Best Browser?

What is the overall best browser? Speed, security, features, look/feel, etc. I am deciding between firefox and opera right now and can't make up my mind. Please comment on the pros and cons of each browser.

 

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I may have answered my own question

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

 

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Opera is my favorite, but it still has trouble with some flash and javascript. 90% of the time I use Opera, the other 10% is Firefox, for the sites Opera doesn't feel like dealing with.

 

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I don't know about other browsers that much for I've only used Internet Explorer all of the time. I never have had any NOTICABLE problems unless it was with my server but you can't blame a browser for a servers laggy shit that sometimes happens now can you? I'm very pleased with IE7 and would highly recommend it for anyone to have and use no matter what speeds, lag or other things others "claim" to be better at doing.

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We had a thread ages ago about this, and the poll there said ,whilst firefox was the most popular, Opera was supposedly the fastest. Popular doesn't mean best, but until they invent the range of plugins for Firefox as for Opera, I'm sticking with the fox.

 

Firefox by far is the best browser. It is updated the most, most secure and best selection of plugins.

 

People like FF better because it has better costumatization, aka plug-ins. Otherwise if you need speed, the answer is obvious.
There is another solution, install both and see which one you like. It won't cost you anything...

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You forgot to mention that your computer is a $3000 watercooled quadro with 4 Giga RAM.

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Firefox 3 beta runs at twice the speed it did initially, google around, the info is there, it's a sunspider javascript benchmark. Aesthetically I'd choose opera, but functionally foxy does it!

 

I'm not a web developer, so I talk from the perspective of a heavy web user.
Opera has been the best browser for quite some time.

Without extensions, Firefox lacks many essential customizations that minimize annoyances while web browsing.

IE 7 is still retains no adblocking support, no automatic tab session restoration, and a really annoying UI for extended use of the program. In comparison to Firefox (with extensions installed) and Opera, using IE is a relative nightmare.

Firefox introduces the annoyance of searching for extensions that will fill the absence of features that should come with a web browser by default. When there is a major update to the browser, you are at the mercy of anonymous programmers who created the Firefox extensions you use - there is no guarantee of extended support for essential features obtained through extensions. This is Firefox's weakness. It is a crippling weakness.

Firefox is still a young program (relative to IE and Opera). It's still being refined, as evidenced by the ridiculous memory usage of Firefox 2 and the skin & extension system. I read an article where a Mozilla programmer said he couldn't figure out why Firefox was eating so much memory when s/he was tasked with tackling the problem for a mobile-lite version of Firefox. This is an example of program immaturity that will be fixed over time, but right now it exists.

Opera comes out of the box with essential features that minimize annoyances. It is the only browser for Windows that does this. From a user's point of view (not a theme developer's or programmer's) UI customization in Opera is easier than Firefox.
Bottom line is that Opera is easier to set up, use, and maintain over a long period of time.

 

Actually it is a non water cooled but with an overclocked 3.0 AMD FX processor with 4 Gigs of SDDRAM but that doesn't help the browser that much.

 

i got five gig dual quad core.

 

Firefox has a peculiar plugin, Fasterfox. I have dial-up, but with the combination of Fasterfox and Adblock almost everything loads as fast as if I had DSL.

 

Cosmic and john, your computers' fast speed is obviously a factor how statisfied you are with your webbrowsing. Try to use BOTH Opera and Firefox and you might see the difference. Of course if your computer AND internet are already fast you might not see much difference in the browser...

I personally like simplicity, and I use the internet for content and not because the browser has nice colors or whistles on it. Grazhoppa summarized it very well...

 

Seamonkey is BY FAR the best browser.

 

I use Avant and Firefox.

Avant is constructed on top of IE and is easier to use and has certain little things that are better. One example - when getting a printable version of some article, IE has no provision (in some cases) for getting a page count, while Avant always does.

I use Firefox because of its security reputation. It does have one annoying flaw. When I do a lot of surfing, the memory fills up to the point I just have to go through a resart or else everything slows down to a crawl. There is cute utility called Rubber Duck which allows you see at all times how much memory is available, among other things.

Correction: When Firefox slows down I don't have to restart the computer, I just have to exit Firefox and then reload it.

 

Funny you mentioned, because I have the same problem with Opera, but only on the laptop. I tried to set up both Operas the same way and I think I did, but still, the laptop gets filled and I have to clean the browser's memory manually. It still must be the set up, but I don't know what part...

If you have another computer, do you have the same problem with it?

 

I don't have another computer, so I don't what would happen. The computer I have is a desktop. Also note the correction to my original note.

 

Firefox has great ad-ons, but I use Opera for the overall greater reliablity.