Voice of the Masses: What’s your favourite web browser?
You may have seen the “Chrome won” article that’s been doing the rounds recently – it’s written by a former Mozilla CTO, and well worth a read. And it gave us an idea for our next Voice of the Masses: what’s your favourite web browser? And why?
We suspect many users have jumped between Firefox and Chrome/Chromium over the years. Some power users may have switched to keyboard-driven apps like Qutebrowser. Or maybe you’re still rocking Lynx! In any case, let us know in the comments below, and we’ll read out the best in our upcoming podcast.
Related Posts
About The Author
Mike Saunders
Mike stores his data by printing out hex dumps and laminating the sheets. He's the author of The Haynes Linux Manual and the creator of MikeOS, an operating system hand-built from assembly language.
43 Comments
Qutebrowser, because i’m a big Vi fan, and this browser can be controlled just like it(much deeper integration than plugins for other browsers). But out of neccesity i also use chrome/chromium because there is no Lastpass support yet for Qutebrowser.
Firefox – it’s always worked well for me and since I don’t use chromium, I don’t know what I’m missing (if anything at all).
I know Mozilla gets all sort of criticism, but I do think they will keep making Firefox better and that’s what matters to me.
As for the supposed victory of chrome – the entire world can browse in whatever they want as long as I get to use what I want. As a Linux user, I don’t need my technology sources validated by the majority.
I also find Qutebrowser a really nice software, but I’m so used to Firefox that I don’t think I’ll be changing any time soon.
Tricky one to answer. Chrome is the only browser at the moment which supports Universal 2nd Factor, but Firefox is the only one with support for giving tabs their own cookie jars so I can login to the same site with multiple accounts in the same browser. So I’m still jumping between the two until one of them implements the other killer feature.
Chrome (at home) Firefox at work. Moved to Chrome when Firefox was getting fat and lazy a while back and see no reason to move back.
Shame about Firefox, remember when it was the lightweight choice over Mozilla but those days are long gone.
I use Opera which I know is Chrome based. I just find it incredibly stable and fast. Duck duck go is the search engine and last pass, xmarks are the only plugins I use.
Firefox. I do not feel comfortable in using Chrom(e)(ium) and in my daily life make an effort to avoid being boxed in by the Big Five. Now, of course, this is helped enormously by the fact that Firefox just works for me. I have used Chrome on other computers, and it is by no means a bad browser, however I feel that we have reached the point where all browsers are basically equally capable. All complaints I ever read are from us geeks who either have specialist wishes, demand the highest standards, or are just very picky. This argument works both ways. I do not think Chrome won because it is the better browser (though i do think that it gave a great impulse to Firefox to become better). So I now use FF mostly because of the underlying philosophy and donate when I can.
I use mainly Safari in my mac. Lately I’m using more and more qutebrowser (probably it’s going to be over represented here…).
I liked Firefox when it was called Phoenix or Firebird, it was refreshing. Now i disliked its UI deeply.
I’ve tried several times to use Chrome but after a few days I stopped using it. I found it uncomfortable.
So, in linux I use qutebrowser and, if there is any problem with it, Firefox.
Javier
I always thought of Firefox as a Windows app. It looks like a Windows app (on KDE looks like crap, on macOS looks like crap), it feels like a Windows app. It’s slow as hell since version 2.0. I think you can guess I don’t like Firefox.
So, any non Firefox browser will do for me. First (in the days of Firefox 2.0) it was Opera, then Konqueror, now it’s Chromium on Linux and OpenBSD, and Safari on macOS.
Firefox here – I had always been a Chrome and Chromium user. I switched to those when Firefox started getting incredibly bulky a few years back. With my current upgrade to 16.04 system (both Mint and Ubuntu), I made the mistake to make the installation late in the night. As it turned out I was so tired to just install Chrome and Chromium, so I did my web work with Firefox that night. Did so the next day as well, and to make a long story short I never bothered to install Chrome or Chromium. It is not as snappy as its earlier versions, but I love the infinity of plug-ins it offers, and it feels more robust in its entity.
