Opera Vs Mozilla

I'm considering changing my browser from IE ( it works reasonably well for me at the moment, but I need some variety. Plus it slows down my PC every so often ) I've played around with most of the other browsers, and I've narrowed it down to Opera and Mozilla. I haven't used either of them, so I want to get a few other opinions before I start downloading. How good is the...

Skinability. Is there a good Milk or Aqua skin for this browser
Extra Features. Mail clients, popup killers etc
Speed.
Are there plugins? Or good resource sites with themes etc.
Bugs and development. Does it work smoothly?
Well thought out? Is it easy to work with? e.g uncluttered interface
I've heard stuff about Opera having adverts in it? Is this true

All comments are appreciated

#24587

I suggest FireBird. Its a mozilla varient, and its much better than Mozilla. Its super light weight and fast, its got wonderful skinning (check out Lynchknots amazing Safari Skins), and it works w/ the huge repository of Mozilla plugins. Firebird is so good, its going to become the official Mozilla after the 1.4 release.

It has:

Perfect Pop up Stopping (I havent had one in months, I forget they exist until I go into IE)

Tabbed Browsing (mmm.....tab)

99% compatability

Completly customizable interface

Great skinning

Fast

For a mail Client, get Thunderbird: Its Mozilla Mail (which is the best IMO), but it runs completly seperate from Mozilla, so its lightweight and faster.

#24592

hehe, thanks for the plug....

this might help you...

#24594

I am a Phoenix (Firebird) fan as well. I don't like Mozilla (eventhough Firebird is based on Mozilla's code) and Opera is just OK (it's adware, but even the full version isn't as good as Firebird IMO). With the page rendering "tweak" Firebird loads pages faster than any other browser. Phoenix also has lots of other tweaks and extensions so that you can customize the browser.

#24654

imtoomuch, whats the page rendering tweak?

#24660

Originally posted by lynchknot@May 6 2003, 09:01 AM
hehe, thanks for the plug....

this might help you...

lynchknot,

The mem usage snapshot from task manager is misleading.

If one configures Opera in the "History and Cache" Preferences page, Opera's memory usage falls right in line with Phoenix/Firebird.

By default, Opera will use its automatic RAM allocation which, if I recall correctly, will grab at least %10 of all available RAM. This be changed to use 4, 10, 20, 40, 60 megabytes or none if so desired.

Bling,

Grusic

#24709

Originally posted by Grusic+May 6 2003, 06:50 AM-->
QUOTE(Grusic @ May 6 2003, 06:50 AM)

#24717

oh damn...the page rendering tweak rocks. thanks. it's so much faster.

#24719

Originally posted by jacobk@May 6 2003, 01:52 AM
imtoomuch, whats the page rendering tweak?

Put this line in your user.js file:

// This one makes a huge difference. Last value in milliseconds (default is 250)

user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);

More tips can be found here:

http://texturizer.net/firebird/

Enjoy.

#24732

Originally posted by contrasutra@May 5 2003, 08:44 PM
I suggest FireBird. Its a mozilla varient, and its much better than Mozilla. Its super light weight and fast, its got wonderful skinning (check out Lynchknots amazing Safari Skins), and it works w/ the huge repository of Mozilla plugins. Firebird is so good, its going to become the official Mozilla after the 1.4 release.
It has:
Perfect Pop up Stopping (I havent had one in months, I forget they exist until I go into IE)
Tabbed Browsing (mmm.....tab)
99% compatability
Completly customizable interface
Great skinning
Fast
For a mail Client, get Thunderbird: Its Mozilla Mail (which is the best IMO), but it runs completly seperate from Mozilla, so its lightweight and faster.

contrasutra says it all right there in his post: Phoenix/ Firebird (they just changed the name) is quality anyway you look at it. Something about Opera just doesn't feel right to me...it just feels heavy when I use it - I don't know if that makes sense, but on my AthlonXP 2100+ sys Opera feels sluggish...and thats just not right. Plus I miss Firebirds plug ins with Opera!

#24733

I forgot to put my stats for Opera 7.10...

20 tabs open

built-in M2 email program running

54,000K

But to each his own. Use the browser that best fits your needs.

#24737

Thanks for you replies; they should help me decide on my browser. I'm going to download Opera, Mozilla and Firebird and see which one works best. I'll get back to you with the results

EDIT: Ok, I've tried all the browsers, and I've settled on Firebird.

I tried Opera, but it seemed quite bulky, and "over-featured"

Mozilla was good, it seemd to do the job pretty well.

But Firebird! It's great! I've done that page tweak, and the pages load, usually within a second

Thanks guys. You've been a great help

#24763