The story so far....
OT but I'll mention it here in passing, I have been playing with a chrome (browser) install... I don't think I'll be going back to firefox! Which makes me wonder if someone should start a browser post?
Ahhhh Mick - Been using chrome for a while, not bad but the flash support still really isnt there for interactive sites.
Now - you are not trying to go off-topic in this thread are you ?
Seeing as no one took the hint to start a new thread I decided to do it myself. I'd be interested in hearing about the pros and cons of the various browsers.
I've always been a fan of firefox, but lately a few things have been beginning to irk me. On an older low powered laptop, it is beginning to run slower and slower as the upgrades roll in, even after getting rid of a few of the more non essential plugins. But worst of all, some pages just would not display properly, even after checking that certain settings were the same as those that were on a machine with an install that rendered correctly. The main problem was in the back end of Wordpress, where some important drop downs, and text boxes had rendered off screen, without even a scroll bar to get at them. Strangely enough, the firefox install at my workplace computer (using the same os, but in a 64 bit environment) was fine. The two computers at home where what was playing up.
Getting at these settings became important enough that I decided to see how Chrome would display. And it was perfect. Of course, it was very different in the way you used it, but I thought it would not take to long to get used to it, and importantly, enjoy it. This proved correct. What I have found so far is that things like flash video and radio live streaming 'just worked' - however I concede this might be because Chrome pinched my firefox settings?? - could this be right? I remember on firefox I had to get the plugins required for this sort of operation.
Mr. RG mentions flash for interactive sites. Any examples - so far I have this to work okay for extremely important mission critical tasks - to wit: Ordering Pizza online. The Pizza hut site (we have a new shop down our way) works a treat, and I suspect it might be flash based.
What I like about chrome: Its speed (it just erupts on screen and is raring to go - firefox on the powerfulish desktop is beginning to drag its heels, while on the lap top, you would think you are starting Vista, its so slow) - Also like the build in brushed metal theme and the clean unencumbered window style it uses. Main dislike to date is its handling of live RSS feeds, but a nice little extension (RSS live feeds) handles this quite well. Firefox is much better out of that box at this.
So what about other browsers out there? Opera seems okay, and midori seems to be well received around the traps.