# Which browser(s) do you prefer?



## fonz (Feb 6, 2013)

The title probably says it all.

For me, it's Opera (with the Ghostery, AutoStack and 'SaveFrom.net Helper' extensions as well as a skin/theme that makes it look more like the classic Opera versions of old) hands down. I like the way it handles tabs, how it can be operated from the keyboard, how it looks and feels generally, how it performs and how it's rather strict about standards compliance. I know it's proprietary software, but unlike e.g. Theo DeRaadt I can live with that as long as it's free and there's a current native FreeBSD version available.

Feel free to vent your comments as long as it remains civil.

[edit: to be fair, I have a few annoyances as well]
Opera's built-in (and per-site-configurable) blocking facilities are impressive, but one has to configure this either in advance or as one goes along. If Opera came with a few (selectable) standard rulesets (e.g. based on Privoxy), that would be great. On the plus side, a well-configured Opera pretty much eliminates any need for e.g. Privoxy.
Just like Firefox Opera can memorise usernames, passwords and such. What I do like is that while Firefox tends to automagically fill these in, Opera's doesn't fill in anything until you use the "wand" button. But what I don't like is that clicking the wand immediately submits too and that editing what the wand fills in can be rather cumbersome.
Although Opera can be operated with the keyboard quite nicely, some of the default keybindings don't make a lot of sense to me and if you don't disable/modify these Opera can sometimes act rather puzzlingly when you accidently hit the wrong key combo.
Although I like it that you can easily add almost any search facility to the search bar, Opera does sometimes fail to get the corresponding favicon right and there doesn't seem to be a way to manually specify any.
Opera (optionally, if I'm not mistaken) comes with a built-in torrent client but I've never been able to get it working. Fortunately there are plenty of specific torrent clients (e.g. net-p2p/transmission, to name but one popular choice), but it still bugs me that I can't seem to be able to get Opera's built-in torrent client to work.


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## wblock@ (Feb 6, 2013)

Firefox.  Although the "awesome bar" has gotten somewhat less awesome by trying to be smart and not completing consistently.  Adding AdblockPlus, FlashBlock, NoScript, and Ghostery makes the web bearable.


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## fonz (Feb 6, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Adding AdblockPlus, FlashBlock, NoScript, and Ghostery makes the web bearable.


I certainly agree about Ghostery. Whoever invented that gem deserves a keg of beer at least :beer


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## cpm@ (Feb 6, 2013)

Chromium is failing lately, shared memory complaint in latest versions to work by FreeBSD design,  but still I use it as default browser. Although chromium on FreeBSD still suffers an additional handicap when it comes to extensions, I added AdBlock and Falcon proxy.


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## jrm@ (Feb 7, 2013)

I spend most of my time in Firefox, but also use Conkeror and Opera.

Firefox add-ons:


 Adblock Plus
 Ghostery
 Pentadactyl
 PwdHash

PwdHash is a nice one.  You keep one password in your head and it hashes the password locally based on the domain of the current URL.  I store a copy of the hashed password in case the site, e.g., introduces a redirect to a new URL.  It's available for Opera and Chromium, but the Opera version isn't as convenient.


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## rupil (Feb 7, 2013)

Only firefox.

Add-ons:
   Adblock Plus
   BetterPrivacy
   Ghostery
   NoScript
   RequestPolicy


Does Opera or Chromium have advanced configuration options (about:config in firefox), I don't remember seeing any in Chromium.


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## jrm@ (Feb 7, 2013)

rupil said:
			
		

> Does Opera or Chromium have advanced configuration options (about:config in firefox), I don't remember seeing any in Chromium.




```
opera:config
```


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## throAU (Feb 7, 2013)

Safari  (on Mac, I love the bookmark/history preview - so much easier to pick a page out of the history by look rather than page title - you know what it's like - you find some howto or other page you can't remember where and want to go back to it a few weeks later).

If I'm not browsing from my Mac or an iDevice, it is generally Firefox.

Generally don't do much browsing from FreeBSD, Linux or any other platform these days though - they're headless servers only logged into via SSH.


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## sossego (Feb 7, 2013)

Firefox, xxxterm, opera, dillo <--- In that order.


