Im just wondering which web browser I should use.
Firefox. Much more options, more websites support it, and the amount of customization that Firefox has from the community is alot bigger then the amount that Opera offers.
Take your pick, really. I support Firefox because it is open and free, meaning that it is open for all to use and modify and free of cost and of use restrictions. Both are considered by many to be safer and superior than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser that comes with Windows.
firefox is way better :tup:
ok Ill stick with firefox.
I’m one of the odd people that prefers Opera. However, I have to agree with many people that it does suffer some problems with sites that aren’t designed for it. Opera has amazing support for standards, but with fancy Ajax, it won’t work with some sites that aren’t coded specifically for it. Despite how much I like it, I typically use Firefox (which is what I’m using to post this right now) just because so many sites that I use frequently (Yahoo Mail) don’t work with Opera.
Im an Opera user myself. I beleive firefox is faster/easier to set up and get going then Opera, but Opera is better for customization and organization. BUt like Manx said There both much more convenient then Microsofts internet explorer.
just get mouse gestures add-on for firefox.
I also use Firefox. Ad Block Plus is the main reason.
Opera, except when I want to read Japanese on a site. Faster, looks better without having to customize it much, doesn’t eat resources (although I’m not sure if firefox still does or not)
Definately Opera. The performance is great. The userscript buttons make it very easy to add complex new features to it. Skinning is lightweight and easy. Mouse gestures (still a plus just for Opera until the firefox add-on’s performance is improved to be not so sluggish).
I run it on all my comps from my newer laptop and desktop with XP to my P3 450 running linux and the performance is very fast on all of them.
Also, when I develop websites, I’ll almost always develop them looking at them mostly in Opera and then tweak them to work correctly in FF and IE. If I do the work looking mostly at IE or FF first the work to get it looking right on the other browsers increases.
And Opera also provides me with a fun browser for my Wii, and a great free browser for my BlackBerry.
Also, for old systems or embedded systems with few resources, Opera is an easy way to have a good web browser, Email, IRC, and newsgroups in a small package.
ok Ill try Opera out :tup:
I use Opera but I have to admit Opera isn’t for everyone. Learning curve will be steeper than Firefox for those who haven’t uesd it yet, but its fully customizable and comes loaded for bear right out of the box so its probably going to be intimidating for most people. Firefox is much simpler, albeit heavier even before the addons but easier to use. Opera is more for power users and Firefox if you just want a browser and then worry about other functions later by adding on to it.
hey Can I see what your setup look like? Here’s mine: http://img.techpowerup.org/080122/screen.jpg
I only got the image drop down and authormode drop down button with the back forward and reload on the left. Fit to width button and Zoom on the right. Status bar and Tabs appear only when needed.
Only custom shortcut I changed was CTRL+N for new tab instead of new window. I love the F12 shortcut. I don’t even use mouse gestures. I should really start using it.
Custom search engine is awesome as well.
Tests have shown Opera to be a little faster and a little less RAM-hungry than Firefox, but in my opinion that’s not too noticeable. Firefox also beats the pants off of Opera in terms of customizability, it’s like not even close, I mean think of something you like about Opera, and you can put it on Firefox too; the tradeoff is that while Opera comes with more features loaded on, with Firefox you have to search, although it’s very easy to do so. That’s why I use Firefox, because I can make it into whatever I want.
Opera.
A lot of stuff you have to DL in the form of plug-ins is standard with it.
And while the plug-ins are great for firefox, eventually, it just gets bogged down.
When I open firfox, it just feels like a lifetime before the screen pops up ( when compared to opera)
whoa thats awesome!
Firefox has SRK Toolbar Plugin, Opera does not.
FireFox wins.
I used to use Opera, but eventually switched to Firefox. Firefox out-of-the-box is useless, but plugins make all the difference. I personally use 30 of them, and while about six or seven are just adding functionality that’s present in Opera, and a couple more are possible to do in Opera with some creative userscripts etc, the vast majority are stuff that I find immensely useful and AREN’T possible in Opera.
My setup is pretty straight forward:
It’s breeze simplified skin with a few user script buttons added. On the top left there’s a smiley for browser ID. If it’s smiling it’s Opera. If it’s frowning it shows up as Mozilla. If it’s crying it shows up as IE. I didn’t pick the icons, lol, I wouldn’t make Mozilla a frowny. The reload button is custom, it has a little dropdown menu on it to make it easy to do “Reload every…” (used for woot-offs and waiting for DNS changes to take effect).
It has FF and IE icons to open the current page in those browsers. The eye next to the IE icon switches the current tab to use the IE rendering engine. It sucks when you have to use IE but it’s nice to keep it in a single tab in Opera. And some mouse gestures still work that way.
The button with the letter i on it opens the error console. There’s a print button that brings up the dialog box instead of just sending it straight to the default printer, and the checkbox enables/disables plugins.
On the right there’s a magnifying glass. That resets the zoom to 100% since I zoom in and out a lot (hold right mouse button + scroll wheel to zoom in and out).
I pretty much only use the breeze simplified button because it is so simple and clean. The text is bold, which it shouldn’t be, but that’s because of the skin I just applied to Windows (this is XP).
The only other change I make is to add the >> to the download manager side panel to make it easier to open a tab with the download manager in it.