Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: ShadowGorrath on May 22, 2008, 01:20:21 pm

Title: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: ShadowGorrath on May 22, 2008, 01:20:21 pm
Out of the basic ones, which does most appeal to you ?

Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer

To me, it's Opera. I don't undertsand why is it so underapreciated ? It has the highest performance, the current version is just as compatible as IE or Firefox, has a lot of stuff for it, very customisable, etc.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 22, 2008, 01:32:01 pm
Ahhh Shiz-nit. I clicked Opera by accident.. I use Firefox, but my heart belongs to IE, i dunno why. It just does :nod:
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: achtung on May 22, 2008, 02:04:31 pm
I would use Opera if it were open source.  I'm just a douche like that.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Ghostavo on May 22, 2008, 03:04:11 pm
Opera, now that I'm used to the speed dial I can't change to anything else.  :D
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Talon 1024 on May 22, 2008, 03:45:31 pm
I prefer Firefox, but the best browser is one that complies with web standards, such as Opera and Safari. (if you have the latest WebKit builds)

Test your browser here (http://www.acidtests.org)
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: jdjtcagle on May 22, 2008, 03:49:06 pm
Firefox
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 22, 2008, 04:55:11 pm
I prefer Firefox, but the best browser is one that complies with web standards, such as Opera and Safari. (if you have the latest WebKit builds)

Test your browser here (http://www.acidtests.org)

Safari is less standards-compliant than is Firefox.  Safari's CSS support is crap.

In terms of W3C-compliance, Opera is only marginally better than Firefox and only on more obscure functions.  For everyday matters, both are virtually identical.  Opera is considerably more secure natively than is Firefox, but Firefox is open-source, has much more extensibility, and is easily configured to run in a more secure fashion.

In short, if you're using Opera or Firefox you're doing just fine, and you're light-years ahead of IE.  Of the two, however, I recommend Opera for basic users (due to its security) and Firefox for more advanced users (due to its extensibility).
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Talon 1024 on May 22, 2008, 07:49:47 pm
Safari is less standards-compliant than is Firefox.  Safari's CSS support is crap.

Without the latest WebKit, it is.  It all depends on if your WebKit build is up-to-date.  If you use a really old WebKit build, you won't score 100/100 on the Acid3 test.  If you use a WebKit nightly build, you will score 100/100 on the Acid3 test.

I wish there was a linux browser that uses Webkit... :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: IceFire on May 22, 2008, 07:54:44 pm
Firefox.

Enjoying Firefox 3 RC1 which is fantastic in my opinion.  Faster, lighter, does everything I need it to. Nothing more.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Eishtmo on May 22, 2008, 08:29:15 pm
I use Opera, I like Opera, but it does have some issues.  Recently I've been getting graphical problems with Warpstorm, which is annoying.

But I'll keep using it because it just plain damn works.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Falcon on May 22, 2008, 09:43:03 pm
Firefox

Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Polpolion on May 22, 2008, 09:44:16 pm
Pretty much a tie for firefox/opera. I get graphics issues with the mainpage highlights with Opera, but Firefox has no mouse gestures or speed dial.

IExploer IMHO has horrible tab functionality, the interface is ugly, it's slow and vulnerable, but every website does work on it.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: IceFire on May 22, 2008, 09:55:12 pm
Firefox has mouse gestures and speed dial if you install those plugins :)
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Goober5000 on May 22, 2008, 10:52:21 pm
I never tried Opera because back when I decided to stop using IE, Opera came with ads.  But nowadays I'm happy enough with Firefox that I don't really have any motivation to look at other browers, even though Opera is now ad-free.  It used to be that way with IE too, back in the day: no reason to switch, because it suited me just fine.