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## NewGuy (Feb 7, 2013)

I use Chromium, Firefox and Opera on a daily basis for browsing and website development. I find for personal use and debugging I generally prefer Opera, mostly for its speed.


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## gqgunhed (Feb 7, 2013)

Firefox with NoScript, AdBlock, CookieMonster, Ghostery, ScrapBook


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## francis (Feb 7, 2013)

Hi, please do not forget another browser, which offers many interesting features and extensions. It's called midori a lightweight and fast web browser, which is part of the Xfce project, but can be used everywhere. Some of the features are; support for user scripts and styles, bookmark management, supports HTML5, adblock and private browsing. Of course, this are not all of the midori features. More answers to a various questions can be found here; midori/faq. Probably all of You, already know about midori. 

Best regards!


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## gentoobob (Feb 7, 2013)

First choice...Chromium.  Then Firefox.  Depends on the website I'm going to.


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## srobert (Feb 7, 2013)

*Firefox, Opera, w3m*

I usually prefer *Firefox* with *ad-block*, *hack-the-web*, and some other plugins. I have *Opera* also. The main reason that I usually use *Firefox* (instead of *Opera* or *Chromium*) is that it supports _Zoom Text Only_. 
By the way, *hack-the-web*, f.k.a. *aardvark*, is a plugin that you can't live without once you start using it.

Also, I keep *w3m* and/or *links* around in case X11 fails. (That way I can still read the FreeBSD Handbook and Google to find out how to fix X11.)


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## wblock@ (Feb 8, 2013)

srobert said:
			
		

> By the way, *hack-the-web*, f.k.a. *aardvark*, is a plugin that you can't live without once you start using it.



It's an interesting idea, but does not seem to keep the changes the next time the page is shown.  Maybe a conflict with NoScript?


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## alie (Feb 8, 2013)

+ 1 for Firefox with AdBlock


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## bsduser35325 (Feb 8, 2013)

I use Opera + Proxomitron. Firefox needs too much stuff to work. If you want to block adds just disable javascript...


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## vermaden (Feb 8, 2013)

Opera without Flash but with Ghostery/Adblock for main browser.
Midori without Flash for viewing stand alone HTM[L] files and as a backup for Opera.
Firefox with Ghostery/Adblock/Flash for everything else that does not work under Opera/Midori or when need for Flash.
I often 'grab' a video from Youtube to watch it locally with cclive from Ports.

... also, most 'bad' things blocked by /etc/hosts file:
`% wc -l /etc/hosts
   98363 /etc/hosts`


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## dclau (Feb 8, 2013)

Opera with AdBlock for everything, _-nomail_ switch on. I wish there was a command line switch for the bittorrent client, web server, IRC client, the whole world and his dog...
 Eh, that's the music of the future.


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## break19 (Feb 8, 2013)

Chrome on all my devices.  I toyed with Opera, but it felt.. clunky.  Firefox does too. Good thing there are so many options, so that everyone can use what they like.


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## h3z (Feb 8, 2013)

Firefox and Seamonkey Tied for first use . Then links2 and testing arora . Opera is an old time favorite . I have high hopes for Seamonkey's continued development .


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## Netherfox (Feb 8, 2013)

Mac: Safari 
Other Desktop: Firefox
Mobile: Dolphin


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## geek (Feb 8, 2013)

I use mostly Firefox on my Linux Mint, but there's also Chromium browser installed. On FreeBSD I've used *w3m* so far. It's a simple, quite good and free browser. I think it is also quite secure, because it doesn't have any unnecessary plugins like Flash. Which also means that it doesn't show any annoying adverts 

However, the lack of multimedia is also a drawback. It doesn't show even images. But I like the simplicity a bit. Things shouldn't be made more complicated than what is necessary. And I can even browse and post on this forum with w3m


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## nrgmilk (Feb 10, 2013)

I'm using firefox on FreeBSD.
firefox is stable on flash based social games.

chromium's networking is too slow on flash player.


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## ishpeck (Feb 19, 2013)

I'm in chromium when I'm not using lynx.


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## bozzy (Feb 20, 2013)

*browser preference*

freeBSD/ArchLinux - 
(1) Firefox - very much better (ie solid) than a couple of years back 
(2) Iron but just on Linux (hardened chromium).

