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Firefox 3 (3.1) vs. Google Chrome vs. Safari 3 vs. Opera 9.5 vs. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) vs. Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)

Written by Vygantas Lipskas on September 3, 2008

Firefox 3 (3.1) vs. Google Chrome vs. Safari 3 vs. Opera 9.5 vs. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) vs. Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)John Resig did a great job by comparing Firefox 3, Firefox 3.1, Google Chrome, Safari 3, Opera 9.5, Internet Explorer 8 and 7 JavaScript performance.

JavaScriptCore: The engine that powers Safari/WebKit (up until Safari 3.1).
SquirrelFish: The engine used by Safari 4.0.
V8: The engine used by Google Chrome.
SpiderMonkey: The engine that powers Firefox (up to, and including, Firefox 3.0).
TraceMonkey: The engine that will power Firefox 3.1 and newer (currently in nightlies, but disabled by default).
Futhark: The engine used in Opera 9.5 and newer.
IE JScript: The engine that powers Internet Explorer.

Feel free to check his post here.


Comments

114 Responses to “Firefox 3 (3.1) vs. Google Chrome vs. Safari 3 vs. Opera 9.5 vs. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) vs. Internet Explorer 7 (IE7)”
  1. Joaquin says:

    GOOGLE CHROME!! IS THE BEST, FIREFOX SUCKS

  2. Search says:

    FIREFOX!! IS THE BEST, GOOGLE CHROME SUCKS

    • ben2talk says:

      This comment also sucks

    • James says:

      I have used both. I was rather upset when Google Chrome first released and had issues. It gave all the fanboys a reason to criticize websites which didn’t layout properly within it.

      I actually like safari. It’s not bad. I have used chrome as well. It’s pretty good.

      But there are so many tools and addons which I use with Firefox that I will not be making the switch permanently. I’ve tried. Firefox wins.

      I would post those tools too. But there are too many fanboys reading this thread I think.

      • Thomas says:

        Acctually Chrome and Safari are good in there own ways but their one big drawback is that if you have a site advisor like i have McAfee site advisor the bar will not show. For web browsing (other than facebook and stuff that i know is safe) I use firefox, opera or IE (rarely) because they allow such ad-dons

  3. Billy says:

    Hey, Google Chrome’s speed is fast but it is still beta version, it has just few application so sucks
    Firefox!

    • ben2talk says:

      You don’t use the applications in Firefox all the time – and you don’t need many of them for normal browsing. Firefox has a great add-on for Google Reader, yet Google Reader also has an application in Chrome, and works better there because of the speed in handling Ajax.

      Up to you if you prefer Firefox, but Opera and Chromium are both far better for running Reader.

    • Firefox had nearly zero plugins when it first emerged as well. Chrome is based on Webkit which gets 100% on the Acid3 test which firefox has never attained. It also loads pages faster and uses a hell of a lot less resources with flash (I’ve heard people say their firefox was using 1Gb RAM which is disgusting to say the least)

      There will be a day when we look back at firefox and say “What we’re we thinking”

  4. ben2talk says:

    I think Chromium is better than Chrome, and Firefox 3.7 and Opera 10.10 are both excellent too. I use them all. Why do people always behave like 5 year old kids and just contradict each other like idiots?

  5. PooPoo Face says:

    Chrome and Safari are =. Yet Firefox is good but not better than the 1st two I said.

    • ben2talk says:

      Chrome is open source. Safari is Apple. They cannot be considered equal, they are not even similar – one is totally closed, and the other is open.

      • betamale says:

        Chrome isn’t open, and Safari isn’t closed. Both use the Webkit engine, which is open, but use the engine a closed source browser.

  6. bumblebee says:

    Chrome is a powerful browser wit limited facilities. Chrome will take up to or more than 5 years to develop to its maximum. Or i think just till google allow add-on to power up chrome. But when we starting using add-on then speed will decrease. I like chrome’s rendering speed, but firefox is handy for me cause it got thousands of add-ons. At this moment ad-blocking isn’t possible with chrome. (but there is a little difficult way, i didn’t try it..)

    Firefox 3.xx.xx are not satisfactory. Waiting for next version. I hope Mozila will not disappoint all of us..

    Remember.. there is only 2 browser is capable for acidtest with 100% result. Chrome, and Opera. Firefox got 93% on acidtest.

    The favourite browser is Firefox. I use Chrome where firefox fails. Yes it fails to load some sites.. maybe incompatible addons.. And i watch youtube videos and pornmovies in Chrome.. Fast.. fast.. superfast Chrome….