Inertia is pretty powerful.  Generally people need both a push and a pull to change long-held habits.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 22, 2008, 11:17:37 pm
On behalf of the admins, I think we all know what sandwich will choose :rolleyes:

What I really hate about Firefox though is the fact that you can't resume downloads if your internet craps out (like my "new" router does every ****ing hour).
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Solatar on May 22, 2008, 11:31:21 pm
I'm in the same boat as Goober. I've got several friends that use Opera, but like him when I first discovered the non-IE world, Opera had ads. I think that just left a bad taste in my mouth that has stuck for some reason.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Herra Tohtori on May 23, 2008, 02:19:13 am
Opera has the best functionality out-of-box and it is more standard-compliant than FF, but Firefox can be made to work in really similar fashion with pretty little effort...and there are other browsers that pass the Acid2 test (like Konqueror and Safari) and neither are in this poll so the importance of passing Acid2 test is questionable in this context - it does not make the whole browser automatically better than those that don't pass, eventhough standard-compliance is a definite bonus.

Also. Opera has a history of getting into 100% CPU load with javascripted pages, even when said scripts should be doing nothing, so that's kind of a minus... same with some menus (like Hard Light's), there are some gliches in how Opera renders them.

So I'd say that Opera has the edge on immediate usability, layout, efficiency and downloading system, while Firefox has significantly better customizability, is open source, efficiency difference is so small that on modern PC's with CPU to spare it hardly matters... And there's a portable version of Firefox, which is dang awesome to have with you.

I used Opera for the longest time, but it just kept putting the proc to 100% on the pages I frequented to, so I swapped to Firefox, spent less than an hour getting it customized (All-In-One Gestures, AdBlockPlus, Free Download Manager plugin and Gradient Brushed Metal theme)... and now it works remarkably same to Opera, using the same mouse gestures.

So... I'd say there's no such thing as best browser, but IE is certainly one of the worst, following truely the software engineering principles behind Vista.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: ShadowGorrath on May 23, 2008, 04:49:09 am
One fella did a test a while ago. He opened 5 pages on Opera, Firefox, IE and a few others. Opera opened the pages the quickest, and used up the least memory ( RAM ) to have them open.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: karajorma on May 23, 2008, 04:58:03 am
Ahhh Shiz-nit. I clicked Opera by accident.. I use Firefox, but my heart belongs to IE, i dunno why. It just does :nod:

It's actually part of the MS EULA for Windows. Bill Gates also has rights to your spleen, kidneys, a 50% stake in your colon and droit de seigneur with all your male issue.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on May 23, 2008, 09:52:39 am
I dunno. I'm using IE7 and I haven't got any major troubles with it so far. I haven't tried the other ones (I didn't even know Opera), so I won't vote.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: castor on May 23, 2008, 11:01:46 am
Using FF here. Opera uses KDE under linux, so its a no go for me.
Epiphany seemed nice too (gone a long way the last few years) and lighter than FF, but it still has  some rendering issues that kept me from switching.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Rian on May 23, 2008, 11:16:27 am
I mostly use Firefox these days, but sometimes it chokes on my school’s websites and I have to use Safari. It’s great otherwise, though.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 23, 2008, 11:59:25 am
Firefox 3 here. FF3>Opera>FF2. I like the plugins/open-source-ness of FF.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 25, 2008, 01:26:28 pm
Ahhh Shiz-nit. I clicked Opera by accident.. I use Firefox, but my heart belongs to IE, i dunno why. It just does :nod:

It's actually part of the MS EULA for Windows. Bill Gates also has rights to your spleen, kidneys, a 50% stake in your colon and droit de seigneur with all your male issue.

I really should read the EULA more often before clicking next like a lemming......
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: IceFire on May 25, 2008, 06:33:35 pm
I mostly use Firefox these days, but sometimes it chokes on my school’s websites and I have to use Safari. It’s great otherwise, though.
It chokes on a school website?  Safari is indeed quite fast but I have never encountered a website where there was a significant difference in performance.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: jr2 on May 26, 2008, 02:41:11 am
On behalf of the admins, I think we all know what sandwich will choose :rolleyes:

What I really hate about Firefox though is the fact that you can't resume downloads if your internet craps out (like my "new" router does every ****ing hour).