Chrome. I’m a web developer. Chrome’s dev tools are amazing. Also, since most end users use Chrome, it’s the one that most devs use first (with testing on others later). Also, I use a touchscreen laptop and Firefox hasn’t quite figured out how to deal with that yet. Apparently there are ways to make it work, but after 10 minutes messing with command line args and about:config settings, I gave up.
I love Internet Explorer, or as it’s now known: Edge. Named after that guy from U2 with the tash.
Just kidding! Edge, or IE is only good one for one thing: downloading FireFox when you have to use Windows for reasons beyond rational comprehension.
I don’t dislike Chrome at all, I certainly think they gave the whole market a swift kick in the James Blunt a few years ago with their crazy fast JS parser which has, thankfully, inspired others to follow suite. I just stick with FireFox because I’m a rocking-chair-on-the-porch ludite who’s so familiar with it, and it’s handy plugins, that I can’t be bothered learning the Chome analogues.
FireFox does eat more RAM than a shepherd during spring but I figure, what else would I do with that RAM? Watch more U2 videos on YouTube?
I’m more a Springsteen myself.
@Adam Brown: really liked your comment 😀
I use FF because I don’t trust Google and Chrome.
vivaldi. since opera jumped the shark after version 12 or so. firefox is circling the drain. i don’t trust chrome or chromium. they’re still adding features but it’s fairly decent.
Firefox. I’ve used it for years, it just works for me. I use it on my PC,s and on my Android devices as well. Any other browser just doesn’t feel right.
I use both Chrome and Firefox, about evenly. I think Firefox does a better job with security, but I use so many Google apps that Chrome makes sense for managing my Gmail, Drive, etc.
Opera, because you get all the benefits of Chrome without the privacy problems. You also get a free easy-to-use VPN too. 🙂
The trade-off though is aside from the webkit engine it uses, it’s not open source.
I have used Firefox for about a decade. It is free enough for me. Tried Chrome/Chromium very briefly but Google. Also tried Konqueror Midori and even Lynx. Microsoft Edge as a PDF viewer does the job
I have used konqueror since I started using Linux, some years ago now .At the moment I am using version 4.13.14 which is showing some unexpected instability issues. Since October of last year, I have had to use Chromium for some of my study with the Open University. I expect that next year they will have me using internet explorer.
I’ve been using Firefox for a very long time, with no realistic esacape from the self-imposed shackles imposed by the need to use Pentadactyl (no other vi-plugins work as well, IMHO). But recently I’ve been using Qutebrowser as my primary browser and I like it. And it’s good to support an independent open source contributor too. Sure Qutebrowser has its issues and sometimes I have to open FIrefox but it’s looking good so far. Time will tell…
Tor Browser and Curl are my favourites.
Google does loads of evil, so no google browsers for me!
Firefox is losing its credibility with supporting DRM, although Mozilla is overall doing a lot of good work, love Thunderbird.
I’m lazy and just use Firefox and, like Matthew love Thunderbird. They both just work, which for me is good.
I use Chromium – it pretty much “just works”. If I’m feeling adventurous I’ll break out Netsurf, which is quite lightweight but doesn’t work (yet) on most sites with javascript.
Vivaldi
Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox, inertia really and maybe a sense of loyalty. I used Netscape and Opera before and played about with Chrome some but then Firefox got faster and I resettled on Firefox. I don’t really get the bloat criticism, but I only use a few tabs at a time and I don’t use addons. It runs fine for me.
Vivaldi. I used Opera for years but it started going downhill around version 15 when they dropped the Presto engine and many of the features that made Opera outstanding. I persevered with Opera because while it was a shadow of what it was, at least it wasn’t Chrome or Firefox. Then I found Vivaldi. Vivaldi is made by the original creators of Opera and is an excellent browser with many of the original features brought back with more being added all the time. A terrific browser.
I wouldn’t touch the Chromes because it’s google, which I don’t trust, because it’s sells my data!
Firefox is a different thing. I love it, but with my 1GB netbook it’s unbelieveably slow! Even on my mom’s LinuxLite with 4GB’s it’s lagging.