    • Thales says:

      I really hope you are kidding. Google Chrome only gets the 100 by a fluke and doesn’t actually work. Safari(even on windows) and Opera are the ones that actually work.

    • ben2talk says:

      Firefox is not satisfactory? Which versions are you testing there?

      Generally Opera makes the best starting browser – when you need to use features of Firefox, then right click and open with Firefox 3.5, 3.6 or 3.7…

      For general speed and rendering, then I open with Chromium. It has plenty of basic features (flashblock, Adsweep, Cleeki, Google Reader Compact & Clean, GR Unread count, RSS Subscription, WOT, YouTube Video downloader)

      In fact, I’d say that Chromium – with it’s new found add-ons being possibly easier to create than Firefox – is in position for the new crown.

      I certainly see no reason to switch to MacOSX or Windows so that I can try out Safari – I prefer not to be controlled by Microsoft or Apple. You choose to hate freedom if you like :P

  7. kion says:

    google chrome and ie8 sucks like the suckineess of the everything. mozilla,opera and safari own along with netscape

  8. Avin says:

    Safari 4 is better than all as it provides fast download speed and other features. Though google chrome provides fast browsing experience but lacks essential features. Opera 10 is small using efficient resources nd offers speed to nd is useful in many ways but its performance is not upto the mark. Firefox 3 takes lot of loading time nd IE7 nd 8 just crash a lot of time while working but they offer protection prom phishing sites nd malicious scripts….

    thus a browser should be used according to need…

    for speed = google chrome
    for speed + features = safari 4
    for security = IE7 nd 8
    for video download nd stability = firefox 3+
    for slower connections + fast experience = opera 10.10

    • somebody says:

      Actually, Opera 10.10 is not out yet. It’s still in Beta. You are probably talking about Opera 10.01 :) .
      And is IE7 and IE8 more secure than the other browsers? If phishing protection is the only criteria for security, im sure other browsers like Firefox and Opera have the feature too.

      • ben2talk says:

        Opera Version 10.10 Beta Build 4672 Platform: Linux System: i686, 2.6.31-14-generic-pae Qt library: 3.3.8b Java: Java Runtime Environment installed.

        What do you mean ‘it’s not out yet, it’s still in Beta’ ? The Beta is out, and I found it to be better than 10.01, and did not yet come across any bugs.

        IE7 and IE8 don’t come into consideration – they are evil, freedom hating browsers. Opera isn’t open source, but at least it’s designed to expand web user experience, rather than bring it under Microsoft or Apple control.

        • somebody says:

          I meant the final is not out yet. I agree though that the Beta is quite stable and can replace 10.01 for daily browsing.

        • avin says:

          I think u haven’t tried the latest version of apple safari 4.0.3, though it takes a lot of physical memory but it is compromisable with the speed, stabilty , smoothness it offers during surfing.

          And u might have used firefox on linux platforms, i agree firefox 3.5, .6 nd .7 might be very fast on linux but on windows platform latest version available is 3.5.4 and its browsing experience is not at all at par wit safari’s latest verion.

          if there is question of Opera i can just say for windows “it is mighty but powerful”

          • ben2talk says:

            Safari is only released for Windows and OSX – so I’m not interested.

          • ben2talk says:

            Safari won’t do drag’n drop files with Google Chrome will it? Firefox will. Chrome, funny story, won’t.

            Firefox is number one for power. And there’s nothing stopping you running a better OS if you want to be able to have Firefox 3.7 in your software list. In Windows you have to get everything by downloading from internet – that sucks.

    • Chromehere says:

      Actually, Opera 10 has fast (the fastest) real-world performance. Don’t trust those artificial JS benchmarks please.

  9. Zaixionito says:

    Okay, look. If your just going to flame other browsers, Shut The Hell Up.

    Now, does anyone know the differences between Chromium and Chrome?

    • ben2talk says:

      Yes. Chromium is a browser – Google take it’s source code and brand it and modify it a little, to release as Chrome.

      Generally Chromium is slightly ahead of Chrome. Rendering is occasionally slightly different… but the differences are just very slight. Chromium is slightly faster (currently 4.0.252.0 ) than Chrome (currently 4.0.249.4 )

  10. XC Fan says:

    The difference is that Chromium is cutting edge (expect bugs) each Channel of Chrome is more stable. There are 3 channels, Stable (Most Stable), Beta (Semi Stable), and Dev (Least Stable, next to Chromium). Chromium is also the open source part that people can download code to alter for their own purposes. You can find out how to change your channel by going to this site: http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel/using-the-channel-changer

    The channels are (Currently) Windows only, but you can download the app there for Mac or Linux.

