is firefox the best internet browser or are there any better ones

depends.

when i want to download a file, i use Opera.
when browsing, i use firefox.

thanks for the opera heads up, ill check it out in the morning

It has a myriad of flaws. Given that, I still use it. However on my Mac machines I use Safari, its integrated much nicer and is also nicer on memory usage.

-AntonK

I like firefox. whatever you do, dump IE ASAP.

thanks for the opera heads up, ill check it out in the morning
the crappiest thing about opera is the absolutely shitty interface.

without customization, it is EXTREMELY unattractive and not very user friendly.

hence, i use it only for file downloads. it is a bit more reliable than firefox in that arena.

For web browsing I mainly use Konqueror (http://www.konqueror.org/), it has gotten a lot better in recent versions.

For file downloads I use wget (http://www.gnu.org/software/wget/), it's a terminal app made for that purpose.

$ wget --help
GNU Wget 1.10.2 (Red Hat modified), a non-interactive network retriever.
Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL]...

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

Startup:
-V, --version display the version of Wget and exit.
-h, --help print this help.
-b, --background go to background after startup.
-e, --execute=COMMAND execute a `.wgetrc'-style command.

Logging and input file:
-o, --output-file=FILE log messages to FILE.
-a, --append-output=FILE append messages to FILE.
-d, --debug print lots of debugging information.
-q, --quiet quiet (no output).
-v, --verbose be verbose (this is the default).
-nv, --no-verbose turn off verboseness, without being quiet.
-i, --input-file=FILE download URLs found in FILE.
-F, --force-html treat input file as HTML.
-B, --base=URL prepends URL to relative links in -F -i file.

Download:
-t, --tries=NUMBER set number of retries to NUMBER (0 unlimits).
--retry-connrefused retry even if connection is refused.
-O, --output-document=FILE write documents to FILE.
-nc, --no-clobber skip downloads that would download to
existing files.
-c, --continue resume getting a partially-downloaded file.
--progress=TYPE select progress gauge type.
-N, --timestamping don't re-retrieve files unless newer than
local.
-S, --server-response print server response.
--spider don't download anything.
-T, --timeout=SECONDS set all timeout values to SECONDS.
--dns-timeout=SECS set the DNS lookup timeout to SECS.
--connect-timeout=SECS set the connect timeout to SECS.
--read-timeout=SECS set the read timeout to SECS.
-w, --wait=SECONDS wait SECONDS between retrievals.
--waitretry=SECONDS wait 1..SECONDS between retries of a retrieval.
--random-wait wait from 0...2*WAIT secs between retrievals.
-Y, --proxy explicitly turn on proxy.
--no-proxy explicitly turn off proxy.
-Q, --quota=NUMBER set retrieval quota to NUMBER.
--bind-address=ADDRESS bind to ADDRESS (hostname or IP) on local host.
--limit-rate=RATE limit download rate to RATE.
--no-dns-cache disable caching DNS lookups.
--restrict-file-names=OS restrict chars in file names to ones OS allows.
-4, --inet4-only connect only to IPv4 addresses.
-6, --inet6-only connect only to IPv6 addresses.
--prefer-family=FAMILY connect first to addresses of specified family,
one of IPv6, IPv4, or none.
--user=USER set both ftp and http user to USER.
--password=PASS set both ftp and http password to PASS.

Directories:
-nd, --no-directories don't create directories.
-x, --force-directories force creation of directories.
-nH, --no-host-directories don't create host directories.
--protocol-directories use protocol name in directories.
-P, --directory-prefix=PREFIX save files to PREFIX/...
--cut-dirs=NUMBER ignore NUMBER remote directory components.

HTTP options:
--http-user=USER set http user to USER.
--http-password=PASS set http password to PASS.
--no-cache disallow server-cached data.
-E, --html-extension save HTML documents with `.html' extension.
--ignore-length ignore `Content-Length' header field.
--header=STRING insert STRING among the headers.
--proxy-user=USER set USER as proxy username.
--proxy-password=PASS set PASS as proxy password.
--referer=URL include `Referer: URL' header in HTTP request.
--save-headers save the HTTP headers to file.
-U, --user-agent=AGENT identify as AGENT instead of Wget/VERSION.
--no-http-keep-alive disable HTTP keep-alive (persistent connections).
--no-cookies don't use cookies.
--load-cookies FILE load cookies from FILE before session.
--save-cookies FILE save cookies to FILE after session.
--keep-session-cookies load and save session (non-permanent) cookies.
--post-data=STRING use the POST method; send STRING as the data.
--post-file=FILE use the POST method; send contents of FILE.

HTTPS (SSL/TLS) options:
--secure-protocol=PR choose secure protocol, one of auto, SSLv2,
SSLv3, and TLSv1.
--no-check-certificate don't validate the server's certificate.
--certificate=FILE client certificate file.
--certificate-type=TYPE client certificate type, PEM or DER.
--private-key=FILE private key file.
--private-key-type=TYPE private key type, PEM or DER.
--ca-certificate=FILE file with the bundle of CA's.
--ca-directory=DIR directory where hash list of CA's is stored.
--random-file=FILE file with random data for seeding the SSL PRNG.
--egd-file=FILE file naming the EGD socket with random data.

FTP options:
--ftp-user=USER set ftp user to USER.
--ftp-password=PASS set ftp password to PASS.
--no-remove-listing don't remove `.listing' files.
--no-glob turn off FTP file name globbing.
--no-passive-ftp disable the "passive" transfer mode.
--retr-symlinks when recursing, get linked-to files (not dir).
--preserve-permissions preserve remote file permissions.

