Dear Techxan:
What do you think of Chrome and Safari, which are both based on Webkit (the iPhone/iPad platform)?
Dear Reader:
Sorry to tell all you Microsoft haters out there, but MS Internet Explorer won the browser war. That’s not to say that they can’t be dethroned, but for right now; they’re the industry standard. When companies test their internt apps, they use the last few version of IE and maybe, just maybe FireFox.
At my business (where I am the IT Manager) we use a lot of applicaions over the internet. So we’re running .net, java, and other types of apps all the time. My support guy gets calls when one of these apps doesn’t work. So what’s the number one reason they don’t work? A: The user has decided to use a browser other than IE. So what’s the number two reason they don’t work? A: The user has decided to use the latest bleeding edge version of IE. I’ve found it a good practice to stay one version back and you’ll generally be just fine.
FireFox
That said, as a rule we load a second browser as part of our base load of new PCs. We like to have an alternative to test if we are having problems with IE. That browser of choise is Firefox. It’s faster than IE, and has been around long enough to handle some of the apps that companies produce.
Chrome
Chrome is the newcomer, and has to prove itself. Sure Google will push it and every time you use a Google app it’ll tell you that you really should be using Chrome. But other than that…
Safari
Safari is a nice standard little browser for the iPad, but it’s not going to do any heavy lifting when it comes to navigating the internet. I have an iPad and use Safari on it and have to admit… I can’t figure the dam thing our. How do I set up a few bookmark/favorites. I don’t and won’t be using my iPad to surf the net unless I’m really desperate. The screen is just too small.
That said, Safari has probably made Apple a lot of money… as the gateway by which people purchase Angry Birds.
The Techxan 