  11. Under Linux, fullscreen flash does not cane the hell out of my CPU, using 20% less cpu than firefox, it also uses a hell of a lot less while just running doing non-flash stuff so for me this is attractive, its also pretty fast and couple it with dnsmasq and you will be flying (I want a squid server but we can dream). All in all chromium for me is lightning fast but is young so will eventually get even better. Opera is also nice and I used it for a long while until Chromium arrived and I made the switch.
    I’venever used Safari at all so can’t comment. If you want a good firefox like alternative to firefox try swiftfox or Kazehakase which are skimmed down versions so they are a bit slicker.
    I’ve not used IE8 but 7 isnt too bad but I’m sat on 6 on my work laptop as every time I upgrade, the pages I need access to dont work for some reason (but work on my GFs vista laptop) very weird. But it works so I don’t care.
    In conclusion:
    Chromium is for me, Use what you want, they all suck, they all suck equally, just in different areas. There is no best.

    • ben2talk says:

      lolz yes. Though it must be said that anything that runs exclusively on Windows tends to suck the most, because it removes your ability to freely choose your platform, or security model.

  12. tsathieshkumar says:

    I am using GOOGLE CHROME but i FEEL OPERA 10.10 WILL BE FASTER THAN
    CHROME.OPERA 10.10 IS HAVING TURBO OPTION IN WHICH WE CAN INCREASE INTERNET SPEED

    • ben2talk says:

      Wrong – but Opera 10.5 will be so fast that the difference won’t be at all noticeable (actually faster in some tests than Chrome, but not so fast in other areas)

      Overall, Opera 10.5 will feel blisteringly fast and as a standard install it’s a much better browser.

      Firefox is only preferable because of certain add-ons. When not using them, I use Opera.

  13. Phil says:

    Hey what do you know if i need firefox apps or not i use them all to the to get shit off the web.

    Google crome seems nice and smooth even though its still a beta but i don’t like the way the google software agent always wants to connect to the web.

    • ben2talk says:

      The Google Software agent? I use Chrome, but i don’t have any ‘Google Software Agent’. You must have installed it yourself – why don’t you uninstall it? Isn’t this your own computer?

  14. Michael274478 says:

    I personally like safari and chrome best. I like chrome for it’s speed and safari for it’s speed+visual effects (apple’s good at that) I think we can all agree that Internet explorer has to be the worst browser ever made. ;)

    • Its actually not bad. People jumped to firefox due to the poor security in IE and didnt look back. IE is actually not bad at all and runs much smoother and uses less extra resources than firefox et al as most of the browser is already loaded as it uses most of the stuff that makes up windows. Yes it doesnt have all the apps and plugins the opther browsers have but its pretty slick.

      Chromium all the way!!!!

  15. Chicagoan says:

    Overall Rating; ((MY)) top 5 picks

    1. Opera
    2. Google Chrome
    3. Firefox
    4. Internet Explorer (7&8)
    5. Safari

    • ben2talk says:

      Wow, how can you put IE anywhere but last place? Safari is ten times faster, and Apple is much less evil than Microsoft.

  16. gridlock says:

    Does it really matter? as long as is not IE then it’s suitable to run.. all this fuss over a stupid browser.. people will use what they like to use.

    • ben2talk says:

      ‘Does it really matter?’

      Well, with all things being equal – I would choose freedom over the Proprietory browser, wouldn’t you?

      But all things being unequal – I vote heartily for freedom. For the right to use my computer without paying lots of money. It may not matter to you, Sir, but it certainly puts in a heavy bias in my thinking.

  17. Ricky says:

    FACKING FIYAHFOX FTW google chrome good but firefoxis better

  18. Ricky says:

    firefox pwns all :D

  19. Steve Jobs says:

    1. Safari
    2. Firefox
    3. Google Chrome
    4. Internet Explorer
    5. Opera

  20. Devon says:

    I think opera is the best browser. Most pages only take 1-3 seconds to load

  21. bfadaaf says:

    Safari is the best browser of them all.

    Even though it was originally designed for MAC i go Safari :D

    Unlike Google which store all personal data about you and is like a Big Brother stalking your every moment.

    Unlike Slowpoke IE8 which takes one year untill it have loaded up a page. Plus hackers favorite target.

    Unlike Firefox which only plus everyone seems to bring up is the Add on extensions blah blah blah.

    No, i say go Safari. Or perhaps Opera if you want to.

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