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They're about the same speed, and about the same for compatibility with the specs.

Try both and use the one you want, Firefox and Opera are both great browsers.

(Y)

I have both installed and I switch between the two, I started having problems with FF3 so I will wait until a new update comes out, for the moment I am using Opera 9.5 happily :)

Also I use Chrome for more general browsing since its faster for me than the others.

Contacting Opera is a no go as it appears I have to pay for support? or at least purchase opera, which I will not be doing any time soon.

$29 is a bit cheeky of them :o Does Opera Mail just use your current email address? The same way as Windows Live Mail, I might be interested in using it.

$29 is a bit cheeky of them :o Does Opera Mail just use your current email address? The same way as Windows Live Mail, I might be interested in using it.

I have no idea on that as I don't have an opera email account, nor have I set up any email within the browser install. As mentioned I can find nothing in the settings either :( If it wasn't for the error message every time I start it, I would use Opera

I'm inclined to say FireFox. It has some WICKED add ons. One of my favourites is the page drag one, as I can quickly scroll to the bottom of the page without going to my keyboard. The mouseless browsing add on is also pretty sweet. Maxthon 2 has a similar set of cool add ons and features, the best of which is undoing closing a tab. Opera's add ons strike me as more gimicky than useful.

Opera has an integrated ad-blocker, as well as a tabscroller (rightclick+scroll) ;)

Opera also has the full noscript ability, you can block anythign you want easiest is through tools and quick preferences, that might only affect the site youa re on though. Not sure, I never really have a need for noscript.

As for speed, yeah opera is definately faster than other browsers, especially FF. most tests only test JS persomance anyway, and there's a lot more to loading a webpage than javascript, despite what chrome wants you to think. Opera also has the hands down most instant back forward cache loading, fast forware is also usefull, and you can just use the forward button on your mouse to go to the next results in searchs and many other sites with multiple pages.

I think the best thing to do is download and try them all out, then decide for yourself. But for what it is worth, I was using Firefox 3. I loved the features and the extensions. There seems to be some stability issues with Flash and Firefox on my install. Not sure if this is a widespread problem or not.

I didn't really care for Opera 9's look-and-feel. It also seemed to render pages slower than Firefox 3 did. My first visit to iGoogle resulted in some infinite refresh loop which was disappointing.

The Google browser, Chrome, isn't too bad. It definitely opens a lot faster than the other two. Page loads are extremely snappy on my system in comparison to IE, Opera, and Firefox. It doesn't have the same page zoom options that Firefox and Opera have (and I enjoy), just your basic font size increase/decrease options. Lacks add-ons (like some essential *ahem* page clean up extensions). I cannot comment on its stability yet. It does have a spellcheck (Y).

Hope that helps... :)

Opera for me, been using it since ver5 and it hasn't let me down since. Of course i always go back and try whatever the other companies want to throw against Opera but they always fail, imo anyways. Although lately Opera has been acting very weird in my linux install, it crashes often but i know exactly why so no worries.

I use FF3 and Opera 9.6b; I have problems with opera crashing from time to time when a page with certain multimedia applets load (i havent figured out if it is flash, silverlight, or what- or if it might be a javascript error)

has anyone else had this problem?

It is most probably flash. I have the same problem you have and been having it for quite some time actually. Are you on Linux or windows? I know my problem is because of flash on linux, if you are experiencing these crashes on windows, then it might be something else. But the good thing about using opera is, even with the crashing is still much faster than FF3 on my box. It uses alittle more ram than FF3 but i have plenty of ram for it so i'm not really worried about it.

It is most probably flash. I have the same problem you have and been having it for quite some time actually. Are you on Linux or windows? I know my problem is because of flash on linux, if you are experiencing these crashes on windows, then it might be something else. But the good thing about using opera is, even with the crashing is still much faster than FF3 on my box. It uses alittle more ram than FF3 but i have plenty of ram for it so i'm not really worried about it.

I am using Windows; before I use to get a lot of crashes on opera and ie and found out when I upgraded my antivirus from the free avast to the Kaspersky Antivirus a lot of the crashes went away and dont get that many on opera like I used to - I am thinking to that it might be the rendering engine that opera uses compared to the others (there was a post a few days ago talking about the different engines that the browsers use)

I also moved from Firefox to Opera when I got fed up with Firefox2 being so ****ing slow. After that I've tried Firefox3 which is a lot better but it's still not better than Opera. Unfortunately some javascript heavy sites run a bit slow in Opera (Facebook in particular) other than that, I'd take Opera over any other browser any day. It just FEELS fast and snappy

I also moved from Firefox to Opera when I got fed up with Firefox2 being so ****ing slow. After that I've tried Firefox3 which is a lot better but it's still not better than Opera. Unfortunately some javascript heavy sites run a bit slow in Opera (Facebook in particular) other than that, I'd take Opera over any other browser any day. It just FEELS fast and snappy

Opera's market share is so pathetic, even though I find people use it all the time, just like me.

I don't get it.

If there are a few Firefox addons you really like or if you like to customize your browser to death, then Firefox is the way to go. If you just want the best browser out of the box then Opera wins hands down.

Also, Opera has been the fastest and lightest browser in most tests for a couple of years now.

  • 3 months later...
I think the best thing to do is download and try them all out, then decide for yourself . .

I believe you have to do more than just try them out.

You have to live with a browser for a while and learn its hidden features.

With Opera, it has so many neat features built into it standard that you would never discover half of them just by trying it out. Once you start using them, you'll wonder how you managed without them and other browsers will seem lame by comparison.

Opera have tried hard to catch up with their rivals but it's still Firefox for me . .

You may be new to internet browsers, because for many years and in many ways, Opera has been an innovator that others have followed. For instance I have seen many FF advocates claim their browser was the first to introduce tabbed browsing, when actually Opera introduced it in 2000, (and there were other little-known browsers before which had tabs). Mozilla, (FF's precursor), didn't introduce that feature 'til 2003.

For me Opera is the only choice, not only for speed and usability features, but also security and compliance.

16 Dec 2008 - Firefox named most vulnerable Windows application.

17 Dec 2008 - Internet Explorer zero-day vulnerability flaw, which is given the highest severity rating of critical, affects all versions of Microsoft's IE Web browser

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