Web Browser Grand Prix 3: IE9 Enters The Race

[feeddagoat]

I've had opra mini 5 on my blackberry and had nothing but troubles with it (white screen of death while using the app tho the rest of the phone worked, sluggish, random app error that crashed the entire phone, task bar would become unresponsive). It was the only decent browser that had tabs tho. TBH It put me offer trying Opera on my desktop tho the results from part 2 and this where making me think twice. Now, I might just switch to IE9 since it does seem king of the hill. Ill wait to see how the new firefox performs first tho.

 

[atikkur]

the UI of IE9 is too clean, which i dont like it. compare it with firefox4 rc1, is much better one. i also feel FF4 rc1 much more stable than FF3.6. So cant wait to see the final FF4.

 

[andy5174]

[citation][nom]moricon[/nom]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![/citation]
All of these features are also available to Firefox as either add-on or built-in. Besides, there are much more handy add-on (e.g TabMixPlus) that is available to Firefox exclusively. In addition, Firefox still consumes less resource and equally fast (in my case) even with many add-on installed when compared to Opera.

Add-ons I use are listed below.
TabMixPlus: Best Tab Browsing
Ad Block Plus: Ad blocking
No Script: Block ad java script
Flashblock: Block unwanted flashes
Download Helper: to download videos and images from many sites, such as YouTube
FlashGot: Enable downloads using the most popular external download managers (such as FlashGet and BitComet)
Fireshot: Support screenshot of entire/visible part of pages.
ForecastFox: Weather forecasting
Flagfox: Display a flag depicting the location of current server
FXchrome: Chrome-look UI

 

[gralex]

Is there a way to put my bookmarks (favorites actually) on the left hand side of the tabs in IE9? I kinda got used to them over there...

 

[erikjmoller]

I don't get this at all... I had to check this out for myself and ran Kraken.
Opera times in at about 13 secs http://bit.ly/gfkL27
IE9 times in at about 16 secs http://bit.ly/gDNZkI
I ran this on a core 2 dou, 4GB RAM and Vista 32.

 

[phuzi0n]

The Kraken results look totally bogus. IE9 is typically 3x slower than Chrome 10 on Kraken, not the other way around like this graph shows.

http://media.bestofmicro.com/9/1/285445/original/wbgp3kraken.jpg

Come on, how long does it take to fix a blatantly obvious mistake. There is no way that IE9 finished Kraken over 4 times faster than Chrome did. Chrome is still the Javascript performance king and FF4 is the queen.

Also note that IE9's Sunspider score is a bit of a farce because they have a dead code eliminator in their engine that allows them to completely skip executing the math-cordic test. While the dead code eliminator is a valid optimization, it goes against the spirit of the benchmark to skip execution of a test when the test is meant to see how fast the engine executes the code, not whether it can completely bypass running the code. Sunspider needs to be updated to prevent the code from being eliminated.

 

[Guest]

20 tenths of a second huh? That would be 2 seconds. I think you meant 20 hundredths of a second. That, or 2 tenths of a second.

 

[Guest]

@rhangman

Microsoft didn't bother porting their Chakra Javascript engine to IE9 x64 because Adobe hasn't bothered to release a 64-bit version of Flash. There's pretty much no point in doing that kind of work when no one is going to use that browser yet.

 

[HolyCrusader]

I'm confused why this whole test was done now, with Firefox 4 due to be released tomorrow. Would it not have been better to postpone the test by a few days? At the very least, it would have saved you guys some work. Now the tests will have to be re-run all over again, making the results from this test mostly pointless.

 

[pgreed]

Firefox 4.0 was launched TODAY in the final form. Repeat the tests because I personally didn't found accurate the IE9 results.

 

[Guest]

opera's memory management is just handled way different. the reason is still has so much memory intact after tabs are close is that they can be quickly resotred from the "recycle" bin if the are "accidentally" closed. clicking "clear list of tabs" actually frees all of the memory too.

