Ask HN: Kicking off 2017, what’s your favourite browser?

Firefox, solely for TreeStyleTabs. I really doubt I'll ever switch so long as it's the only browser that has it. The built in PDF viewer is also very nice.

Ill occasionally use Chrome for its better support of Flash websites without having Flash installed.

Firefox for tabs on the left side (see the Test Pilot project).

Firefox for being fully open source with Mozilla as a non-profit behind it.

Firefox for having the awesomebar.

Chrome has some advantages: isolated tabs (one crashes or hangs and the rest can continue) and it feels quicker (not sure why, iirc they're similar in benchmarks). Firefox is also working towards isolated tabs, so that leaves speed, and Firefox is fast enough that I'm not annoyed by it. It might also be that Chrome feels quicker because I don't open fifty tabs in it (since I don't use it regularly) nor have a big history file or cookie jar.

Another important feature of Firefox is tracking protection, which can be turned on globally via a flag in about:config. I use it in conjunction with an ad blocker, because I don’t trust the ad blocker fully (as no one should). On the other hand, I feel that I can trust Mozilla to a high degree.

I never heard about TreeStyleTabs, thanks for mentioning it! For me, it's hard to say what's my favorite. I just know that I have my Chrome setup the way I want to and the cost to switch to Firefox, for example, is a bit higher. There's no cloud app that just take care of your extensions.

^ If someone could make this, I'd be delighted!

Yet another TreeStyleTabs user here. That + SessionManager is just too functional to give up.

Still Chrome - all the browsers have warts. As someone who uses a lot of Google services, the login ability in Chrome is valuable, and it stores my bookmarks too. The devtools are also king of the crop by far.

Firefox's devtools irritates me, and they have made some piss poor decisions, such as the switchover to geckodriver without it being stable for WebDriver support.

Safari is still lol, and has some awful UX, even on iOS. The browser is also home to some of the worst bugs I encounter on frontend these days. To its credit it does better on mobile for battery life & perf, but that's literally its only saving graces.

Edge is better than IE11, but still has its share of wtf bugs.

I don't use Chrome for my daily browsing two reasons:

1) there are only 5 entries in the adress bar dropdown box. Firefox shows ~10. This used to be configurable a few years ago but they removed that option 2) Chrome fully loads every tab on startup which is very annoying if you use a lot of tabs (I think there are plugins for this?)

They all have wtf bugs. Think "JIT errors causing string concats to yield number objects and bitwise operators to fail when the code has run over 1000 times"-level wtf. I consider most of the "frontend" issues quite minor in that regard. Edge behaves very nicely, and for most intents and purposes. Older IE's were very much WTF: tickle it wrong - it could be as little as accessing the Math object at a bad time - and you got peculiar Access Denied exceptions (sometimes uncatchable, sometimes not), crashes, or other weird behaviour.

I agree on it mostly landing on ecosystem integration. I recently went from Safari to Chrome simply due to switching (back, after a few years away) to Android.

The only differences I feel after the switch is that Chrome's password integration is much quirkier than Safari's, and even quirkier when syncing to phone. Another difference is of course that the tab bar looks different, but that's basically it. Things sync to Google instead of to Apple. Maybe if I checked, I'd notice poorer battery life, but with battery life in the 7-10 hour range, I'm good.

What do you think about Chrome's privacy?

It seems in Goog's interest to mine browsers for as much as it can get out of the user: do we have any reason to think it's not happening?

Google's business model is profiling to learn more about the user, to (in the end) earn money via advertising. Google's OK with ad blocking (tho I thought in the past they weren't). Recently though, they've been blocking Ad Nauseam which fights back against advertising.

The Ad Nauseam authors respond to "if Google has lost your trust, as it has ours" in their FAQ with suggestions [1]. It boils down to: swap back to Firefox, try Opera, or try one of the Chrome-based browsers not by Google. Well, Opera is dead to me (Vivaldi might be alive, but I don't like it when a company calls a proxy a VPN.)

Chrome's going beyond some standards as well. Firefox is introducing sandboxing and a Rust-based rendering engine to replace Gecko. For me, this means it is time to slowly move back to Firefox as main browser. At least I know with Mozilla extensions related to advertising won't be suddenly removed. Finally, I think it is important I give something back to Firefox. Either development or a donation. Perhaps just a donation to an organisation related to Mozilla, like EFF.

