Browsers: Speed and speed and features.

[Donfuy]

So, I got into some testing today, to see how well modern browsers can handle multiple tabs, and who's the best at it.

The following browsers were tested:

• Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3 [About]
• Internet Explorer 8 [About]
• Google Chrome 2.0 [About]
• Opera 10 Beta [About]

It was quite a simple test: Open 38 tabs, check the RAM usage of the browser. first with one "filled" tab and 37 empty tabs. Then with 38 tabs full of content.
Firefox was the first browser tested, and because the test with empty tabs wasn't originally intended, I didn't made it with Firefox. I could've made it after all... but I was kinda lazy. Lame yeah.

Click for image of results.

Firefox

:::::::::::::::-38 tabs, each one with different content-:::::::::::::::

123 720 Kb

Internet Explorer 8

:::::::::::::::-38 empty tabs-:::::::::::::::

88 430 Kb
:::::::::::::::-38 tabs, filled alternately with 5 different websites-:::::::::::::::

235 214 Kb

Google Chrome 2.0

:::::::::::::::-38 empty tabs-:::::::::::::::

48 672 Kb

:::::::::::::::-38 tabs, filled alternately with 4 different websites-:::::::::::::::

214 860 Kb

Opera 10 Beta

:::::::::::::::-38 empty tabs-:::::::::::::::

42 816 Kb

:::::::::::::::-38 tabs, filled alternately with 4 different websites-:::::::::::::::

151 983 Kb

Now clarification of some stuff:

Firstly, this wasn't at all a rigorous test. I noticed how Opera's RAM were going higher at the time I saw the RAM, but I tried to check the RAM of the browsers all at the same time after I'd opened the 37 tabs (plus the home page, that's The Real N Forums). The non-rigorousness of this test was due to my slow connection, my impatience and laziness. I wasn't planning to make this test today. I just made it, so I wanted to do it quite fast ;)

Secondly, as I made this test almost out of nothing, I used the browsers I have installed in my PC. That's why I used Chrome 2.0 and Opera 10 Beta, when Chrome 3.0 and Opera 10 are out already.

Thirdly, the main reason of not testing Safari is that I don't think it's fair to compare Safari 4 for Windows to the others. I've tested it once and it's much, muuch slower than the others.

Fourthly, Internet Explorer 8 crashed when I was adding tabs to it (quickly, like I did in the other browsers), after the 20th tab. True, it recovered them in some seconds, but a note was taken. It wasn't the first time IE had crashed on me. On a sidenote, Chrome was a little faster than Opera and Firefox at opening a lot of tabs very quickly, I noticed.

Fifthly and finally, it should be noted that not only Firefox handles more tabs with less RAM, but it too lets *you* use them much easily than the other browsers. While all others just make tabs smaller and smaller to fit the window when adding more, Firefox stops shrinking the tab's width and makes the tab bar scrollable. So, with others it's a real nightmare to handle 38 tabs (a little exception for IE8, with the Quick Tabs (Ctrl+Q) thingie) because of not being able to see each tabs title or even their icons.

---

Now, I'll be doing some other stuff with Browsers, maybe adding some more into this competition-wannabe thing.

Meanwhile, I have some questions:
Answer by this order, please.

1. What browser do you use?
2. What do you think it's missing on your browser, that you see on other browsers?
3. What do you think it's missing on your browser, that not even other browsers have?
4. Are you happy with your browser's fastness?
5. How many tabs do you usually have open?

You don't need to answer all of them, of course. :D

[PsychoSnail]

1. I use Opera 10.00.
2. The only major thing it's missing is addons. I myself don't mind, since Opera already has pretty much everything I actually care about, but I know many others do mind. One other problem with Opera is that it adheres to web standards much more closely than many web pages do, so some pages don't display correctly. That's more of a problem with the web pages than with Opera, though.
3. I can't think of anything right now.
4. I'm very satisfied with Opera 10's speed. Facebook is so much faster on it than it was on Opera 9. (And, of course, everything else is fast, too)
5. I rarely get above 5 or 6 tabs. I don't often find myself doing more than one or two things in Opera or any other web browser.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I'd be happy to help!

1. What browser do you use?
   lynx
2. What do you think it's missing on your browser, that you see on other browsers?
   Graphics.
3. What do you think it's missing on your browser, that not even other browsers have?
   Coffee maker.
4. Are you happy with your browser's fastness?
   Very.
5. How many tabs do you usually have open?
   One.

