Firefox 3 vs IE 7 vs Safari 3.1.2 vs Opera 9.5

gadgetzone.com.au has posted a complete comparison test between all the current full versions of the most popular internet browsers. IE 7 takes on Firefox 3, Safari 3.1.2 and Opera 9.5. IE 8 has been left out because it's still in beta. There was a previous smaller comparison between IE7, Safari 3 and Firefox 3 when the latter was still in RC phase, but this is a much more detailed comparison, including four graphs, that includes only final release browsers and has this time included Opera as well, due to numerous requests after the last group test.

[SacT0wnF1n3st]

Firefox > ALL

[crazy25000]

apple is heading towards being the next microsoft now....why develop safari?

[thewhoopimen]

because Apple likes to develop good software...

[funkeystu]

The article tested speed only.
Overall results were (approximately)
Safari-2.6 (but longer start up time)
Opera-2.75 (failed a java-heavy test page)
Firefox-3.4 (authors said there was no visible diff. and convenience of awesome bar would likely outweigh extra loading time)
IE7-4.1

It all sounded a tad firefox biased to me - "Firefox got fairly beaten in our tests but is clearly better because...." type of thing.
Not that I disagree (I use firefox myself), but a more objective article would have held more weight imho.

[dnf27]

Of course, it goes into a lot more detail than just that so it's probably worth a read rather than just taking funkeystu's comments and being done with it. But thanks for telling everyone that darth Vader is Luke's father!

[verb3k]

@dnf27: Your article is clearly biased, all test and benchmarks from all respected websites and journals show that Firefox is the king of the browser speed jungle, especially in JavaScript interpretation.

[dnf27]

That's your call to make as a reader. You can take what you want from it. However, I can assure you that the writer, which wasn't me by the way (I may be biased, I use a mix of Firefox and Opera), has no strong browser preference. In fact, he uses IE7 because it came with the machine he uses and he couldn't be bothered downloading another.

[gunnerforlife]

whether his article is biased and all, his still right Firefox>>>>>the rest

[thewhoopimen]

I dunno what reviews you've read, but all reviews have put safari at least = to firefox in terms of speed ... and that was 3.00 . This one just shows that 3.1.2 safari is even faster than safari 3.00, only proving that apple is continuously tweaking and improving the browser. A great thing, b/c it gives everyone a choice.

[Bonsai1214]

i've read on a tech forum somewhere that people don't like the awesome bar and reverted it to act like its old self.

plus the numbers speak for themselves. safari > others in terms of speed. i'm running the safari 4 dev build, and let me tell you, it puts firefox 3 to shame.

[LFC1EE]

Firefox is no1 browser it's better than anything out there at the moment it's just fantastic.

[user858621]

just another microsoft paid website trying to make their crappy browser look good

firefox ftw!!!!!

[SaiyanFury]

No doubt Safari is a bit faster after the first load. But it has a ton of incompatibility problems when operating on a Windows platform. That alone makes it an inferior browser when compared to Firefox 3.0's general usability.

[shine1396]

yeh that's been my experiance with safari...I don't know why opera was pulled there...and opera also has that info tab you can put on the bottom that tells you exactly whats happening, and at what speed...funny I seem to be prefer opera yet I'm using firefox more these days...its all the adverts I tell you...as well as so many websites telling us to use firefox...I didn't even know that opera had gone 9.5, I thought it was still in beta..

edit: just downloaded it..hands down, I think the smart bookmarks (firefox) are better then opera but opera has the best download service in my opinion by far.

[SaiyanFury]

I've never used Opera, myself so I just went with Firefox 3. Glad to see it's working for you though. If you're concerned about web ads and all that rot, look for a program called Ad Muncher. It's a small program that runs in the background and gets rid of most types of advertisements like those annoying popups and lead-in ad pages that often load when you go to sites like ign.com and whatnot. Truly a useful little program.

[coolfool]

It seemed like opera was the best all rounder to me. It was almost consistently faster than firefox, almost as feature rich and if you don't have the compatibility issues on the machine you use it then that would be a mute point for you.

I user firefox but overall it doesn't really *kill* the competition......well apart from IE7

[josh14399]

omg i fot ps3 and 360 fanboys were bad but everyone seems to cry coz firefox aint the fastest. wen i had a windows pc i always fought opera was the fastest. i only tried safari on windows when it first came out in beta and i fot it was similar to firefox in speed. i own a mac now and i think safari is the best on the mac platform.

[zonetrooper5]

I'm pretty sure the latest release of a newer browser compared to an older browser would be faster and alot more safer for that matter.

[bama]

the point is that its not.

[BIGBAER]

I have, and use, more browsers than most people even know exist. I need them to test Web pages in the development phase. Opera has been my main browser for years---even the years I spent as co-moderator for the Web Browser & HTML Coding Forum at WebmasterWorld.com.

Firefox is very cool but it does not have one-tenth of Opera's built-in, default functionality. From Opera's built-in mail client to its extremely useful, flexible Notes feature and its top-of-the-charts download tool, Opera kicks serious ASS!

When Opera fails to open a page correctly, which is very, very rare these days, it is because the page contains coding errors and not because Opera is at fault.

Opera is built to correctly dispaly Web pages (javascript included) that is coded according to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Standards. As a developer I use the W3C's validation tools to check the coding on all my Web pages. This ensures that my pages will display as intended on all Web devices from cell phones to desk-tops and everything in-between.

One of the reasons Opera performs so quickly is that it does not have to run through thousands of lines of 'compatibility code' in order to display Web pages that are poorly coded.

Internet Explorer does check all possible iterrations of coding, valid and non valid (hence the longer load times). Firefox does this in a limited fashion (mostly limited to the many Mozilla configurations) resulting in 'quicker' than IE load times, but slower than Opera and Safari's.

I haven't tested the new Safari yet but I am guessing that Safari wasted little time on improperly coded pages in the same manner as Opera.

Ultimately it all comes down to speed PLUS functionality and here, Opera is the hands down, clear winner.

If anything negative can be said of Opera it's that Opera's vast array of built-in features is so broad and so seamless that many of its feature remain 'unseen' in plain view.

To date, I've not tested a browser that has even had considering switching from Opera. Plain 'n simple: Opera ROCKS!

[funkeystu]

Cheers for that, a good read indeed.
I also reckon that Opera is much better straight off the bat, and has some very innovative and useful features, but I think I keep coming back to Firefox because of it's customisability - many of Opera's functions can be had through extensions, and often these can be better than the Opera originals (ie speed dial).
Major props to Opera for doing what it does though - I tend to use it a lot on my laptop, just because it works *alsost* exactly how I like it without having to install any other extensions or customise anything.

[BIGBAER]

Funkystu & other Opera users and those curious: Check out Opera Wiki for tons of Opera customizations & tools for power-users.

http://operawiki.info/Opera

The depth of user-chosen power enhancements and customizations is almost overwhelming.

Visit these links as well:

http://operawiki.info/WhyOp...

http://operawiki.info/Opera...

http://operawiki.info/Advan...

http://operawiki.info/Custo...

http://operawiki.info/WebDe...

http://www.pallab.net/2006/...

http://www.operamini.com/fe...

http://www.howtocreate.co.u...

http://operawatch.com/

And... For Web developers:

http://www.opera.com/produc...

http://dev.opera.com/tools/

Raw Power----in your own sweaty hands. Enjoy!