[1] https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/Install-AdNauseam-on...

They care a shit ton about preserving your privacy despite the insane amount of info they collect. That said, if you're concerned about this, use Chromium (which has that shit turned off) and a ad/tracker blocking VPN service like Disconnect.me or PIA with MACE

I used to use Firefox for Tree Style Tabs and Pentadactyl, but I recently switched over to Qutebrowser[0] and I'm loving it. It has Pentadactyl-inspired keybinds, vertical tabs (no tree-style just yet, though), and it's _way_ snappier than FF. It's refreshing to use after all the bloat that Firefox has acquired and the slow-to-nonexistent development of Pentadactyl. (Not to mention the existential crisis of the FF WebExtensions switch.)

There are some sore points revolving around the use of QtWebKit engine, but they're mostly workable. I set the user-agent to either FF or Chrome to get some sites to not redirect me to their compatibility site, and YouTube support isn't great (no fullscreen). I just set up a keybind to send the current url to youtube-dl/MPC-HC and it works fine.

[0] https://qutebrowser.org/index.html

I tried Qute in the early, early days, then happened to sit in on a CCC lightning talk (completely coincidental) a few days later where the creator spoke about it. I really liked the concept but it wasn't quite there yet, and I didn't have the means (time, skill) to help.

Checking, it still doesn't seem to be in the Debian Stretch repositories (which is a major indicator of maturity and support to me). Is the project active or is it still a hobby project from one core developer?

There are recent releases but it's hard to tell how significant releases are when almost every change log line is something like "New :debug-log-filter command".

It's still mainly the core developer, with PRs and issues coming in from other contributors. Development seems to be pretty active and responsive, though. I think it's in a very usable form at this point.

Servo! (https://servo.org/) You get to watch as a browser incrementally adds support for the web from scratch, something that hadn't previously happened this century.

I'm also rather bullish on Firefox, hence my staying at Mozilla after Persona's cancellation.

How is it now ? I had tried it couple of months back and it failed to render a lot of sites properly.

I like Firefox, but on my Mac I use Safari because every other browser sucks down battery at ridiculous levels in comparison. I don't need anything fancy, and I don't use any extensions (I do my ad blocking at my DNS server). So Safari is generally good enough.

The only thing I dislike about it is, when the developer tools are open, everything on the screen flashes red when you click or mouse over it. That's my only complaint.

You can also use http://kablock.com Safari extension, works well.

I used to run an ad blocker as a Safari extension, but many sites these days don't let you visit if you're running an ad blocker. They can't detect if you're running a Pi-Hole though.

Hi! Can you elaborate on the ad-blocking at DNS server thing? Thanks!

Pi-Hole [1], for example.

Using a proxy in your system settings together with e.g. Privoxy (which runs locally or remotely on e.g. a RPi) also works (but that is proxy-based filtering).

Both DNS-based and proxy-based filtering can be circumvented. I just use uBlock everywhere, and have been playing around with AdNauseam. These work well enough.

The only time those fail miserably is when a browser is being embedded in an application, like on Android and iOS apps. I tend to buy the premium version anyway if I really like an app (no subscriptions though!).

There are 2 ways to circumvent those apps with ads. 1) use web browser (w/uBlock) instead or 2) use a DNS-based filtering (such as a Pi-Hole). However the latter option requires network access to the DNS server of the Pi-Hole which isn't there when you're roaming (e.g. on 3G/4G or a foreign Wi-Fi network). A workaround to that is using a VPN to your RPi. For me, that is too much work (had a similar setup in past), and the upload speed on my home network isn't to write home about (YMMV). Btw, not sure if all of this can be worked with DNSCrypt since when you're roaming there's the vulnerability of DNS hijacking.

[1] https://pi-hole.net

Yep, I run Pi-Hole. I ran uBlock before, but a lot of sites would stop working when they detected it, and it didn't work on devices that didn't have browser extensions. I'm pretty happy with this setup.

They most likely use the /etc/hosts file or run a local DNS server that redirects all ad server URLs to 127.0.0.1. If you block ads this way and run a little web server locally, you can also log all the ad requests and see some of the information they're passing around.

Some people also display little random images from that web server so they can see where the ads would have been on the page they're browsing.

