No sweat Bobby, you didnt sound cranky to me....

bobby- don't worry about it. i doubt anyone took your comments in a bad way, and if someone did......well, we all have pretty thick skin around here.

i'll be thinking of you and your mom and hope all goes well. i've been through the hospital visits with doctors not knowing what the heck is going on, just hang in there and pay us a visit when you need a little break.

:D

@fullbug ... just had a chance to reread this thread and realize my comment probably did not come across with the humor intended. Forgive me if it sounded cross, cranky, crabby or otherwise uncivilized. My mom has been hospitalized three times (via ER) in two weeks (four times this year) and I'm as antsy as a long tail cat in a room full of rockin' chairs.

My apologies to the rest of the forum members, too. Hopefully y'all will bear with me until a.) the doctor figures out how to help her, or b.) I kick the doctor's beu-tocks (deserved .. gave her penicillin class drug when she has deadly allergy to the stuff).

I use Enigma, K-Meleon and Seamonkey. I tried Safart but it really didn't work well for me. Firefox keeps getting broken after all those updates so I don't like it very much.

Interesting to see the responces about Safari not being a great match for Windows, looks like Safari has some work to do....

@Fullbug, recalling the trouble I had with every one of my PC's -- including a virus that triggered DRM, thus invalidating licenses for all the software on a newly-built media center computer -- I'm thinking it's M$ that has work to do. Safari running in its native environment doesn't hang, crash or mimic any of the notorious IE traits. The fact that it doesn't attract the attention of virus mongers is pure joy.

And, thanks to that virus, I reckon Symantec is competing with Microsoft for the most unstable, unreliable resource-guzzling software ever. But, that's just my opinion :)

I have tried Firefon but the old http://www.freedownloadsplace.com/Download-Internet-Explorer-Free-15811.htm remains the best. Safari more modern ,but do not offer ,except design, to much improvements.

I use IE 7 a long time ago.
The only thing i can not do is send a email.
I tried many times but i think i am doing something wrong.
So i send my email with hotmail.

Greetings from the Netherlands.

Crazyritten.

Maybe this add-on might help you Jaddis....
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

I use IE7 for my normal everyday browsing. On one of my computers I have the beta of IE8. When I need to stream media from a site that is not all that IE friendly I switch to FireFox. My biggest problem with FireFox is that it does not always display some pages correctly. Most sites are designed with IE in mind and thus they show up better on it. This is not the case all the time but I have still found it true on a number of different sites. These are the only browsers I have every tried.

Interesting to see the responces about Safari not being a great match for Windows, looks like Safari has some work to do....

@JoanRC

Like Bubby says, the market is just too small for most malware writers to take an interest. I would suspect the same is true of the Linux world.

The Linux world is a lot bigger than most people would believe. But it does have a more security focused mindset and design philosophy that sets apart the typical Linux user from the typical Windows user (generalising here ofc) - If linux users always surfed the net logged in as root (admin) and had a company like Microsoft introducing useful technologies like ActiveX, it might be a different story. As I mentioned earlier, a big part of the credit for the historically widespread virus/security problems can be credited to lack of education/awareness by many of the users (I believe that thankfully that has changed over recent years).

Many users "mature" to Linux as a second desktop choice, after spending some time using Windows, so many of the "lessons" have already been learned. With enough effort and bad computing habits, Linux can be made just as insecure as any other OS. (You can have the biggest locks and the strongest steel bars on the windows, but if the user forgets to close the front door - what's the point?)

Always use Firefox with the no script and Ad block and CS Lite plugins. This gives me very secure browsing. Firefox 3 is a big improvement in speed and resource usage.

I find Opera fast but I love the security plugins too much to leave firefox. I have tried Safari and while its fast, I just can't get used to the interface.

IE I refuse to use until they get rid of active x.

I have been using Opera for years. Opera doesn't have a lot of add-ons because it has so many features built right in. I have read reviews from former Firefox users who switched to Opera because of the additional features and I've seen reviews from former Opera users who prefer Firefox add-ons. I guess it depends what you're looking for.

The fastest and safest browser I have seen is Off By One http://offbyone.com/offbyone/ .
The safety derives from the lack of support for such things as javascript and other tools routinely used by malware. You can't use it for entering data into web forms, for instance for shopping or for logging into forums. If I remember correctly, it doesn't accept cookies, either. You can surf; and you can download supported files. That's it. It is tiny, only 1.3 MB in size.

I have seen two or three referrences to viruses for the Mac mentioned in this blog http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/. Like Bubby says, the market is just too small for most malware writers to take an interest. I would suspect the same is true of the Linux world.

