All Things Technology Related Thread

[FRPLG]

What browsers do you all run standard?

[RedskinRat]

FF28

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

What browsers do you all run standard?

I've been using Chrome for about 4 or 5 years but over the last week I've considered switching back to Firefox. I've noticed more and more lag when switching back and forth between what I now understand Chrome considers 'inactive' tabs and its starting to drive me nuts. Antivirus turns up nothing. Incognito mode to disable my few extensions doesn't change it.

Theres a little bit of it on Firefox but not nearly as much. Heck I have a lot more extensions on Firefox and yet its starting to seem like I'm getting much better performance on Firefox. I guess I'll have to test it on my desktop to see if its just my laptop but it really is getting annoying. I suppose I could delete System32 to speed it up but I think I'll hold off on that for a while.

Ironically the hardest part in using Firefox more lately is I'm so use to clicking on my Chrome shortcut that when I switch back and forth between browsing the web and other tasks I find myself clicking Chrome when I already have the pages I want open on Firefox.

[That Guy]

i switched to chrome cause firefox got really bloated and slow as they kept throwing more crap in there.

if you need any help with linux, let me know.

[DynamiteRave]

I run chrome. I used to be a Firefox user but all of a sudden it started acting like internet explorer so I quit that bitch.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.

I think for the most part Windows has gotten better about spyware and malware over the years. Certainly nothing like the old days where going even slightly off the beaten path was enough to give you a laptop from the exorcist (YouTube reference video). Save for a couple of cookies that Norton doesn't like my computer usually comes back squeaky clean.

The only major thing I've encountered over the last year is a less then flattering spyware that locks your browser and reroutes you to a website that claims to be the FBI and tells you you've basically been found guilty of piracy and you need to go to your local drug store to purchase a moneypak in order to unlock your computer and avoid further consequences. When its really just Russian hackers making a quick buck.

I encountered this when I was totally not on an adult site but rather on a lonely Sunday night when I was looking for ways to donate money to less fortunate families in third world countries. I like to think using adblock for most sites as well as Disconnect has protected from a lot of threats I would have encountered otherwise in part because I didn't come across the FBI scam until I used a browser where I turned adblock off. However that's probably just wishful thinking.

Originally Posted by That Guy

i switched to chrome cause firefox got really bloated and slow as they kept throwing more crap in there.

if you need any help with linux, let me know.

Much appreciated. For the most part I've found it to be simple but its weird because since the base code was made while Windows was in its infancy seemingly basic things such as the structure of the File system requires a bit of relearning.

There was a time where I had a dual boot Windows/Linux Mint on my SSD and wanted to save a couple of bigger files on Steam Linux to my designated hard drives. Though the actual process of mounting the drives and creating directories was easy, the process of learning what mounting was and the Linux file structure in general initially created some frustration.

Originally Posted by DynamiteRave

I run chrome. I used to be a Firefox user but all of a sudden it started acting like internet explorer so I quit that bitch.

Great so with me going back to Firefox and you going back to Chrome both browsers will have the exact same number of users and no incentive to change

To be fair though I tested out (ie paid more attention) to Chrome on my desktop and the lag issue when switching tabs was non-existent. Granted its safe to say that my desktop is a lot more powerful then my laptop but those differences are mostly in terms of gaming capabilities. CPU wise they shouldn't be too much different in browsing capabilities (i5-3570k at 3.4ghz on my desktop vs i73610qm at 2.4ghz on my laptop both with 8 GB of ram). Not to mention the lag issue with Chrome on my laptop seems fairly new.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by TheMalcolmConnection

I have all 3. IE, Firefox and Chrome. I don't use Chrome as often because every time I repair a computer based on spyware, it's a Chrome user. Firefox is my main browser and I only use IE if the other two don't give the expected results.

Just recently I've started a new thing on all my computers where my main account is just a standard user and I have an admin account for installs only. I haven't gotten any spyware in years, but it's been an epidemic where I work.

Basically we're proactively taking away all users administrative rights on their computers. Just the few dozen we've done, virus/spyware infections dropped significantly.

Not exactly revolutionary considering my places already do this, but our University runs on the "honor code" so everyone previously all had admin rights.

Management in a municipal IT dept up 81 from you. We convinced our director and city management to remove admin rights for all users. Has virtually eliminated spyware and virus issues. I'd recommend going to the mat on the issue. "Honor code" ain't got nothing to do with it. The internet is full of crap..even in reputable places. Whether people intend to cause issues or not doesn't matter.

[FRPLG]

I use chrome for everything I can. Have to use IE for development purposes for some software we maintain and support but at this point I like it about as much anyways. Firefox can screw off. It use to be brilliant...then...well it has gotten terrible. Slow and bloated is no way for a browser to go through life.

[CRedskinsRule]

Well, just because I can express my frustration with my own idiocy here and have minimal fallout. I just spent several hours in the process of transferring a mySql database over to a different host. Everything seemed fine, but when I ran a dbconn.php to the new one, it kept failing. Over and over and over . There are only 4 components I checked them all. Then I walked away, came back and realized that while the password ended with a capital letter, i had a lower case letter in the dbconn snippet. How many times I looked at it, changed the host, the user, the database, in every combination i could think of!

ugh!@#$@#

[That Guy]

the thing is, firefox broke away from mozilla because mozilla was getting bloated. then they went and did the same thing.

as far as linux, it comes from minix, based on unix, so that file structure is from the 60s, hence the weird mount commands and such.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by That Guy

the thing is, firefox broke away from mozilla because mozilla was getting bloated. then they went and did the same thing.

as far as linux, it comes from minix, based on unix, so that file structure is from the 60s, hence the weird mount commands and such.

Wait aren't they still the same. It's been a weird week for Firefox with the OkCupid gay marriage boycott.

[That Guy]

History of the Mozilla Project — Mozilla

it was a fork that took over (in popularity) by stripping out excess features (namely the integrated mail client) to load web pages as fast as possible. still under the umbrella of the mozilla corporation, i don't really know much about the corporate history *shrugs*.

they also got a lot of press about being immune to scripting/hacks... but after getting popular (and having enough user to merit specific attacks), that proved to be untrue and they've slowly bloated the thing up too. chrome has faster load times for me, and unlike firefox, doesn't sit open in memory after i close it (firefox does that so subsequent browser openings happen faster, or at least, it used to).

[skinsguy]

I still miss Netscape.

[BDBohnzie]

I miss Netscape as well. Navigator Gold with Composer, which was my first HTML editor.

I switched to Chrome (with Adblock and Flashblock on PCs) many moons ago when I got sick of Firefox having to be reloaded constantly to release the resources it sucked up, and never looked back. I keep it synced across several laptops, phone, tablets, which makes it so easy to pick up where I left off. I do touch all browers when doing web development, so I usually have each one with a fairly standard load.

I switched from using a Windows machine every day to a Macbook Air a little over a year ago. For Windows tasks, I have VMWare Fusion loaded on my Air with a Windows 7 VM when I need it. I'm still getting used to the Unix commands in Terminal, but find doing day to day items on a Mac quite appealing. I do have 2 older desktops at home with XP loaded on them (RIP), from which I will reload with some flavor of Linux eventually.