I don't think there's anything that comes close to Firebug for being featureful and intuitive, so Firefox gets my vote.

For a programmer who's not related to web programming, it's just a browser. For a web developer, it's probably Firefox.

For me, nothing beats the vimperator plugin for firefox, it saves me having to context-shift quite so much when going from editor to browser.

Vimperator is a Firefox browser extension with strong inspiration from the Vim text editor, with a mind towards faster and more efficient browsing. It has similar key bindings and you could call it a modal web browser, as key bindings differ according to which mode you are in. For example, it has a special Hint mode, where you can follow links easily with the keyboard only. It has similar key bindings and you could call it a modal web browser, as key bindings differ according to which mode you are in. For example, it has a special Hint mode, where you can follow links easily with the keyboard only.

Almost all major browsers out there have all the functionalities required for serious development and debugging.

You should use the browser you are most comfortable with, but also learn how to use the others, cause a bug may be present in one browser and not in others, so sometimes you may have to rely on the debug functionalities of only one browser. You'd better be prepared for that.

Personally, I like Opera with Dragonfly the most. It has nothing less than Firefox in term of debugging capabilities. It also has some features other browsers don't have. For example you can take a look at the source code of a webpage, modify the code and reload the page with the new modifications. Really nice.

IE6. Yep, IE6.

Why ? Well someone has to.

I like Google Chrome. It's fast, it follows web standards well, and it has built in developer tools for debugging Javascript and inspecting HTML and CSS. Of course, the same could be said for Safari, as well (since they're both based on Webkit). That said, there are some things that seem to work better in Firebug (like debugging Javascript when a page loads), but, for the most part, it's a good browser to work with as a programmer.

Uzbl

Because you get to (i.e. have to) write programs to use it.

The general idea is that Uzbl by default is very bare bones. You can send it commands to update settings and perform actions, through various interfaces. There is a limited default configuration. Please see config.h to see what it contains. By default, there are no keybinds defined at all. ^[uzbl.org]

Not only do you have to read a header file before you even get started, you get to configure your entire keyboard shortcuts from scratch.

I use Chrome as my primary browser and especially when doing web development.

Also, conkeror for Emacs users and FF with Vimperator for Vim users.

I browse in Chrome but develop in Firefox. Firebug is amazing but the real reason I use Firefox is the Selenium IDE. I find that I can use the Selenium IDE as a macro recorder to automate interaction with the browser. So If I am developing part of an app that may take 4-6 steps to get to from when you load the page I can automate that with Selenium and have it do whatever is needed automatically. Actually I find that in many cases I can do it all from a command line and never have to take my hands off the keyboard.

(I start up Selenium under Linux with xdotool)

While Firebug helps Firefox to be a great browser, I've found that Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome) is both faster and more stable and it's Developer Tools are fantastic. With the Chrome Extension directory open, Chromium will continue to improve.

Many web development tools are only available in Firefox. e.g. Selenium IDE, firebug. When it comes to web development, Firefox is still my number one choice.

Yeah, I'm using Google Chrome for web browsing; it's fast and reliable especially it supports most features of HTML5 and CSS3 while Firefox I'm using for my main web development; it's quite convenient with firebug but it's very slow working with javascript.

Hope that the new release of Firefox would be better in term of performance and compiling javascript.

FireFox is My choice. it has the best Addons such as FireBug, Webdeveloper(developers/designers cant live without!).

I <3 CHROME!!! It has a great debugger, and the element inspector is great.

Lynx…

… when connected via ssh. :)

Although chrome has its own tools in browser, opera has dragon fly, IE has IE developer tools and firefox has just addons but still firefox is much more better. Because it don't just have one tool it has many toolbar other than Firebug while firebug is off course a very common tool and I think every web developer use it. It is just one addon there are also many others. So my vote goes to Firefox but remember still firefox is a bit tricky some times. It sometime don't show the errors that actually exists like some tags are if not properly closed, it close them automatically and then on other brower problem still exists.

So none is best, you need to test code on every browser. However Firefox can be much more helpful than other browsers. In fact when ever I do some thing that require extensive client side or AJAX work then I use firefox. Other wise I like opera for personal use.

Gopher of course, it's due to make a comeback.

I came here after looking at Jeff Atwood answers, and I thought what an unimportant question this is but I learned a few things here and here is my answer.

Google Chrome is probably the best browser for developer

Ok I am firefox fan and have always worked in firefox with occasionally using IE and Safari. Here is what I found that makes me change my mind

1. Google Chrome has big screen (no junk that we dont want), yes it is more than half an inch bigger than firefox on top- Chrome Wins

2. Chrome has plugins just like Firefox - Both are equal here

3. Interesting the plugins of Chrome are actually better written than the firefox version. They are more easily accessible (top right corner) and more friendly (on click access). I found all the plugins that I use most often in FireFox. Screen capture (google one allows you to annotate as well), web developer (google one faster), color picker (works great like firefox)

4. Google is lightning fast (no kidding in this one - no delays, you click and boom you see the result)

5. I could not find a good ftp agent for Google chrome, but that is not a big deal. Ftp agents are available outside.

I found a few nuisances with chrome like in "developer" plugin you can increase the area for edit but if you do, the mouse can't be moved inside the edit area. With that in mind and probably a few more nuisances. Google chrome provides an excellent debugging experience and the fact that is is lighting fast and has larger area is important to me!