Moans? - Iron does not handle complex intrusions well
http://www.radiotimes.com

As to Opera - I too like much of this but cannot abide the bundleware approach so beloved of Microsoft. If I am searching for an email client I do not go looking for a browser and vice versa.


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## G_Nerc (Feb 20, 2013)

I'm using *Opera*, and use many of its features: 

Mail client very useful and fast. Auto sorting messages by labels is cool feature, something similar I see on *The Bat!* mail client.
Opera Link - save me when system dies due to HDD failure, and on new system I have all Bookmarks, stored passwords and notes.
Elegance interface - not bloated with something additional panels as on Firefox (maybe I just see bad customized FFox, but I see just it.)
Fully customizeable
ADs filter - gives me all what I need from that tool
It runs smoothly on my not High-end desktop, and it works same good on any platform (FreeBSD, Windows, Linux)
I'm just use it for 8+ years and don't want to change to something else


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## jb_fvwm2 (Feb 21, 2013)

G_Nerc said:
			
		

> I'm using *Opera*, and use many of its features:
> 
> Mail client very useful and fast. Auto sorting messages by labels is cool feature, something similar I see on *The Bat!* mail client.
> Opera Link - save me when system dies due to HDD failure, and on new system I have all Bookmarks, stored passwords and notes.
> ...



It is also my browser of choice, which is why I am ambivalent as others about its pending switchoer to webkit.  [It seems to work where other browsers fail]


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## paulfrottawa (Feb 21, 2013)

Firefox normally but I'm trying chromium with the new /boot/loader.conf settings given in the handbook under browsers. In the past that one would slow my computer down even after deinstalling it.


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## drhowarddrfine (Feb 21, 2013)

jb_fvwm2 said:
			
		

> It is also my browser of choice, which is why I am ambivalent as others about its pending switchoer to webkit.  [It seems to work where other browsers fail]



Remember that webkit is the engine under the hood and not the browser itself. Also, Opera will be submitting their usual high-quality code to webkit so, in that sense, having Opera's developers working on webkit is a good thing.

webkit supports far more things than Opera did but webkit's support could be poor compared to Opera. By "support", I mean, webkit may work with a new CSS property, for example, but it may be slow or not quite correct. Opera, otoh, may support it but more likely adhere to the standard as written.


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## Carpetsmoker (Feb 21, 2013)

drhowarddrfine said:
			
		

> Remember that webkit is the engine under the hood and not the browser itself. Also, Opera will be submitting their usual high-quality code to webkit so, in that sense, having Opera's developers working on webkit is a good thing.
> 
> webkit supports far more things than Opera did but webkit's support could be poor compared to Opera. By "support", I mean, webkit may work with a new CSS property, for example, but it may be slow or not quite correct. Opera, otoh, may support it but more likely adhere to the standard as written.



One very visible change (for me) is that the webkit developer tools are pretty crap. The fonts are too small (and no way to make 'em larger), can't copy stuff (wtf?!), network tab is annoying, buttons/UI are weird, etc...


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## sk8harddiefast (Mar 6, 2013)

Firefox because respect more the "anonymous browsing" idea. Next option chromium. In the past I used Opera and for some days midori.


> I often 'grab' a video from Youtube to watch it locally with cclive from Ports.


There is minitube on ports. Check it. It's fantastic tool to see / download videos from youtube without flash.


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## jwele (Mar 6, 2013)

I also use firefox primarily. It is so BSD friendly


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## h3z (Mar 7, 2013)

I guess I'll be using Opera more, now that I know it has native Flash support through opera's gstreamer pluggin . Another plus for FreeBSD .


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## jasmine (Mar 7, 2013)

@h3z, do you mean playing h264 video on youtube natively? *F*irefox can do that, too.


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## h3z (Mar 7, 2013)

jasmine said:
			
		

> @h3z, do you mean playing h264 video on youtube natively? *F*irefox can do that, too.



Guess I didn't realize. I only played with it a bit. Got gnash working on FireFox and that was the extent of my Firefox/youtube success. Opera did so on first install, so I didn't look around (past gnash) for FireFox. Thanks for the news though. Guess I'll have to look into it again.


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