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DailyTech Poll Discussion Which web browser do you use on your primary personal machine?
Brandon Hill (Blog) - November 15, 2009 11:59 PM

44 comment(s) - last by jonmcc33.. on Nov 20 at 9:20 AM

Picking a browser usually comes down to personal preference -- what tickles your fancy?

Which web browser do you use on your primary personal machine?

Microsoft Internet Explorer (1,306 votes)
16%
Mozilla Firefox (5,017 votes)
62%
Google Chrome (935 votes)
12%
Apple Safari (333 votes)
4%
Opera (398 votes)
5%
Other (list in comments section) (42 votes)
1%
8,031 total votes

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Why I use Chrome

By Aloonatic on 11/17/2009 8:07:29 AM , Rating: 2

I have Chrome, Fire Fox and IE 8 installed at home.

However, my intarwebs are sent magically over a throttled 3G network via my Nokia N95, and my PC is an 8 year old 2.5GHz P4 with 1GB of 400MHz DDR (I htink, can't remember to be honest) running Win XP SP3*.

I found myself using chrome as it too considerably less time to load then FF and IE, and is better for general browsing.

I have to keep the others tho as for reasons best known to webmasters/designers there are site and applications that only seem to want to work reasonably, or sometimes at all on FF or IE.

My browser choice tends to go:

Chrome (default)
Fire Fox
Internet Explorer

Thanks for listening, I know that you really care and where hanging on every word.

*Oddly, before SP3 it was not half as slow as it is now, in fact, it's almost unusable yet it was not that bad not so long ago.

RE: Why I use Chrome

By Jalek on 11/17/2009 3:21:25 PM , Rating: 2

I'll use Chrome when Google starts paying me for storing all the information they gather and store from my browsing.

I don't even use their search engine anymore, IXQuick even supports secure connections so even ISP's can't log searches.

I'm sure nobody really cares about my search patterns anyway, but when AOL's database let reporters track individuals down just by search history, it seemed a bit much, and Google stores much more than they did.

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RE: Why I use Chrome

By Aloonatic on 11/18/2009 9:40:36 AM , Rating: 2

Egads, I never realised that it had quite reached that level just yet.

Luckily my searches are mostly about Formula 1 and tech crap, along with general shopping, so nothing too exciting there :o)

It is getting crazy though. These sort of privacy issues are one of the few things that actually makes living in the EU seem like not such a bad thing, as they are much more keen on stopping data being retained and used than the UK gov are.

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RE: Why I use Chrome

By JonB on 11/18/2009 2:33:20 PM , Rating: 1

I also use more than one. Would have preferred a poll that ranked by usage percentage.

On my Windows Vista PC, I use:
Chrome 80%
Opera 10%
IE8 10%
Firefox - hardly ever, but it is installed and current.

On my Linux Netbook, I use:
Opera 75%
Firefox 25%

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RE: Why I use Chrome

By Griswold on 11/19/2009 6:47:49 AM , Rating: 2

You should try opera 10. With its turbo mode (a proxy is reducing size of embedded media such as pictures for bandwith limited connections), it'll smoke chrome. It does so anyhow, but this mode is made for your situation.

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Maxthon

By Klober on 11/17/2009 10:19:26 AM , Rating: 2

While I have IE, Firefox and Chrome installed, I voted Other because my favorite is still Maxthon. Fully IE compatible (ActiveX, .vbs), security holes are patched before Microsoft gets around to doing it, and the good plug-ins (Ad Hunter and mouse gestures among others) already installed from scratch. And it's getting even better with Maxthon 3 including the Webkit engine! :)

RE: Maxthon

By Griswold on 11/19/2009 6:49:21 AM , Rating: 2

Modified garbage remains garbage.

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RE: Maxthon

By eddieroolz on 11/20/2009 1:23:24 AM , Rating: 2

You don't quite understand the concept of a multi-engine browser, do you?

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RE: Maxthon

By TreeDude62 on 11/20/2009 8:56:30 AM , Rating: 2

Yuck. Maxthon is worse than IE8 IMO. It fails the Acid 2 and 3 tests (at least IE8 passes 2). It is also the slowest browser I have ever used (probably because it is bloated with useless features, like drawing with the right mouse button).

