Yeah but that's the thing, I've never had any crashing problems with Firefox. I know it has crashed 3-4 times in the past, but I don't even remember when/how it happened. And even then Firefox does an ok job restoring tabs if it crashes, so no big deal. I agree that the separate processes of Chrome is better, but it's not enough to justify switching when Firefox is just so much more convenient for me.
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Picking a web browser
- Thread starter Mailman
- Start date
I said this a lot, then I actually installed Chrome. ;)
I have safari and chrome. They are about the same speed (I can't detect the difference) load the same stuff, have the same toolbar, ect. I had safari first and saved all the book marks, so I kept it. Chrome for backup up, but the opposite would world two. The chrome layout looks nicer, but is really the same and I couldn't really care about that stuff, so yea.
I downloaded Opera just to see how it is. I'm actually pretty impressed, though I'll probably stick with Chrome for the most part.
One huge gripe I have is that unlike Chrome, the tabs are placed slightly below the edge of the top of the screen. I've become so used to clicking at the very top of the screen to change tabs that it is starting to piss me off when it doesn't work in Opera. So far I've only found two skins that fix that. Both are ugly.
It seems to be just as fast as Chrome though, at least for me.
One huge gripe I have is that unlike Chrome, the tabs are placed slightly below the edge of the top of the screen. I've become so used to clicking at the very top of the screen to change tabs that it is starting to piss me off when it doesn't work in Opera. So far I've only found two skins that fix that. Both are ugly.
It seems to be just as fast as Chrome though, at least for me.
I am currently using Google Chrome, I think it's a great browser, love it.
I have Chrome as well and have used it quiet a bit, but seriously, Live Bookmarks and Ubiquity are so convenient to my style of browsing that every time I try another browser I come back to Firefox. If Chrome (or Opera) adds these features (I know there is an extension that tries to emulate Live Bookmarks, but still leaves a lot to be desired) I might switch, but then again it seems Firefox will be adding the separate processes thing as well.
But really you can't go wrong between Firefox, Chrome and Opera (I think those are the top 3, in no particular order). Firefox and Chrome are awesomely customizable, and Opera is just nice, fast, safe and plain cool. (iirc Opera was named the "safest" browser some time ago... don't know if that has changed since then).
I use IE exclusively. I used IE7 for ages then my mom upgraded to IE8 which had a lot of glitches but Microsoft fixed those a couple weeks after I upgraded and it's fine.
I tried Firefox once when my desktop's C drive had a meltdown and it refused to open Microsoft products... yuck. I hate the way it looks and it was slower than IE was (when IE would open) which is pretty sad if IE is the program glitching.
I like IE because I use Windows Classic even though I have XP so it fits in the best and changes the background colors to what I have my entire theme set to. Of course once I get Win7 I'll be sad but IE9 will rock up so it'll be chill.
I've never had a problem with IE crashing. Sometimes it freezes up if a website doesn't load itself properly but it works fine 99% of the time.
I don't consider it to be very slow either, having used IE on multiple computers I think it's more the computer's hardware and the internet being provided that determines browsing speed. If your computer is low-quality and cheap I guess you will have to use a low-quality browser made for that???
I'd hate to have tabs at the very top of the screen. That looks so unbalanced. I prefer IE's layout to the rest I have seen.
I tried Firefox once when my desktop's C drive had a meltdown and it refused to open Microsoft products... yuck. I hate the way it looks and it was slower than IE was (when IE would open) which is pretty sad if IE is the program glitching.
I like IE because I use Windows Classic even though I have XP so it fits in the best and changes the background colors to what I have my entire theme set to. Of course once I get Win7 I'll be sad but IE9 will rock up so it'll be chill.
I've never had a problem with IE crashing. Sometimes it freezes up if a website doesn't load itself properly but it works fine 99% of the time.
I don't consider it to be very slow either, having used IE on multiple computers I think it's more the computer's hardware and the internet being provided that determines browsing speed. If your computer is low-quality and cheap I guess you will have to use a low-quality browser made for that???
I'd hate to have tabs at the very top of the screen. That looks so unbalanced. I prefer IE's layout to the rest I have seen.
