have been doing it forever... Is mobile safari still the best mobile browser??

Posted 5 months ago

By deinfinityx

Comments: 4177
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

Well there are a lot of tests that say the webkit version is faster at least in rendering pages, but only by a few seconds. The android and Pre versions have been shown faster then safari but only in certain aspects.

Posted 5 months ago

Comments: 4100
Joined: Jul 2, 2009

thats good to hear. but mobile IE is nowhere to be found right?

Posted 5 months ago

By deinfinityx

Comments: 4177
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

I have never used it honestly, but don't think so.

Posted 5 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

As much as I adore Webkit, Maemo's Firefox based browser with its fancy flash support and (I assume) almost zero compatibility problems seems like the best mobile browser out there.And as soon as Fennic gets out of alpha that will me one better.

That said Webkit is rock solid for mobile, The standard.

Posted 5 months ago

By deinfinityx

Comments: 4177
Joined: Jul 1, 2009

I agree and i really hope Fennec comes to Android, i like the webkit browser or Chrome as they call it but i would much rather have Firefox running

Posted 5 months ago

By Dpmt

Comments: 892
Joined: Jul 1, 2009