There is the 'flashblock' plugin for blocking all flash embeds until you click to see them.

I voted for Konqueror. Firefox simply doesn't fit on my KDE desktop. I miss the StumbleUpon extension though. GMail works in Konqueror fine (identifying as ffox 1.5), but there are sites that don't (e.g. wordpress.com). Too bad, as Konqueror seems to care more about standards than firefox.
While not in X I use either elinks or links2.

For browsing, I use Firefox normally (except when I have to use Internet Explorer, because they haven't seen sense at work, or because I have to check regularly that perfectly valid HTML will actually work on IE). However, I've voted for Konqueror.

Its perfectly usable as a browser, but I don't find it quite as nice as Firefox. Its flexibility is amazing, though, due to its dual file-manager/browser nature.

I (mainly) use it as an (s)ftp client. I have a view profile saved so that with one click I can open it opens my local web development folder in one pane of a split view. It presents me with a login box, and then opens the sftp site in the other. I can then upload and download files by dragging and dropping, rename files, create folders and so on. Simplicity itself.

Rob

Firefox

This is another case of eliminating the choices that are completely unacceptable. The only browser that doesn't get eliminated is Firefox. So it's not that I like Firefox, it's that I hate the other options.

Sadly, Firefox 2.0 sucks noodles on my BSD machines. Crashes are frequent (more than once a week is insufferable) and it has lots of UI problems (some dialogs show up as windows with no contents). So I switched to Opera, which although not open source , is faster and more stable than Firefox. Plus, it has more features than Firefox built in (like better content blocking and per-site preferences). I wish it were free (as in freedom) but in this case I'm willing to make an exception to my philosophy for the sake of excellent working software.

Opera works very well for me, Mepis 6.x and on mepis 3.4ish. Firefox ahs been crapping out on yahoo in particular (perhaps a yahoo mess up). The puppy distro with opera with opera is nice (But I'll usually go the seamonkey route with puppy and add opera later because I like the mozilla mail).

Granted, some flash player sites totally balk when it encounters Opera, namely pandora.com, and NJ.gov/lottery, though the lottery site functions, it's like playing freecell in windows - the gui response is slooooow (and it never shows my numbers). This may be because my system's video drivers are not up yet.

Since flash is closed source, I don't think it works better with firefox than Opera, (although there are chances for flash suport moz where it can't support opera), but since Tom Ridge said "get Firefox (and duct tape)" (a truely sophmoric proclaimation) web sites are more apt to support firefox. I've seen web pagesrender perfectly and then dissappear, instantly "Browser Not Supported".

Client response : "web site not supported!".


~S~

~ And which firefox passed the acid test?

Konqueror for me, since:

- very fast and lightweight
- integrated with KDE
sometimes I also need firefox for some websites, but Konqueror is getting better and better in every release (Heard that for Konqueror 4 will offer both KHTML and Safari as the engine). Firefox is a superior browser IMHO, but in Linux it is sometimes just too resource hungry. Opera is also nice and very fast but I just don't like its UI. Epiphany has very nice and simple UI but its fix size tab is really annoying since I usually open more than 5 tabs. Galeon? I've only tried ancient Galeon (1 or 2 years ago).

Only my 2 cents about one of the most used applications

Firefox all the way..... and lynx if I don't have X running..

Mozilla has really pissed me off as of late - getting too big for their own britches and forgetting their roots. I guess the marketroids and legal have taken over. Galeon was a nice browser, but lost critical mass. Epiphany is castrated by HIG. Konq has come a long way this year so gets my vote. Opera would also be high on the list.

Firefox just works. I also use Opera 9, Galeon, and flock on occasion, but Firefox rocks.

What can I say? I like Konqueror. It loads faster than Firefox, it's a bit faster, and it can use Mozilla plugins. What puts it over the top? Through some form of techno-voodoo, Konqueror bypasses the bug in Flash that disables sound for non-root accounts. No work-around needed. Just point Konqueror at your Mozilla plugin directory, and scan. It works with Netscape plugins, Mozilla, and of course Firefox. So if your sick of having to login as root or run Firefox with root privilages just to get sound from Flash movies and etc. within Mozilla based browsers, just switch to Konqueror. I wouldn't use Opera for anything, Netscape blows, Seamonkey is slooow, and Firefox, while a rock-solid browser with plenty to offer, is just a bit too heavy for me. Maybe if Adobe fixes their Flash bug. I do use Firefox once in awhile. Firefox is a great browser, but for I how use the web, Konqueror, well, konquers it.

Today I tried logging in to Gmail with Konqueror. It got in ok and I loaded the "all mail" folder. The links I see with Swiftfox, enabling me to select "all, read or unread" for action, weren't there. What's that about?

Firefox the most used and most useable browser there is

Gmail is famous for not working by default in konqueror (that's gmail's fault, not konqueror's!). You need to "trick" gmail to think it's running on Firefox, and it will work. Select Tools > Change Browser Identification > Other > Firefox 1.5 from the menu, and re-activate "Standard view" in gmail. After this, the only thing that doesn't work for me is the chat (but I use kopete for that).

Good luck konquering the web

I voted for Opera - it's great, IMO.

It is very stable, it crashesh quite rarely compared to firefox.
It has *some* problems with page layouts on some sites but I encounter such sites very, very rarely.

It has some of those little functions that I just fell in love with - like the trashbin of closed tabs - to recover incidentally closed tabs.

Opera also has a built-in download manager with torrent support - I don't use it (for torrents) but it's handy if you need to download something fast and don't have an external torrent client. I use the download manager for downloading files from servers.

It also has a built-in IRC client, news-reader/mail-client.
There are also many of the so called widgets (add-ons).

There are many other things I like about Opera - but as a whole, this browser just feels right to me.

I like firefox, though

I voted for Opera, which I used with SUSE 10.1, though I am currently using Firefox as Dapper seems not to include it and I can't be bothered installing it out of distro. Although I was impressed, and for most purposes it is better than Firefox 1.5.x, Opera did have some problems, such as: the way some sites constantly refreshed, it did not like my internet banking site, and I never found a way of making it start a new tab for emailed links.
Opera has set its sights on being the best, and I suspect it will soon succeed.