Which Browser is better ?

LabAnimal

LabAnimal

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Coming from Internet Explorer, i've switched to Firefox. Absolutely loving it, however, it has its quirks. Some pages don't load well in Firefox, thus i use a plugin to load pages within Firefox with IE which solves most of the problems.

I'm about to install Opera for the first time and see how it functions etc.

So would like to hear from other people which browser they think is better and Why!!!

1. Internet Explorer
2. Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2
3. Netscape
4. Neo Browser
5. Firefox
6. Opera
7. Maxthon


Miss any???
 
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NetCaptor - first tabbed browser. I used it for years, plenty of features, but it isn't free, and it's no longer being developed.

Maxthon - incredibly full-featured, slick, seems generally very stable. Like NetCaptor, it uses the IE rendering engine, so it's IE compatible. Really good ad-blocking capabilities. It's hugely cusomisable. This is the one I use nowadays.

I like Opera - it's solid, and renders pages really nicely. It seems fast and feels slick.

I'm not very keen on Firefox - I have tried it a few times, but I find the interface clumsy, and you need to track down and install 5000 plug-ins to make it usable.
 
Gonna try out Maxthon as well - thankyou for that tip.

Would like to hear from more people pls : )
 
Okay. I must admit, Maxthon is VERY nice.
The problem i'm having now (perhaps you know how to customize it to work the same)

lets say i'm on http://www.digitalblasphemy.com and they display several backgrounds i want to download. I used to be able to click with the Scroll wheel button on my mouse on each picture, and firefox would open it in a new tab for each picture. then its a case of rightclick and save each background. The other way i used to do this, is hold down control and click on each pic and it would also open new tabs - this also doesnt work with Maxthon. It opens 1 new tab, and each click changes that window's pic, not open new windows for each pic!.

With Maxthon, it doesnt do this which is irritating! - any idea how i can customize this???
 
It would Appear Opera does much the same as Firefox, but it has a very "quick" or "Simple" feel about it. I would have to say Firefox is better. Feels more like a Power user's Browser... however Maxthon no doubt would put Firefox to shame. I think if i could get Maxthon to do the few things i'm used to in Firefox the same, then i'd gladly switch. But for now, until i can figure out how to get Maxthon to do what i need it to do, i'm sticking with Firefox. : )
 
FireFox ... been using it since it was called Phoenix in the early days ... it is utterly extensible, plenty of usefull addons, most importantly does not leak spyware and simply puts everything else to shame.

Most other browsers are just crappy shells that is built around the IE engine like Maxthon ... utterly confusing and kludgy and it seems like the people working on it are all DeviantArt adherents ... the more buttons and menu options you can cram on the browser chrome .... the better it is.

Opera is much like driving a Volvo car ... it is rather odd but that appeals to some people.
 
LabAnimal said:
Okay. I must admit, Maxthon is VERY nice.
The problem i'm having now (perhaps you know how to customize it to work the same)

lets say i'm on http://www.digitalblasphemy.com and they display several backgrounds i want to download. I used to be able to click with the Scroll wheel button on my mouse on each picture, and firefox would open it in a new tab for each picture. then its a case of rightclick and save each background. The other way i used to do this, is hold down control and click on each pic and it would also open new tabs - this also doesnt work with Maxthon. It opens 1 new tab, and each click changes that window's pic, not open new windows for each pic!.

With Maxthon, it doesnt do this which is irritating! - any idea how i can customize this???
Click to expand...

I went there with Maxthon. When I use shift-click on the pictures in the gallery, each opens in a new tab, as it should. If you use "Open links in new windows" (4th button on the bottom status bar), all links open their own tabs. Is that what you're thinking of?
 
Well I use a combo of IE 6 and Firefox.

IE 6 has ease of use, simplicity, universality, and all that. It's also blisteringly quick. I like the fact that it doesn't have too many features.

Firefox is my backup for when I need "protection".
 
I'd go with FF as well.

You can customize the browser so much that it's basically YOUR browser. For example I have the iFox theme and have the following extensions:

FasterFox (not sure if it's made a difference on my ADSL yet)
Google Toolbar
Grease Monkey (user-script)
Flashgot
 
its like asking which note is better... this R100 or that R100 ? Its personal pref. Anything but IE.
 
Claymore said:
I went there with Maxthon. When I use shift-click on the pictures in the gallery, each opens in a new tab, as it should. If you use "Open links in new windows" (4th button on the bottom status bar), all links open their own tabs. Is that what you're thinking of?
Click to expand...


nope not the same.
 
nGAGEd55 said:
IMO, Opera is the best, its fast and has tons of features already built in.
Click to expand...

Opera seems much the same with a few nicer skins here and there. feels faster, but what really got me was the hiddious font for the shell itself. Feels too cluttered - too big.

I'm still convinced Firefox is better.
 
LabAnimal said:
Opera seems much the same with a few nicer skins here and there. feels faster, but what really got me was the hiddious font for the shell itself. Feels too cluttered - too big.

I'm still convinced Firefox is better.
Click to expand...
Just change the font (Preferences > Advanced > Fonts), mine is the standard windows font.

IMO it's much less cluttered, and it has so many features built in which you have to download seperately for firefox.

Its caching of images is also much better than the others, and when you press back it doesnt have to load the page again.

Another thing that I like bout Opera is that it has mail and IRC clients built in.

One thing I really dont like about firefox is that it uses lots of memory, and slows down after a while.
 
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Get Opera, especially Opera 9, its amazingly quick, especially when set to redraw instantly and update time is set to 0 or something around 100.

Its chaching is also a huge draw card in comparison to Firefox's. In FF I find you end up reloading a page when you click back, it takes a long time on worse connections. Opera is completley instant, same with loading chached pages. It also has Bittorrent built in, nice tabbed browsing which can work better than having a empty tab bar in FF half the time.

It also uses less recourses, doesnt require half the exstensions, but they are available, just slightly harder to use. Also getting widgets incorperated with Opera 9. It is the power users browser, much more so that FF, FF has been made to suit anyone, Opera is more for power users who want speed.

I definately wouldnt use IE7 beta as a permanent browser, its just not as good as Opera or even FF with exstensions, it also seems a bit unstable to me in the current beta, alot of crashes.

Cant really comment on the others, besides that I think they are worse than Opera or FF, I personally didnt find Maxathon so attractive and it uses the same shell as IE, not a good idea.
 
FF is good. Opera is also very nice, but one thing I dislike it that new tabs get the focus. (Have looked around to see if I can change this, but cannot find anything - anyone know how?).

IE sux, plain and simple. IE 6 and below has no tabs, and IE 7 is buggy and sh1te. I have one page that loads a certain java script for example, and I get a flickering tool tip like thingy on EVERY tab - this tooltip belongs to the tab with the script. Also, AJAX is a nightmare on IE - scripts run 100% on Opera and FF and run randomly on IE.

One thing in FF that annoys though is scroll bars in the <div> element. The mousewheel does not function, but it works as expected in IE and Opera.
 
FireFox
Opera - Lost out becasue it wasn't initially free....


IE - only when some plonker has writtena site that won't work in FF or O
 
FF I hardly ever get spyware and other nonsense since i started using it.
 
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