Browser choice?
Digging through the articles about the web browsers you can find a lot of opinions about which browser is better.
Opera users says: “My browser is faster, secure and easy customizable“,
Firefox users says: “My browser is more customizable, web services friendly, secure, and have open source code.“,
IE users says: “I’m using Internet Explorer” - forgive me, but I still can not find any benefits of using this browser. (I only run it when I have to check the pages).
Safari users says: “I have Mac and I’m using Safari” - I don’t have Mac so I can’t tell you more about this browser.
Let’s focus on the Opera and Firefox, and on which is better?
About the Opera:
- It is fast, very fast. If you are IE user you’ll probably see the difference. Opera is based on it’s own engine (not another Gecko clone) ,and have it’s own quality. I found that it is faster than Firefox while running lots of loops (in the same time) written in JavaScript.
- Have a mouse gestures (not extension needed) - however I never use that features.
- Mail client.
- Feed Reader - simple and the best, I didn’t find any extension for Firefox that could be better than this.
- Saving the last session - very useful.
- Easy customizable when it goes about profile files. (I use the same profiles for Opera installed on Windows XP and on Windows Vista (BETA), and everything is working great.)
- Fine download manager (sometimes not working properly).
- Widgets - nice, colored extension, something similar we will find in Windows Vista’s Sidebar. Useful for those who are using it :).
- Secure - Fraud protection, popup blocker, etc.
About the Firefox:
- Slowly start. Probably every Firefox user know about this “great” feature. I think, it is not very depended on the count of extensions.
- Very customizable. This have its good and bad sides. You can change almost everything and use those add-ons which you are really need. However, there are many extension and you will need a lots of time to find something suitable. After installation Firefox is very “empty”, have more than IE and less than Opera.
- Web services friendly. Yes! Especially when it goes about Google.
- Secure. But I trust more Opera.
- Profile files customization - same as in Opera.
- About the rest, well, depended on how you customize it and what extension will you choose.
So, Which is better? For the very regular user, the best will be the Opera. Install and browse, you don’t have to do anything else. But if you want play with customization and you are addicted to web services, toolbars etc, the best for you will be Gecko based browser.
I’m using Firefox and Opera when I’m online and offline while I’m checking the pages. Firefox have a very helpful webmaster extensions, Google toolbar and easy cooperate with Google services - notepad, gmail, etc. - so it is useful for such a thing).
As I said at the beginning of this post: I’m using IE only for testing the pages, not for regular browsing.
Of course if you are webmaster you’ll have to have them all on your disk…
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