What (Windows) browser do you use - and, of course, why?

[sonofdbn]

I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to settle on one browser to handle my needs, which I don't think are overly demanding. One thing I really want is vertical tabs - with current monitor aspect ratios I would much rather have my tabs using up the width rather than the height. Admittedly some of my other prejudices are largely subjective, but here's a brief summary:

 

Chrome

Don't entirely trust Google (and yes, my phone is an Android phone), but it's more the sneaky things they seem to try with privacy settings. The one thing where Chrome is really good is its auto-translate. Other browsers do it, but not so seamlessly.

 

Edge

Can't abide the constant pushing of Edge and Microsoft services.

 

Firefox

My current main browser. Quite nice, but doesn't play nicely with unRAID sometimes (maybe this has changed?). Also, although it doesn't offer vertical tabs natively, the Tree Style Tab extension is good. It has the unfortunate quirk of occasionally opening a tab in a new window when I click on the tab - don't know if it's the extension or Firefox or my mouse-clicking ability - so I end up having to drag the tab back to the original window. Not a big deal, but happens often enough to be mildly annoying. Firefox also has this truly frustrating habit of popping up its password suggestions right over the part where you need to see or select an item. I travel reasonably frequently and when I try to pay for my air ticket it throws up password suggestions right on top of the dropdown box where I have to choose a credit card, so I can't see any of the credit cards listed.

 

Vivaldi

Previously my go-to browser, largely because it has native vertical tabs. (It might be the only browser with this feature.) But over the past year or so there have been additions that seem to get in the way (like Workspaces), and I get odd behaviour. Right now, it won't launch - probably need to reboot my PC. When it was the default browser it wouldn't open links, and on some websites it won't download files. Sometimes tabs go missing in the tab bar, although they're still active.

 

On the Vivaldi forums I always read that it must be because of extensions, but I don't think I have anything too weird: Ublock Origin, Bitwarden, Google Translate mainly. Vivaldi also has this annoying habit of resetting the address bar spacing and the search engine when it updates (no way I would have selected Bing as the default search engine.)

 

Others

- Opera: used it way back when it was the new kid on the block, but when I looked at it recently it seemed to have some odd marketing gumph and it didn't seem to be worth trying to work through it.

- Safari: does it still exist for Windows?

- DuckDuckGo: nice idea in terms of privacy, but I found it klunky and didn't pursue further.

- Bravo: never tried

 

So currently I use Firefox on my main PC, with Vivaldi as a fallback (and for booking plane flights and unRAID). Annoyingly I also have to use Edge because some corporate thing only seems to work with Edge. I also end up having to use Vivaldi on my tablet because Firefox Android doesn't think people need tabs. So syncing my browsing is essentially impossible. I end up sending links to myself or via Joplin.

 

I sort of miss the (perhaps not so) good old days when it was either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.

 

I don't test out browsers frequently, so some of my points might be out of date. And I'm sure there must be ways of dealing with the various irritations, but it's rarely intuitive or easy. (For example, try adjusting the spacing on Vivaldi's address bar.)

 

All of this makes me think that I might surrender to our Google overlords and just use Chrome on everything. Resistance is proving to be quite futile at the moment.

[TimTheSettler]

On 2/11/2024 at 11:17 PM, sonofdbn said:

All of this makes me think that I might surrender to our Google overlords and just use Chrome on everything.

 

Please don't surrender.  I've used Firefox for about 16 years now.  Back then it was far superior and now it seems that the major browsers seem to be roughly equal, although some have features that others don't have.  My favourite feature (that all browsers have now) is the password saver.  But if you use this you should be using a master password.  It's open source (always has been) and not linked to those big tech companies.

 

On 2/11/2024 at 11:17 PM, sonofdbn said:

Firefox ... doesn't play nicely with unRAID sometimes

 

I also had some problems and switched to Edge for about 3 months (only for unRAID) but I haven't noticed anything lately so I switched back.

[sonofdbn]

Today Firefox (latest version) decided to show black screens. Only the FF windows; Vivaldi is fine. Turns out I had to turn off hardware acceleration, so that fixes it, but why? What's changed? Certainly not my hardware. And I haven't updated FF since last night when it was working fine.

 

But yes, the password savers/managers are great. If only FF didn't insist on positioning password options right over the dropdown box where I need to select something on the airline website.

 

It's really ridiculous that I have to choose a browser depending on which website I want to go to. I exaggerate, of course, but only a little.

[_cjd_]

Firefox.

I use pretty much all the browsers in the course of my work, as I build content intended for browsers... but my go-to is Firefox and has been since it was called Phoenix. It's even my browser of choice on my (android) phones/tablets. It's not spyware, it has an amazing ecosystem of extensions, it pioneered so very many things we take for granted today, it's got a great password manager built in... I love being able to sync tabs across devices or do a complete rebuild of a machine without losing passwords, tabs, even history and such (like when my work laptop decides it's a balloon! and suddenly I have a new one and no access to the old one). It still has some amazing unique tricks (event markers viewing the DOM in debug mode). And, of course, it's not being foisted on us nor is it reporting home (unless you opt in to some metrics...)

I have never had issues with Unraid and Firefox, across a bunch of different systems. Maybe other bits of the system matter? W11, AMD CPU and GPU for the most common uses, but I do have a W10/intel ultrabook (10yrs old now and struggling)...

First thing I recommend is double checking extensions when something goes wonky.

[sonofdbn]

11 hours ago, _cjd_ said:

Firefox.

.... It's even my browser of choice on my (android) phones/tablets... I love being able to sync tabs across devices...

 

Specifically re Firefox on Android on a tablet: when I use FF there is no tab bar, which I find makes it almost unusable. I did try an extension, but it could display tabs only on the bottom. Am I missing a setting?

 

I'd love to be able to use FF on the tablet so that it can sync with my PC.

 

11 hours ago, _cjd_ said:

I have never had issues with Unraid and Firefox, across a bunch of different systems. Maybe other bits of the system matter? W11, AMD CPU and GPU for the most common uses, but I do have a W10/intel ultrabook (10yrs old now and struggling)...

First thing I recommend is double checking extensions when something goes wonky.

 

I've seen occasional advice about not using FF with the unRAID GUI. Here's one I managed to dig up:

 

 

In practice I've been using FF almost all the time with no problems, but have just kept in mind that if there's an unRAID GUI related issue it might be a FF issue.

[_cjd_]

10 hours ago, sonofdbn said:

 

Specifically re Firefox on Android on a tablet: when I use FF there is no tab bar, which I find makes it almost unusable. I did try an extension, but it could display tabs only on the bottom. Am I missing a setting?

 

I'd love to be able to use FF on the tablet so that it can sync with my PC.

No, I don't think tab bar is a thing on Android. I don't miss it, and often wish I had the tile/tablet view on my desktop when I have a ton of open tabs. For most things I just swipe on the address bar to move between tabs - I keep news and forums open for catching up over breakfast, etc. so the order doesn't change and it's just an easy run through them. For other stuff it's never bothered me to swap views to get to the open tab I want (or to a new one).

I'm curious what you find unusable in this process.