Browser Tactics

I use three different browsers on my various PCs. It works for my needs though it may seem odd. I do it for the following reasons:

1. Privacy
   
2. Security
3. Flexibility
4. Necessity

My main browser is Firefox (mix of 3 and 2). I use it as my workhorse for business, investing, and personal usage. I like it for the reasons that many others like it, so no point in going into further detail. With regard to the above points, it meets most of my needs for the first three.

In FF my ability to manage cookies is good, especially with suitable plug-ins (CS Lite), so that I can control which sites are allowed to use cookies. I block the most annoying of rich-media ads with another superb plug-in, Adblocker, while allowing those that are more benign. Adblocker is also good for blocking those pernicious Javascript loads from ad servers and bandwidth intense (and unwanted) video thumbnails. It also has protected me from malware on compromised but otherwise trusted sites.

Both FF2 and FF3 render a bit slowly on my ancient 2004-era PC, but still acceptable. No problem on the newer machines.

I use Opera 9.5 when I am visiting unknown or potentially untrustworthy sites. For security I keep Java and Javascript disabled, but will enable them on the occasions when it is absolutely necessary. All cookies, cache, and other persistent data are purged at exit. Having a browser set up specifically for privacy and security makes daily life on the internet just a little bit easier; I never need to manipulate FF and play with additional plug-ins to achieve the same result.

The only reason I keep Opera in this secondary role is that I am familiar with FF and I like having access to that great library of plug-ins. I don't do this because I have anything against Opera! It seems to work very well.

Then there's Internet Explorer. I use it almost exclusively for interacting with Microsoft's various properties, focused mostly on software, documentation and the like. At times it seems they make their sites very difficult or impossible to use from other browsers.

While I like IE for its rendering speed and what I perceive as its cleaner integration with the OS, I dislike too much about it for serious use. In comparison to FF and Opera I find it cumbersome, or at least non-intuitively opaque, to manage privacy and security. Therefore I use it for necessity only.

Three browsers, three distinct applications, to make my internet activities run smoothly.