I'd just like to add that for some reason, Chrome gives me more internet than other browsers do. Sometimes I have to go to this place with a wireless router but no internet plan, but I can buy a card that gives me net for a few hours. For some reason, I get more time than I'm supposed to when I use Chrome. It's not exactly applicable to most people but just though it's something interesting to mention.
Chrome, pretty much because incognito mode is pretty sick and its a lot faster and simpler than other browsers. Chrome has crashed once or twice for me, but thats because I had 6 tabs open on one window =P
I consistently have 5-7 tabs open at a time and I can't even remember the last time chrome has crashed on me.
Chrome pretty much owns
Chrome pretty much owns
Something I've noticed with Chrome (compared to Firefox) now that I've been using it a few hours: Pictures load SLOW. It takes much longer for pictures to load, and after a certain point, it won't load them, even when I refresh the page. But in comparison again, sites that take long to load on FF are much faster on Chrome (or I had a lucky moment).
Also, for some odd reason, at least on Smogon, Chrome doesn't accept keyboard shortcuts for things like bold and cursive, and it shows them with the [bracket] system, instead of applying them instantly. I find it pretty annoying, since I do use those shortcuts quite alot.
Also, for some odd reason, at least on Smogon, Chrome doesn't accept keyboard shortcuts for things like bold and cursive, and it shows them with the [bracket] system, instead of applying them instantly. I find it pretty annoying, since I do use those shortcuts quite alot.
Different browsers have different rendering engines. It's why content displays differently in different browsers. Obviously internet speed is going to be the greatest factor, but browser is a bigger factor than the pc hardware at this point I think. If IE9 really does use the video card to help display pages, that'll be interesting. It's supposed to be 100% CSS3-compliant too :)
I'm using Firefox as my main browser. With all the add-ons and speed, it's definitely a powerhouse. But I'm also a google fanboy (lol), I use Google Chorme too. It's fast and lightweight, suitable for fast open/close at any times. I mainly use it for facebook flash games, and other little side browsing (you know when you click on a link someone sent you, it opens fast. :D). Firefox has better compatibilities with more websites than Chrome and adblock/NoScript works like a champ on FF. Someone mentioned earlier that Chrome has InCognito browsing, well, FF has Private Browsing too. :D I never used it though, but I guess they work the same way. I tried Opera and IE before, but for me, they are not up to par with FF and later on, Chrome. :S Yeah, FF and Chrome won't fail you. :D
Chrome easily takes the cake. Newest Safari still doesn't compare in speed tests.
An interesting video showing how fast Chrome is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCgQDjiotG0
Unrealistic, but interesting.
Also, my favorite quote from Google ever:
An interesting video showing how fast Chrome is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCgQDjiotG0
Unrealistic, but interesting.
Also, my favorite quote from Google ever:
:D
I use FireFox, because, well, I think it's superior. But I do have almost every well known browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, IE(which I have never touched)).
I like Chrome too though. Maybe I'll try it out for a week, just to see if I should switch.
I like Chrome too though. Maybe I'll try it out for a week, just to see if I should switch.
I'm disappointed in the lack of love for Opera in this thread, and it seems for many users that the primary cause is that they "haven't used it much." To me, this is extremely disappointing and very representative of the fact that in terms of market share/quality, Opera scores BY FAR the worst. If more people would give Opera a serious test run, I'm very convinced that it would have a way bigger userbase.
As m0nkfish pointed out, Opera is always the innovator when it comes to new features. Several people have made comments in this thread about certain browsers having certain functions, and I'm sitting here going, "yeah, Opera has that." Opera has virtually every worthwhile feature that any other browsers have. The same isn't true in reverse. Opera Turbo is an awesome tool and allows me to view Smogon without much trouble during its notorious downtimes as of late. Dragonfly is a great debugger, and while I'm not much of a programmer, I can easily recognize the usefulness of this for anybody who is. Spatial navigation is an Opera feature that makes it way easier for laptop users to navigate the browser without a mouse that I'm certain many Firefox/Chrome users don't even know exists. If your keyboard happens to be broken as well, you can navigate Opera with voice control. Opera users are almost always the first to have access to these kinds of things. After that, a similar Firefox extension usually comes out shortly afterward, with Chrome and Safari eventually getting the feature in a future release. In terms of features, Opera > Firefox > Chrome > Safari.