If you don't mind ads being served by the site owners, you'll also be able to see these ads. If ads running on the same server this bothers you, you usually can't block them via DNS and so this is a limitation over something like uBlock Origin which can have rules for dom IDs on a page.

Chrome is much better about power consumption since v50 or so

I still use and love Firefox. With the recent multi-processor additions, it's also considerably faster now. I've found the extensions more versatile as well.

I occasionally use Chrome just for Google Maps, since they're considerably faster in Google's own web browser. Although really, I should try to use Open Street Maps more.

Edit: oh and as far as historical browsers, I really liked Galeon back in the day.

Tor Browser:

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

I'm probably in the minority (I know Chrome is the most popular browser; I mean a minority among HN users), but I really like Google Chrome. When you have a powerful desktop with lots of RAM, it's quite good. Plus, I like the Google integration a lot.

I think the big issues with Chrome is just the Google factor. That's really the only reason it was able to grow the market it did in that time space.

When Chrome was released, they took parts of WebKit, parts of Gecko and released a closed browser. -_- It has been opened up since and there are fully OSS versions like Chromium, but since Google had been a big funder of Firefox for so long, a lot of FF people saw this as sort of a betrayal.

Personally, Chrome doesn't have a lot of the tools I need. When it came out, you couldn't make a plugin that created a sidebar without doing a lot of hacky stuff (is this still true?). Chrome also had limits on their API so you couldn't create as efficient adblockers (not sure if this is true anymore either).

Despite issues people have had with the Firefox UI and the Mozilla foundation itself, I still think Firefox is the better choice. I've been using the new multi-process feature of FF and it's considerably faster now as well.

Phrases "I'm probably in the minority" or "unpopular opinion here" followed by a reasonable opinion just beg to be upvoted by everyone who thinks it's reasonable and suppress downvotes by making people think twice about it. In this case, loads of people here are positive about Chrome, or if they care about Google's monopoly, Chromium.

Firefox and Seamonkey, sometimes the one, sometimes the other. In other words, the Gecko rendering engine due to the (IMnsHO) better font rendering (on Linux) compared to Webkit/Blink (and other, although it is getting harder and harder to find any other significant rendering engines out there...). A large part of the value of FF and SM comes from the add-ons that have been developed over the years as well as the flexible user interface which can be made to look and act like I want. I use Chromium when I need it, mostly for testing and Webkit/Blink-only sites.

One essential component of any browser I use is the ad blocker. No blocker means no browser for me.

Firefox because Mozilla cares about the web and its users like no other organization.

I use them all, because I have a 1TB Samsung SSD with the Xen hypervisor running on it, which means I can dedicate whole operating systems to specific browsers. Each browser has its own 'unique selling point' and I use each browser according to my needs.

-Firefox for privacy

-Tor Browser Bundle for enhanced privacy

-Brave for micropayments

-Vivaldi for customization/tweaks and reading the news

-Chrome because it's ultra fast

-Microsoft Edge just because I can

Firefox (with a bunch of privacy plugins), mainly because of privacy concerns about Chrome.

I'm using, and plan to continue using, Firefox for web development and Safari for general browsing.

I sometimes fire up Chrome so I can use its perf tools in some places they are better than Firefox, but the browser generally irritates me. Safari's performance is so much better than the others that I'm comfortable using it day to say, even though I do have to stick to Chrome for WebRTC until that makes it I to Safari.

I'm a bit worried about Google's domination of the web (especially and not entirely related the rapidly escalating danger of AMP) and anything I can do to ensure the web remains an open and diverse platform is worth it.

Mozilla Firefox, the only browser that doesn't crash the computer with my 200 active tabs.

The browser I use and will be sticking with is Firefox, but as far as nostalgia and coolness factor goes, I really like Arachne http://www.glennmcc.org/

Unfortunately, since Arachne doesn't support any of the newer web standards, browsing the web with it has been getting increasingly broken. Another alternative that also runs under DOS is Dillo, which FreeDOS has a package for.

Chrome. A web browser built for speed, simplicity, and security. According to w3schools' browser trend analysis its user base is only rising, even as Microsoft Edge's install numbers are presumably growing. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/default.asp

I really want Netsurf to succeed, and it thus remains my favorite out of principle. Hopefully it'll get better at rendering real-world web pages as it incorporates the ability to run Javascript (via Duktape), but even now it's pretty decent at handling non-JS websites.

