Best Free Web Browser

what about IE8?

I have started to use Google Chrome and I have to say that I am impressed. It is incredibly fast and works on pages for IE without having to use IETab like that on Firefox.

It appears to only import favorites and settings from Firefox.

> One box for everything
Type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and web pages.
> Thumbnails of your top sites
Access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab.
> Shortcuts for your apps
Get desktop shortcuts to launch your favorite web applications.

What is also interesting is that browser uses each tab as a separate process, so if one misbehaves, it does not take the rest of the browser down. You can also tear away tabs from the browser and bring them back again.

Check out the Features, You Tube Video, and book as well.

Thanks,

Kent

While K-Meleon does not get a good share of comments, it does what is says and is faster than all other browsers on speed tests. What saddens me is that the latest version 1.5 has removed many of the other browser engines it was initially designed to mimic (where K-Meleon gets its name!) I was actually using v 1.12 until last week until I made the big move to 1.5, then dropped back to 1.15 which is fab! 1.15 has additional 2007-8 browsers it mimics, page zoom, HTTP blocker, full screen viewing, and much, much more. I've concluded more than a few thousand times that newer software is rarely better software when all the trade off's are considered. BTW, I wonder if the bad guys are targeting K-Meleon since it's as widely used as other browsers? {;~)

"tiny print of poor resolution that can only be rectified by zooming in every time I open it."
try setting font size in options. or google for info on how to set it in usercontent.css.
"I suggest making your startup just Google"
beeter to make your own "local" html homepage. easiest wayto strt is to select parts of favorite pages, context click, view source. then paste into your html file. cleanup as desired.
"Adblock Plus. "
proxomitron. much better. works on all browsers.
"NoScript"
yeah, that's pretty good (easier to tweak than proxomitron, tho of course noscript is limited)
"Try some of the themes!"
"check userstyles.org"

"PDF Download"
don't need an extension to d/l a file...

"spell checker"
yeah. great for us klutzoid typists :-)

"Also, many website ratings like SiteAdvisor do not work in Opera."
try toggling the "mask as ie" button(s).

"Adblock "
proxo
"Autofill Forms"
did you try op's wand?
"CustomizeGoogle"
someone wrote a user js similar (i think not as well featured tho)

"DictionarySearch"
any simple (single parameter) search can be created on-the-fly. i also found a page that described how to incorporate js in an op engine (IIRC)
"Firebug"
op has dev ini's, but i don't think they're extensive as firebug. (however i don't use fb or opera very much, so there may be an opera tool that's sim to fb)
"Gmail, google online stuff"
don't use. have no idea.

"MR Tech Toolkit "
based on what i've seen, opera would not haveone tool forthe eclectic functions of mtt. you'd need to google for each function.
"NewsFox"
i have yet to find any decent feed reader, but opera's builtin reader is the best. for a while, feeds were the main reason i started up opera.
"Nightly Tester Tools"
n/a
"Nuke Anything Enhanced"
don't recall this extension well enough. but i through it into the general webdev stuff
"Paste and Go 2"
if you read this xpi's site info, you'll see that it was inspire by the longtime feature in op. anyway, isn't p2g still only for ff2 (abandoned)? it was nice, imo
"Session Manager"
built in to opera (and maxthon) for a longtime.

"Web Developer"
the webdev ini are very similar to this.

i don't know what some of the other xpis you list do, so cannot comment

firefoxmyths makes some (obvious) points, but is notorious for containing its own "myths".
also... where do ppl get this idea that ff needs 3 trillion extensions to be usable? unless you want it to be more than a browser, you really need zero extensions (though you would want to replace the search plugins (just "search engines" in opera need fixing)). i use a java/js toggler and gblite.
opera is an allinone with mail etc. opera lacks a solid searchbar, but it has site-specific prefs (which unfortunately doesn't include image-display prefs. otoh, opera has quick toggle for lots of things incl. images)
opera is more difficult to customize than ff. recently opera wouldn't allow ctrl+drag to drag-copy text. now, no matter what keys you press or not, opera always copies (makes a duplicate) dragged text!
but opera has its own ways (takes getting used to) also opera doesn't communicate well with anything outside (eg, cannot even drag text from a page to a text editor)
kmeleon is also a bit strange to use and more difficult to customize (eg, try removing the space-wasting text in the "privacy" tb buttons), but km has good dragndrop. unfortunately within a few months, it becomes unstable for me on win9x and xp (haven't tried km on vista). km's default searchplugins need less cleaning than opera's, and the edits are obvious.
ff take care of updates best. with km and opera, about all that's worth trying to xfer to major update is the bookmarks. (i think opera can import it's own mail format, but i've hardly used op for mail, cuz it's weird.) ie7 just throws out almost everything when you upgrade from ie6 (except favs). other than full "shells" (eg, maxthon), ie7pro was the first well known ie customizer, but i have no experience with that cuz i gave up on ie7 (it doesn't work well on xp).

So I decided to take peoples suggestions and go try Opera... sure not a problem however while using Opera I then run into problems as it doesn't seem to like gmail or hotmail as it won't load them all the time... I'm not sure what the problem is for Opera not wanting to open sites like that however I'm on the look for a different browser....

Having downloaded Firefox at least four times I just don't get it - the enthusiasm that is. First of the display is terrible with tiny print of poor resolution that can only be rectified by zooming in every time I open it.

Second, I use Google because I am used to it and I have a Google account to manage my Google Group. I cannot see any advantage of opening Google via Firefox versus opening it as my Home Page.

Thirdly, I like to keep my life and my computer innards as simple as possible and have no need for add-ons, especially as I have no idea what most of them are for (I go back to when Commodore 64 was state of the art).
So, what am I missing?
Gayle

Check out firefoxmyths.com. This guy debunks many myths about the speed and security of Firefox. Everything this guy says is true and backed up by multiple sources.

After reading about Opera on many sites, i decided to give it a try. And i liked it. It has got a nice look and feel. Its fast to load. One feature not seen in other browsers and found on opera... it gives the option to set up some most visited sites on speed-dial, so that you wont even have to access the bookmarks for those sites. Just press Ctrl+F1 and F2 so on and the sites will open.

But Opera lacks in terms of good widgets or extensions. The integrated downloader is not much impressive as in firefox. There is no widget to integrate a download accelarator with Opera, to hand-over the download to the accelerator.
Theres no progress bar while opening a site. And i had trouble opening some sites... i would enter the address and press enter, and the sites wont open... while they opened fine in firefox.

Well, i shifted back to firefox. But yes, Opera is a nice browser and comes close to firefox. No wonder, Opera has a fan following of its own.

anyone used Enigma Browser ?- Fast and easy browser - Seems good to me

HI all,

tried the OPera and it looked great but, it wont play embedded MP3 files on webpages, there is the dreaded red cross type blank box where the winows media player button is on I.E 7, and it reports the pluggin isnt installed, which I have done, and I have followed the advice on the trouble shooter, still no joy so I have uninstalled it .

According to Secunia, Opera is by far the most secure browser. Compare for yourself at secunia.com

"if I could get an Opera replacement for some of my key Firefox add-ons, I'd probably switch"

What Firefox add-ons? Please tell us