Default features. This is something that really isn't stressed enough. I hated that after I downloaded Firefox, it did almost nothing that IE didn't do. Opera has only a very basic "widget" system, and widgets are almost totally detached from the browser itself. Opera doesn't depend at all on third parties to develop its features, which is actually very important. One of the biggest flaws of Firefox is that, as you add features, the browser becomes noticeably slower and sometimes two extensions will conflict. Opera completely avoids this problem by having all of its features by default. And when I say default features, I'm not just talking about an adblocker, a spellchecker, and mouse gestures, I'm also talking about an e-mail client and and IRC client (which I use exclusively). Default features: Opera > Chrome > Safari > Firefox.
Customization. In Opera, damn near everything is customizable. This is a problem I had when using Safari and Chrome, mostly, but Firefox too. (Actually, Firefox is almost as customizable as Opera, but my big gripe is that retarded status bar. I can do whatever I want with the rest of the toolbars, but the bloody status bar is inexplicably non-customizable! I ended up disabling the status bar completely in Firefox, because it's an ugly grey bar that got in my way, but that left me unable to see the status field. With Opera, I can take the status field and put it wherever the hell I want before disabling the status bar.) I don't really have a lot to say on this point, actually. I can move stuff around wherever I want, and if that doesn't satify me, I can edit anything manually via opera:config. I've used this to get exactly what I want in a web browser: a ton of features that don't get in my way. I have a short screen and I open run a ton of tabs simultaneously (something I wouldn't risk in Firefox), so I hate having tons of toolbars at the top or bottom of the screen and I need space for those. I keep my browser as slim as possible, and when I say "slim" this is I'm talking about. I keep everything that I need in a sidebar, which only appears when I want it to, and the rest is compacted into one menu in the top-right corner. Opera > Firefox > Chrome > Safari in this department.
Opera has fabulous security features. I'm not terribly well-versed in this area, but I've still done my research. Any security flaws in Opera are fixed about as quickly as they are in Firefox (impressive, considering Firefox is open-sourced.) Safari has been known to have its issues, and Chrome has been called out on one particular issue (relating to Javascript if memory serves; I'm not sure if they've fixed that, but it was quite a long time ago so I would assume so.) Firefox has the edge here in my opinion, as Noscript is virtually flawless as far as security goes. I'm actually kind of surprised that Opera doesn't have a Noscript-like feature, but if they haven't done it by now they likely aren't going to. Firefox (with Noscript) > Opera > Chrome > Safari.
Standards support. Obviously this is no contest; Opera's always had this one. The only question here is the one of "why do websites like Facebook fail in Opera," and the answer is because Facebook was poorly designed when Opera had that problem. Opera now has no problem displaying almost all modern websites. Opera > Chrome > Firefox > Safari.
Speed, raw speed. Based on my personal experience alone, I'm willing to acknowledge that Chrome is very fast as well, but most test results show that Opera is consistently the fastest browser. That's of course before you count Opera Turbo, which can double, triple, or quadruple your rendering speed at the cost of image quality. Boo hoo. Opera is fast at everything. When I rate this one, I won't count "tests," especially as I'm not planning to cite any, but instead just go off of personal experience: Chrome = Opera > Safari > Firefox.
I honestly don't understand how Opera Software managed to produce the biggest browser in terms of features while still keeping it lightweight. Opera really blows my mind, and I urge anybody who hasn't seriously used it to give it a try. Of course, there are those who won't use Opera on the moral grounds that it's not free as in freedom, and I totally respect that (I'm actually a proponent myself; Opera is the only non-free software I allow on my computer). Opera's ideals aren't totally off the mark, though. Several smaller aspects of Opera are open-sourced (such as Dragonfly) and I tend to believe that Opera Software would love to make their product free, and that it's just not economically feasible for them right now.
As a regular internet user and a curious person who has previously done extensive testing on all five of the major browsers, I think I'm fairly unbiased, or at least I was, back when I was just experimenting with non-IE browsers. Opera has proven to me consistently the best in almost every category I've considered (I'm sure I missed a bunch here, I may go over this post tomorrow). I know Opera isn't perfect, and I do use other browsers occasionally. I use Firefox regularly because I prefer the way it handles SCMS; I use Chrome when... actually no, I can't remember the last time I used Chrome, nor can I think of any reason to use it over Opera. Heh.