No, I run with QUPZILLA! Light and bright. Not crashing like MIDORI [used too], and a bit more friendlier than XLINKS2 on the evil sites.
After seeing this site I might learn VIM and check out QuteBrowser.
I use Firefox and Chromium, Chromium always in incognito mode, when I’m not bothered for having my browser remember what I’ve been up to and Firefox when I want my browser to remember.
I’ve been using Firefox since the olden days when it was changing its name to Firebird and I was using Windows and am more comfortable in it, but use Chromium so that I can make a proper decision if there’s ever a big difference between the usability of the two.
I’m not that interested in who the “winner” is, I use what *I* want to use; if I wanted to use the “winner”, I wouldn’t be using Linux on my computer.
Firefox is still my fav browser and very happy now it appears Mozilla is now getting it right. With the move to Rust and dropping most of the old plugins it seems a lot faster than chrome which is now just a big bloated ball of lard.
Going to answer this then look through the usual insightful thread of replies!
So for me firefox. I’m not totally sure why I choose it over Chrome (and I have switched back and forth in the past), but I find it just as fast with a UI that gels well with my desktop. Maybe it’s Chrome’s constant reminder in the top corner that it knows who I am…
[…off to synaptic to look up qutebrowser…]
darn!
[…googling repo…]
darn!
will wait for it to appear on my distro instead
Firefox. I still prefer a simplistic base browser and adding on the functionality with addons.
Although it would be useful if a set ofncore addons would be maintained by Mozilla. Some of the community builds are lacking.
I would have liked to try the terminal based browser but currently a lack of time to learn the shortcuts kept me from trying them out
I am forced to use IE11 at work and reminded every day how bad it is. We are upgrading soon at which point I will discover how bad edge is. On my machines it is Firefox most of the time, chrome or chromium occasionally. Been following brave as an interesting development.
Firefox Developer Edition, with HTTPS Everywhere, Self-Destructing Cookies, UBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger installed as standard. Chrome used occasionally when required – most recently thanks to outlook.com cert issues.
I use Qupzilla primarily as I prefer the speediness of the Qt-based program on KDE, but I also use Firefox fairly regularly because of a few useful plugins and other features. Never use Chrome except in absolute Adobe Flash based emergencies!
I like Firefox because it is open software, operated by a non-profit as a positive good rather than as a corporation as an ad sales search mechanism.
Firefox because of the plugins available. I run so many different plugins that EFF’s Panopticlick tells me my browser is almost (1.29) uniquely identifiable. I can’t live without the Tab Groups plugin. I haven’t found it’s equal anywhere for grouping tabs. Unfortunately I may be stuck with older Firefox as the Tab Groups developer has stated that Mozilla is changing the way add-ons work as of FF v57, and the developer couldn’t change Mozilla’s mind on the matter. I don’t know all the details, but I’m hoping that somebody forks Firefox to keep the current functionality.
I use Firefox for the same reason I use Linux: I believe in Free software
I would say that I use konqueror and chromium, but at the moment konqueror is very unstable. So at the moment I use clenched teeth and fists!
Pale Moon, because the browser actively maintains the classical greatness and lightweightness Firefox used to have, including its add-ons and extensions.
https://www.palemoon.org/
Firefox for me, both at home & at work. I switched from Chromium a few years back as I preferred the Mozilla ethos & there wasn’t much between the two for me in terms of performance & features.
I use Firefox, but I am pretty disappointed that KDE Fiber seems to have been discontinued without even one release. It is kind of understandable, as some distros and many users will install Firefox or Chromium, raising the question of “Why develop a browser no one uses?”, but even so, Plasma feels like it’s missing a real KDE browser.
I’ve used Firefox for over 12 years and it’s still my preferred browser both at home and at work however that may change with the upcoming changes extension wise with Firefox 55.
When I at rare times need a Chrome-based browser I use Inox because I don’t want Google to store passwords to Google password server and such if I’m logged in at a Google account.
I use both firefox and iceweasel