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Still the best option for power users
Firefox is an open-source alternative to Microsoft’s proprietary browser, and like Russell. Crowe in Gladiator, Firefox has been winning the crowd ever since it stepped into the ring. Mozilla had just released its first Release Candidate of Firefox 4 when we put this story together, so that’s what we used for testing. The final version should be out by the time you read this.
Mozilla completely overhauled the user interface in Firefox 4 with the intention of making it sleeker and easier to use. It’s the biggest aesthetic update since Firefox first came out, and a welcome one if you appreciate less clutter. All the menu items are neatly tucked away and accessible via a single Firefox button in the upper left corner.
New features abound, like the ability to sync your browser settings across multiple devices, multitouch support in Windows 7, and a new tabbed interface drawing inevitable comparisons to Chrome. The Add-On Manager now opens in a tab, too.
As you might expect, Firefox 4 is the most secure version of Firefox yet. It’s also the least glamorous topic because many of the safeguards that keep the bad guys away work silently in the background. One of the biggest new security safeguards is a new feature called HTTP Strict Transport Security. This is supposed to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks that hijack regular HTTP connections and make them appear as HTTPS, like when logging into a banking institution using an untrustworthy network (think of a public Wi-Fi hotspot). Support in Firefox is only half of the equation; HSTS also requires websites to play ball.
Firefox’s Private Browsing mode is left largely unchanged in Firefox 4, which means you can’t run an incognito session and a regular session simultaneously like you can in Chrome, even if you have multiple browser windows open. Firefox does, however, restore your regular session when you’re finished, um, looking up anniversary gifts (that is why you use Private Browsing, right?).
There’s a new Do Not Track feature receiving tons of hype. When enabled (found under Options > Advanced), Firefox sends a header to websites telling them you don’t want to be followed. It’s a neat idea, but still relies on the honor system; a website can choose to blatantly ignore your request.
Midway through Firefox 4’s development, Mozilla injected the browser with its JägerMonkey JavaScript engine, a wise move considering that earlier betas of the next-generation browser felt sluggish and were getting slammed in the enthusiast community. In its current form, Firefox 4 runs and feels much faster than its predecessor, though it still isn’t as nimble as Chrome in JavaScript heavy tasks. But unlike Chrome, Firefox boasts hardware acceleration, tapping into your GPU to boost performance when rendering graphics heavy tasks. Chrome will address this in version 11, but for the time being, the advantage belongs to Firefox (and IE9).
1. To quickly view pages you’ve recently visited, right-click the left and/or right arrow(s).
2. Is your favorite Firefox 3.6 add-on blocked in FF4? Type about:config in the address bar. Right-click and select New > Boolean, and enter extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0. Select False for the value.
3. Miss the menu bar? Bring it back by pressing Alt > View > Toolbars > Menu Bar.
The Opera browser finally sings with add-ons
One of the great innovators in the browser space, Norwegian software maker Opera Software has been in the browser business for 14 years, either inventing or popularizing forward-thinking concepts that we take for granted today, like tabbed browsing. This time around, Opera 11, which we’re reviewing in final form, plays catch-up to the other browsers in this roundup.
Given Opera Software’s long history of blazing a trail in browser development, it’s a bit ironic that Opera is one of the last browsers to adopt extensions, which are finally included here in the latest build. At the time of this writing, there were just 446 add-ons to choose from, though that’s 446 more than were available for Opera 10. We also find it interesting that Opera is just now getting around to adding predictive text queries, known as search suggestions. Opera 11 also introduces tab stacking, allowing you to plop tabs on top of each other in manageable groups, as well as visual mouse gestures—a handy cheat sheet appears when you hold the right mouse button.
Opera 11 makes intelligent use of the address field to give users a quick rundown of a website’s security. When visiting a site, most of the URL is grayed out or hidden, save for the main domain. In addition, security badges are color-coded, with yellow for secure, green for trusted, blue for Opera’s Turbo mode, and gray for the rest. Clicking these badges reveals a site’s encryption level and whether or not it has a clean security record.
The option to open a private browsing session is buried deeper than in the other browsers here (Menu > Tabs and Windows > New Private Window), but once you find it, you’ll also see an option to open a private tab. And when installing extensions, two privacy checkboxes let you choose whether or not to allow them to interact with secure pages and/or private tabs.