Things I like about other browsers:
Firefox: as noted above, I was unable to use the shortcut from on-site pages straight to SCMS in Opera (I'm sure it can be done, but I wasn't willing to invest the effort when I'm sure it was intended for Firefox). Has better extensions than Opera, obviously, but I've already pointed out that I don't really consider extensions a good thing, especially when they're required for most of the features that Opera has by default.
Chrome: One process per tab is pretty neat, sure. Really though, Opera almost never crashes, and its session restore really nullifies the usefulness of running one process per tab. Firefox has session restore too if i recall correctly, so I really don't see all the hype about this feature. Chrome is almost as easy on the eyes as Opera, which is also cool.
ps: Since Zy mentioned me earlier in this thread, it would be rude not to mention him. Hi!
As m0nkfish pointed out, Opera is always the innovator when it comes to new features. Several people have made comments in this thread about certain browsers having certain functions, and I'm sitting here going, "yeah, Opera has that." Opera has virtually every worthwhile feature that any other browsers have. The same isn't true in reverse. Opera Turbo is an awesome tool and allows me to view Smogon without much trouble during its notorious downtimes as of late. Dragonfly is a great debugger, and while I'm not much of a programmer, I can easily recognize the usefulness of this for anybody who is. Spatial navigation is an Opera feature that makes it way easier for laptop users to navigate the browser without a mouse that I'm certain many Firefox/Chrome users don't even know exists. If your keyboard happens to be broken as well, you can navigate Opera with voice control. Opera users are almost always the first to have access to these kinds of things. After that, a similar Firefox extension usually comes out shortly afterward, with Chrome and Safari eventually getting the feature in a future release. In terms of features, Opera > Firefox > Chrome > Safari.
Default features. This is something that really isn't stressed enough. I hated that after I downloaded Firefox, it did almost nothing that IE didn't do. Opera has only a very basic "widget" system, and widgets are almost totally detached from the browser itself. Opera doesn't depend at all on third parties to develop its features, which is actually very important. One of the biggest flaws of Firefox is that, as you add features, the browser becomes noticeably slower and sometimes two extensions will conflict. Opera completely avoids this problem by having all of its features by default. And when I say default features, I'm not just talking about an adblocker, a spellchecker, and mouse gestures, I'm also talking about an e-mail client and and IRC client (which I use exclusively). Default features: Opera > Chrome > Safari > Firefox.
Customization. In Opera, damn near everything is customizable. This is a problem I had when using Safari and Chrome, mostly, but Firefox too. (Actually, Firefox is almost as customizable as Opera, but my big gripe is that retarded status bar. I can do whatever I want with the rest of the toolbars, but the bloody status bar is inexplicably non-customizable! I ended up disabling the status bar completely in Firefox, because it's an ugly grey bar that got in my way, but that left me unable to see the status field. With Opera, I can take the status field and put it wherever the hell I want before disabling the status bar.) I don't really have a lot to say on this point, actually. I can move stuff around wherever I want, and if that doesn't satify me, I can edit anything manually via opera:config. I've used this to get exactly what I want in a web browser: a ton of features that don't get in my way. I have a short screen and I open run a ton of tabs simultaneously (something I wouldn't risk in Firefox), so I hate having tons of toolbars at the top or bottom of the screen and I need space for those. I keep my browser as slim as possible, and when I say "slim" this is I'm talking about. I keep everything that I need in a sidebar, which only appears when I want it to, and the rest is compacted into one menu in the top-right corner. Opera > Firefox > Chrome > Safari in this department.
Opera has fabulous security features. I'm not terribly well-versed in this area, but I've still done my research. Any security flaws in Opera are fixed about as quickly as they are in Firefox (impressive, considering Firefox is open-sourced.) Safari has been known to have its issues, and Chrome has been called out on one particular issue (relating to Javascript if memory serves; I'm not sure if they've fixed that, but it was quite a long time ago so I would assume so.) Firefox has the edge here in my opinion, as Noscript is virtually flawless as far as security goes. I'm actually kind of surprised that Opera doesn't have a Noscript-like feature, but if they haven't done it by now they likely aren't going to. Firefox (with Noscript) > Opera > Chrome > Safari.