Hardly anyone knows about this browser for a reason, stay far away.

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Minefield

By MGSsancho on 11/16/2009 1:04:39 AM , Rating: 2

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/minefield/

64bit firefox. but it is not even pre-release

RE: Minefield

By Griswold on 11/19/2009 6:50:57 AM , Rating: 2

I can imagine why they call it a minefield.

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What if

By mburton325 on 11/16/2009 12:39:28 PM , Rating: 2

You use more then one like any good developer would? Talking about a loaded question.

RE: What if

By Yawgm0th on 11/17/2009 4:11:26 PM , Rating: 2

Perhaps the question would be better phrased as "what browser do you prefer to use on your primary machine?" or something along those lines. I think the intent of the poll is still clear.

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Hey Admins!

By nafhan on 11/18/2009 8:39:59 AM , Rating: 2

I'm sure the dailytech web admins keep track of the statistics for the actual browser people are using when they visit dailytech... It'd be interesting to see those numbers as well.

RE: Hey Admins!

By AssBall on 11/18/2009 10:34:32 AM , Rating: 2

I second this! It would be interesting to see.

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I Use All 5 On My Machine

By faster on 11/17/2009 3:45:48 AM , Rating: 2

C'mon, I couldn't be the only one who uses all five of these browsers!

I use 5 browsers

By InternetGeek on 11/17/2009 7:49:33 PM , Rating: 2

Default: IE8
Secondaries (In order): FF, Safari, Chrome, Opera

I run on Windows Server 2008.

I didn't have Safari before until I learned they are no longer using the exact same rendering engine. It's web kit, but it seems Apple branches a few things off.

Safari is a resource hog. Chrome is always fast. Opera is not quite stable (lots of caching issues), but it normally works decently well.

I For One...

By mindless1 on 11/18/2009 1:18:06 AM , Rating: 2

... would like to see this poll's results appended with a separate listing for the Dailytech 'site stats for what browsers the visitors use... webmaster where are you?

IE8

By eddieroolz on 11/20/2009 1:18:57 AM , Rating: 2

And IE8 only, pretty much. No, I'm not forced to do so - but I haven't started my FF in weeks, because I don't have the need to. IE8 suits me just fine.

Biased

By ashegam on 11/16/2009 10:12:56 AM , Rating: 1

I hope you're using this data for the sole purpose of understanding your own reader base, and not make a general statment out of it.

We all know FF is much more common amongst a certain age group that are more aware of their browser options and features.

As we already know the most popular browser is a form of IE as that's what is loaded by default on alot of computers sold and that general public doesn't take the time to change browsers.

Biased poll . . .

By Bateluer on 11/16/09, Rating: -1

RE: Biased poll . . .

By Trisagion on 11/16/2009 9:11:48 AM , Rating: 5

Even the poll picture is Firefox girl! I'm sure some people voted just for her :)

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By mcnabney on 11/19/2009 12:16:47 PM , Rating: 2

I did!

(I actually have IE, FF, and Chrome installed - and actually use them all)

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By mmntech on 11/17/2009 8:16:56 AM , Rating: 4

You mean IE6. Most of the PCs at both my work and college still use it. I use Firefox myself, mostly because I like a certain plugin.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By killerb255 on 11/17/2009 10:34:45 AM , Rating: 2

IE8 is completely nonexistent?

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By Jalek on 11/17/2009 3:10:36 PM , Rating: 2

I don't know.. some people had system errors introduced with IE8, and other horror stories. I didn't have any problems with my own upgrades.

I guess that's a downside to integrating the browser so tightly with the operating system. If it gets corrupted, it's not just the browser that's hosed.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By MrPoletski on 11/18/2009 1:59:41 AM , Rating: 3

we can keep hoping...

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By Yawgm0th on 11/17/2009 4:07:22 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
You mean IE6. Most of the PCs at both my work and college still use it. I use Firefox myself, mostly because I like a certain plugin.

I hate to go digging for studies, but I believe it has been widely reported the IE7 has greater market share than IE6. Logically, it makes sense (your anecdote notwithstanding).

I'd imagine IE8 will overtake IE6 soon, too. IE6 is getting to be obsolete.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By jonmcc33 on 11/20/2009 9:20:06 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
I'd imagine IE8 will overtake IE6 soon, too. IE6 has been obsolete for 5 years.

