I remember the first web browser I ever used - lynx. It was up there with all of the other great protocols of the Internet at the time: archie, ftp, veronica, etc. Linux was relatively new and I'd always see websites with pictures in the magazines. I didn't have a good computer during that time. If I wanted to compile the latest Linux kernel, I would start it before going to bed and hope that it didn't error out before it finished, a short time before I woke up in the morning.
Eventually I got Netscape. Internet Explorer wasn't out yet (as far as I can recall) and Mosaic was not as advanced as Netscape. I built my first website in 1995 and was excited when I wrote my first Java Applets in 1996 when Java first appeared. Using Perl scripts and the CGI interface was my preferred method in those days. But Netscape handled those very well. I didn't run to IE when it was available. I just would buy (yes) the latest Netscape version. Eventually IE won the browser wars and free web browsers were here to stay. Eventually Netscape started to suffer from the financial model they built the company around. Then the open-source Mozilla project came along, opening the flood gates of innovative competition.
When Firefox came out (2004?) I thought that it would get no better. As more and more power was built into affordable PCs and cable competed with DSL to provide the highest speeds, more demand for better browsers ensued and today there are great choices. Microsoft's unfair product placement put IE to the top of the browsers but now they cannot keep up with their competitors. Microsoft puts out upgrades as slowly as their operating systems but the competitors constantly try to add new features that Microsoft then picks up with their next release. This competition makes it hard to choose which is best.
I used Mozilla Firefox religiously until recently. On occasion I thought the browser ran slow and fat on my computers. I would get the next version hoping that it would take up less RAM and run faster. On occasion I would try other browsers. I played with Google Chrome when it first came out. The I played Safari and Opera. None of them made me switch. That is until two months ago.
I decided to go through and try the others again. This time I found a successor. The winner for me is Google Chrome. I don't see speed issues. That is what I noticed about Safari. But Chrome has great extensions and Google's own extensions for my preferred GMail, Google Reader and Google Voice complement Chrome very well. Like Firefox, the HTML5 video stuff isn't there yet and I have to put up with my Mac's shortcomings with Windows Media, but right now Chrome is my choice.
This is of course, until the next competitor does something better.