[Tunco]

Chrome.
Perfect imo.
-
Too much than it should be.
25+

[SlappyMcGee]

Incidentally, why are you using Chrome 2? I'm using Chrome 3.0.195.20

[Donfuy]

Incidentally, why are you using Chrome 2? I'm using Chrome 3.0.195.20

Secondly, as I made this test almost out of nothing, I used the browsers I had installed on my PC. That's why I used Chrome 2.0 and Opera 10 Beta, when Chrome 3.0 and Opera 10 are out already.

[Tunco]

Incidentally, why are you using Chrome 2? I'm using Chrome 3.0.195.20

Secondly, as I made this test almost out of nothing, I used the browsers I had installed on my PC. That's why I used Chrome 2.0 and Opera 10 Beta, when Chrome 3.0 and Opera 10 are out already.

So this test is not accurate.

[SlappyMcGee]

Incidentally, why are you using Chrome 2? I'm using Chrome 3.0.195.20

Secondly, as I made this test almost out of nothing, I used the browsers I had installed on my PC. That's why I used Chrome 2.0 and Opera 10 Beta, when Chrome 3.0 and Opera 10 are out already.

I DONT READ SECONDLYs

[Vyacheslav]

IE 3.0
Tabbed browsing, flash and shockwave support, security features, auto-complete, etc.
Air Conditioner
One

[jean-luc]

• Mozilla Firefox 3.5
• Better performance. it always seems to be the shortcoming in FF.
• Fixed handling of SSL (security consideration for self-assigned certificates. it's a somewhat complicated issue, I can talk about it length if anyone's curious)
• It runs like crap for me, but it's mostly an extension's fault.
• 20+ on a regular basis. I use Tree-Style Tabs to show them vertically with heirarchy.

[T3chno]

Just out of curiosity, what add-ons do you have on for Firefox when you tested it?

[scythe]

Opera 10 or Arora.

Opera has every feature I want. Even adblock. Arora has very few features, though what it's really missing is extensibility with something other than QScript. QScript blows and nobody wants to use it, Arora devs. I'd like to see the magic wand, tab memory, the tab garbage bin, and speed dial implemented in Arora, hopefully as extensions, before I'd switch to it fully.

Opera 10 is reasonably quick. I think Chrome is a little faster, but Opera is lighter on memory (the Opera team has never optimized for speed; their primary focus has always been on RAM usage, and that's a focus I agree with, which is why I use it). Arora is the fastest damn thing I've ever seen, thanks to it's incredibly slimmed-down design and use of Nokia's awesome QtWebkit.

Either one could use a good Flash reimplementation. Flash Player blows, even on Windows.

Anywhere from 50 - 100. You know, lots.

[Donfuy]

Just out of curiosity, what add-ons do you have on for Firefox when you tested it?

I recently did an accidental clean-up of Firefox, when I uninstalled Namoroka 3.6 from my PC. But I think I have all the addons I need right now:

• Adblock Plus
• All-in-one Sidebar
• Converter
• Glasser
• Hide Menubar
• Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant
• RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin
• Tab Mix Plus
• Xmarks

This were the addons I had when I tested. I'll probably download some more today, like Fission and stuff.




In another news, I got Opera 10 and it's quite amazing, I might say.

But I still love FF3 too much.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Actually, I think there is a single feature of Firefox that keeps me using it instead of any other browser, and that's the massively underrated keyboard shortcut that is the apostrophe. It's a text search that only searches links. I use it constantly.
For example, to check the newest posts on these forums, I type the address in the address bar, press enter, immediately hit the apostrophe key and type in "view n" and hit Enter. That gets me to the "View new posts" screen immediately. I use GMail shortcuts, too, and it's easy to get rid of notification emails with j and x repeatedly, followed by Shift+3, apostrophe, "sign out", Enter. I blow through daily tasks like this every day.

And for those annoying times when I don't have a good mouse. it's still easy to check new posts on these forums by typing in the first few letters of the thread title, pressing Shift+Tab to go to the "newest post" link, and hitting Ctrl+Enter to open it in a new tab. Easy-peasy.

Fuck the mouse.

