Why you should have have Chrome, Firefox, Safari and more browsers installed now
By Pcunix
Show of hands: how many of you have at least four browsers installed on your computer right now?
What? Am I the only one? No, there is someone way in the back. I'm sorry, I missed you at first. You can leave now if you want.
The rest of you need to pay attention, especially if you foolishly have no alternative browsers installed. If all you have on your Windows machine is Internet Explorer or only Safari on your Mac, you could find yourself having a very unhappy day somewhere down the line.
All these browsers are free: Chrome, Firefox, Safari for Windows, Opera.. there are many more, but those are the big ones. You may think I'm crazy, but I advise you to have every one of those installed on your computer.
Not only that, but I advise you to use them now and then and make sure that you have at least a reasonably current version.
No, it won't hurt anything
I've had people look at me with deep suspicion. "Am i allowed to have two browsers?", some ask.
Yes, you are. It doesn't void your warranty, it absolutely will not break anything or affect your current browser in any way. You can have as many browsers as you want.
You don't have to change your default browser
Everyone of those browsers will ask you a question when you install them. It will be something like "Do you want XXX to be your default browser?"
You can answer "No".
What does "default browser" mean? It means the browser that will be used when, for example, you click on a link in your email program. When you do that, a browser goes to get the page for you. Specifically, whatever is your DEFAULT browser is used.
So if you say "No, don't make XXX my default browser", guess what happens? Anybody?
That's right: your current browser remains as your default browser. Nothing changes unless you tell it to.
The install programs usually ask another question too. That one will be something like "Perform this check every time you start XXX?". What that is about is whether or not it should KEEP asking you if you'd like to make that browser the default. I recommend letting it ask, because someday you might decide that you do want to go steady with this browser.
Why do you want to do this?
Because browsers break. They can start doing odd things, not working, running slowly, getting all persnickety and troublesome.
Let's say you are using Internet Explorer and suddenly it refuses to load any webpages. There could be many reasons for that, but it could just be Internet Explorer being a brat. It might be easy to fix - if you Googled for "Internet Explorer won't load pages" you'd get a big pile of results.
But you can't do that, because you don't have another browser, do you? You can't go download one right now because you'd need a working browser to go find one.
Dang! I hate being trapped like that!
But I can't get trapped. I have alternate browsers.
Website, plugin, toolbar?
Let's say you did have another browser and it didn't work either. Good - you have some other problem. Network, router DNS,computer, cable.. there are a lot of things it could be, but it's not your browser.
If the other browser does work, you know where you have to look. It's somewhere in your regular browser.
The first thing I'd try is emptying cache and quitting. That fixes a lot of problems. After that, I'd look for any plugins I installed. I'd try disabling them and any extra toolbars I might have. If disabling didn't work, I'd remove them outright.
You might like it
I use Chrome for my daily browsing. It's free, it's fast and there are a lot of extensions available. A lot of people like Firefox, too. Safari and Opera are less popular, but they do have their charms.
I use all the others, too. I use them mostly to check what my webpages will look like in other people's browsers, but they have come in handy for troubleshooting too.
If you have never used anything but IE or Safari, you might be pleasantly surprised by Chrome or Firefox. You have nothing to lose by trying and having a few of these available could really help you out someday.
Comments
You'd be surprised how often I hear "Am i allowed to have two browsers?"
Probably. I guess I can't remember not having two or more browsers on my computer. I learnt a long time ago that browsers have issues.
I have 3 installed. IE is causes a lot of issues
Oh, I'd agree with that! But you often can't get people to appreciate that until after they need to try something else in an emergency. After their fifth need, they might be ready to switch :-)
I have IE, Firefox, and Chrome. I pretty much always use chrome. Chrome worked the best when making hubs from my experience. If something doesn't work or doesn't play, switching to IE or Firefox can usually do the trick. I used AOL's browser to search the internet back in the day I believe. IE was a huge upgrade!
Here is a perfect example. Xfinity does not work with Google Chrome(for me), but when I use IE it works a lot better. Firefox I think ended up being the best for that situation. Anyway great hub.
up/useful
Yes, I sometimes have to switch to Safari. But mostly that's just some idiot bank.
Well I knew you could have more that one, I have not installed anymore. I will now:) great points and definatley something tothink about!!
I don't like Firefox, but there are sites that won't work completely without it. So, when I have IE open, I open FF to if I need to use it for what I am doing. Chrome created more issues. But, don't they all.
Had my Safari act up just like you said, a few months ago, and then I downloaded FireFox. I don't have any others right now, but your piece has given me food for thought. I may just go ahead and get another one of two thanks to your advice.
Voting you UP and useful!
Thanks for the information. I usually have 3 or 4 browsers installed but often wondered if they conflict. You have eased my mind. Thanks
Nope, no conflict.
I'm right there with you - four installed. Heck, I might go download Safari for Windows now - just for good measure!
I also think Chrome is the best thing going - but I've had to uninstall and re install almost all of them except IE at one point or another. I virtually never use IE, so it's always there for those just in case times....and for when I need to download a better browser!
You just never know when you might need to try something in another browser.
IE--feh! Never use it ( except when I have to download something from MIcrosoft and have no choice). I've been using Firefox forever, but am getting very attached to Chrome these days-- so clean, so fast(sigh) I had a brief romance with Flock a few years ago, but gave it up as too bulky-- Opera? I ought to go have a look. I hear it is popular in Europe but I have never tried it.
