Opera vs Firefox

[ekerazha]

Firefox with pipelining enabled and some tweaks is also faster than Opera.

Any benchmarks results backing this?

Just try it.

[HybridShadow]

I prefer IE

Simple no extra configuring crap needed anyplugins i need are already there

(Flash, Shockwave, Adobe Reader, Google)

I tried Opera it is a $hitload better than FF, opened faster, loads pages faster

I just dont like the ads and crap thats all, and i dont want to pay for it when IE works fine.

face it firefox is slow for most users that aren't "advanced" becaue they wouldnt know what pipelining is.

IE is great for everyone

Opera is great for every wanting alternaties to IE, or 'powerusers'

Firefox is just annoying now, with everyone saying its 'it and a bit' im sick of hearing it, ads about it everywhere, sounds like they are trying to take over

[jaclaz]

Just try it.

I did, as a matter of fact, I have both Firefox and Opera, on my machine Opera is faster. (the last character is a full stop)

If you have any GOOD, TESTED links about how to tweak Firefox to make it faster than Opera, I would like to try them.

however, how many people are running less than 2 gHz these days anyway?

I run at 1000 with my Via Epia, and it is not even a PIII, it's a VIA C3

jaclaz

[Scubar]

i go with opera everytime. its more customizable, more secure, and a hell of alot faster (yes even with firefox tweaked to the max) and uses alot less system resources.

the only downside is that if u dont want the banners you have to pay. but hey you get what you pay for.

[ekerazha]

Just try it.

I did, as a matter of fact, I have both Firefox and Opera, on my machine Opera is faster. (the last character is a full stop)

If you have any GOOD, TESTED links about how to tweak Firefox to make it faster than Opera, I would like to try them.

I have both Firefox and Opera too and on my machine Firefox is faster

These are the settings I use... they are TESTED by myself

I've not used random values (like many people do), these are ponderated values... and they are still not perfect, however I think they are pretty good.

network.http.max-connections = 48
network.http.max-connections-per-server = 16
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy = 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server = 4
network.http.pipelining = True
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests = 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining = True
network.http.request.max-start-delay = 0
nglayout.initialpaint.delay = 100
content.notify.backoffcount = 5
content.notify.interval = 100000
content.max.tokenizing.time = 300000
network.dns.disableIPv6 = True

^^

Edited August 29, 2005 by ekerazha

[Zxian]

I like opera too, but I am using FF for the last 2 years, just installing opera from time to time, on newer releases.

In the end, Opera is to unstable for me! And the it has many options, but also many that I don't use, so I prefer the plugins in FF!

Just a personal opinion!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Opera unstable? If that's the case, then you've probably got a bummed install of Flash or some other plugin. I've got Opera running pretty much all day, going to all sorts of sites, watching Quicktime, WMV, and Flash plugins, and it just runs rock solid all day. I'd suggest doing a complete reinstall and installing all the plugins from scratch. Remember... all the options that you use in Firefox are extensions that have to be added on top of the base install, meaning more memory usage and longer startups.

Maybe I am not good at tweaking Firefox, but to me Opera is still "the fastest browser on earth".

And at least there are two of us:

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

jaclaz

good article, but i think the guy is using totally unrealistic hardware for his testing (P3 800???). over 11 seconds to load FF??? i can almost say that i know for a fact that if i fired up my old P3 800 box with FF installed, that it would load in FAR less time. however, how many people are running less than 2 gHz these days anyway?

FF, on my box anyway, loads in a couple seconds, cold, and just over a second warm (with 16 extensions and several plug-ins).

Opera would probably be even faster i guess. IE, when i used to use it, popped up just about instantly, but that's because it loads itself in memory at logon.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*raises hand* I use an Althon 1GHz computer every now and then, and I can say for a fact that Firefox takes quite a while to load up cold. Even to dispute your question about the 2GHz comment, my workstation here at work is a dual 2.4GHz Xeon system with 1GB RAM, and Firefox still takes 6 seconds to load. I've got 3 extensions on it, but that's still a rediculous amount of time to load a browser. Not to mention that 18K memory usage with a blank tab open (no browsing done yet) compared to Opera with 5 tabs open (now, was up to 8 a while back) and using 30K is kinda nuts.