FlashGot (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/220) plugin + FlashGet (http://www.flashget.com/index_en.htm) Download accelerator FTW.  Oh, you could also install the DownThemAll (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/201) plugin if you want, that's a download accelerator that integrates into Firefox, IIRC... I have them both, and FlashGot will ask if I want to use FlashGet, or I can choose DownThemAll, or just "Save To Disk" (use FF's normal download mode).
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: ShadowGorrath on May 26, 2008, 02:44:32 am
With Opera you can always resume broken downloads. Unless the server doesn't allow that.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Fury on May 26, 2008, 05:21:08 am
Browsers and webdesigners, it is an equation that collapses on itself.

IE is by far the most compatible browser. Firefox close second. After that compatibility is thrown out of window. Firefox can thank its second place for its popularity, the rest don't have that luxury, not even Safari.

IE6 was the no-frills basic browser with good compatibility but poor security. I guess IE7 improved on that while still attaining the top place in compatibility. I guess we'll see how things turn out when IE8 comes out. After all it is supposed to be highly standards compliant and uses new rendering engine. Perhaps compatibility of other browsers will also improve with this.

I loved Firefox because it was a fast, lightweight no-frills browser, just like IE but without the security issues. As years passed it got bulkier. While it is still my #1 browser, it just doesn't seem like the good old Firefox anymore. Thank god Firefox extensions are optional, as I don't use any of them.

Opera somehow never appealed to me, the interface always felt clunky and rendering slow. Well, it is still a good browser but seems to only appeal to the minority. Safari has pretty same problems as Opera. Slightly slower rendering and odd interface kinks. The rest even less used browsers I won't even go into.

Webdesigners, you either love or hate them. They are the ones who make the websites you visit, but they are also the ones who make their sites to work only on IE, Windows Media Player, etc, etc. So much for cross-platform compatibility.

There should be fourth option in the poll; Asparagus. I would have voted that.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 26, 2008, 08:22:21 am
With Opera you can always resume broken downloads. Unless the server doesn't allow that.
FF3 can do that. And I much prefer FreeDownloadManager to the other options.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: DeepSpace9er on May 26, 2008, 10:15:02 am
I use IE7 with the IE7 Pro plugin. It adds gestures, faster same-page word search, download manager, spell checker, this super drag and drop feature that allows you to click a url, drag and drop it and it opens into a new tab, and about a dozen other cool things.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Admiral_Stones on May 26, 2008, 11:38:23 am
Safari 3 is actually mind-blazingly fast (on a mac, that is).
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: jr2 on May 26, 2008, 12:39:50 pm

I loved Firefox because it was a fast, lightweight no-frills browser, just like IE but without the security issues. As years passed it got bulkier. While it is still my #1 browser, it just doesn't seem like the good old Firefox anymore. Thank god Firefox extensions are optional, as I don't use any of them.


...So, in other words, you're going to love FF3?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: DeepSpace9er on May 26, 2008, 02:17:23 pm
Quote
Safari 3 is actually mind-blazingly fast (on a mac, that is)

Your computer specs, internet connection, and whats running in the background have more to do with browser loading speed than OS.

My preference would be: IE7 w/Pro, Firefox, Opera, Safari. Safari doesnt seem to load the pages the same.. something always seems off, and it chokes the most with graphic and flash intensive pages.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 26, 2008, 05:45:30 pm
This super drag and drop feature that allows you to click a url, drag and drop it and it opens into a new tab,
That's nothing compared to the middle-click ability in firefox that allows you to simply click the link using the mouse wheel and open the URL in a new tab.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 26, 2008, 05:46:19 pm
You can do that in Opera... Or IE7...
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: DeepSpace9er on May 26, 2008, 08:19:08 pm
Yeah.. but pushing the mouse wheel in as a button seems much more unnatural a motion than left clicking and flicking your wrist to the side.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 26, 2008, 08:40:14 pm
:wtf:
It just seems like a button press to me...
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: CP5670 on May 26, 2008, 10:10:36 pm
I like Firefox mainly because of the excellent Adblock extension. Many sites are nearly unusable these days without it. The way it remembers and restores the tabs you had open in the event of a crash is also pretty handy. I've encountered a few sites on which rendering, especially while scrolling, is very slow, but they are rare.

