The current state of FireFox blows - what's the next (not IE) choice?

[Broadway]

I do look at my site's web pages in IE to make sure they are formatted right, but otherwise I hate using a Microsoft product.

I've used FireFox (right now 3.0.5) for several years but development there seems to have lost their way. Right now it is a nuisance to use:
1) It's bloatware, takes three times longer to load on my machine than IE.
2) If you mistakenly close all of your open FireFox windows and then immediately restart it, a FireFox alert box saying its already running comes up (even though it's not) and keeps it from starting.
3) Opening and closing pop-up boxes from my favorite stock charting website can cause FireFox to loose its internet connection (until you reboot your computer). I can't duplicate this problem in IE.

So if I don't want to use IE, what's the next up and comming browser, especially one that might be good for web developers?

[lavazza]

Opera

It ain't new, but it is good - especially so for developers

For a looong time it has, I think, been THE most standards compliant browser

And, it's free (as in lunch)

See Opera Browser Usage and Support: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tedster]

Opera is also highly configurable, and for me that puts it well beyond Chrome or K-Meleon. The integrated feed reader alone saves me a lot of time every day, and the "Notes" feature is just plain awesome.

Opera pioneered in interface improvements such as tabbed browsing. And it helps that Håkon Lie is Opera's CTO. He was a principle force in the development of CSS with the W3C, which he first proposed in 1994.

[netchicken1]

Opera don't have a decent spellchecker, thats why I left it.

Firefox won't show till 40K to 60K of data has loaded. Its utterly stupid. After that the mem usage never stops ticking inexorably upward.

Yet the FF speeddial is one of the best things I have come across in a browser, that no other browser seems to have implemented.

I give up trying to find a good browser.

[bill]

Opera don't have a decent spellchecker, thats why I left it.

It has a very good one actually:
[opera.com...]

FF speeddial is one of the best things I have come across in a browser

Opera was first with Speed Dial. They introduced it in version 9.2 back in the spring of 2007. The FF Speed Dial add-on is just copying what Opera has had built in for quite some time.

[tangor]

I run FF on three different machines, Opera, IE (multiple versions) and FF still reigns supreme. Then again, the ONLY FF add on I have installed is NoScript... Most add on critters call home at startup to see if there's a new version. Try doing without SOME of them to see if that corrects the "slow start".

Closing FF with open windows can (due to latency of some sites) keep a portion of FF running. Check your task manager processes to see that is true. Kill that and all goes back to normal. Best practice is to exit FF, or any program, in a controlled manner and these kind of things won't happen.

[netchicken1]

Bill, the spell checker sucks, you can't get inline spellchecking and its an extra program that has to be installed on your machine. This is the 21st century, why the heck must you go about installing a second program for a basic function?

It caused me untold annoyance getting it to work, which it barely did, and eventually it drove me away from Opera.

I know Opera started the Speed dial, but FF has really progressed it. With the customization that it can do, such as cropping, and how many per page, as well as changing refresh rates, its a great toy.

Also I like colorful tabs addon(yeah I know it bling, but its just so nice) and the wonderful web developer tools. Adblocker is my also must have, with the ability to unblock sites temporarily which is handy when you are helping people with their design.

[bill]

Bill, the spell checker sucks, you can't get inline spellchecking and its an extra program that has to be installed on your machine. This is the 21st century, why the heck must you go about installing a second program for a basic function?

But in the same post you're talking about all the 3rd party FF add-ons you install... hmmm ;)
To each his own. The Opera spell checker has worked fine for me for years.

I'd rather run a default install of Opera before I'd run an add-on free version of FF. Opera has a lot more functionality built in that doesn't require all the extra baggage of 3rd party add-ons that FF does.

[tangor]

Guys... we're talking options rather than performance, which I think the first poster was observing. I have never expected a browser to be a spellchecker...mainly becuz I kin spel gud win I nedz too.

Add ons are just that... baggage disguised as bloatware third party. Pick and choose what to load, what benefits, and go from there.

Opera works pretty good for me. So does IE. Just happen to like FF for the "feel good" factor in that it actually feels like showing me what I like at a speed I like and is configurable as I like it. These are subjective things, of course.

But as a FF fan I can accurately state that the more crap you install as add ons the slower the product runs.

Pick and choose what works for your application... then stop moanin' and groanin' when the feedbag gets too heavy.