Great advice, another great hub-- voted up, useful, and awesome. Thanks
Opera is a great choice for checking standards compliance..
I recently switched to Chrome as my main browser and think it's a great improvement on Firefox for many reasons already mentioned but mostly because the bookmarks toolbar and management leaves me so much more space at the top of the window.
I am a Chrome fan also. Firefox is a bloated mess,
Like yourself I have multiple browsers installed, it is always a good reference point when you have problems as you say.
It is also useful if you are logged into say google in one browser and you want to search without your personal preferences interfering, you can just use a different browser as you will not be logged in there!!
I hadn't thought of that, LeanMan.
Another fun part of having more than one browser is that you can sign in on two or more accounts of things on the same computer. Sometimes it's fun to play games with your friends by going on two facebook accounts at once and talking to them ;D
I'll skip that idea :-)
I used to only use IE but since coming to HubPages I've added chrome and firefox. I think it may have been you that advised me to try Chrome. I hardly ever use IE since installing Chrome.
I find this hub interesting, all browsers have issues of their own. Its best you have a number of them installed in case you run into issues. The way I see it now, the best browser around is Chrome (now there is Chromium a cross platform open source project). Its light and arguably has great speed. Mozilla is good when you use addons on it. Opera is quite cool and they always try to keep with standards in the industry e.g now is the only browser than runs well with html5. IE has issues with css and javascript and is always behind on standards.
No doubt that you are. But you are in good company :-)
I prefer google chrome
I changed to Lennox and Fire Fox a long time ago but it is only good for internet use. I keep a completely separate computer for my day to day use safe from the internet. I wish they would come up with a IP address system that will allow you to know if you our still talking to a net work in America. It would also be great if the operating systems were set in stone and protected from access on the internet.
If you want to block foreign ip addresses,that is easy enough. They do make operating systems like that - you boot from a protected image every time.
Interesting. I have IE and Firefox on my pc, personally only use firefox. Installed Chrome on my laptop as soon as I bought it, at the recommendation of others. -Actually it had to do with Chrome being more secure with my use of a free antivirus program, not a memory hog, Flash built into the browser seems to have fewer problems that way, frequent updates, has both a stable and "beta" track to subscribe to... So far so good. Of course IE came preloaded but never used it other than to google and download Chrome.
I've recently become interested in blogging and have found that I can learn info on any website by left clicking on a page and selecting 'view page info', just general info like content type and generator -I find it interesting to learn which sites are built with Wordpress for example. This only works in Firefox though, when I try it in Chrome I get nothing other than maybe it telling me if I've visited the site before. I'm sure there are even more reasons to have multiple browsers as each one has it's own quirky little differences.
Do you have an old Chrome? I have "View-Developer-View Source" and option-Control-U and you can also just replace http:// with "view-source:" ahead of the address.
An old Chrome? don't think so, I just downloaded it 2 months ago, assuming it's the latest version. I just have view page source, view page info. And Inspect element, which looks like a view source. Don't have View developer, where do you find that and what does it do?
I just installed it on a VM Windows XP. View Source is under Tools and Ctrl-U also works.
View-Developer-Source is Mac.
But maybe you want Developer Tools which is Ctrl-Shift-I
Pcunix, I've just posted a link to this article on my Facebook page, since I think it's good advice for everyone, and my brother just had a problem with Internet Explorer, which he solved by downloading the current version. He now has Google Chrome as well, but I think you're right about the benefits of having more browsers installed. I voted this hub useful and up.
Lucky that he COULD download the current version. If your browser really breaks, you can be out of luck (well, never entirely, but it can get much more difficult without another browser to use0.
I was very interested in your troubleshooting tips here.
But I would like you to explain why one would want to use Chrome or Opera, when Firefox and IE (which I had used previously)are working well, in their own individual ways.
I did install Chrome (which I had never tried before) as well as the other 2, when I got my new computer last month, but I couldn't see the benefit of it, and was worried it would take up too much memory, so I uninstalled it after a few days. What are its best points that you recommend?
Never tried Opera - what are its best points?
Did you read the section that begins at "Why do you want to do this?" ?
A browser that is not running consumes no memory. Even a browser that is running but not being used will shortly have most of its ram usage paged out and returned to the pool.
Opera is the only browser that really cares about standards compliance and is therefore useful in testing web pages - you can get an idea about what might break on your pages when the idiots at Microsoft fix their broken code, for example. Other than that, see its web page.
Of course I read the section "Why do you want to do this"? And I double-checked to see if I had missed anything.
What I was asking was not limited to the helpfulness of having alternative browsers in case the others broke down - I was actually enquiring what the best points about Chrome and Opera are. I assume that being fast is not the only Unique Selling Point of Chrome.
Re Opera: You haven't explained what "standards compliance" actually is or means. I am hoping to increase my limited understanding by receiving the benefit of your superior knowledge....for instance I was not aware that having extra browsers does not necessarily mean using extra memory, so thanks, that has encouraged me to experiment!
HTML code has written standards as to how it should be written and how it should be interpreted. Most browsers violate those standards in various ways. See http://www.w3.org/ for more.
I like Chrome because it doesn't crash on me like Firefox does and has better extensions than Safari in addition to being faster.
Thanks for the information. I have installed Chrome, and at first couldn't see how it works, but then discovered the spanner icon, and everything is now falling into place. I can see that the extensions look good, and I will start work on them soon. I have also taken a look at www.w3.org and it looks really good - I can learn a lot from it, although most of it is rather advanced!
Sophia Angelique 5 months ago
Of course! :)