Recursive download:
-r, --recursive specify recursive download.
-l, --level=NUMBER maximum recursion depth (inf or 0 for infinite).
--delete-after delete files locally after downloading them.
-k, --convert-links make links in downloaded HTML point to local files.
-K, --backup-converted before converting file X, back up as X.orig.
-m, --mirror shortcut for -N -r -l inf --no-remove-listing.
-p, --page-requisites get all images, etc. needed to display HTML page.
--strict-comments turn on strict (SGML) handling of HTML comments.

Recursive accept/reject:
-A, --accept=LIST comma-separated list of accepted extensions.
-R, --reject=LIST comma-separated list of rejected extensions.
-D, --domains=LIST comma-separated list of accepted domains.
--exclude-domains=LIST comma-separated list of rejected domains.
--follow-ftp follow FTP links from HTML documents.
--follow-tags=LIST comma-separated list of followed HTML tags.
--ignore-tags=LIST comma-separated list of ignored HTML tags.
-H, --span-hosts go to foreign hosts when recursive.
-L, --relative follow relative links only.
-I, --include-directories=LIST list of allowed directories.
-X, --exclude-directories=LIST list of excluded directories.
-np, --no-parent don't ascend to the parent directory.

Mail bug reports and suggestions to <bug-wget@gnu.org>.

The memory usage gets annoying, but I think Firefox tends to load pages faster than IE does. It's also more minimalistic in look, with a few even more minimalistic skins available. In IE, you get a shitload of buttons at the top of the browser window that I'm sure most people rarely use, and it's just bulky and ugly.

I can't see how anything could be better than Opera, there all good though...even IE, don't know why it get's trashed so much.

IE is a security hazard, as was recently discussed on a another thread.

Isnt that really because so many people use it, and so people are more likely to try exploit it? If Firefox was more popular it could be just as vunerable.

firefox use is more widespread, i would wager.....except by the computer illiterate.

you have to go out of your way to make IE safe, firefox is already pretty safe. plus I bet most hackers hate IE more than firefox. moreover, why try and hack the computer literate? they will probably have other protections in place. if I were a hacker I would only go after IE users, as they probably have no idea how to stop/get rid of viruses.

A quick check of my websites stats for the past year reveals some information, however it's not completely accurate since after my website doesn't really contain anything of use so nobody really visit (unless by accident, or if they are after a Mentor MR4A/UK Manual that I have on there for a router I once had.)

The outcome was this:

Only 58.3% of the hits on my website over the past year have been human, Apparently I extremely well spidered even though I lack content.

From the hits that were actually browsers, the stats still might be slightly faulty as some robots can be manipulated to clone a browser, and usually it's Internet Explorer thats cloned.

Anyhow:

IE 40.48%
Mozilla 34.13%
Konqueror 17.32%
Netscape 7.20%
Java 0.86%

(Rounded to two decimal places so will be slight inaccurate)

The stats from about 5-6 years ago would of had Internet Explorer >= 80% which obviously proves that the market has slowly started to diversify a little.

Opera's the best so far

The memory usage gets annoying, but I think Firefox tends to load pages faster than IE does. Not really. If there's a difference, it's negligable.

In IE, you get a shitload of buttons at the top of the browser window that I'm sure most people rarely use, and it's just bulky and ugly. Not true at all. The toolbars are customizable. I only have the buttons I use.

the crappiest thing about opera is the absolutely shitty interface.

without customization, it is EXTREMELY unattractive and not very user friendly.

I would agree with that, I tried Opera for a while and experienced much the same thing. Glad I'm not the only one.

Firefox is definitely better that IE, especially for greeblies. IE seems to attract data miners and other such nuisances. Ad-Aware and SpyBot need to work overtime trying to flush them out.

Forget wget, curl all the way, BABY!

Not really. If there's a difference, it's negligable.

I don't know. I notice a page load difference.

And the memory hog thing does suck.

Not really. If there's a difference, it's negligable.
Yes really. I think I've even seen a graph somewhere. The speed is definitely noticeable.

EDIT: I probably should point out that this was probably a year ago. For all I know, things may have changed. I'm investigating right now, actually.

Isnt that really because so many people use it, and so people are more likely to try exploit it? If Firefox was more popular it could be just as vunerable.
More people will try to exploit it, perhaps. But I think I've heard something about Firefox's source code being in the public domain and open for anyone to modify (or something to that effect), sorta like the Linux kernel. If this is true, then that means bugs and vulnerabilities are always being fixed. I know this isn't the case with Internet Explorer. There's also the point that perplexity mentioned.

But I think I've heard something about Firefox's source code being in the public domain and open for anyone to modify (or something to that effect), sorta like the Linux kernel.

yeap firefox is open source....and i use it both on my windoze and linux boxes....rather than dumb IE....

I found this: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

The guy tested the speeds for a cold and a warm start, and I have experienced a very slow start speed for Firefox. Both Firefox and IE seem to be fairly evenly matched for rendering CSS and tables, with Firefox in the lead. Firefox 1.5 (my version) lags a bit behind all tested versions of IE when it comes to loading multiple images, but Firefox 1 and 2 are a bit faster than IE in that respect.

Maybe I'll use IE (v7, beta 2) for a bit and re-evaluate.

i like firfox because, as with AW i like the tabs rather than opening new windows

I use a Mac and firefox (ver 1.5.0.6) is considerably faster than either IE or Safari. Plus, I like the tabbed browsing.

I found this: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

The guy tested the speeds for a cold and a warm start, and I have experienced a very slow start speed for Firefox. Both Firefox and IE seem to be fairly evenly matched for rendering CSS and tables, with Firefox in the lead. Firefox 1.5 (my version) lags a bit behind all tested versions of IE when it comes to loading multiple images, but Firefox 1 and 2 are a bit faster than IE in that respect.

Maybe I'll use IE (v7, beta 2) for a bit and re-evaluate.
its the security of firefox that puts it LEAGUES above IE.