Web Browser Grand Prix 3: IE9 Enters The Race

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Hey hey hey hey! Calm down, all of you!

- 64-bit IE9 sucks, that's for sure; however, no other browser provide 64-bit builds on Windows (it is noteworthy that the only real 'supported' - i.e. binary provided by maker - 64-bit browser is Opera on Linux), so it's not TOO MUCH of a problem.

- such an article can take some time to write: in fact, today was the last day it could be published without looking too much out of place, since indeed, Firefox 4 comes out on March 22 (as in, tomorrow) - and it's interesting to see how good Fx 3 must have been since it's still able to hold its own against browsers one year more recent.

- Adam isn't 'pro-MS', considering he's the one writing the Linux articles for Tom's; still, he does have a point in that IE9 is a damn good browser. I tested all 5, too: if IE is not THE ONE for me, it's because:
* Chrome is too cramped,
* Safari plain sucks,
* Opera is a bit too awkward to use,
* and IE9 is both too cramped and not available outside Windows.
 
Comrades! Rally the Chromium! Forth and fear no darkness! ARISE ARISE USERS OF CHROMIUM! SCRIPTS SHALL BE SHAKEN! JAVA SHALL BE LOADED! A SWORD DAY! A RED DAY! ERE THE SUN RISES!!!!
 
[citation][nom]mitch074[/nom]- 64-bit IE9 sucks, that's for sure; however, no other browser provide 64-bit builds on Windows (it is noteworthy that the only real 'supported' - i.e. binary provided by maker - 64-bit browser is Opera on Linux), so it's not TOO MUCH of a problem.[/citation]
There are 64bit builds of FF4 beta for windows, but Mozilla won't official support 64bit on windows until FF5. The FF4 64bit builds aren't as optimized as 32bit builds but there's not nearly as slow as IE9 64bit.
 
What's with the claiming Opera has bad memory management? Sure, it retains a lot of data after closing tabs, but that's for caching purposes, something it does better than the other browsers. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd sure prefer previously closed pages to re-open much faster because of this.

It's not bad management if it's done on purpose. Would you claim Windows 7 to have bad memory management? It uses a lot of memory if the system can handle a lot, because that's what the free gigabytes of memory is there for. If you have a system with limited memory, Windows 7 will use less.

Opera handles things in a similar manner.
 
[citation][nom]Pherule[/nom]What's with the claiming Opera has bad memory management? Sure, it retains a lot of data after closing tabs, but that's for caching purposes, something it does better than the other browsers. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd sure prefer previously closed pages to re-open much faster because of this.It's not bad management if it's done on purpose. Would you claim Windows 7 to have bad memory management? It uses a lot of memory if the system can handle a lot, because that's what the free gigabytes of memory is there for. If you have a system with limited memory, Windows 7 will use less.Opera handles things in a similar manner.[/citation]

You nailed it there Pherule!, Ive used all the browsers over the years, and support my customers with all the browsers, i always install Opera on every Job or Build I do and show my customers how it works, and besides a few Firefox Die Hards, almost all of my customers have fallen in love with Opera, and only resort to IE in the cases where web developers have legacy sites only compatible with IE!

Opera is still the winner in my Book, and has been for many a year! And I don't want it to have a massive market share please, I prefer it being the browser used by the select, it gives me a little extra zing when delivering to my customers!
 

Cool!

It is worth noticing that the FINAL has exactly the same hash values as RC2! so RC2 = FINAL :sol:
 
@phusiOn: 64-bit builds of Firefox have been available for so long it actually predates Firefox: the Mozilla Suite shipped on 64-bit Alpha at the time if memory serves me.

However, 64-bit builds of Firefox, although stable and fast, are still unsupported by Mozilla, inasmuch as they don't support their nightlies nor do they suport 3rd-party builds - otherwise, I've used Firefox 2,3,3.5 and 3.6 in 64-bit on Linux without a hitch especially now that both Flash and Java have 64-bit plugins, thus foregoing nspluginwrapper (for those not in the know, nspluginwrapper is a plugin that allows you to run 32-bit Netscape plugins in a 64-bit browser - it is still required for Acrobat's PDF plugin, or to run a 'stable' Flash release).
 
