There's been a lot of talking up of Firefox and ignoring Chrome. Chrome will also backup/sync your bookmarks (and all Chrome settings, installed extensions, open tabs, etc) with your other devices. I find Chrome faster than Firefox too.

NOt that it matters to the end user, but Chrome's multiple processes are I believe part of its vaunted security sandboxing, to make it difficult for rogue developers to write code that would affect other parts of the browser or your system.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

I was preaching the Firefox gospel only because someone commented on it being a memory hog. My experience is that it uses significantly less memory than Chrome, although in a single monolithic process. I don't disagree that Chrome's sandboxing is a good idea, but it does seem to suck up a LOT of memory.

edit to add: Are you looking for a laptop or a desktop? I assumed the latter, and "what to get" for a laptop is a much more complicated question of tradeoffs.

Any but the very cheapest desktops will have immense drives (1TB+), and enough processing power for any non-professional use; unlike laptops (and some of the tiny not-quite-desktops) regular size desktops have not been trading CPU speed for battery life (an typical mainstream business laptop today is slower than a typical mainstream business laptop from mid-2012.)

Look for an Intel i3 processor (or i5, although for a desktop the cheaper i3 is fine) or a quad-core AMD chip.

The biggest thing is to get enough memory (RAM, not disk); look for 8gb -- if you find one you like otherwise with only 4gb or 6gb, a 4gb DIMM to upgrade it should be about $25.

Overall, it should run around $400 or a little over.

There are also some great refurb deals; any mainstream business desktop from 2012 or newer is essentially "good enough."


IE is basically gone, in Windows 10, and won't be missed. Edge is to immature to recommend, but it seems better than IE.

Firefox and Chrome both have annoying quirks, but they're still better than IE, and more complete than Edge. I use both; Chrome for Google-ecosystem stuff (and anything that breaks on Firefox), and Firefox for general browsing (except stuff that breaks because I've got it very locked down.)

Classic theme restorer is a MUST with Firefox : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...themerestorer/ as is Status4Evar : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...status-4-evar/ and ....... Edge + Privacy Badger makes it very secure.

I run the 64-bit betas of Firefox. The 32-bit versions get bogged down in heavy use.

For most users, I tend to recommend Chrome these days.

I vote that we persuade Sharon to make this her new handle

Both relatively expensive compared to a mini-tower plus a separate monitor (or very expensive if her current monitor is still good), and with higher-end processors which are overkill for the kind of use she's talking about.

Ignoring cost, they both look like pretty nice systems.

Thank you very much! I'll look into the add ons for Firefox as well as the desktop suggestions. ^^

Too late. Too many FTers (including Mary) know me as SkiAdcock, and I get emails & PMs saying hey Ski . However, having Sharon as my signature sometimes helps w/ those that think I'm a guy

Back to browser. Thanks to FTers I switched to Chrome a year ago or more & haven't looked back. I rarely use IE, although there are a couple of sites that still seem to work better on IE than Chrome. Since I'm a pretty general/lightweight user I didn't see the need to install Firefox too since Chrome seems to work for me.

Cheers.