The Browser Wars Continue, Sort Of

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://lifehacker.com/5575407/browser-speed-tests-safari-5-firefox-36-and-opera-106-beta' target='_blank'>http://lifehacker.com/5575407/brows...-opera-106-beta</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"As you can see, each browser has its strengths&mdash;even the most maligned browser in recent history. We took each of the five all-browser tests&mdash;start-up times, nine-tab loading, JavaScript, DOM/CSS, and memory use&mdash;and assigned a ranking to each contender. In the case of very close results, we assigned a "tie." In two cases&mdash;Internet Explorer on JavaScript and CSS, Safari on nine-tab loading&mdash;we had to assign zeros, though, obviously, each browser can perform those functions, but that's how it goes."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1277923438.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Does the speed of the browser really affect your choice?&nbsp; I mean, sure, if there is a significant difference like those measured in minutes, or even tens of seconds, but for most browsing, I have found most have a particular preference, logical or not.&nbsp; I would think that for browsers, the competition would be more for features than in speed.&nbsp; The tests seems reasonable and somewhat based on real world performance, though I have heard claims were some people load up hundreds of tabs for a single browser.&nbsp; I wonder what the performance metrics would be on that kind of scenario.</p>

[Reid Kistler]

Speed, as such, has never been a deciding fact: politics and stability rank higher as determining factors.

Mostly bounce around between Firefox and Opera, with Firefox getting the greater usage simply because it runs into fewer sites that it doesn't like than Opera does.

IE8 is primarily used only for MS Updates, although still run into a handful of apps that INSIST upon opening it, even though Firefox is nominally the "Default" browser... :confused:

[Hooch Tan]

Mostly bounce around between Firefox and Opera, with Firefox getting the greater usage simply because it runs into fewer sites that it doesn't like than Opera does.

Do you find a hassle to switch back and forth? I pretty much use Firefox myself, and Firefox only because I like having consistency across computers, and syncing everything is a bit easier. I'd shudder to think of maintaining multiple browsers. My computer deals with updates from one program or another frequently enough!