Want a light web browser


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actually on my pc's i find that a clean firefox install, or with extentions to match the capabilities of opera, firefox usually uses more memory, and on every computer i've ever used opera always feels more "responisive".

Firefox (no extentions) 3 tabs, Opera 3 tabs

memusage.png

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OK, last comparison. I now hold the position that Opera isn't so much an all around low memory browser for all cases, but more of a browser that best uses the available RAM efficiently. In this screenshot, only two tabs were loaded in each browser: homepage (www.netvibes.com) and Neowin's homepage. And no, none of the browsers were minimized (if that was the case, Opera could shoot down to just 6 MB of RAM).

post-99705-1153497644_thumb.jpg

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actually on my pc's i find that a clean firefox install, or with extentions to match the capabilities of opera, firefox usually uses more memory, and on every computer i've ever used opera always feels more "responisive".

Firefox (no extentions) 3 tabs, Opera 3 tabs

Repeat that experiment again on a 512MB system and you may get identical results from both Firefox and Opera. When Firefox detects that you have oodles of memory it automatically increases its memory usage to provide additional performance.

That is why Firefox uses much less memory on this laptop that only has 128MB RAM installed. I could open those same three tabs and Firefox would use less memory than Opera.

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:huh:

I did another test. Firefox has just page open - my home page (www.netvibes.com), and right now it's taking up 26 MB of memory with nine extensions:

post-99705-1153436017_thumb.jpg

This must clearly be a hardware related issue or some hidden setting is turned on in my profile.

Think it's just the site i went on it needed so much memory :pinch:

At the mo i'm using 64MB on Neowin only with 6 extensions installed

What i don't get is on my extension list it looks funny (see pic)

post-64580-1153766091.jpg

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after trying my own tests on opera ff IE and maxathon i found out that Opera is the on that uses the less ram but i dont like the style of Opera and i am willing to give up Ram to use FF bc i ahve a gig and dont need alot of it when i am on m Browser

IE was the worst with 12 tabs about 150k

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I do belive Opera is one that you need..

I dont think it is fare to compare Opera with other browsers as Opera has more feature like an e-mail client,IRC chat client etc..

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  • 1 year later...

OK, I realize this is quite an old disscussion so most of you might have forgotten about what you wrote. But still, here is my browsers analysis.

I ran fully customized iGoogle homepage. I also wanted to know which browsers can handle customizable, graphic, and interactive websites forms, tabs, bells, and whistles and how much memory it uses while doing so.

Random memory usage shown on the task manager in kilobytes while running the same webpage on different browsers:

OffbyOne 5220

Opera 22,592

Firefox 20,404 (goes up to 50,000+K quickly) (simple version with only hidden add-ons such as bookmark synchronizer)

K-Meleon 22,660 (goes down lower if you just visit text based web pages and if you minimize it, stays around 12,000K)

Avant 27,968

IE7 32,984 :unsure:

Safari 48,152 :|

Flock 59,940 :devil:

Obviously, the lightest one is OffbyOne---BUT, you don't see the web pages the way they were meant to be seen and the alignment is all disoriented. All the hyperlinks are piled up either on top or at the bottom of the browser. However, if you know the website you are visiting is mostly text only, then this is a usable browser. Opera is the lightest of the big browsers although I did have to figure out how to install Windows Media Player add-on in order to be able to play one of the Danish radios on the internet. Yahoo and other email service icons won't work on it.

K-Meleon, on the other hand, seems light and handles complicated webpages like new.bbc.co.uk and iGoogle just fine. So your choice is either Opera or K-Meleon. The RAM memory usage between K-Meleon and Opera is the same. Right now Opera is my vote. I have yet to get the "feel" for K-meleon since I have only install it right now to compare the weights (or the lightness).

Abovementioned browsers are tested using Windows Vista Home Premium with 1GB RAM.

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I use both Opera (latest one + 9.5 alpha) and Firefox. There is no comparison here, Firefox always uses more memory, even with the same tabs/websites open. Opera is much faster, much more responsive, pages render much smoother and faster. Hands down one of the fastest browsers on Windows. Firefox and IE7 can't touch it

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