Quick Take: Firefox 3 vs Opera 9.5

opera-vs-firefox

The browser wars have been heating up lately with the recent releases of Firefox 3 and Opera 9.5. As a long-time Phoenix Firebird Firefox user, and recent convert to Opera Mini (which is excellent btw) on my Treo, I thought I’d run these two through their paces to see what they are made of. The hits and misses after the jump.

Opera 9.5

Opera 9.5 actually came out about a week or so before Firefox 3 so it was the one I tried out first. Opera takes a kind of “kitchen sink” approach, and is arguably the most feature packed browser out there. For the most part this approach works really well. Most browsers couldn’t duplicate the functionality of Opera, and it would take dozens of extensions (which often don’t work when new versions of Firefox come out) to try to pull off the same effect in Firefox.

Here are some of the notable features built-in to Opera:

The best, and most notable, “feature” of Opera is its speed however. It really is incredibly fast. It starts almost instantly; actually everything happens pretty much instantly. It is easily the fastest full service (i.e. not K-melon) browser I’ve ever used. Opera also has a pretty good security track record and is even more obscure than Firefox (smaller target for hackers).

While I really appreciate that I don’t have to basically roll my own browser (I’m looking at you and your extensions Firefox), Opera may suffer from a few too many features. Does a modern web browser really need an IRC or email client? Both clients are just average implementations, and the really odd part is how they show up as tabs in the browser right next to web pages. That said, you don’t have to use or enable them if you don’t want to.

The biggest problem I have is with the rendering in Opera 9.5. While most (>95%) of the sites I visited rendered fine, quite a few blogs and Netflix didn’t look right. Even though most of the blogs probably suffer from poor HTML coding and lack of compliance to web standards, it is still something that was a bother. Firefox has always rendered quirky sites well.

Firefox 3

Now onto the reigning “alternative” browser champ, Firefox; here is the quick take on its latest installment. The good: all of the features of Firefox 2. The bad: not really anything new since Firefox 2. The speed has improved a bit and it hasn’t crashed on me yet (should that really be a feature?), but I really have to ask myself what else Mozilla has been doing during the almost two years between Firefox 2 and 3.

Firefox-Bilinear-vs-NearestHere are the only features I’ve found notable in Firefox 3:

There really aren’t many other new features but most of them fall under the “different, but not necessarily better” category for me. Yeah, yeah, the bookmarks use a database now, but I’m still trying to figure out how that benefits me or why I should care, the “AwesomeBar” is a bit short on awesomeness, and the one-click bookmarking is only easier if you never organize your bookmarks.

The Verdict

The verdict? I’m still using Firefox. The page rendering problems and something about the Opera UI just doesn’t suit me well. Other than that though it is clearly the better browser; I will definitely be following its development. I am probably just too used to Firefox really; especially the keyboard shortcuts for tabs. If I was already an Opera user I could not think of a single reason why I would switch to Firefox though. If you aren’t happy with your current browser you should definitely check Opera out.

…one more thing about Firefox

Back in the day one of my favorite web browsers didn’t really improve much for a long time, remember it? It was Netscape 4 and they weren’t even the underdog. If Mozilla wants to maintain their momentum they need to bring their A-game, there is some stiff competition these days (Opera, IE, Safari) who are all actually innovating.

Filed In: Firefox, Opera, Software, Tech Reviews, Web Browsers
July 5, 2008

Comments

15 Responses to “Quick Take: Firefox 3 vs Opera 9.5”

  1. Paul Ellis on July 7th, 2008 5:58 pm

    Glad you enjoyed my take on this. I’m guessing you are an Opera fan?

  2. worldhate on July 7th, 2008 5:48 pm

    Finally. Someone who actually looked into the topic before posting. Good.

  3. Quick Take: Firefox 3 vs Opera 9.5 | TechConsumer on July 8th, 2008 10:27 pm

    [...] This article is cross-posted at PseudoSavant. Subscribe to TechConsumer: RSS / Email Sphere It 0 Comments Published on: [...]

  4. iheni :: making the web worldwide » Blog Archive » Learning web standards just got easier on July 9th, 2008 3:15 am

    [...] the most standards compliant browser out there, Opera has long been advocating for an open and standards orientated web. The Opera browser does [...]

  5. avinash misra on July 9th, 2008 8:47 am

    @PSavant great summary. I agree Opera is the most feature packed browser around, No question. I would like to emphasize what to me is the most important aspect of Opera. The sync between the mini and the desktop operas and portability in general. I use a pretty low end Nokia 2865 and its very very useful to me to drag a page to the speed dial and then continue the session from the mobile. Infact, I came to opera desktop after I used Opera Mini for a month. And this btw, is also worth noting, Mobiles driving our preferences in other areas.(has anyone written on this?).