Unfortunately, I find myself going back to Firefox time and time again. It's definitely my second-favorite, and probably my first-favorite in practice. The ability to stick all my browser tabs on the side of the browser window instead of the top (even if it requires an extension to do so) is a killer feature that absolutely none of the mainstream browsers (and very few of the non-mainstream ones) seem to offer in any way, shape, or form.

I used to really like Conkeror, and I still love the idea of a minimalist browser with Emacs keybindings, but it doesn't seem to be all that active anymore.

Right now, Vivaldi. I'm very excited about it. I'm using Firefox the most, though.

I am looking for a browser which offers separate windows for separate "projects". I'd like to have one window for "general browsing", one window for "research for fitness related stuff", one window for all my open tabs for "web development research" and a few other things.

Ideally it should be possible to open such windows via command line so that "browser -w fitness" opens the window with all my fitness-related tabs.

I used to use the Tab Groups in Firefox but there were too slow if you use a large number of tabs.

yoodenvranx Ghost Browser (disc: I'm the founder) has a Projects feature that lets you do that. And within each Project you can have multiple isolated browsing sessions which makes web dev and QA go a lot faster.

I prefer vimb [1] as my $BROWSER. I recommend it to people who like minimal, keyboard-driven, text-configured browsers. vimb has excellent documentation and a responsive maintainer.

I often switch to Chrome with vimium [2] for tasks when

vimb does not correctly render a site

I need developer tools

logins or other sensitive information are involved

[1] https://fanglingsu.github.io/vimb/

[2] http://vimium.github.io

> The new Brave browser automatically blocks ads and trackers

Well I suppose I'll have to check that one out. EDIT: Installed it, went to facebook, saw ads. Tried a google search, saw ads. Went to reddit, saw ads. Not sure what it's actually blocking.

Blisk looks interesting as well. (EDIT: Chromium re-wrap with device previews, bug reporting, and screen recording)

I tried and liked Vivaldi, but it's just repackaged chromium with a few extra features isn't it?

We don't block first party ads by default. We may if they become as hazardous and just plain bad as third party. We may add options for first party blocking. Most ad blockers do not block tracking-free 1st party ads, last I checked.

There is really only one good browser, and that's Lynx.

I still think Chrome looks and feels smoother than any other browser. I don't know how that holds up for Windows, my experience is mostly OS X.

Chrome because I actually like being integrated into Google services. The more information I can supply, the better all the other stuff becomes.

Work gives macs and iphones. I use macs and iphones. I have some PCs and some linux boxes, but those are for gaming stuff and personal dev stuff.

Syncing across all devices is goddam amazing. I can pull tabs from my work machine to my work phone or my personal phone, or my ipad or whatever.

Safari is really the best total experience.

Other people will have different opinions, of course.

Pale Moon, because it does not break all the plugins that have been developed over time and is not trying to copy chrome.

I'm finding Chrome and Firefox to be annoying, so I've been using surf[0] quite a lot recently (however I'm writing this from my work computer on Chrome)

[0] = http://surf.suckless.org/

Firefox for the sole reason that I think that the addons on it are far superior than Chrome addons.

Brave. I don't use it for everything but I've been using it more and more oftem

I like Safari on Macs and iOS and Chrome on everything else. I would like to use Edge on my Surface for lower power drain, but it's still a bit too buggy and doesn't offer me anything compelling over Chrome.

Chrome - still speedy, still simple (with lots of advanced features) and still secure. The channel release system, dev tools and syncing all my files/settings between devices is a god send.

https://github.com/The-Compiler/qutebrowser

Safari, it's just got the best performance on my Mac and syncs with iDevices, on Windows I use Chrome but have Firefox and Tor for other purposes.

I used Xombrero for long time and I love it, but it crashes often so I'm using Firefox nowadays. I sort-a kind-a like Firefox.

Chrome mostly, but Firefox at work. I would like to change to Vivaldi, but I miss the sync from Chrome too much.

Google chrome. Sad but true.

Firefox, because I can open a website in a sidebar. I read news that way.

Safari

I use Firefox on PC and Safari on Mac, for everything.

chrome, their developer tools is unmatched

brave, trying it out cause i heard them in a podcast somewhere

Chrome.

Safari, Chrome and Brave