Hardware acceleration isn’t being introduced until version 11.5, so already Opera’s a bit behind the performance curve compared to some of the competition. But what version 11 lacks in GPU-assisted rendering, it makes up for in JavaScript performance and overall pep. Subjectively, browsing just feels fast, and objectively Opera 11’s benchmark scores were competitive. Sadly, performance in some cases comes at the cost of compatibility, such as the inability to use Google’s Instant Search for search queries or Instant Scrolling for images.
Next Page: Safari 5, the performance benchmarks, and we declare a winner!
Comments are closed on this article
huhhuh
April 05, 2011 at 7:05pm
Why ?
It's simple.
1. It has all of my bookmarks since 2006.
2. It has my speed dial that only slightly changed in last 4-5 years since this feature exist in Opera.
3. It has my sessions (sessions - opened tabs for 4-5 different pages that I recall whenever I want) stored in last couple of years (one for news from back home, other for forums I visit, third for tech news articles...)
4. I manage bookmarks from any of my 4-5 different computers which means any time I use PC.
5. It lets me listen to all 60GB of my music stored on my home network from anywhere in the world through Opera unite.
6. It's plenty of fast and it reads pages properly.
There are probably few more but these are first came on my mind.
1trucker
March 30, 2011 at 8:45am
IE9 works just fine. All the rest is just Lincoln-over-Cadillac BS!
vanyell1967@gma...
March 30, 2011 at 6:17am
I use firefox most often and chrome mostly for when firefox has a glitch and I agree with ff being the winner. What I can't believe is that IE9 got an 8? This is the most frustrating, slow, piece of garbage I ever tried running on my computer, I avoid it like the plague.
jweisgram
March 29, 2011 at 9:14pm
I started using Chrome when FF 3.x started chewing up all my memory and freezing up at random times. I was impressed with how fast Chrome loaded and that it didn't crash. I was seriously frustrated with FF.
Then I discovered how many extensions I had installed over time, and I found out that if I unloaded all my FF extensions, the memory problems stopped and so did the freeze ups.
And then Chrome started getting slower and wasn't as stable, after installing some extensions. Go figure.
Note that there are about as many people on this page complaining that FF crashes too much as others complaining the same about Chrome.
FWIW, I think the margin of difference between Chrome and FF is small enough that different intelligent people could come up with different results and there is no right answer.
I have my own personal preferences. I like that in FF, I can search for text in the page just by typing. No Ctrl-F first. Others might not like that. And the article showed me something I didn't know; in FF4 if you want the menus that were removed, press and release Alt. Even though I appreciate Chrome's streamlined interface, and that approach does seem to be the way of the future, at times it seems too streamlined for me.
Ghok
March 27, 2011 at 5:38pm
Sounds like all the various differences between most browsers were pretty minor. It's nice to see we have a bunch of awesome browsers to choose from.
I like Opera because the interface is incredibly customizable. A shame you didn't have any pro tips for it.
iceman08
March 27, 2011 at 5:34pm
I don't know about FF 4.0. It's rejected many of my tools and plugins that worked for FF 3.6 (Norton, Yahoo![I found an upgrade for Yahoo], etc.) Chrome has yet to crash on me. In all actuality, I could say that its a tie. Chrome has made leaps and bounds within a year. FF has the benefit of being more stable, apparently, with certain video hardware than Chrome is. But what sealed the deal in me choosing chrome was that I had better surfing and load times than other browsers. Another bonus is that its taken much less of my system memory than older versions of FF. Now, one might argue that FF has fixed that issue, but so has IE9. How many have jumped onto the IE bandwagon at this point?
essjay22
March 27, 2011 at 7:39am
Great Article.
At this point then it is purely a matter of preference for the user. I t ried to love FF but Firefox STILL won't let my LogitechMX900 mouse operate properly, The scroll wheel will not autoscroll at all and no matter what i do jumps one screen at a time usually straight to the bottom of the page. No matter what OS too. That is a deal breaker for me. Is this something that is tested for or taken into account? ( yes updated all drivers)
sj
Eoraptor
March 27, 2011 at 2:01pm
Are you using the Logitech mouseware/trackpoint/desktop manager/whateverthehelltheycallitthisweek ? if so, I have found that has issues in a LOT of programs, firefox included. In several activision games it will suddenly and randomly zoom and and then not let me zoom out again, for instance.
essjay22
March 27, 2011 at 5:37pm
Yes i have tried with an without setpoint drivers. Thnk i found the problem today, FF4 is now fine, playing with it now and I am impressed so far. We shall see if FF4 can knock me off chrome :))
sj
OhSoCheesy
March 26, 2011 at 8:19pm
I opened Chrome to change the setting for hardware accelleration and low and behold...they are on by default. You can now change the winner to Chrome. Thanks! Nice article.