I prefer IE

Simple no extra configuring crap needed anyplugins i need are already there

(Flash, Shockwave, Adobe Reader, Google)

I tried Opera it is a $hitload better than FF, opened faster, loads pages faster

I just dont like the ads and crap thats all, and i dont want to pay for it when IE works fine.

face it firefox is slow for most users that aren't "advanced" becaue they wouldnt know what pipelining is.

IE is great for everyone

Opera is great for every wanting alternaties to IE, or 'powerusers'

Firefox is just annoying now, with everyone saying its 'it and a bit' im sick of hearing it, ads about it everywhere, sounds like they are trying to take over

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

IE usually does the trick for most people. With SP2, Spybot, and SpywareBlaster, you're pretty much in the clear as long as you don't go out of your way to find spyware. If it works for you...

I agree with your comment about the advertisements regarding Firefox... it's getting a bit annoying since they're basically doing the whole "we're better than IE because we're not IE" marketing, and not really helping people learn about internet security.

[ekerazha]

*raises hand* I use an Althon 1GHz computer every now and then, and I can say for a fact that Firefox takes quite a while to load up cold. Even to dispute your question about the 2GHz comment, my workstation here at work is a dual 2.4GHz Xeon system with 1GB RAM, and Firefox still takes 6 seconds to load. I've got 3 extensions on it, but that's still a rediculous amount of time to load a browser.

Have you ever listened about "prefetching"?

Edited August 29, 2005 by ekerazha

[Zxian]

Yes... I know about prefetching. The problem with that argument is that I'm running Windows 2000 here at work, and I don't have the authority or the licence to upgrade to XP, so that's out. Another argument is for systems that don't have the advanced prefetching ability that was added to the NT 5.1 kernel, such as Win2K (or earlier), Sparc, Linux, FreeBSD, or OSX.

Regardless of prefetching or not, Opera does load up faster than Firefox in any test. I don't know of a system in which this wouldn't be true. Several people I know have tested this and confirmed it.

[atomizer]

i guess it depends on how you weight the features of your browser -- to each their own. personally, i don't weight loading time or resources nearly as heavily as "fun" and "functionality". although i never used opera, i don't doubt at all that it loads fast, or even that it may render faster, or that it uses less resources. however, i am a tweaker and a lover of free, non-bloated, open source projects and that's why i love FF. it's slim out-of-the-box, and allows me to add only the functionality i want without forcing stuff i don't want down my throat. don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking opera. i just don't consider it much of a viable alternative for ME.

[rhythmnsmoke]

Just give me Tabbed Browsing...Or give me Death!

[Jeremy]

Just give me Tabbed Browsing...Or give me Death!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or maybe even... some fresh air?

[Jeremy]

I know this is an old thread but it's exactly what I need. I just did a side-by-side comparison of the latest versions of Opera and Firefox. To prove that I did this, here are the two images showing each browser with the same 10 tabs open:

Firefox - 10 Tabs

Opera - 10 Tabs

Now, here's the RAM usage.

The total filesize for Firefox is 40.7 MB (42,749,952 bytes).

The total filesize for Opera is 4.77 MB (5,005,312 bytes).

Observations during experiment:

- Firefox was significantly slower at loading webpages.

- Firefox's forward and back buttons were nowhere close to instantaneous.

- Firefox did not handle certain objects on webpages as Opera did out-of-the-box.

Final conclusion:

Even though is is a free, customizable, and secure browser compared to Internet Explorer, I would obviously recommend Opera over it for the following reasons:

- Opera has more functionality out of the box.

- Opera is far more customizable than other browsers.

- Opera has improved so much throughout development, whereas Firefox doesn't seemed to have as much. (I used it before I switched to Opera, year or so ago.)

- Opera is more secure than Firefox.

- Opera takes less RAM and HD space than Firefox (taking old machines with low-end hardware into consideration).

Feel free to comment!

[ripken204]

you forgot to add:

-opera is god!

[ricktendo]

I know Opera might use less memory than Firefox... But Opera, its Too Late, Firefox has alredy taken my Heart and I will never change no matter what.

Opera was too late in being Freeware, Firefox had a head start in making it into the hearts of Geeks everyware plus the cool Extentions are awesome too. Opera will never have as many cool addons as Firefox.

Edited September 2, 2006 by ricktendo64

[Aegis]

I use Opera because now that Firefox has the limelight, it's bound to be exploited more often. Security through obscurity.