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Comment by boot13 | Hacker News Reader

I'm having trouble understanding why this FUD is the top story on the otherwise excellent HN. Having choice is good, but assuming Google's domination would be a bad thing just because it was bad with Microsoft doesn't give Google enough credit. I currently use Firefox because it is the least crappy browser out there, but I'd love to switch, because it still has stability issues, particularly with animated GIFs and video.

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This highlights the irrationality of browser wars. Can FireFox be both 'least crappy' and 'stability issues'? Selection is made on emotional grounds, and rationalizations created after the fact.

Perhaps I expressed myself poorly. When I say that Firefox is the least crappy browser, I mean that all of the available browsers are crappy, and Firefox is simply the least crappy. I hesitate to say that it's the best browser, because that might lead to the mistaken belief that it's actually a good browser or that I like it, when in fact I don't. Does that clear things up?

I understand. I mean only that we all (me included) choose what we choose for reasons unrelated to the actual thing. For instance, the major browsers are buggy and annoying in largely non-overlapping ways. This makes it difficult to compare them - any checklist will be apples and oranges because features and bugs are orthogonal between them, to some degree.

So we find ourselves offended by something in one of them, and fasten on another because its not deficient the same way. Without any thorough analysis.

Works the same way with cars, and politics.

I agree. Something about human nature, I expect.

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