However, Firefox does sometimes irritate me, especially a particular bug that makes it intermittently delete all your settings and bookmarks. I've been getting this for years now on multiple systems and I have to keep a backup of its entire user file cache to fix it. The same thing even happened to me on Thunderbird recently and I wasted a good hour restoring everything to how it used to be.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: IceFire on May 26, 2008, 11:51:34 pm
CP, whats the bug exactly?  Figured out what causes it?  I've never heard of that nor ever had it happen to me on 7-8 computers that I regularly maintain and have Firefox/Thunderbird on.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: CP5670 on May 27, 2008, 01:55:30 am
When I close down the program, there is a (very small) chance that upon starting it again, everything related to my profile is gone and has reverted to the defaults. This includes bookmarks, browser settings and even the last used size of the Firefox window. It's highly random and I can't think of any reason why it might be happening. It happens around once every two or three months. The problem seems to be that it thinks you've switched to a different Windows user when you actually haven't, which makes it reset everything.

I have seen complaints about it on other forums, although not recently. It was once on their bug database and they supposedly fixed it with version 2.0, but I've still gotten it several times since then. The only reliable workaround is to periodically backup everything in Firefox's profile directory (in Documents and Settings) and dump that back over the broken files when the bug occurs.

I got the same thing in Thunderbird a while ago. I had no profile backup of that program (since it had never happened before), so I had to set up all my email accounts over again, and it took some effort to get it to detect all my existing emails again.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: ShadowGorrath on May 27, 2008, 02:04:04 am
Opera never had this error. The only time I lost everything was when I used the chdsk ( or whatever it's called ) utility.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 27, 2008, 01:03:24 pm
Are you using FF3?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Admiral_Stones on May 27, 2008, 02:21:54 pm
Quote
Safari 3 is actually mind-blazingly fast (on a mac, that is)

Your computer specs, internet connection, and whats running in the background have more to do with browser loading speed than OS.

My preference would be: IE7 w/Pro, Firefox, Opera, Safari. Safari doesn't seem to load the pages the same.. something always seems off, and it chokes the most with graphic and flash intensive pages.

My iMac is a like ~2 year old 1.9 GHz (single core, mind you) pile o' slowness (by today) with a 128 MB GFX card. Usually DLing multiple torrents and files on two apps simultaneously.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: CP5670 on May 27, 2008, 05:26:36 pm
Are you using FF3?

No, I'm on 2. Is there any fix in 3 that might be relevant to this?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 27, 2008, 05:40:27 pm
Well if it was supposedly fixed in 2 it's probably fixed in 3. And besides that, 3 is a lot cooler.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: CP5670 on May 27, 2008, 05:42:15 pm
Not really. If they think it's been fixed already, that makes it very likely that nothing has changed in 3. :p
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 27, 2008, 05:43:14 pm
Are you using logic against me?

I'd get FF3 anyways, it has a lot of other improvements. And who knows...
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: jr2 on May 28, 2008, 12:56:14 am
When I close down the program, there is a (very small) chance that upon starting it again, everything related to my profile is gone and has reverted to the defaults. This includes bookmarks, browser settings and even the last used size of the Firefox window. It's highly random and I can't think of any reason why it might be happening. It happens around once every two or three months. The problem seems to be that it thinks you've switched to a different Windows user when you actually haven't, which makes it reset everything.

I have seen complaints about it on other forums, although not recently. It was once on their bug database and they supposedly fixed it with version 2.0, but I've still gotten it several times since then. The only reliable workaround is to periodically backup everything in Firefox's profile directory (in Documents and Settings) and dump that back over the broken files when the bug occurs.

I got the same thing in Thunderbird a while ago. I had no profile backup of that program (since it had never happened before), so I had to set up all my email accounts over again, and it took some effort to get it to detect all my existing emails again.

I wonder if that could be related to a bug that a friend of mine gets... her FF Portable periodically dumps all of her extensions.. they are still listed, but don't work correctly.  I find it very odd, as I've used FF Portable for around a year or two, and haven't had that happen.  I think I have had normal FF dump my profile once, but I can't say for sure.  Prolly M$ agents in black suits with special EMI FF disturbance devices.  :lol:

Are you using logic against me?

