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Comparing Firefox 3 With Opera 9.5 On Linux
Joe Barr writes "Mayank Sharma has two recent stories on Linux.com; one evaluating the performance of Firefox 3, and the second comparing it to Opera 9.5. Which is better? For most people, it's probably more a matter of familiarity or personal preference, but these stories provide hard performance data to consider as well. Sharma notes, 'In terms of rendering JavaScript, Firefox 3 had the edge over Opera 9.5 in the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, which has an error range between +/-0.8% to +/-11.3% depending on the type of test. In the JavScript Engine speed test, Opera 9.5 scores over its peers when it comes to error handling, DOM, and AJAX.'"
Slashdot shares a corporate overlord with Linux.com.
I've used Opera for more than two and half years on Windows and Linux. It is hands down the best browser and the most useful cross platform program available, for a variety of reasons.
9.5 is fine, once you move the New Tab button back to its rightful place on the LEFT!
To the best of my knowledge there's never been a monopoly on Linux/UNIX web browsers. I think at one point Mozilla dominated, but it's never been like Windows.
Also: KHTML, Opera, and Firefox/Gecko are only three. Unless you're including ones based on those and/or text only browsers?
Maybe not
the lack of ability for the user to revert the behavior to the tried, true, expected behavior of FF1.0, FF1.5, FF1.8, and FF2.0 is ridiculous and will hamper the adoption of 3.0
absolutely stupid, just like IE7's totally unnecessary changes to its GUI
let's call a spade a spade and dish criticism to Mozilla just like we dish it to Microsoft
unnecessary and unrevertible changes to GUIs are MONUMENTALLY STUPID AND ANNOYING
They're similarly capable, but Firefox is FOSS. Win.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
You're implying that Firefox is somehow inferior to Opera (or that their devs are somehow inferior to Opera's devs) because they "copied" features from them. I'm really tired of that sentiment.
If fridge manufacturer A came up with this revolutionary technology ("not only can it make ice, it can make iced COFFEE!" or some other stupid idea like that), and if fridge manufacturer B likes the idea and puts it into their own fridges (let's put patents aside for the moment), is it still inferior?
This applies not only to Firefox v. Opera, but Windows v. OSX v. Linux, etc. I'm not advocating code "theft"*, but if some software devs implement a feature without stealing any code, are they still inferior?
Remember that the Wright Brothers didn't invent the airplane, and that Henry Ford didn't invent the car. Are they inferior to the original airplane/car inventors?
TL;DR Version: In the end, it's not who does it first, it's who does it better (in most cases, anyway). Of course, if some people "copy" the feature and still end up short of the original, feel free to laugh at them.
* Could you really call it that in the case of open source software?
Just remember to switch it back when you don't need the option anymore, otherwise you are contributing to the various Browser Market Share/User Share statistics with wrong info.
I try to avoid using that, because then when some web admin looks at the logs, he'll see a slanted perspective of how many users are using which web browser, and just continuing the problem - "meh, not enough Opera users to really bother fixing it"
knows they'll cry bloody murder with ANY change (and the loudest are the easiest to hear!). It can be ridiculous, stifling real development and useful enhancements.
That said, if you throw in too many of these you can simply kiss your user base good-bye..
I'll keeps on trying to get used to the awesome (??!) bar but I'm sure as I type this SOMEONE is creating a brand new shiny add-on to *truly* revert the behavior for those who feel the need it (oss, beauty eh?)..
I applaud the developers for the innovating work that they've done and wish them luck in their continuing success in finding the right balance between innovation and usability.
Quack, quack.
Maybe OSS has wised up and realize that 3 loudmouths bitching on the internet is not a mass-movement.
I'd bet if you surveyed the substantial Firefox userbase, 99% of them don't use any extensions. The popular benefits of having a clean/simple UI outweigh the flexibility found in extensions or plugins.
That's an elephant in the room that nobody seems to want to talk about. If you are praising extensions, then apparently it's a huge advantage Firefox has over other browsers, but if you are complaining about extensions, then they are all third-party developers that have nothing to do with Firefox. It's a win-win for Mozilla - all of the credit, none of the blame.
This is never more apparent than when a new major version of Firefox is released. Mozilla break compatibility and wash their hands of the mess, and if the extensions you use aren't maintained any more, then, well, tough.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
No, no, no. You got it all wrong.
Elinks, elinks, elinks, and...
python -c "print __import__('urllib2').urlopen('$URL').read()"
BAH! Who uses the keyboard anymore? It's hold right-click, move down, let-go. Mouse gestures all the way, baby!!!
I don't know what middle-click menu you're talking about, and the find functionality works fine for me, so it may be a bug specific to your system. How are the developers supposed know there's a problem if you don't tell them about it?
If it's just straight HTML, you might get away with just testing with Firefox or just testing with Konqueror. Anything beyond that, and they both have their quirks. ALL browsers have their quirks, it's just that the difference between IE and everything else is so huge, the other quirks aren't as noticeable.
And where do you think they got it from... There's a small rubbish bin icon at the end of the Opera tab bar. Also, you can just hit ctrl-z to undo closing a tab. It even loads that tab's full history!