Is it time for me to switch Web browsers? Recommendations?

Firefox, as bad as it has become, seems to still be the most versatile and utilitarian on the market with all of its choices of extensions and search options. This is why I still put up with it. I don't have problems with it crashing, but, I do have problems with the latest versions breaking my most favorite extensions. Almost a year ago I built a 64-bit computer and installed Windows 7 64-bit on it. While Firefox works ok on it, the main problem I have is that Flash refuses full functionality and in these instances I have to open IE 11 and paste the offending URL there to view Flash content. So, I do know that Firefox can be a PITA. But, like I said, I much prefer the versatility and utilitarianism that it has so I stick with it and put up with it. If I could find a browser that has all of that, then I would try it out, but I haven't yet found one that is not based on Firefox to begin with.

I've been using cyberfox as a 64 bit browser with no problems at all. Also Flash now comes in 64 bit. Also waterfox as well. Both are fast and I've had no problems with either crashing, slow, etc.

I became disenchanted with FireFox and Waterfox after their latest update and happened accidentally on CyberFox. It has been perfect other than having to reestablish my passwords such as CNET or a local online newspaper I read as an example. It has met and/or exceeded my expectations. I was able to migrate my bookmarks over flawlessly. It does everything that FireFox should be doing without errors.
This is their website https://8pecxstudios.com
The best part of CyberFox is I was able to wean my wife (in her upper 70's) away from IE, something I have trying to do for a couple of years with no success.

I quit FF after they lynched their CEO. Pale Moon has a Mozilla core but has all the naughty bits yanked out that slow the browser down. PM uses all the add-ons you love, and with one of the AdBlocks (you choose which one suits you best) installed, I have no issues browsing.

I've been using Pale Moon (64-bit version) for a while now, and have *none* of the issues noted by other commenters. (BTW, I'm an Avast! [free] user.) I also have Comodo's IceDragon as a back-up browser, equally trouble-free.

Try "Opera"! It's more-or-less (now) based on Chrome, so you can use most, if not all, of Chrome's extensions and most importantly, it is STABLE!

I keep Firefox, Chrome and Pale Moon on my computer "just in case", but I've been using Opera for about 16 years now and never had a problem with it. Flash works just fine, too!

Karl K.
McKinney, TX

I, too, have recently become a fan of Opera, especially in my Note 3. I like the way it does tabs by combining them with history. Very efficient.

Using Opera for eight months and enjoying it's simplicity to use.

Bert D.

I too have been using Opera for more than ten years now. However, the latest version, Opera-27, does not have many features (e.g. newsfeeds) which I have been using regularly with the older versions. I think I will eventually have to abandon Opera.

I'm also using Opera, works fine for me.

My experience has been very like the experience of btljooz. Flash Player just doesn't work right, Sometimes,, when I say "yes, I'm willing to risk using the updated version, I get the responses I expect, but certainly not at 'flash' speed."mAnd I haven't found improvement in that the few times I've tried it with IE. Can anything be done to get a flash player that really works well and is reasonably safe? I, too am running Win7-64bit.

Love to hear from anyone about fixing Flash problems.

Christian - there is no fix for the Flash problems. I've been to every message board, every YT solution, and whatever you do it doesn't work.

Firefox is crap to me.
It runs slow.
It crashes.
I could go on more, but I stopped using it. I use Chrome and Opera.

Being using Netscape that became Firefox from 1995 until 2014. 2013-14 starting to see too many issues, but mostly crashes that I started using other browsers other than IE.

Will only touch IE when I am force to for testing.

I currently use Opera of all things and happy with it.

I do from time to time try Firefox, but still get the same issues today. Until the issues are fix, use it for testing only.

Have try Chrome, but not cutting it for me.

I use both 32 & 64 systems and Win 7-10 at this time.

Chrome has a plug-in problem that always interrupts my using it. Specifically Flash and Shockwave.

Safari have had numerous isues on PCs, like the infamous "Carpet bombing attack" where you sudently find your desktop saturated with icons for malicious executables...
Not sure that they are all sorted out.

Until the last few months, Firefox has been behaving, now it crashes every three to four hours. I think it is time to move on to a different browser. I see the crash coming by monitoring the amount of memory Firefox.exe is using, on start up it will be less than 0.5 GB but as I surf and open different web pages, it will continue to bloat to about 3 GB and then the browser begins to slow and hang. I have to go into Windows Task Manager and end the application, it will restart and allow me to easily recover all the open Tabs, again starting below 0.5 GB. There also seems to be some conflict with current versions of Adobe Flash that maybe triggering the hanging of Firefox, I have refreshed more than once with no improvement.

Since this is a very long thread be sure to explore "Disable Flash Hardware Acceleration."

As you have pointed out, Firefox requires a good deal of maintenance. I am an IT guy and I just want my computer to work when I am using it at home. With Firefox I have to keep fixing things, the most common of which is that CPU usage climbs high and most available memory is gobbled up by Firefox.

Since I have switched to Chrome I have had very few problems. Yes, it has crashed on occasion but nothing like Firefox. I have 17 tabs open right now and sometimes I have a 2nd instance of Chrome running with another dozen or so tabs open. The computer is usually happy with this arrangement.

Andyglo described the problem I'm having perfectly. (I'm running Windows 7 Professional.) The Firefox forums say the problem is Adobe Flash, but removing and reinstalling Flash didn't help, nor did going back to an earlier version of Firefox or refreshing Firefox, which I also tried. I will stop using the Internet before I use Chrome, so it looks like Opera is the next option. I'm just intrigued by the number of varied responses and experiences with Firefox--clearly the problem is real if about half of us experience it and it has nothing to do with number or frequency of Firefox updates. Appreciate all the advice though.

Uninstall flash and don't reinstall it, use flashblock, alternatively, use NoScript to block it. Very few web pages need it, unless you go to a site where it's required to see content. NoScript also blocks just about all cross-site scripting and total junk like ads on pages, so you get to the content quickly, and if not you can unblock just the items you need to load. Speeds loading of many heavy web-pages by 10X and prevents bloat in the browser memory as well.

if anyone is having flash issues and using flashblocker, disable it. In a lot of cases it should help. check the reviews for it in the addon library at mozilla and you will see there are issues with it right now.

This refresh procedure does not solve the problem that Charlie and I have experienced.

Go to Adobe and get their flash removal tool. I was having similar problems with crashes and extremely slow page loading. Uninstalled flash completely and put the latest version on and all good now.

I also refreshed FF and it worked for a while and then it started it's old ways -- slow, sluggish, crashing.