New computer.

Windows with Edge installed.

Pros and cons of each?

I want to be able to use the backspace button to return to last page.

Have all my passwords on my phone (using Chrome) and assume if I use Chrome then I don’t have to log in everywhere….

Correct re Chrome but I’m pretty sure they can all export to each other.

Chrome and Edge are based on the same internals, just Edge has a layer of Microsoftyness on the top. Personally I dislike this so I stayed with Chrome. It works, as they all do, so just stay with what you know and what you’re invested in.

Brave?

No reason you can’t try them all, I have all three. I use Chrome by default, Edge when my aggressive security settings stop something from working, and Firefox in the increasingly unlikely case that something just renders weird (usually legacy sites). I have Brave also, I was looking at migrating to it because Chrome is a memory hog, but then I installed more RAM and kinda forgot about it.

As Mols says, Chrome and Edge (and pretty much everything else apart from Firefox, Safari and all iPhone browsers) are the same engine (“Blink”) so are broadly interchangeable.

Assuming both your Chrome browsers are logged into a Google account then they should sync all your stuff (and remain synced). The others will offer an import but you’ll likely have to set up Chrome locally first to give them something to import from.

I want to be able to use the backspace button to return to last page.

Alt-⬅ is the keystroke now (and alt-➡ to go forwards again). Backspace was disabled years ago. There might be a chrome://flags hack for it or something now, I don’t know.

duck duck go

duck duck go

… is not a web browser.

they have one now – looks like only for mobiles so not much use for a computer. I know because thats what I run on my phone

Ah, I was not aware of that. I try avoid mobile browsing wherever possible.

I have been a Brave user for years. Can’t really fault it. All the best bits of Chrome, with far more control over what you choose to see.

I want to be able to use the backspace button to return to last page.

The “Go Back With Backspace” Chrome extension just works.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/go-back-with-backspace/eekailopagacbcdloonjhbiecobagjci

Firefox for me

Not sure about backspace though – I use mouse gestures (hold R mouse button & sweep left – or “any” other gesture you want to set up)

Brave +1

Brave +1

Also Firefox here, been using it since Firebird and Mozilla Suite before that. Might even have briefly used Navigator before that too.

Edge used to be crap for compatibility but I actually really like it now, I’d have that over Chrome just for the integration.

Chrome for me, was a revelation when everything synced up and passwords were just there. Use Edge at work and it’s OK but recently it just randomly crashes. That might be more to do with work IT. We’re migrating from office based servers to the Azure cloud and they seem to broken everything from virtual desktops, speed of applications and reports to core functionality in our very complex, bespoke business software.

I try avoid mobile browsing wherever possible.

+1

Always seems very painful!

I use Firefox on my PC and Safari on my MBP.

Also Firefox here, been using it since Firebird and Mozilla Suite before that. Might even have briefly used Navigator before that too.

Heh, aye. Firefox is, in essence, Netscape Navigator. It’s quite astonishing really.

If you habitually have loads of tabs open and are using a second screen: Edge. It includes vertical tabs as standard, which is a godsend. Otherwise I generally use Firefox for most casual browsing, Chrome for anything Google based (gmail, maps etc), and Edge for the rest. (“The rest” here is working, which for me is a lot of corporate web pages, and a browser-based development environment).

Firefox. As above I’ve always used it. I’ve got Edge on the machine too and if something doen’t seem to work properly with Firefox try it, it has never made any difference. Others might be as good or better, but better the devil you know… .

Firefox as a daily drive.

Chrome for the odd website that doesn’t work quite properly, for example I bought a new bed frame from Argos and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t let me select a delivery day. Switched to Chrome and it let me proceed.

Some website development just assume you are using a chromium based browser, and don’t bother to optimise their site properly for other browsers.

Opera on mobile, as it seems it’s one of the very few mobile browsers that still do text reflow, which is a core function for a mobile browser if you ask me.

I use Iron instead of Chrome. Can’t remember why anymore.

@mogrim didn’t know that was a thing, available as an extension for FF, will try!

I try avoid mobile browsing wherever possible.

Out of curiosity, why? I have no option, since my computer died, but even before that, I had gone over to mobile browsing – it was just more convenient; my computer was using my TV as it’s monitor, as I had no other option.

I use Safari, Brave, Firefox and DuckDuckGo browsers with DuckDuckGo as default search on all of them. With a VPN.

I try avoid mobile browsing wherever possible.

Out of curiosity, why?

It’s a pain in the ass when I’m usually metres away from something with a full-sized physical keyboard.

Out and about, what would I use the web for? Googling looking something up, maybe STW. Beyond that… 🤷‍♂️ Most everything else has an app or can wait till I get home.

It’s a pain in the ass

That’s because your mobile browser has no baked in VPN, add block and text reflow 😀

Take Opera for a ride, humour me.

That’s going to give me a full-sized screen and a keyboard wider than two inches, is it?

I’ve used Opera, though I grant you it was a while ago. There were two versions, a regular one and another that did something funky to optimise page downloads. Do they still do that? I’ll give it a go if you want but really that’s not the problem, it’s swiping / pecking at a shitty little on-screen keyboard.