I wonder if Safari sucks that much under OSX...Maybe a follow up article?

I never got IE9 to run Peacekeeper, it just hangs at the first page. Its a hella fast browser though. It does have some basic adblocking (Quero AdBlock) but not as good as ABP, extensions are their biggest weakness that I can see.
 
It would be helpful if Chrome Canary Build was included in the tests.
 
[citation][nom]pirateboy[/nom]I wonder how much microsoft paid tomshardware not to include Firefox 4 RC1[/citation]

And if they included Firefox 4 RC1 or RC2 you all would say to wait for the final version. 😉 I am sure they will update it again once the final version of Firefox is out.

Anyways I am very happy that IE 9 did so well. Long live the browser wars!
 

How do you know this? Do you participate in Opera development?

I have 3 browsers (Opera, Firefox4 & Chrome10) installed on my PC and don't see any of them reopening closed pages faster than the others.


Have you tried Tab Mix Plus with Firefox? Firefox with Tab Mix Plus installed offers the best tab browsing experience (tbe) among the five browsers. In addition, IE tab add-on can be installed on Firefox to view pages that only support IE.

BTW, Maxthon (formerly named MyIE2) is the only browser that is (slightly) better than Firefox in tbe. Maxthon's tbe had matured and been the best since 2003. I am really surprised that all of the much more popular browsers (except Firefox) are still so far behind Maxthon in tbe. I wouldn't switched to Firefox in 2005 if Maxthon was not based on IE core (which is insecure) and not made-in-China software (which has very high possibility to include malware).

Overall, Firefox is the best in my opinion.
 


:cry: not true.. nothing there when i checked.. also checked using firefox's "check for updates" function
 
You should wait 1 day to accuratley test against the new Firefox 4. You knew it was coming today.

FAIL!

or just bribed by Microsoft like suggested before.
 
[citation][nom]andy5174[/nom]How do you know this? Do you participate in Opera development?I have 3 browsers (Opera, Firefox4 & Chrome10) installed on my PC and don't see any of them reopening closed pages faster than the others.Have you tried Tab Mix Plus with Firefox? Firefox with Tab Mix Plus installed offers the best tab browsing experience (tbe) among the five browsers. In addition, IE tab add-on can be installed on Firefox to view pages that only support IE.BTW, Maxthon (formerly named MyIE2) is the only browser that is (slightly) better than Firefox in tbe. Maxthon's tbe had matured and been the best since 2003. I am really surprised that all of the much more popular browsers (except Firefox) are still so far behind Maxthon in tbe. I wouldn't switched to Firefox in 2005 if Maxthon was not based on IE core (which is insecure) and not made-in-China software (which has very high possibility to include malware).Overall, Firefox is the best in my opinion.[/citation]

Valid points there, I have 5 browsers installed at all times, Opera, IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari to ensure compatibility of my websites on the major browsers, Opera does indeed open closed pages faster in my use. I have 8gb DDR3 and have Pagefile on SSD!

Opera wins with not having to install extensions, its all built in, which is perfect for my customers, I don't need to train them on the ins and outs of Firefox extensions!

Opera Link, keeps all browser sessions across multi-platforms in sync--Priceless!
Opera Turbo, Fantastic for crappy public Wifi spots, speeds browsing up incredibly on slow connections
Opera Mail, great default mail client
Default Torrent download application
Opera Unite-- here you will find more functionality that you could imagine!
Speed-Dial, still the best homepage out of all the browsers- esp on 24" screen with 5x5 tiles
Closed Tabs re-cycle bin
Grouped tabs
Built in Ad Blocker, (Right click Block content simples)
Tiny screen usage, leaves as much space possible for the Web pages

And its fast! And its secure!




 

The link was working but Mozilla started redirecting it to FF3.6 until it's time for FF4 to be "official." They've committed to releasing it March 22 at around 7AM PST. The build is already making its way to the mirror servers and they're updating portions of the site in preparation for the release. The FF4 final build that was in that link has the same signature as the RC2 build as expected. Basically if you have FF4 RC2 then you have FF4 final, it's just not quite "officially" out for another ~24 hours.
 
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