Firefox vs Opera Browsers
A few years ago, I did a test with five different browsers, and decided that Firefox, by Mozilla, was going
to be my browser of choice. Of course, Internet Explorer comes with every computer, so you really can't get rid of it all that easily, but I almost never use it, as it's
known for security lapses.
However, I did decide to do another test, pitting Firefox against Opera, which has always billed itself as the fastest browser
in the world. This particular test involved Opera 9.2 versus Firefox 2.0.0.4.
Both browsers install easily. Because I already was running Firefox, it automatically loaded all the bookmarks from the previous version. I imported the same Firefox
bookmarks into Opera for testing purposes.
I've got to say this; Opera is definitely faster. I did a comparison of 20 pages, and Opera loaded all of them faster. One page in particular gave me ample opportunity
to test the load speeds, that page being the Animated Critters Links; okay, so I like dancing animals! Anyway, Opera
loaded every one of the pages much quicker than Firefox, even though I'd never considered Firefox a slouch in speed. One in particular, the dancing Winnie the Pooh page,
took Firefox seven seconds to load, whereas Opera loaded the same page in 3 seconds.
However, speed isn't everything. Both browsers are set up to automatically block pop-ups, which is a great thing. Both came with the Google toolbar automatically loaded
also, with Firefox putting it on the right, Opera on the left. One thing that Opera has that's always driven me nuts is two separate types of arrows, the double arrows
which are the forward and backward arrows, and then the single arrows; sometimes, they work just like the back and forth arrows, sometimes they don't, so I'm not really
sure what they're for.
The biggest differences come in customizing the look and functionality of the two browsers. Opera has its own skin, but will allow you to customize it so that it looks
like the colors you've chosen to use on your system. Other than some color schemes it comes with, that's pretty much it. Firefox, on the other hand, offers the
opportunity to download customized themes that others have created, so that you can make it look how ever you wish it to. I'm presently using a theme from the cartoon
Futurama, which has all the characters
from the show in place of arrows and buttons.
Firefox also offers Add-Ons, things that help with other types of functionality that Opera doesn't offer through the browser, but I did search online and found that
there are a few that have been created for Opera. Firefox has so many more, though. I have installed many Add-ons, including a download add-on that hides the
download box, many SEO add-ons, local weather, and my
Google AdSense tracker. Both are way better than Internet Explorer, which everyone has (except for Apple users>, in
any case.
So, there you go. And, based on statistics, after Internet Explorer 6, Firefox is number two, as
noted by the W3C folks. It would seem that speed isn't everything after all.