[Donfuy]

Actually, I think there is a single feature of Firefox that keeps me using it instead of any other browser, and that's the massively underrated keyboard shortcut that is the apostrophe. It's a text search that only searches links. I use it constantly.
For example, to check the newest posts on these forums, I type the address in the address bar, press enter, immediately hit the apostrophe key and type in "view n" and hit Enter. That gets me to the "View new posts" screen immediately. I use GMail shortcuts, too, and it's easy to get rid of notification emails with j and x repeatedly, followed by Shift+3, apostrophe, "sign out", Enter. I blow through daily tasks like this every day.

And for those annoying times when I don't have a good mouse. it's still easy to check new posts on these forums by typing in the first few letters of the thread title, pressing Shift+Tab to go to the "newest post" link, and hitting Ctrl+Enter to open it in a new tab. Easy-peasy.

Fuck the mouse.

I didn't even know that shortcut existed. Just tested it and it works quite well :D
It might save some keyboard-mouse hand trips. :P

[otters]

• A combination of Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4.
• Missing? Enormous bloated 3D tab-thumbnails.
• A force-feedback codpiece.
• Mostly. Curiously enough, there's a bizarre Firefox bug wherein it lags every ten or so seconds, just for a long-enough-to-be-irritating moment; this is when I'm doing anything, scrolling, typing, watching a video, etc. Safari never does this, although then again it's bundled with the OS. Safari, of course, is the fastest browser I know of (aside from Hi-I-have-no-features-whatsoever developer version Chrome) and had the ORIGINAL clicktoflash, which I still miss. FlashBlock just doesn't compare: it's far too buggy.
• Could be any from two to twenty.

[EdoI]

What's the fuss with browser's speed? I mean seriously, I don't care for difference between Opera's and Chrome's speed. If you have a fast connection, you'll be happy with your speed. It's as simple as that.

[SlappyMcGee]

What's the fuss with browser's speed? I mean seriously, I don't care for difference between Opera's and Chrome's speed. If you have a fast connection, you'll be happy with your speed. It's as simple as that.

I agree. It's entirely about features and resource usage. Which is why I love the lightweightedness of Chrome. If I had more resources to spare, I'd be kicking it in Operatown, though.

[jinxed_07]

What browser do you use?

What do you think it's missing on your browser, that you see on other browsers?

What do you think it's missing on your browser, that not even other browsers have?

Are you happy with your browser's fastness?

How many tabs do you usually have open?

1. Firefox when ever possible
2. I'm happy with FF right now,nothing *edit* Actually, I don't like that I have to have "admin permissio" to install new versions of flash, but that is all
3. see # 2
4. Yes
5. 3, maybe 5 on 'busy' days, I could easily do more though

[otters]

What's the fuss with browser's speed? I mean seriously, I don't care for difference between Opera's and Chrome's speed. If you have a fast connection, you'll be happy with your speed. It's as simple as that.

While I may entirely be a special case, Safari loads every page of Retronet significantly faster than any of my other browsers. It's the rendering engine, not the connection speed, that counts. Of course, with less HTML-heavy pages you won't notice a difference, so yeah.

[Tunco]

What's the fuss with browser's speed? I mean seriously, I don't care for difference between Opera's and Chrome's speed. If you have a fast connection, you'll be happy with your speed. It's as simple as that.

While I may entirely be a special case, Safari loads every page of Retronet significantly faster than any of my other browsers. It's the rendering engine, not the connection speed, that counts. Of course, with less HTML-heavy pages you won't notice a difference, so yeah.

I see safari as the extended version of Chrome, but works very slow on my PC. -Vista-

Though, the god damn internet connection is slow in this county, fuck you, Turkey government. :/

[jinxed_07]

Speed. Is. Everything.
Can never have too much of it, so why not?

[Tunco]

Speed. Is. Everything.

No.

A browser with no security is like a bank account with no password.

[smartalco]

A browser with no security is like a bank account with no password.

Only if you allow a criminal to see your bank account.

[scythe]

Speed. Is. Everything.

No.

A browser with no security is like a bank account with no password.

Most browsers' security is dependent on the underlying layout and javascript engines. In the case of Webkit and Presto (fastest), that's quite good. Most of the latest successful exploits on an operating system with modern security features (i.e. not OS X 10.5 or WinXP) were dependent on Adobe Flash.