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What's your web browser of choice?

Peter Kim Frank on March 25, 2018

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Peter Kim Frank

I use Chrome on desktop, as well as on my iPhone. It's a handy setup as it syncs my searches across mobile/desktop, pulls info in from gMail, etc. I'm also a fan of the "Peoples" system on Desktop which really helps my workflow as I transition between working on personal vs. work tasks.

At the same time, I'm a bit wary of entrusting absolutely everything to Google. I use Firefox as a back-up browser on Desktop, and am considering flipping over full-time.

What browser(s) do you use?

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Donald Merand

I switched from Chrome to Firefox when quantum came out, so on my Mac it's Firefox > Safari > Chrome now. Chrome hogs that RAM! Also it's good to support Mozilla + generally keep a diverse setup. But I use them all for app testing.

On mobile I use Firefox Focus, which you might think would be super-limiting but I find that it really is perfect for keeping me from walking around staring at my phone.

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Samuel

I've been using Firefox for more than 6 years straight and I'm not ready to switch any time soon. I also strongly dislike the "chrome only" trend some websites are adopting. Browser monopoly doesn't look like a good thing to me.

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Judith

I use Chrome mostly because of dev tools; but I hate the way it hogs memory. I like the new FF Quantum and use it frequently; but I'm not ready to switch yet. I also use Beaker because I really like the project and am keeping up with the progress as it goes along. I would like to use the extensibility of Beaker to integrate some of my workflow like presentations, sharing prototypes, code collab and just some fun stuff like games (P2P).
On my iPhone I use chrome as well.
I avoid Safari whenever possible.

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Dian Fay

Vivaldi. Based on Chromium so it can use the same plugins, but super customizable. Tabs on the left are amazing.

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Vinay Pai

Out of curiosity, what kind of customizations have you actually made? I ask because I personally find customizability appealing at a theoretical level but often don't actually end up making any meaningful use of that ability.

Something like this:
Reality is bullshit

smbc-comics.com/comic/augmented-re...

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Dian Fay • Edited

I mean, bear in mind that I run Arch voluntarily. But the most I've done to Vivaldi itself is a color scheme. The biggest change to how I use the browser is via surfingkeys.

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Pierre Bouillon

And so are stacked tabs ! :D

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Ben Halpern

Chromeβ€”mostly due to familiarity and no strong reasons to change from a devtools perspective.

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Sergey Kislyakov

I've been using Firefox for ~5 years on Desktop and ~3 months on my Android phone. Even before the Quantum era, when it was not that fast, I felt like I should stick to the Mozilla's baby because they do some great stuff for the Internet. I still follow this principle though I have other browsers (Chrome, IE and Edge) to test my projects.

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Ivan

Used chrome for the last 3+ years. When FF Quantum came out, I decided to give it a try, but only to see it hogs the same amount of RAM (and event more) like Chrome. So with the pain that would have been to transfer all of my bookmarks and accounts to FF, I decided to stick with Chrome.

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Tiago Marques

Firefox all the way... At work for development and search, and at home.

In my lightweight laptop I use Waterfox, a fork of Firefox, but lighter and even more secure.

I use MS Edge as secondary browser, for when I'm at battery or to listen music.
Chrome just to check crossbrowser compatibility

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Anurag Mathur ο£Ώ

Work -> Chrome on Windows Laptop, and Firefox on the Linux Dev VM. This is mostly due to Safari being not available on both platforms.
Personal -> Safari on Mac, Safari on iPhone/iPad

I keep Chrome on my personal devices to sync bookmarks across work and personal devices.

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Judith

@davidkarapetyan just wondering what's the appeal with Brave? I was on this awesome Hangout a few months ago where Branden Eich discussed it and I'm wondering from a user perspective how its working out for you?

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Meghan (she/her)

I use Chrome on my desktop and Safari on my iPhone.

I use Chrome because I like the way Chrome handles bookmarks the best and they also support ES 2015 Modules and HTML Imports

I use Safari on iOS because every other browser is also WebKit under the hood on iOS and I like the deep integration from within the operating system with the browser. Although as a web-dev, dealing with Safari can be a pain, but I like that I have it since I know what to change so I can ease that pain as much as I can for whoever uses my sites.

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Dimitri Acosta

I switched from Chrome to Firefox, I think that Firefox Qantum is actually better than Chrome, but for development I use Firefox Developer Edition.

I still use Chrome sometimes when I'm a little nostalgic πŸ˜„

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Carlos Fuentes

I use chrome as my main browser. I usually use him to do something lighter like visit social media, do shopping and something like that.

When I start to develop something, I was using Chrome but with the problem of RAM that he has, I switched to Firefox when Quantum came out.

Before I start using Chrome to my diary tasks, I was using Vivaldi who works on Chromium. Has a lot of interesting features, like save our current session with all your tabs and use it later when I want it. But, with that features, comes a lot of issues. Don't start well, sometimes comes slower, some pages don't load correctly. . . even most of the embedded videos don't play well.
Talking about RAM has his own solutions, sleeps the tabs when you want to save a smaller piece of RAM because even with that the process of the tab continues running in the background. Obviously, with less size.

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rhymes

Just Chrome on both Mac and Android. I should explore more options but on the desktop I like Chrome's dev tools and that it syncs with the phone. I'm too lazy to have a "dev" browser and a "browsing" browser.

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Adewale Abati

I am really surprised that no one has mentioned Opera browser. I use it for a simple reason - it works as a replica of Google Chrome without all the memory consumption. It's faster for me and does pretty much everything I'd have wanted to do on Chrome.

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Paul

I switched to Firefox when Quantum hit. Switched on my work computer, home computer, travel laptop, and phone. Sync handles all the in between stuff, plus "Send tab to device" is super handy.

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Dell Ward • Edited

Chrome first. Firefox as backup, especially when Chrome is eating my RAM.

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Johan

Firefox!

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Stephen Chiang

Chrome for debugging because it's familiar, but for browsing and CSS grid debugging I default to Firefox Developer Edition. FF DE is slowly over taking the rest of the debugging as well though.

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Colin Kiama

Edge on my laptop, Chrome on my desktop and everywhere else.

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Erhan KΔ±lΔ±Γ§

I use firefox for both development and normal usage.

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IstvΓ‘n Lantos

Firefox! Because drag & dropping an open tab on the bookmark toolbar is just too convenient. Nothing can beat human laziness.

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Jake Casto

FireFox unless I'm using my iPhone then I use safari (don't have enough storage for firefox haha). I like Chrome but it's a RAM eater.

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Ross Henderson

Chrome, it syncs everything together and it's pretty fast. Though I'm wondering how people deal with the memory issue? I'm giving OneTab a go, but I don't believe that's the solution I want.

 
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Judith

Totally agree. There is a propensity toward supporting the biggest players. It’s good to check out new ideas that are out-of-the-box.πŸ‘

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Saurabh Sharma

from quantum release, Firefox on PC and chrome on mobile

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Rafael Acioly

Firefox quamtum on desktop and Firefox Focus on phone :)