It's not through any design smarts that Apple historically avoided attracting any attention from virus developers -

@ BuBBy: That reminded me of one of the Marine Corp Rules for Survival:

Don't look conspicuous, it draws fire and irritates the people around you.

firefox. i'm very happy with it.
(i will use explorer when i absolutely have to)

@haalam - maybe this might sound familiar.

http://cybernetnews.com/2008/03/20/apple-pushes-safari-update-on-windows/

I use IE 7 and since the latest update it has picked up speed significantly which is happy to see

I got an Apple window the other day (maybe after a QuickTime update, not sure) asking me if I wanted to download Safari and the link was right there. I immediately closed it. I am very happy with Firefox and all the add-ons available for it and don't have time to fool with something new that may conflict with Firefox!

I also have Netscape (8?) on my system, but I had only downloaded it long ago because I needed to test some web page changes.

I do not really like the changes to IE7 over 6 so I don't use it unless I have to (to get M$ downloads). And on my new laptop, IE6 crashes all the time. I put IE7 on and it does the same thing. So much for Dell's Windows XP installation. ;( I am going to try the IE7 uninstall and then try a repair to IE6... hopefully that will work.

I'm thinking that running Safari on a PC will only damage Safari's reputation.

I'm not sure what reputation you are thinking of - running Safari on PC at this stage is little more than a novelty or curiosity. I wouldn't consider Safari to be a mainstream browser for the Windows platform - and from the little I have read there is more criticism than praise of the Windows/Safari combination (of course criticism is much more newsworthy).

If I had to choose I'd want to invest my time becoming more familiar with the tools and browsers that are common across most/all of the computing platforms. Running the same browser and tools Firefox on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X, or having a portable version of the browser available to take my configuration with me when away from my office is a huge plus.

It's a good thing that there are zillions of antivirus programs designed to stop dead the zillions of viruses - and just following a few commonsense rules you can drastically reduce your chances of being affected by viruses or spyware.

It's not through any design smarts that Apple historically avoided attracting any attention from virus developers - it's because the consensus was the entire platform was too insignificant to matter. Even virus writers didn't care about Apple computers. When they want to cause the most damage and to make the news - they didn't want to sail their bomb to the middle of the pacific ocean before releasing it - they wanted a crowded, congested city as their ground zero.

Also with so many "Learner Drivers" on windows platforms - only encourages the spread of viruses & Malware, whether it is the fault of lack of training on the users part, or poor OS design that requires knowledge and skills in protecting against getting viruses etc which should be handled automatically - it doesn't seem there is any obvious answer.

@Fullbug and BuBBy .. I'm running Safari on an iMac, which happens to have a feature called bootcamp (or Parallels) that allows you to run Windows in a Mac environment (a virtual disk).

I'm thinking that running Safari on a PC will only damage Safari's reputation. I use my virtual Windows software for certain graphics programs (read: too darn expensive to replace) and, of course, for Giveaway downloads. For everything else, it's strictly Mac software. Added bonus, there are only a handful of viruses that will attack Mac computers, as opposed to the zillions designed for PC's :)

Ad Muncher works with all browsers. Although it isn't free, it does work with everything.

I'm using Firefox too. however, I'm currently dabbling with Firefox 3.0 pre-beta 5. It's far faster and llighter than Fx2, but almost none of my addons work with it. Still, it's a basic, screaming fast browser. I've got Safari 3.1 installed too. I like it, but I miss AdblockPlus.

Browser performance comparisons.
CyberneteNews

And as far as running Safari on a windows PC - I thought this was funny yesterday - channelregister.co.uk

As for using FF download manager, install the FF extension "FlashGot" then use whatever download manager you want (FlashGot supports just about everything).

I use Internet Explorer for basic browsing, Avant for webcomics(I can have a load of tabs for all of the different ones running at the same time, they load quickly, and it has built-in tray minimization), and Firefox for anything that requires me to actually type a URL(copy-pasting links, for example) - I try to have as few URLS in my list as possible in the others(right now, I only have them for SHMUP-DEV, as I get a redirect when I Google it, and an obscure Neverhood forum, as it's a pain in the neck to get to any other way). Firefox's download manager is a pain to use.

Tried Safari this afternoon, wasnt to impressed, hard to set up the way you like, couldnt even put a 'refresh' button in the toolbar, also didnt import my bookmarks right....

Well Robert, FF is latest version ''Firefox v2.0.0.13'' & it is still not as fast as IE in all aspects.

Firefox is most stable in my opinion. I had the same trouble of unstable IE. I even disabled it as much as possible. only for msn hotmail does IE still pop out, otherwise I never see the bugger again. ( HURRAY! )

Sukibabe

I guess you still use IE for the GAOTD
;)
I use Firefox 2.12 (although that crashed lately and I still have some non resolved items) and the portabel FF 3 beta.

Lee

If they could only speedup FF's loading time at startup.

i use Opera, Firefox and Maxthon for different purposes. Opera most of the time, FF2 when i need to visit some sites that dont come off well in Opera for some reason and Maxthon when i get bored of the other 2.

gonna check out Safari now

p.s. using Win XP SP2 Pro

I use Internet Explorer v7.0.5730.13 (which is a different build on Vista).

I find it faster than any other browser I have used.

I also like SeaMonkey.

Safari, the Windows version is a joke, it's slow & is third rate.