Netscape Navigator 1.1 was my first, Chrome Latest Official build is my current
Wow that took me back aways, I had to double-check if it was Netscape Navigator or IE 1, man those were the days!
I found this image helpful:
which came from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers
Netscape & Chrome/Firefox
Netscape was my first browser back in the 90s. Nowadays, I really really want to use Firefox. But keep getting pulled back in to using Chrome on the desktop (Chrome is just faster)
However, on the mobile, I use Firefox. Even used Firefox Focus for a while.
It depends. 🤷♂️
I'm super integrated into the Apple ecosystem, so Safari is pretty much my go-to.
However, I really like the features Firefox and Chrome bring in their own ways, from plugin support to other stuff.
I think my first was Internet Explorer haha.
Firefox Inspect Element seems better (and its element selector more reliable) than Chrome and Safari's, so that's the main reason I keep Firefox around. And on mobile, Firefox Focus makes browsing so fast just by automatically putting the cursor in the address bar and opening the keyboard, I keep it around for quickly Googling stuff.
First: NCSA Mosaic on Amiga, Current Favorite: Chrome
I'm pretty sure Mosaic was my first, although it may have been Lynx. Prior to all of that I was a heavy gopher user. My first browser I used as a developer was Netscape Navigator Gold. As for Chrome, I use it mainly out of habit. It's quite possible that other browsers would be better for development, but I don't want to retrain.
Wow, you've used all the major original browsers! Have any screenshots around from your early browser usage?
Netscape Navigator Gold would have been a paid browser, right? Did you buy it in a box?
Sadly, no screenshots. I'm fairly certain Navigator Gold was in a box with giant gold ship's wheel on it. I feel like it was in the $80-100 range, but I don't have much in the way of records from the 90's.
That’d be quite the relic if you still had it around. Super cool, thanks for sharing the story!
AOL Explorer, I think?
The first browser I can distinctly remember using was the one built into AOL, which I just learned was initially called AOL Browser and later changed to AOL Explorer.
Netscape Navigator was definitely the browser I was using when I got really into the internet. Then, I think I used a mix of Firefox and Safari for several years before fully switching to Chrome around 2011.
I've been using Brave for about 6 months...it was an easy transition because it's built on Chromium. I like it, though it hasn't felt like a game-changer in any way.
That's wild: AOL Explorer had licensed Internet Explorer's Trident engine, so was essentially just a different skin over IE. And now, IE is dead, replaced by Microsoft Edge, which is a fork of Google Chrome which itself is a fork of Apple's Safari which is based of KDE's KHTML code. Turtles all the way down.
Safari now, Netscape Navigator then
Safari is mostly fine (on occasion, a site is broken), and it syncs bookmarks etc. with iOS. But I use Chrome for Development, because of the dev tools.
Netscape Navigator was my first, and Firefox is my favorite now.
I started using Netscape Navigator in the mid-90s, who knows what version number.
Today I'm using Firefox as my main browser, having recently switched back after a decade or so on Chrome. Still using Chrome for work.
What's keeping you from using Firefox for work?
For now I prefer the total separation of Chrome profiles vs the approach of Firefox containers. There are also some work Chrome extensions I need to use.
I also came to the realization today that my first browser was Mosaic - I had forgotten it even existed!
Ahh that makes sense; Chrome profiles do make it easy to fully split personal/work or even multiple work projects.
Woah that goes way back. Remember what computer you were using it on?
Vaguely remember that we had some Macs going into the 90s (Mac Plus or II? and a Mac Portable, which dad used to teach me how to spreadsheet our jogs), then abandoned Apple during the dark years, maybe to an aging 486 followed by a Pentium I custom tower. I'd say it would have to be the Pentium tower!
I spent every waking minute I could on these things but some of the memories are so vague now, it's hard to say for sure.
Haha fun! The first computer I used was my dad's Amegia ... but pretty sure the first browser I used must have been an early version of Netscape on a Windows 95 PC.
Ah, old school! We never had an Amega but I am aware of their legendary status in personal computing history. :)
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FIrefox Focus is really nice—love how it opens the keyboard with the cursor in the address bar automatically.