Which is the best browser?

The reason for this post was due to another security breach within IE that was labelled as "extrememly critical", allowing a malicious website owner to gain access to your machine and place and execute arbitrary programs. The flaw is exploited through the HTML help file system within IE.

With IE6 many years old now and no news of a replacement anytime soon, users are advised to swap to another browser. Now, security regarding Internet Explorer is an old issue and Windows XP service pack 2 goes some way to making things a lot harder for flaws to be exploited, most notably by disabling active scripting but it still isn't completely solid. Nothing is though, as many die hard Firefox/Opera/Safari users will grudgingly admit.

So what sort of user are you? Take a look at some of the options and why they may be best suited to your needs (based on Windows users and in order).

Browsers for the casual user

• Maxthon - Based on the Internet Explorer engine, Maxthon gives superior popup control, single window mode, tabbed browsing, styling options, privacy protection, mouse gestures, ad-block and much, much more.
• Mozilla Firefox - Uses the highly acclaimed Gecko engine, Firefox offers popup blocking, tabbed browsing, privacy tools, smart search, live bookmarks, fully customisable, safe from scripts and much, much more.
• Opera - popup blocking, tabbed browsing, privacy controls, mouse gestures, smart search, increased security, customisable and much, much more.
• Anything else you can find.

I use many browsers on my machine as a developer and have a long established relationship with the majority on the market so can recommend Maxthon to a casual internet surfer. However, if you are serious about customisation, security and website development, W3 web standards and CSS compliance then look at the list below.

Browsers for the techs

• Mozilla Firefox - From a developers point of view you have a huge array of extensions to plugin Firefox making it one of the very best browsers around. You get CSS2 compliance and a very forgiving HTML renderer. With a bit of tweaking it can draw the screen faster than IE even if the application takes slightly longer to load. Highly recommended and a must for any cross browser developer.
• Opera - A powerful and fully featured browser that may not have the flexibility of Firefox but is CSS2 compliant and is another must for all develoeprs.
• Maxthon - Every web developer needs IE on their machine, so why run IE when there are many alternatives such as Maxthon and SlimBrowser. Of all the shells out there, Maxthon is the preferred choice for it's robust popup controls, adblocking and highly skinnable interface.

I myself am a Firefox user. I often require the "open in Internet Explorer" plugin as using IE is a requirement for about 2/3 of the internet. One day, this will change and we know this because IE is slowly losing it's grip on the market and the internet is changing with a new breed of developers, more importantly, the law has had to step in to force accessibility even though the W3 published the guidelines in 1999.

You can see the stats for yourself at W3Schools but they may be swayed slightly by the technical nature of the audience.