I'd get FF3 anyways, it has a lot of other improvements. And who knows...

:yes:  I always do that.  If there's a new version out, it prolly fixes some stuff.  Ofc, prolly other stuff is broken, but w/e, that's life.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: karajorma on May 28, 2008, 04:53:10 pm
I use FF cause I find it the better browser due to extensions.

Even if I didn't I wouldn't use Opera. The person who first introduced me to it kept pronouncing it as Oprah and unfortunately it's kinda got stuck in my head that way. Using FF leave me less chance to embarrassing myself in front of other techies. :p
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: achtung on May 28, 2008, 04:56:52 pm
I use FF cause I find it the better browser due to extensions.

Even if I didn't I wouldn't use Opera. The person who first introduced me to it kept pronouncing it as Oprah and unfortunately it's kinda got stuck in my head that way. Using FF leave me less chance to embarrassing myself in front of other techies. :p

Couldn't you just blame that on a thick accent?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 28, 2008, 04:57:15 pm
I use FF cause I find it the better browser due to extensions.
QFT.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: ShadowGorrath on May 28, 2008, 04:58:39 pm
Extensions like what ?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 28, 2008, 07:06:48 pm
AdBlockPlus?
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 28, 2008, 07:15:48 pm
StumbleUpon
Clipmarks
Download Statusbar
Gmail Notifier
Better Gmail
IE Tab (view sites as IE would)
...
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 28, 2008, 07:30:57 pm
:yes:
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Mars on May 28, 2008, 07:36:38 pm
Konqueror...

Or Firefox, if I'm using Windows (most of the time lately)
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: haloboy100 on May 28, 2008, 08:15:15 pm
Konqueror...
How is the KDE project going, anyway? I've heard a lot about it.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 28, 2008, 08:31:17 pm
4.0 should soon be released for Windows.

Although personally, I like GNOME better. KDE doesn't have the right feel. It's too cartoony.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Mars on May 29, 2008, 01:39:43 am
Cartoony?

I'm more concerned with the actual UI, the software included and underlying toolkit (Qt 3 and 4 and GTK+ respectively) than the graphics they ship with by default, that's what GTK-look and KDE-look are for. Most distributions change the default appearances anyway.

GNOMEs UI seems over simplified, and it's relatively hard to change the finer aspects of it, usually it involves heavy use of a text editor. Kcontrol for KDE 3 makes it pretty easy to change such settings

Amarok and Konqueror, all by themselves would be enough for me to stick with KDE. GNOME runs both of them very slowly because it uses GTK+, not Qt, so the libraries involved aren't preloaded. There was recently a clone of Amarok for GTK+ called exaile, but I still prefer Amarok.

Anyway KDE 4.0 is basically a giant beta, what you should be looking for is KDE 4.1, hopefully most of the bugs will be hammered out by then.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Jeff Vader on May 29, 2008, 01:54:44 am
StumbleUpon
Clipmarks
Download Statusbar
Gmail Notifier
Better Gmail
IE Tab (view sites as IE would)
...
Forecastfox Enhanced. I've pimped the radar so that it shows a forecast map of Finland, downloaded from a TV network's site, updated every two hours. Handy.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: jr2 on May 29, 2008, 08:06:35 am
I made a thread for FF users to list their extensions if they want.  here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,54116.0.html).  ;)
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: achtung on May 30, 2008, 04:28:29 am
4.0 should soon be released for Windows.

wat
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Jeff Vader on May 30, 2008, 05:00:06 am
4.0 should soon be released for Windows.

wat
Agreed.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: colecampbell666 on May 30, 2008, 08:56:42 am
There are (or were) plans to make KDE 4.0 compatible with Windows.
Title: Re: Best Web Browser ?
Post by: Jeff Vader on May 30, 2008, 09:07:40 am
Ah. K then. At first I thought you had gone (temporarily) insane.