So, Firefox 3 will be 'officially' released today, so I thought this deserves some question. I have tested out Opera 9.5, been testing betas for FF3, and have played around with IE8, and have a few questions. But first, some observations :

1 ) Playing with opera 9.5, I haven't noticed any dramatic speed boosts that have been being tossed around multiple forums of late, although, it seems FF3 (RC3) loads images faster, while O9.5 loads test-based faster. Could be me, I dunno, but that's what I'm seeing.

2 ) IE8 doesn't seem to be too much different from IE7, however, it's still in beta, so, something could change between now and the release date.

3 ) Using IE7Pro, I've noticed certain things have gotten faster, certain things have gotten slower. I think the transition from page to page might be increased due to the ad-blocker, but, I can't be certain.

4 ) O9.5 loads faster than all of the browsers that I've tried, IE7/7Pro/8 loads second fastest, while I can read a page or two (at times), waiting for FF3RC3 to load.

Now, my questions.

1 ) When someone says O9.5 is faster, do they mean booting time for the browser, or transition between sites? (because, as I've mentioned, if there's any improvement, there's a few milliseconds, at most.)

2 ) What security holes in FF3 are not in Opera? I mean, I can't be certain, but, a certain little widget informed me that there are, *ahem*, 0 in Opera 9.5, 3 in FF3RC3, 9 in IE7, 1 in Safari, and 2 in Konqueror. I'm almost absolutely positive that there cannot be be -0- security holes in Opera, I just think they're not looking in the right places. Again, however, I could be wrong. I'm a drop out, not a professional info-sec desk jockey

3 ) Why do people compare firefox as bare-bones, rather than assume that one uses the 'normal' extensions (ie - FlashBlock, NoScript, AdBlock Plus, etc)? I mean, sure, memory usage is lower, yadda yadda, but, all the same! Many also don't consider if the people have modded their engine to suit their needs. I don't know about most people, but if I'm specifically looking for a browser that suits my needs, I'm not going to be a technologically-impaired individual, but someone who knows what to do, and if they don't, how to find it. If you understand.

-- I'm sure I have more questions, but... I'm out of caffeine and it's 4 in the ####ing morning --

Nighty night.

NO FLAMERS, OR FANBOY FIGHTS PLZ. To quote a meme, I can haz mature convo?

I don't use Ad Blocker as it uses too much system resources.

I prefer hpHosts and MVPS HOSTS files:
http://hosts-file.net/?s=Download
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

I manage them with HostsMan and its browser speed up proxy HostsServer:
http://www.abelhadigital.com

It is faster in every way. It loads on launch faster. It loads pages faster. The responsiveness of the GUI is faster. The whole experience of using the browser is faster.




This is done to confuse the issue. The strength of Firefox is it's extensions. The extensions are also Firefox's week spot. Every one you add bloats it. The funny thing is that Firefox is already bloated in it's default form. The download is like 25 MB. Opera in the Clssic installer is less than 5MB. If you added all the extensions you would need in Firefox to equal Opera's default functionality you would need probably 50 extensions. I don't know of a single Firefox user that uses it in default form. I also seriously doubt that any of the Firefox fanboys on this forum or any other for that matter would use it if they couldn't add extensions to it because it's basically useless with out them. They would all be jumping to Opera because it already has most features they are adding to Firefox with extensions.

Usurper!

All the earlier reviews I read on the net by tech bloggers were raving how great FF3 is even without the extensions. Right away I grew suspicious. I tried FF3 RC3 and it automatically came with NoScript, AdBlocker, FlashBlocker, All In One Toolbar and Download Statusbar. Maybe FF3 final comes with no extensions?

Anyway, I'll wait a while & see what the rant/raves are on the net after this 'download' day are like. Tried to get into Mozillazine yesterday, got a faulty redirect in Opera. Got a good redirect in FF2, but after a minute that died as well with no reconnection available. Hmmmm.

Where did you get your FF3 RC3 with extensions? It was not an official release from Mozilla because they do not come with extensions. Some installs have the Talk Back and DOM Inspector Extension but that depends on if you do a custom or default install.

Official release? Pthbbbb! I get all my software from that Mafia guy down by the docks. I have to or he'll break my thumbs.

I get my releases from filehippo if available there, and they are. It seems they already have FF3 final at filehippo even though Mozilla isn't starting the official download till 1pm Eastern (10 am Pacific).

I just downloaded FF3 - and had to remove it and revert back to FF2.00.14. Most of my add-ons (extensions AND themes) aren't compatible with it. When they get upgraded I'll upgrade once again.

Yeah no surprise there. I usually wait for few updates to the new version which takes a few months. By that time all my extensions and themes will be ready and the bugs should be worked out.

I actually like the default theme for FF3. The only extensions that didn't work for me was the theme (I like the default theme now), Tab Mix Plus, and Fasterfox. The rest of my extensions worked.

I was bored so I downloaded and installed FF3. Those extensions I mentioned before? They came with the Linux FF3beta5 I installed in Ubuntu. My bad. Yeah, the only major addons I use that work in FF3 are
NoScript
Download Statusbar
...And for some oddball reason these extensions also work, which kinda helps...
Tiny Menu
Toolbar Buttons
FoxLingo
FireShot (screen capture)
...Here's a trip. AdBlockPlus isn't supported but AdBlock Filterset.G Updater still is.

If you're tearing your hair out trying to open new tabs next to each other instead of using the same tab over & over, you 'middle-click' the bookmark (or favicon). (Tab Mix Plus used to cover this.)

At the moment on a freshly installed Opera 9.50 I'm noticing it is much faster than my Firefox v2 experience I had. It seems like pages are loading instantly versus the wait I'd have to wait through with FF2. Even these very forums that have been slow for me for several years seem to be much faster loading, albeit IE7 is slow on the forums too.

Yep fastest browser I have ever used. Hardly touch my others now.

Do you like Speed Dial? I do a lot. If you want to increase the number of thumbnails it's easy to do know in 9.50. Wasn't possible before.

http://cybernetnews.com/2008/06/13/helpful...ls-in-opera-95/

I tried that (I have 9.5) and I didn't get bupkis.

Nevermind, I got it. Strange enough it's within my profile of Opera 9.5 beta, and I don't have the beta anymore. Oh well, at least it works.

Been using O9.5 exlusively for 2 days, (5 more days to gather opinion), but the only negative thing I can find with it so far, is the time it takes to use java applets. Example, the MUD i frequent, Achaea, (http://www.achaea.com/nexus/play.php for the java applet), it takes a few seconds longer to load, although, unlike Firefox, it positions the applet correctly after loading it. But, like I said, I'm at it for five more days as O9.5-only.