Fastest Browser....Chrome, Firefox or Opera?

Firefox starts up in 2 or 3 secs after a reboot in Linux, Ubuntu anyhow. It's pretty quick.

 

On my Vista machine, Chrome is by far faster than the others. When I first tried it without an AV, Chrome was so fast that some websites would load without any visible time lag (quite fascinating to see it happen).

I still look at Firefox as my main browser because it is indeed complete, and it being slightly slower is compensated by a host of remarkable features.

 

Firefox is fully up and running in 3 or 4 seconds from a click on the shortcut (with about 20 add-on extensions installed and active) on my Vista Home Premium PC.

 

You are truly blessed.

 

I'd also choose K-Meleon. Until recently, I'd have chosen SeaMonkey, but with K-Meleon, the pages are usable just a bit faster. I'm comparing page load times, not how long a browser takes to start up. That number means nothing. That said, unless the speed difference is huge, it's not important. Other criteria are much more important. Assuming that you're not one who is extremely impatient, you might want to see if something else is slowing down your system.

 

Page loading or rendering testing opera vs. km, provides no clear winner. Opera would have the edge generally by maybe a second, in most of my tests. The difference in that respect if so small, without timing it with my computer, I cannot tell it. Changing aspects of KM can make it seem faster. Such as changing if page is rendered before all picutres are gathered, or after. Using adblockers, like plugins or the proxomitron can make things even snappier.

So, in respect to web speed, I cannot tell a perceptible difference. However, what I can tell a difference in is how fast they load/shutdown, and the size of resources used with comparable settings. For me, KM beats Opera. FF is not even in the race.

Sul.

 

Actually MS Internet Explorer 8 is the faster browser on the planet.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343012,00.asp

 

On my old hardware, the main difference is in how quickly the web page is usable. With K-Meleon, I can scroll the page or click on a link before it's done loading. With SeaMonkey, there's a momentary freeze while certain opjects load. It's more a difference in how they load. The difference is small and on newer hardware, I probably wouldn't notice it at all.

Compared to SeaMonkey, K-Meleon seems a couple seconds slower on the initial load but feels faster when switching pages. IMO, both are near the top in regards to speed, but it's all the other features that make these 2 the best. The configurability of K-Meleon surprised me. A large percentage of what I use Proxomitron for is built into it. Many of the extensions I add to SeaMonkey are part of K-Meleon. That privacy bar is one of its best features. I'd be hard pressed to choose between K-Meleon and SeaMonkey.

I didn't care for Opera so I can't compare it. Regarding FF, complete agreement. IMO, they started losing it back when 2.0 was released and have been going the wrong way ever since. IMO, the only browser it beats is Internet Explorer.

 

Searching around the Opera knowledge base, I found where it says you can minimize Opera to the system tray by clicking Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H and it works. Of course you need to be nimble to click all four at the same time.

 

Regarding Chrome......is there a way to run/use the browser WITHOUT sending data back to Google?

Has this been resolved or is this a settings issue?

 

I tried SRware Iron but they stopped updating it. Now I just use Chrome with the Unchrome tool.
http://www.abelssoft.net/unchrome.php

 

Thanks!

I just installed Chrome and used this tool. I am amazed how much faster pages and images load with Chrome than with IE8 or even Firefox. This is going to be my main browser from now on.

 

I am finding that I use Chrome more than either FF or IE7. Not sure what Chrome version 2 will bring as there are supposed to be lots of additional features available. If those do not cut into the speed performance and the privacy concerns are able to be dealt with, I am sure this will continue to be my browser of choice. Unless, of course, SRware starts updating Iron again.

 

I think that the fact that Chrome is faster is because it's practically naked of features. Once it starts adding bells and whistles like are in FF, it will fall in line with the other browsers. I used it for a few weeks, and although it was faster, it wasn't THAT much faster.