 

[maddy143ded]

[citation][nom]andy5174[/nom]Opera sucks balls in memory management and lacks handy add-on such as Tab Mix Plus (which is same for Chrome). I would definitely move to Opera if it has these 2 issues fixed.[/citation]

you need to get real,
Opera doesnt need tab mix plus because it has the best Tab handling of all the browsers. I belive Opera brought the Tabs in the market.

but you are right in the memory management point.
Opera devlopers need to take a deep look in the Memory issues.

 

[digiex]

Not interested, still using xp.

 

[phuzi0n]

@rhangman

Microsoft didn't bother porting their Chakra Javascript engine to IE9 x64 because Adobe hasn't bothered to release a 64-bit version of Flash. There's pretty much no point in doing that kind of work when no one is going to use that browser yet.

Adobe has had a beta 64bit flash plugin for several months. There is also 64bit versions of many other popular plugins. People simply don't use the 64bit browser because there is no reason to and it is terribly slow regardless of whether or not it has your favorite plugins.

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10_square.html

 

[wolfram23]

Hmmm might have to give IE9 a try. Been using Chrome lately and it's good. We'll see.

 

[ottozero]

To be honest, since Microsoft kicked the crud out of Netscape and controlled the web browser thru the last decade, and then GOT LAZY with innovation because of lack of competition.. I think Toms hardware owes it to Mozilla to Feature the Firefox 4, because its the reason for this current Browser World War II-era.

Using version 3.6 when you already know that version four is due out is not fair.

BTW I use Safari and I like very much.
I am impressed with IE 9, finally M$ is making good software again WIndows 7, now IE 9.. what next will they get rid of the Ribbon in OFFICE

 

[andy5174]

you need to get real,
Opera doesnt need tab mix plus because it has the best Tab handling of all the browsers. I belive Opera brought the Tabs in the market.

but you are right in the memory management point.
Opera devlopers need to take a deep look in the Memory issues.

After reading your comment, I am 100% sure that you have minimal idea on how Firefox/TabMixPlus work (or didn't even try them).

By default, Opera and Firefox3 are about as good in handling tab. However, Firefox will become much superior after tab mix plus is installed. Opera offers merely about 20% of the tab handling features available in TabMixPlus. And Firefox4 is even better.

 

[cirslevin]

considering imminent release of firefox 4, your article is really ill timed.

 

[ProDigit10]

BLAH!
IE9 is not compatible with xp!

 

[maddy143ded]

[citation][nom]andy5174[/nom]After reading your comment, I am 100% sure that you have minimal idea on how Firefox/TabMixPlus work (or didn't even try them).By default, Opera and Firefox3 are about as good in handling tab. However, Firefox will become much superior after tab mix plus is installed. Opera offers merely about 20% of the tab handling features available in TabMixPlus. And Firefox4 is even better.[/citation]
I have been using Opera as default for nearly 8 years now,
i have also been using firefox consistently for quite some time( to play facebook games) just for Greasemonkey. and yes I have used Tab mix plus quite frequently , so I am writing this comment after some experience.

Opera Tabs has most of the regularly used Tab mix options by defaults . you just need to go configure it to suit your needs...

my opera window has a usualy 20 - 30 tabs open in it. so only thing i can request of the devlopers is an option to synchronize the tabs too.

 

[maddy143ded]

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Mozilla-Firefox-v4-for-Windows/1032985422/16


has FF 4 already been released?

 

[maddy143ded]

[citation][nom]maddy143ded[/nom]has FF 4 already been released?[/citation]


http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Mozilla-Firefox-v4-for-Windows/1032985422/16

 

[kkiddu]

Wow, FF3.6 sure took a beating. Although considering its age, it's probably justified. Hope FF4 is worth the wait, and delays. I'm not comfortable with changing my browsers, and looking for a new set of addons.

 

[Guest]

I am deleting tomshardware from my bookmarks toolbar. It was too stupid not to include FF 4. Also, even though IE9 is cleaner and faster it's not all that, and has problems.

 

[gti88]

Honestly, I don't like FF4 interface.
I'll stay with 3.6 for the time being.