Comparing Opera and FireFox

[nancyb]

I use Opera and have for several years. Love it, but after all the recent adulation of Firefox I want to try it, too. Only thing ... I also see a number of people having problems after installing firefox.

Has there been a thread comparing the differences/features between Opera and Firefox?

[RammsteinNicCage]

Just about any thread that recommends using something other than IE, or a thread about the "best browser," or bugs in a particular browser almost always seem to end up Firefox vs Opera. :p They both have their strong points and they both have some weaknesses (very few compared to some other browsers ;) ). The best thing to do is try them both out and find out what is best for you.

I personally never had any trouble installing Firefox. And, since you'll be doing a clean install, you should probably be fine too. You may want to also check out the extensions that have been made for Firefox - there are some that are similar to featurs that Opera already has and a couple that Opera doesn't (the Web Developer extension seems to get a lot of praise here... maybe one day I'll actually look for it :p ).

Jennifer

[piskie]

I used and prefered Opera for some time but like many others, I kept hearing praise of Firefox so I tried it.

It's good and not just a little bit good. The browser is excellent but when you set the preferences right, the speed is awesome.

Then when you look through the massive list of extensions, it becomes far more than just a browser.

I can view the CSS of of a Web Page with drop down and click.
I can download and save an entire site again from a drop down and a couple of clicks.

In fact I could go on for hours explaining what I can do with Firefox. The only thing I can't do in firefox that I miss is display the PR Green Bar.

It has to be tried to be believed especialy for its speed on a 56k Dialup connection.

[vkaryl]

"speed on dialup" was the original reason I was going to try FF. Then I read some posts on here about how secure it was, how many things you could do with it that you can't with IE, etc. So I really TRIED it. It's great, I love it.

Then, because I was really TRYING to clean up my html act, I got the rest of them (leaving mac out of it - don't have one, probably will pick up a decent used one later this year to test on), and I really TRIED Opera for a month or thereabouts.

On my machine, and my dialup, it's way slower and kludgier than FF. And in order to NOT HAVE ADS (I HATE ADS!) you have to buy it.

EOS....

[topr8]

i'm an opera fan but i tried firefox and in answer to your question ...

i've had no problems after installing firefox (win2k)

....

the killer extension for me is 'change user agent' it has all kinds of useful applications, just use your imagination and you can surf as who/what you want to be, and see the benefits of doing so.

the biggest differnce for me is the way that the two cache visited pages, it seems much quicker going backwards and forwards using opera.

i now use both and am happy doing so.

[nancyb]

now my keyboard is all wet. :)

I really want to install FF - downloaded it a couple weeks ago - but still fearful of screwing up my machine. Just spent the last two months cleaning up my studio due to water damage and subsequent mold problem and just can't face any more problems right now.

Guess I can try installing and just do a system restore if I encounter problems. Any thing I should be aware of with xp pro?

Does FF have right click paste and go?

[vkaryl]

Sometimes XP will have "issues" with restoring to a previous point if you have one of the nortons installed. Other than that, I can't think of anything....

[RammsteinNicCage]

Does FF have right click paste and go?

I just checked my copy of it and I don't see it. For all I know, there could be some extension that you can install and will give you that functionality though. Paste and go has become one of my favorite opera features. :)

Jennifer

[bedlam]

There is an extension that does this:

[update.mozilla.org...]

Any browser without this feature is, as far as I'm concerned, a giant waste of my time :-)

-B

[operafan]

As stated on my WebmasterWorld nick, I love opera both the browser & the music. I'm currently using Firefox & Mozilla + the whimsy IE.
If you're on a WInbox, there isnt any problem when installing just double click & off u go.

[Purple Martin]

I prefer FF.

The best extension of all is Firesomething. No browser should be without this! I am currently surfing with Interweb Thundersquid.
[update.mozilla.org...]

[Dudermont]

There have been a couple people saying that they had problems with it but I don't think it is very common. One of the offices that I occasionally do some work for just switched almost all of there machines to ff. None of them had any problems.

[RadarCat]

Hi!

Has anyone tried running FireFox with Windows 98 on a 166MHz AMD chip with 48 MB of memory on dialup?

I am using Opera 6.04 but prefer the way Internet Explorer 6 saves web pages (seperating the HTML page with everything else in a separate folder). How does FireFox save web pages?

I have tried Mozilla and thought it was coded poorly.

Thanks!

RadarCat

[edited by: BlobFisk at 7:55 am (utc) on July 8, 2004]
[edit reason] Fixed formatting [/edit]

[photon]

I've used both Opera and Firefox (and its previous incarnations) for about a year now. The end result is that I use Opera for my everyday surfing, and Firefox (with the excellent Web Developer extension) for my coding.

Opera seems to be oriented to "ease of surfing" with the remembered sessions, keyboard navigation, mouse gestures, M2 mail client, endless customizations, etc. Firefox strikes me more of bare bones, build your own with whatever extension you want.

The fact the all of Opera's features are built-in makes it feel rock solid to me. With Firefox extensions, it sometimes feels a little rickety, and can in fact cause problems.

[MatthewHSE]

With Firefox extensions, it sometimes feels a little rickety, and can in fact cause problems.

Technically true, but the problems are becoming less and less as FireFox evolves. I personally prefer the extensions rather than having everything already bundled with the browser. Extensions provide more customizing opportunities.