 

yes there is i made a post about it awhile back ill see if i can find it for you

edit here you go:

you can very easily make chrome just as secure as iron and just use chrome..

when you first install chrome there are a few things to clean up. first go to the scheduled tasks remove the google updater task (i delete it but you can disable it or leave it if you use other google stuff)

remove the googleupdate.exe from the startup

how go to your users folder and then to the name of the user on the computer, appdata, local, google find chrome then user data.

now open the local state file and look for the user id. remove that but leave the quotes. now save it. change it to a read only. but google is tricky it will make another. do the same to this new one apply as read only. once it makes these 2 it will not make another even when updating.

example:

once the user id file is open look for this near the end of it and remove the part in quotes:

"user_experience_metrics": {
"client_id": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000000",
"client_id_timestamp": "0000000000",
"security": {
"renderer_on_default_desktop": 0,
"renderer_on_sbox_desktop": 0


to look like this:

"user_experience_metrics": {
"client_id": ""
"client_id_timestamp": ""
"security": {
"renderer_on_default_desktop": 0,
"renderer_on_sbox_desktop": 0


your preferences should look similar to this depending on your options you picked.

{
"alternate_error_pages": {
"enabled": false
},
"bookmark_bar": {
"show_on_all_tabs": true
},
"browser": {
"show_home_button": true
},
"default_search_provider": {
"id": "2",
"name": "Google",
"search_url": "{google:baseURL}search?{google:RLZ}{google:acceptedSuggestion}{googleriginalQueryForSuggestion}sourceid=chrome&ie={inputEncoding}&q={searchTerms}",
""
},
"dns_prefetching": {
"enabled": false
},
"download": {
"default_directory": "",
"directory_upgrade": true,
"extensions_to_open": ""
},
"geoid_at_install": 244,
"homepage": "",
"homepage_is_newtabpage": false,
"profile": {
"exited_cleanly": false,
"id": "not-signed-in",
"name": "",
"nickname": "",
"password_manager_enabled": false
},
"safebrowsing": {
"enabled": false
},
"search": {
"suggest_enabled": false
},
"session": {
"urls_to_restore_on_startup": [ ]
}


also now uncheck all privacy options in the under the hood section.

 

Here's just one more browser speed comparison

 

http://lifehacker.com/5160709/browser-speed-tests-how-safari-4-stacks-up

Here is another one..........

 

Thanks for the useful info/edits zfactor.

 

no prb if you have questions feel free..

 

Exactly. In the ad-supported days, Opera was very small, even with tabs. Once people 'found it', they began giving it away for free, and like twl845 says, added many features. That is not a bad thing really. It just means if you don't use them they are not needed. That is the reason why I like K-Meleon. It is still a browser at this point, and not much more.

Sul.

 

Although Opera has added more features with time, I think it has managed to retain it's speed and good performance, which is what matters. Unneeded features can be easily ignored and not used as long as performance doesn't suffer.

 

Much the same reason I find Firefox to be a slowpoke and often finicky. But, in place of features being the reason, I think it's addons. We have to remember, addons are coded by people not with the company, on their free time, and often not very experienced. Just a tiny bit of a mistake or inefficiency can mess things up, imho.

 

Yes, we have had discussions on this before, and I do concede that Opera is still a very fine browser and very fast, and for what it does, actually pretty good with resources considering all that is packed into it. However, place a new version of Opera on say a 500mhz laptop and place Kmeleon on that same laptop, and there can be told a difference. And yes, some people still use these types of machines because they are often hand me downs to peeps who are not very computer saavy.

Sul.

 

I already have Chrome installed. Also ran the Unchrome tool. Can I just disable the google updater somehow?

 

well 2 things. unchrome doesnt remove you from totally being off their grid i have seen people with unchrome and then after a few updates they ended up with a new user id and timestamp in the file. but if you check then i guess it would be okay, me i would prefer to have it removed alltogether period. unchrome doesnt remove the user id fully it simply puts a null value in its place. and google is tricky as i said i have freinds who have after 3 or 4 updates have a new user id. the only true way to stop that is to make the file read only so google can not write to it any more. as i said even after doing it to the first one chrome will make a new one. then you have to do that one. but it will only try twice.

to remove the google updater as i said in the above post " when you first install chrome there are a few things to clean up. first go to the scheduled tasks remove the google updater task (i delete it but you can disable it or leave it if you use other google stuff)"

so go to control panel-administrator tools-task scheduler-tash scheduler library- and you will find it in there

and use a program like jv16 or similar to remove the startup googleupdater.exe file. also make sure to have all the privacy things unchecked and the save and show text in typed fields unchecked (unless you dont care)

if you do the above process by removing the user id and making it read only it will still operate and run as normal by you going to options and clicking about google chrome. you just update that way. once the update files are removed they do not get reinstalled again.