Standards support. Obviously this is no contest; Opera's always had this one. The only question here is the one of "why do websites like Facebook fail in Opera," and the answer is because Facebook was poorly designed when Opera had that problem. Opera now has no problem displaying almost all modern websites. Opera > Chrome > Firefox > Safari.
Speed, raw speed. Based on my personal experience alone, I'm willing to acknowledge that Chrome is very fast as well, but most test results show that Opera is consistently the fastest browser. That's of course before you count Opera Turbo, which can double, triple, or quadruple your rendering speed at the cost of image quality. Boo hoo. Opera is fast at everything. When I rate this one, I won't count "tests," especially as I'm not planning to cite any, but instead just go off of personal experience: Chrome = Opera > Safari > Firefox.
I honestly don't understand how Opera Software managed to produce the biggest browser in terms of features while still keeping it lightweight. Opera really blows my mind, and I urge anybody who hasn't seriously used it to give it a try. Of course, there are those who won't use Opera on the moral grounds that it's not free as in freedom, and I totally respect that (I'm actually a proponent myself; Opera is the only non-free software I allow on my computer). Opera's ideals aren't totally off the mark, though. Several smaller aspects of Opera are open-sourced (such as Dragonfly) and I tend to believe that Opera Software would love to make their product free, and that it's just not economically feasible for them right now.
As a regular internet user and a curious person who has previously done extensive testing on all five of the major browsers, I think I'm fairly unbiased, or at least I was, back when I was just experimenting with non-IE browsers. Opera has proven to me consistently the best in almost every category I've considered (I'm sure I missed a bunch here, I may go over this post tomorrow). I know Opera isn't perfect, and I do use other browsers occasionally. I use Firefox regularly because I prefer the way it handles SCMS; I use Chrome when... actually no, I can't remember the last time I used Chrome, nor can I think of any reason to use it over Opera. Heh.
Things I like about other browsers:
Firefox: as noted above, I was unable to use the shortcut from on-site pages straight to SCMS in Opera (I'm sure it can be done, but I wasn't willing to invest the effort when I'm sure it was intended for Firefox). Has better extensions than Opera, obviously, but I've already pointed out that I don't really consider extensions a good thing, especially when they're required for most of the features that Opera has by default.
Chrome: One process per tab is pretty neat, sure. Really though, Opera almost never crashes, and its session restore really nullifies the usefulness of running one process per tab. Firefox has session restore too if i recall correctly, so I really don't see all the hype about this feature. Chrome is almost as easy on the eyes as Opera, which is also cool.
ps: Since Zy mentioned me earlier in this thread, it would be rude not to mention him. Hi!
I used early versions of Opera 10 and it wasn't good. Apparently they made vast improvements in Opera 10.5
Basically, Chrome and Firefox are still the best out there. Try both and decide for yourself which ones you like.
And if you use OSX, Safari is supposed to be very fast, but lacks extensions and has some security issues.
Basically, Chrome and Firefox are still the best out there. Try both and decide for yourself which ones you like.
And if you use OSX, Safari is supposed to be very fast, but lacks extensions and has some security issues.
I decided to try out Opera last night after reading Umbreon Dan's somewhat extensive write-up about it. My browser is Chrome, so I'll be comparing it to that.
Now, speed-wise, I can't notice a difference at all. I've tried various sites that I imagine would have a larger load time than others (and thus exaggerate the difference in loading times), such as Facebook and Youtube, but there wasn't any noticeable difference. I didn't try out Opera Turbo, though, but I tend to visit image sites like deviantART and 4chan a lot so losing image quality is a bit of an issue for me.
Design wise, Opera 10.5 and Chrome look very alike with the default settings. The tabs are slightly different shape and Opera's doesn't quite reach the top of the screen, and Opera has an actual search bar for Google next to the address bar. However, a couple things about Opera annoyed me that aren't in Chrome.
First off, the status bar in Opera. It is always there by default, much like Firefox (which I used before switching to Chrome) and I assume IE do, whereas Chrome only shows the status bar when you hover over a link. I tried changing the settings of Opera's status bar to "Show only when needed", but this merely made it disappear and it doesn't show anything when I hover over a link. Also, I don't like those ugly, unnecessary (for me, anyways) little buttons that are placed in it, and I couldn't find anything at all to change that.
