Fed up of Operas annoyances - contemplating Firefox. Worth waiting for Ver 4?

KatanaDV20 · 10 Oct 2010 at 22:52

Hey guys

Been using Opera for years now, its a good speedy reliable browser and has some neat functions but it has 4 major annoyances for me that have made me for the first time consider another browser - Firefox.

The annoyances in Opera:
1. Randomly refuses to auto-login (using Wand) into websites even though I can see the login info in the Wands database.
2. No predictive text search in its intergrated Google-search window.
3. Ineffective adblocking (compared to FFs Adblock)
4. Just doesnt work properly on some websites (I gather this is not the browsers fault but the fact that the site loads fine in FF and IE is what matters)

I have been goofing around with Firefox but havent moved to it completely (tons of passwords etc to be transferred from Opera and will have to spend time customizing FF).

Would be interesting to hear any suggestions...should I jump ship now or hang tight until Firefox 4 comes out (I hear its been pushed back to 2011 release?)

I ask because I dont know how different FF 4 will be. Will FF 3 users be able to hop across to V4 easily with everything transferring ok? I dont want to face *two* big browser jumps :eek:

(Opera---->FF3 & FF3---->FF4)

Thanks

Mattus · 10 Oct 2010 at 23:05

You should be fine with things like bookmarks, history and logins - I believe those will transfer from Fx3 to Fx4.

You may have a little more difficulty with add-ons, since Fx4 changes the add-on model quite a bit. All the popular ones (e.g. Adblock) will be compatible though. Likewise with themes, as Fx4 looks pretty different to Fx3.

xJcBx · 10 Oct 2010 at 23:16

Have you tried Google Chrome?
I tried it to see what all the hype was about, and I have never looked back from Opera, but I do have all 3 installed (and Safari) in case a website won't load properly in any of them.

Ratbag · 11 Oct 2010 at 13:32

Yeah I'd say chrome [or iron] feels like a more natural progression. I certainly found so. I find firefox more sluggish and slower to open.

reefoid · 11 Oct 2010 at 13:50

Ratbag said:
Yeah I'd say chrome [or iron] feels like a more natural progression. I certainly found so. I find firefox more sluggish and slower to open.

Same here. Chrome is so much smoother than Firefox. Shame as I used to love FF, but it seems very bloated now, even with minimal add-ons.

KatanaDV20 · 11 Oct 2010 at 14:00

Oh! Interesting to hear that FF is bloated...thats one thing I must say Opera isnt...! Hmm...looks like I will hang with Opera for the time being and use FF on the side to load websites that Opera doesnt like. I have heard that with addons Firefox is a sluggish snail and gobbles lots of memory. Will wait for sometime after V4 is released....who knows maybe the next version of Opera will fix the annoyances I mentioned!

Can Chrome be easily customized...does it have loads of extensions and such! I dont want 100s of extensions...stuff like flashblock, adblock etc.

reefoid · 11 Oct 2010 at 14:03

Loads of extension available, take a look here. And here. And here.

anything I don't mind · 11 Oct 2010 at 15:02

I used opera as my main browser for years but then i started using ssh tunnels and opera does not support that. So i switched the firefox, now i use about 10 addons including greasemonkey scripts for youtube and google search. I could never change browser now and loose my greasemonkey scipts, i am not wanting to upgrade to firefox 4 because then all my addons will stop working. Plus i think the new looks sucks!

Mattus · 12 Oct 2010 at 03:44

KoR said:
Loads of extension available, take a look here. And here. And here.

Be warned, though: Chrome extensions are pretty limited compared to Firefox extensions. You can forget about anything advanced, like Firebug or any decent download manager. Chrome just doesn't provide the capability for extensions to do these things.

CaptainCrash · 12 Oct 2010 at 09:07

KatanaDV20 said:
Oh! Interesting to hear that FF is bloated... I have heard that with addons Firefox is a sluggish snail and gobbles lots of memory.

I keep seeing this over and over again, and I sometimes wonder if I'm actually using the same browser... Firefox runs just fine for me (with about a dozen extensions).

I have Chrome and Opera installed as well, and I honestly can't see any significant speed difference between them (or IE8 for that matter).

randal · 12 Oct 2010 at 09:16

Another FF to Chrome convert here, absolute breath of fresh air to see the speed at which pages render under the Chrome engine. FF is a wheezy old dog in comparison.

Also, script support built in... masterstroke.

jrwagh333 · 12 Oct 2010 at 10:32

FF Beta4 is the slowest thing I have ever used

Vimes · 12 Oct 2010 at 12:45

CaptainCrash said:
I keep seeing this over and over again, and I sometimes wonder if I'm actually using the same browser... Firefox runs just fine for me (with about a dozen extensions).

I have Chrome and Opera installed as well, and I honestly can't see any significant speed difference between them (or IE8 for that matter).

+1

I too have the same opinion. I have tried most of the browsers and yet I keep coming back to FF (4.0 beta 6) as I would not want to use the Web without the extensions that I have become accustomed to and not being available for Chrome.

Chrome seems to start up quicker but for actual day to day use I must admit to not noticing anything difference in speed. The same applies with Opera, except I have the most issues when using that browser with compatibility problems when using certain websites.

Greenlizard0 · 12 Oct 2010 at 12:48

Gave Chrome a whirl the other day and it for me is just as fast as Opera if not faster. Just wish it supported the use of sessions (of tabs) then I'd probably switch over.

reefoid · 12 Oct 2010 at 14:43

Mattus said:
Be warned, though: Chrome extensions are pretty limited compared to Firefox extensions. You can forget about anything advanced, like Firebug or any decent download manager. Chrome just doesn't provide the capability for extensions to do these things.

The Firebug Lite extension for Chrome does everything I need. I'm sure it doesn't do everything that FF Firebug does (hence the Lite tag) but I don't know what those things are, everything I used Firebug in FF for is available in Firebug Lite.

I've never used a download manager in any browser ever, but there seem to plenty around for Chrome.

Boozebeard · 12 Oct 2010 at 14:47

Can't get on with chrome at all. It's too minimal and I don't really feel that it's faster. It just displays web pages before its downloaded all the content, so you still end up having to wait just as long to see the full page.

I've moved from fire fox to opera but having some web pages not work right is getting kinda annoying.

Pulse · 12 Oct 2010 at 14:59

Just updated my version of Chrome to the latest and it's just faster than ever, load time is instant and page load time is minimal. Plus it's got all that you need, even mouse gestures.