If you haven't been keeping up with the browser wars, now might be a good time to start paying attention. The biggest contenders right now are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome (and Opera, recently upstaged by Chrome).
****Browser War Recap*****
Internet Explorer was released on all Windows OS platforms, and was able to get their browser usage high enough (around 98%) to run Netscape into the ground. Netscape is no longer a supported browsing platform. Webpages were built just for IE6 and web development reached a standstill.
Then Firefox was introduced, and now commands 22% market share. Microsoft responded, by releasing IE7, nearly 5 years after releasing IE6. IE7 failed to deliver, and firefox continued to gain market share. Two years after the release of IE7, IE8 is now a final release. As a sidenote, Safari's popularity shows similarity to the increase in mac sales, as safari is the default browser for that OS.
So the big question is, what browser is best?
Well, if add-ons are your thing, then firefox is still the way to go. If prefer speed to all else, then Chrome is where its at. So where does IE8 fit into all this?
Personally, I use a mix of Chrome/Firefox. But after using IE8, I think IE8 may replace firefox on my personal PC. IE8 is significantly faster than previous Internet Explorers, and I feel sure it is faster than Firefox 3.0.7 (current FF version).
I rarely rave about Microsoft products, but IE8 is worth raving about. No matter which browser you use, the good news is that the increased competition from Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, has forced all web browsers to become better, faster, and less obtrusive on your system. So for end users everywhere, this is great news.