Another thing I happened upon by accident: if you turn off the Tabs Bar, the main Opera menu disappears with it and you can't access it any longer. I had to end up making pressing some button combination I no longer remember to make the sidebar U_D mentioned appear and then re-enable the Tabs Bar. Very, very annoying and a pretty big design flaw imo.
The last thing that I didn't like might be OS-dependant, or perhaps it's something specific to my computer, but for some reason opening multiple tabs causes Windows 7 to think multiple windows are open, and thus it shows multiple icons in the taskbar. What this means is if I'm on another window and try to go back to Opera, clicking on the Opera button will pop up a preview of each tab as if they were separate windows instead of actually going back to the browser. I have no idea why this is happening, since there's only one process for Opera running and I've never had this happen with any other program, let alone browser, but it is extremely annoying and one of the biggest reasons I've decided not to make Opera my main browser.
However, there was one feature I saw in Opera that I've never seen in any other browser that made me keep it, even if not for general browsing purposes: automatic refreshing. You can set the page to refresh every n-minutes x-seconds, which is a godsend for people like me who are too lazy to actually go look for song downloads and just want to listen to stuff on Youtube without having to press the Play button every time the song ends. This is pretty much the only reason I'm keeping Opera right now. It's just not enough of a reason for me to set up all my bookmarks and accounts and everything again on a new browser, though.
tl;dr - If you're like me and tend to just use the basic, default features of a browser, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason to choose Opera or Chrome over the other aside from small, nitpicky details like those I mentioned above.
Now, speed-wise, I can't notice a difference at all. I've tried various sites that I imagine would have a larger load time than others (and thus exaggerate the difference in loading times), such as Facebook and Youtube, but there wasn't any noticeable difference. I didn't try out Opera Turbo, though, but I tend to visit image sites like deviantART and 4chan a lot so losing image quality is a bit of an issue for me.
Design wise, Opera 10.5 and Chrome look very alike with the default settings. The tabs are slightly different shape and Opera's doesn't quite reach the top of the screen, and Opera has an actual search bar for Google next to the address bar. However, a couple things about Opera annoyed me that aren't in Chrome.
First off, the status bar in Opera. It is always there by default, much like Firefox (which I used before switching to Chrome) and I assume IE do, whereas Chrome only shows the status bar when you hover over a link. I tried changing the settings of Opera's status bar to "Show only when needed", but this merely made it disappear and it doesn't show anything when I hover over a link. Also, I don't like those ugly, unnecessary (for me, anyways) little buttons that are placed in it, and I couldn't find anything at all to change that.
Another thing I happened upon by accident: if you turn off the Tabs Bar, the main Opera menu disappears with it and you can't access it any longer. I had to end up making pressing some button combination I no longer remember to make the sidebar U_D mentioned appear and then re-enable the Tabs Bar. Very, very annoying and a pretty big design flaw imo.
The last thing that I didn't like might be OS-dependant, or perhaps it's something specific to my computer, but for some reason opening multiple tabs causes Windows 7 to think multiple windows are open, and thus it shows multiple icons in the taskbar. What this means is if I'm on another window and try to go back to Opera, clicking on the Opera button will pop up a preview of each tab as if they were separate windows instead of actually going back to the browser. I have no idea why this is happening, since there's only one process for Opera running and I've never had this happen with any other program, let alone browser, but it is extremely annoying and one of the biggest reasons I've decided not to make Opera my main browser.
However, there was one feature I saw in Opera that I've never seen in any other browser that made me keep it, even if not for general browsing purposes: automatic refreshing. You can set the page to refresh every n-minutes x-seconds, which is a godsend for people like me who are too lazy to actually go look for song downloads and just want to listen to stuff on Youtube without having to press the Play button every time the song ends. This is pretty much the only reason I'm keeping Opera right now. It's just not enough of a reason for me to set up all my bookmarks and accounts and everything again on a new browser, though.
tl;dr - If you're like me and tend to just use the basic, default features of a browser, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason to choose Opera or Chrome over the other aside from small, nitpicky details like those I mentioned above.
Safari 5, which was just released 2 days ago, now supports extensions. Plus, that new "reader" function is really slick.