Chrome, Firefox & Opera

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Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
701
126
After trying IE8 and having issues, I went back to IE7. Today, I fired up FF again, played around with a few customizations and just added Adblock Plus and all I can say is wow. Pages load faster than anything I've seen yet, and I mean by a lot. Also added Tab Homepage so that I can open a new tab with the default homepage loaded instead of just a blank.

I might just make it my default browser.
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
I like FF but it is slow. Chrome has some page rendering issues. Safari is very fast, pages appear in a second if the site is fast enough. Problem is some sites don't work with safari. For that matter some don't work with anything but IE :(


I tried a bunch of browsers, Including the new IE8, but only Safari passed the acid test.
http://www.acidtests.org/
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,836
4,815
75
Originally posted by: Engineer
After trying IE8 and having issues, I went back to IE7. Today, I fired up FF again, played around with a few customizations and just added Adblock Plus and all I can say is wow. Pages load faster than anything I've seen yet, and I mean by a lot. Also added Tab Homepage so that I can open a new tab with the default homepage loaded instead of just a blank.

I might just make it my default browser.

I recently tried a version of Chrome, called SRWare Iron that some poster on Slashdot was swearing up and down had an adblocker. I was surprised to find it actually ran slower than Firefox with AdBlock Plus! I figured maybe the lack of cached data was the problem, but I then ran it through my caching proxy Polipo, and Iron was still slower. Iron also showed at least a couple of ads, so I don't think it has an ad blocker.

On the other hand, the list of privacy issues with Chrome, combined with the performance of Iron, has convinced me never to try the original Chrome.
 

Tempered81

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2007
6,374
1
81
I use firefox 3, chrome 2 beta, opera 9.6, ie7, and safari 4 on my atom netbook.

firefox 3 is slow to open, but only because i use about 10 addons with it, and keep about 20 combined tabs open between two windows. I have the toolsbars minimized in size and have a fullscreen button. Once its open and cached into ram, it runs fine. I use firefox tweaknetwork, adblock plus, tabmix, fullerscreen, download helper, foxclock, zoomtoolbar, and a few others. pretty solid, and i like how it remembers authenticated sessions.

ie7 is the standard, have to use it for windows update, and to stream media player internet radio for my local stations. Its the slowest of the 5 and only comes in as a backup.

safari 4 is quite fast. I love the top viewed sites tab. It blacks out the screen and gives it the ipod/iphone interface feel to the browser. I have a similiar addon in ff3 that displays all of my open tabs in a large grid with a dimmed background. safari is fast, neat, and streamlined. It uses multiple processes and a lot of ram like ff3.

chrome / chrome2 beta is fast, and loads quickest of the bunch, like opera. I like that it has the tabs in the title bar, yet it isnt very customizeable. Overall it is the fastest, and i really like how it opens each tab as a new process. It also has a nice home page that organizes bookmarks and frequently visited sites. It has a download tab built in which is nice. It is the fastest of the bunch, but cant block ads like ff3 without forcing the addition of adblock via coding. I really like firefoxs addons. My dell mini 9 has no apostrophe key so excuse my punctuation. chrome is good.

Opera i just got a few days ago, It has a built in torrent downloader which is very neat. It has plenty of customizeable buttons in the toolbar, and overall it has the FULLEST fullscreen ever. this is great for netbooks. Once i was viewing a high def photo fullscreen and dragging it around via mouse gestures and middle click. I was in fullscreen mode, and when i right clicked, the menu didnt have a way to exit fs mode. I couldnt f11 out and for a second i felt like a moron stuck on a fullscreen image. Very nice fullscreen to sum it up. heheh. opera runs quick too, and uses one process for multiple tabs. Very customizeable, takes some learning to get used to mouse gestures. Its about as fast as chrome2 with more options.

Im using mostly chrome for speed and simplicity. Firefox is second for addons and customizations. opera and safari are backups, and ie7 is used only when needed.
 

Ksyder

Golden Member
Feb 14, 2006
1,829
1
81
just to add, you can use your google bookmarks in opera (without the use of the google toolbar) if you are logged into your google account and then go to google.com/bookmarks/ and they will show up there. You can manipulate them through the nav bar on the left. Not as convenient, but very handy nonetheless
 

The Keeper

Senior member
Mar 27, 2007
291
0
76
Personally I like Chrome a lot, especially the new 2.0 beta. It's so much faster than any other browser I've tried so far. Except Opera which I don't like at all and thus haven't bothered trying lately.

Anyway, Firefox's addons aren't a big selling point to me because I use none. That's right, I don't use any of the addons. They're handy at times but they don't have anything I couldn't live without, or even need on daily basis. In this light Chrome is to me exactly what the doctor ordered. A fast, lean browser. The only problems Chrome has are some bugs here and there but they're getting squashed at steady pace, it is a very new browser after all.

Unless 2.0 beta (and eventually final) has major bugs, I'm not going back to Firefox. I've only used 2.0 beta a few days though.
 

Crow550

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2005
2,381
5
81
Originally posted by: DoubleHelix747
Originally posted by: Crow550
OpenDNS seems to make things faster too. I use it with Firefox.

Try it with chrome and see if it goes any faster? lol.

http://www.opendns.com

I might try some other browsers, however I have add-ons for firefox I just love.

What about Safari 4?

Could you please explain in layman's term what OpenDNS does? I looked at their website and all I get is that it unbundles DNS from ISP. I don't know what that implies but my guess is that it is some sort of traffic redirection. And why would that be faster?

Here is a quick explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qws9APME4C4

This explains it pretty well and goes into detail of what all it does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0CVgZqvhHs
 

Blayze

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2000
6,152
0
0
Used Firefox for ages, but recently started using Chrome. I still use Firefox some (extensions), but Chrome is quickly replacing it as my main browser.
 

martensite

Senior member
Aug 8, 2001
284
0
0
I never liked FF or Chrome the first time I tried them.
It's always Opera for me.
And IE7 for those nasty banking sites that refuse to work with opera.

 

Psynaut

Senior member
Jan 6, 2008
653
1
0
Opera has always been my favorite since I first tried it 3 or 4 years ago, but I use FF mostly for the Add-ons. IE crashes on me every time I open more than about 8 pages, or at least once a day even if I don't, so I won't use it... period. Chrome was ok, but when I switched to Windows 7 beta it wouldn't run at all. Maybe the new beta will work with RC1 coming out; I can try it again. So, basically, I have lots of pages open in both FF and Opera at all times and both are usually open on my desktop.
 

A5

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2000
4,902
5
81
If Chrome/Safari/Opera had ABP, then I'd use those. But Firefox is the only one with that, so I use it. 3.1b3 is pretty decent.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
ff cuz of extensions for mostuses
chrome for gmail/google stuff
opera has many behaviors/general layout that bug me so i never use it
 

Ausm

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,213
14
81
I use FF most of the time because of the extension but it does render a little on the slow side.

Chrome is to stripped down not enough features for me.

Opera- meh it's ok but some of the sites i hit don't work properly on it.

I have been checking out IE 8 and it looks promising to me so far.
 

Crow550

Platinum Member
Oct 4, 2005
2,381
5
81
Originally posted by: A5
If Chrome/Safari/Opera had ABP, then I'd use those. But Firefox is the only one with that, so I use it. 3.1b3 is pretty decent.


Well.... It's questionable how legal & moral ad blocking on sites is?

That's why other browsers don't have it.