Corrected.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By InsaneScientist on 11/19/2009 12:58:02 AM , Rating: 2

Just because your your work and college still use it does not mean that the majority of places still use it.

Two is a rather insignificant sample.

The college that I go to is on IE7 (and Firefox 3.6 and Safari 4, btw) and by best friend's college is on IE7 (don't know about any of my other friends). The businesses that I've consulted with over the past year (about 9 of them) have all been running at least IE7 everywhere, and the two that I do the IT for personally are completely transitioned to IE8.

But even that is a pretty small sample.

However, if I recall correctly, the general polls floating around showed IE8 as passing IE6 up a few months ago, with IE7 being far above both.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By InsaneScientist on 11/19/2009 1:18:29 AM , Rating: 2

oops... typo: Firefox 3.5, not 3.6 :)

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By Yawgm0th on 11/17/2009 4:09:18 PM , Rating: 2

The poll is not construed to represent any demographic other than the site's visitors. It is not being used as evidence supporting any party in any matter.

I fail to see the bias in a simple poll on a tech site. I guess you could make the argument that it's biased against browsers not on the list, but then we'll be here all day.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By walk2k on 11/17/09, Rating: -1

RE: Biased poll . . .

By Screwballl on 11/17/2009 11:31:26 PM , Rating: 2

sorry but the latest Oct 2009 numbers show Firefox is just a shade below 50%. This covers Windows, OSX and Linux.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.a...

Firefox = 47.5%

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By walk2k on 11/18/2009 1:03:12 PM , Rating: 2

lol right... 50% on some techie web site maybe... quote

quote:
W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is used by at least 80% of the users.

fail

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By Etern205 on 11/19/2009 9:46:06 AM , Rating: 3

If you ask the general population as to what browser they use, they will answer Verizon, Comcast, RoadRunner, etc.

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RE: Biased poll . . .

By BruceLeet on 11/19/2009 3:52:17 PM , Rating: 2

Well I'm using Opera, I dig the mouse gestures because the lack of Back & Forward buttons on my mouse.

The lack of Marketshare is a nice feature aswell, lol.

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Hummm....

By tatoruso on 11/16/09, Rating: -1

RE: Hummm....

By Veerappan on 11/16/2009 11:12:05 AM , Rating: 3

My opera vote counted, so it was probably a server issue of some sort. A gremlin has had its lunch, and opera goes on being ignored by the masses...

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RE: Hummm....

By invidious on 11/16/2009 1:14:15 PM , Rating: 2

My Opera vote worked, thought it is from IE6 on my PC at work. Maybe they are only blocking votes made from Opera browser regardless of who its for ;P

But seriously there is no need to bias the votes, FF is the clear fan favorite. Opera has never recovered from the old banner ad days.

Yes you heard me right, IE6. Its agonizing.

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RE: Hummm....

By monomer on 11/16/2009 6:14:03 PM , Rating: 2

I have IE6 at work too. The web filters at work allowed me download and install Opera, but I can't download Firefox, even if I try to download them both from the same third-party download site.

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RE: Hummm....

By JediJeb on 11/17/2009 5:42:07 PM , Rating: 1

I guess I am lucky I can download FF at work, but our IT guy has blocked Open Office, even the home page for it. I think it is because he is afraid those of us who know about it will convince the head people that they can save money using it for those who just need a simple spreadsheet or wordprocessor sometimes instead of paying big bucks for someone to have Word just to be able to make corrections on the few documents they ask us to review. With our IT guy it is MS/Dell or nothing, he must own stock or something lol.

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RE: Hummm....

By feraltoad on 11/17/2009 11:11:49 PM , Rating: 3

IE6 at my workplace too. Being stripped of tabbed browsing is maddening.

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RE: Hummm....

By PrinceGaz on 11/17/2009 7:22:15 PM , Rating: 2

No problems voting for Opera here, though I am still using the last version of Opera 9.x (I downloaded Opera 10 several weeks ago but not got around to installing it).

It seems an odd question for a poll, unless the poll is intended to actually find out how many people fake the browser UserAgent string to make it look like they're using a different browser (by also logging the reported UserAgent string along with the answer to the question).

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