What do you think is the best browser?

[wizard0ne0]

hey guys, as you can see by my post count this is indeed my first post, just ran a test with a dozen different browsers and thought the the info may be handy to everyone out there. I tested Avant, Enigma, SlimBrowser, Flock, GreenBrowser, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Maxthon, Mozilla Firefox, NeoPlanet, Opera, and Lastly Safari. here are my findings in alphabetical order all startup pages were set to www.speedtest.net.

Memory used on startup Ping Download Upload Memory used after test
Avant__________73684k 126ms 1.29Mb/s 0.67Mb/s 106500k
Enigma Browser__78016k 131ms 1.29Mb/s 0.65Mb/s 110528k
SlimBrowser_____76108k 123ms 1.31Mb/s 0.45Mb/s 107550k
Flock___________94840k 124ms 1.31Mb/s 0.37Mb/s 143292k
GreenBrowser____67512k 123ms 1.28Mb/s 0.7Mb/s 96084k
Internet Explorer _80396k 126ms 1.31Mb/s 0.38Mb/s 112164k
Google Chrome___112104k 126ms 1.29Mb/s 0.38Mb/s 156052k
Maxthon_________85356k 128ms 1.30Mb/s 0.69Mb/s 114520k
Mozilla Firefox____103200k 119ms 1.30Mb/s 0.73Mb/s 147252k
NeoPlanet_______70760k 126ms 1.26Mb/s 0.71Mb/s 100276k
Opera___________104436k 129ms 1.28Mb/s 0.69Mb/s 144940k
Safari___________111628k 122ms 1.31Mb/s 0.71Mb/s 151120k

[rthompson80819]

Interesting numbers.  In a way it points out that there isn't much difference in browsers.  It's more of a personal preference than anything else.

However, the different upload speeds are probably more related to your ISP, and traffic at either the server, or local congestion if on cable or network congestion if on DSL.

[wizard0ne0]

they are indeed interesting.  I just figured that I had never seen anybody actually post an unbiased test on browsers so I might as well do it.  I found it interesting that chrome used up multiple processes in the task manager (3 in my test), it seems that it limits each process to 60000k or so and then creates a new one, not sure about the effects of such on the processor and whatnot but ah well.  and I fully agree with you on the upload numbers, especially considering that the numbers fluctuated with time more than browser choice.

[hopemy]

But I prefer to use Google Chrome.

[musicworld1]

Firefox and chrome is best and my favorite browser.

[the_mad_joker]

 i Prefer

[kristain]

Firefox is the best browser. It has no. of add-ons. It is the most-recommended web browser for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux users.

[camerongray]

I prefer google chrome.

I'm not sure if download/upload speed tests are that much of a browser test, more of a connection test.

I made a tool in javascript that is basically an automatic stopwatch for timing web page load time.  Enter a URL and it tells you how long it took to load.  See it here http://www.browserspeedtest.co.cc It's still in it's very early stages but it should work.  Note: You MUST CLICK the start test button, pressing enter does not work and the URL must have http:// at the start

I hope that this isn't classed as advertising if it is, please delete!

[soybean]

It's more of a personal preference than anything else.

I agree. 

I've used IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.  Browser statistics at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp show Opera remaining rather constant in percentage of users using it, while Chrome is growing at a faster pace than others in recent months. I think Chrome clearly has an advantage by being a Google product.  Opera seems to have a disadvantage by being a product of a company based in Norway and, therefore, does not get much recognition in the U.S.  I've found Opera to be a browser with some nice features; I think it would gain some market share if more people gave it a try.

[2x3i5x]

[/url=http://www.orcabrowser.com/]Orca Browser[/url] or Firefox? Orca is firefox based.

[joolifinaa]

Firefox handles the widest variety of web pages with different media.Chrome is the fastest. I'm still playing around with it, so I'd have to use it a bit more to see how well it handles a broad range of websites.Safari is an excellent balance of speed and versatility.

[BC_Programmer]

Chrome is the fastest.

No it's not. lynx is the fastest browser.

[Salmon Trout]

No it's not. lynx is the fastest browser.

Quite right. Nothing touches it. (All other factors being equal - connection speed, rate at which remote site can serve pages etc)

[RexEddie]

I use Firefox and for me I wouldn't switch. I can tell you one congress should ban is IE,LOL

[BC_Programmer]

I can tell you one congress should ban is IE

yeah, IE sucks so bad. I've always found the IE hate to be unjustified.

Do I use it as a browser? No, not very often (except for a few sites that don't seem to work in anything except IE). But it's important to realize that Internet Explorer was the one and only catalyst that made Browsers something you download for free, or get with your operating system. If it wasn't for Internet Explorer, we would all have to go to the store and buy a boxed copy of a browser before we could get onto the internet. Also, if it wasn't for internet Explorer, there might never have been a mozilla project (which only exists because Netscape essentially "gave up" and open sourced netscape) Which means we wouldn't have firefox. And if there was no IE, at least more then half of the browsers in the original post wouldn't exist, since they run off the Trident (IE) HTML renderer. The "first browser war" (netscape Vs IE) set the stage for the second browser war (IE Vs Firefox), in the same, but far more historically relevant way that World War I set the stage for world war II. (my phrasing here seems to be vague either way, but I'm saying (of course) that WW1 and WW2 are far more historically relevant then these silly little "browser war" things. In fact I feel like a jerk mentioning them in the same sentence, let alone comparing them.)

Secondly, the fact that the European Union, being comprised mostly of countries whose governments abhor any sort of capitalism may be a catalyst in why they are treating IE, and Microsoft, so unfairly. They essentially forced MS to advertise a variety of browsers. I don't recall any injunction yet saying that when somebody installs Visual Studio in Europe the installer has to suggest free alternatives, So I'm not sure why it's so important browser wise. When you buy a car, it comes with an engine. you have no choice. When you buy a lawnmower, it comes with a lawnmower engine. you don't get a list of choices. But, if  you want,. you can always replace your lawnmower engine with the engine from a Semi-trailer truck.

The facts that people revolve around, how MS claims that IE is integrated into the OS, and wether it is or not, is completely irrelevant. MS including IE in their operating system is no different then the way they include paint or Wordpad or notepad, or calculator, etc in it. There are plenty of free alternatives for all of those, but some people find the one included to suite their purpose fine. For some reason I half-expect the EU to integrate alternative menus not only for IE but also for every single other built in program. Additionally, the interesting bit is without a browser, you couldn't download and install any of these "free alternatives" at all. Then you're suddenly having a flashback to 1994, going to the store to <buy> a copy of a <internet browser>. Buying copies of Internet browsers, what a novel thought! And to think that if Microsoft had never started to include IE, we may very well be still doing just that.