    It would be very useful to have the notes sync to devices / or atleast made available on Mini. I don’t see any technical problems in building in that feature.

    I recommend Opera highly. You will not be disappointed.

  6. avinash misra on July 9th, 2008 10:40 am

    And yes the search on all content (not just past links) is very handy too in Opera. The built in torrent engine is another plus.

  7. Paul Ellis on July 9th, 2008 11:34 am

    It has a built-in torrent engine too? Wow, I didn’t notice that. I’ll have to check it out.

  8. MAHMOOD on July 15th, 2008 2:29 pm

    thank’s for your opinion

    i used bothe but now i use opera

    acuthaly opera batter than firfox

    thanks…

  9. Five Firefox Extensions That Should Be Built-In : PseudoSavant on July 31st, 2008 10:39 am

    [...] my review of the latest versions of Opera and Firefox I noted that I really appreciated not having to “roll my own browser” from scratch with Opera. [...]

  10. Stevie D on August 11th, 2008 6:55 am

    I’ve been an Opera devotee for about 6-7 years, and while I’ve always got a current version of Firefox on my computer – for checking my sites, and for looking at the occasional site that won’t work on Opera (although there are nowhere near as many of these now as there used to be) – I’ve never seen a reason to switch to Fx as my main browser.

    Yes, the add-ons and extensions are a good idea … but isn’t it better to have all that functionality built in at the start? No need to hunt around looking for extensions that might not even exist, or missing out on something because you didn’t know it was available.

    The sessions (and restore), the recycle bin, the custom searches, the great flexibility with tabs – as far as I’m concerned, it’s just so much better than anything else available for day-to-day browsing.

  11. Nathan on August 13th, 2008 7:47 am

    Nice review of the two browsers. I, too, have been an Opera fan for 7 years or so and it just keeps getting better and better.

    One other feature that has been with Opera since at least Version 5 — mouse gestures. Speeds up browsing a whole lot.

    My only complaint about Opera is that because it’s less known, it doesn’t get support the way Firefox, IE, and Safari do. So yes, there are some pages that just don’t render right. But more importantly, Gmail doesn’t play well with Opera. It kinda works, and it seems to be getting a little better, but Google Docs, Calendar, and Chat have all caused me problems in Opera.

  12. a on August 18th, 2008 8:51 am

    i have never actually tried opera and i just got to know it from 1 of my friends. i use firefox 3 and its just great (although the awesomebar is not good. im going to try opera now but ive heard its bad with gmail and i use that so i guess i will never fully become a opera user

  13. alphanumeric on August 20th, 2008 6:40 pm

    I personally love the integrated RSS/Email and the IRC client. I use IRC a lot. I still use firefox’s chatzilla as Opera’s IRC does not support direct connect or the downloading of binary content.

    I love clicking on a MAILTO: link, and it brings up my GMail instead of opening microsoft outlook.

    It pops up notifications as soon as I receive an email, facebook wall post, or myspace comment (there are myspace comment RSS feeds out there, google it).

    It is hands down the best browser ever.

  14. phil on August 26th, 2008 10:14 am

    I’m actually reading these type of articles because I am being forced to move from opera to firefox today due to incompatibility with some key drupal modules that I’m using to build my site.

    So as from today my website will not support Opera and I will no longer use Opera for web development, which is very, very sad considering I’ve been a user for seven years and feel that it is the best browser by far. But as stated in this article, people writing web applications generally do not care enough to ensure compatiblity with Opera and its quirks.

    Also, apart from its rigidity in standards compliance, I think Opera just simply cannot keep up with cutting edge web technology.

  15. arash on August 29th, 2008 11:43 pm

    Yes my friend, I agree with you, I used Opera for 5 years (think since V7) my browser rate is
    1.Opera
    2.FF
    3.IE
    1.Opera: Opera has perfect future (build-in mail client,perfect download manager,low memory usage && etc…)
    2.FF: FireFox3 not bad, maybe better than opera but we have some problem here, I download FF2 portable for my usb, and want change it && add opera futures, O no now my FF2 is very heavy for loading, memory uasage(very bad), speed(damn it) &&…, IF FF has opera futures as build-in(no add-ones) maybe was better
    3.IE: at the first IE7 has runtime crash, this browser has many crash in loading 2.try && test save as page as (complete page MHT) you see in many time IE7 hang on
    3. dosent have any download manager 4.Security problem IE sometimes can not load apage because page has Script, && IE see this script like a hack??!!(so loose) OK, thats my rate, GOOD luck my friends

Leave a Reply




© 2010 J. Paul Ellis