Paul_Lilly
March 28, 2011 at 8:05am
Negative. The latest version of Chrome (updated this morning) still disables 3D acceleration by default; note that you have to click the "Enable" hyperlink to turn it on. Unless Google changes their mind, this won't be addressed until Chrome 11. The other issue is that even when enabled, Chrome still doesn't fare as well as IE9 or Firefox 4 in 3D benchmarks.
bpstone
March 28, 2011 at 8:46am
Ch10 and FF4.0 are my two browsers. Chrome's pesky bookmarking tool is an absolute joke. My Addons don't function correctly in it. Chrome is still buggy and doesn't always work correctly. Firefox 4.0 (non-beta) has worked perfectly for me. Chrome doesn't deserve the top browser trophy yet.
TWRICEROCKET
March 26, 2011 at 4:15pm
As a chemical engineer, I have to admit that we value time highly and cannot wait for a simple internet browser to start up and load web pages. I feel it is necessary to make a statement about Firefox to anyone who has never used anything but Internet Explorer and is considering moving to Firefox. I began using Firefox in 2006 as an alternative to IE for its speed and features. After Firefox version 2, however, it began taking more than a minute to load up and almost as long to load a simple web page. I can verify this was not a case of a slow computer because this happened on every computer I tried: home laptop, home desktop, university computer. I am not sure why everyone kept touting Firefox as the most amazing browser. It was too bad because Firefox had been working so well too, but it reached a point where I tried the Google Chrome beta in desparation just to speed up my work. That was back in 2008. Now it is 2011, and both Maximum PC and CNET report Firefox 4 has greatly improved. I have not dared to try Firefox ever since, but it may have gotten better for real this time.
bpstone
March 27, 2011 at 9:42am
I've had to use older versions of Firefox due to lazy techs not updating their crap. Believe me it is night and day just as it is with older IE browsers. I'm not a complete Firefox fan, yet it has worked so well that as of now it is my favorite browser.
dentaku
March 26, 2011 at 11:41am
For some reason I can't comment here with IE9 without using IE8 compatibility mode. It also doesn't let me move the cursor by using the mouse if I want to correct something either. Otherwise, IE9 is quite nice but then again I never had trouble with IE8.
jaygregz
March 25, 2011 at 1:29pm
I just upgraded from firefox 3.6 to 4.0. I had previously tested a 4 beta and must say they really worked out all the kinks. This things is running like a dream. It's blazing on my computer. I also moved my tabs back below the address bar, move the home button, and basically set the whole thing back up to look like 3.6. I'm an old dog its hard to teach me new tricks. I just despise the tabs being up top.. don't know why.
TechW
March 25, 2011 at 6:44am
I have used Firefox for years with many extensions. I upgraded to version 4 and found that half of them no longer work at this time. It also proved to crash frequently on my system. Very disappointing.
I installed Chrome 10 and found the extensions I needed for it and it has be running great. Much faster performance all around and no crashes so far. (Fingers crossed)
I have been a big Firefox fan, but I have to say that Chrome should now be the winner here with the release of version 10.
bpstone
March 27, 2011 at 9:48am
Your extensions/addons have to be updated by their developers. Give it awhile and they should update everything.
I Jedi
March 25, 2011 at 5:30am
Excellent article and I'm glad I use Firefox. Keep this kind of shit up, guys; very great read.
Exarkun1138
March 25, 2011 at 5:29am
I find it strange, like some other posters have noted, that Chrome wins in 8 of the 11 catagories, yet Firefox wins over-all. That's a little weird, because usually with Maximum PC, the one that has the most wins in a selection of catagories used in testing wins, especially one that wins as many as Chrome did. I've always been a big fan of Maximum PC because of their un-biased reviews and tests, but this one seems skewed towards Firefox. I AM a big Firefox fan, but a couple of weeks ago, before Firefox 4.0 came out, I switched to Chrome 10, and really love it! Firefox 4.0 IS really sleek and much better than it's previous versions, but I still think Chrome holds a slight edge over-all.
Paul_Lilly
March 25, 2011 at 6:00am
Chrome posted the highest scores in Peacekeeper, Google V8, Celtic Kane JSBenchmark, and Mozilla Dromaeo. These are all JavaScript specific benchmarks, and the reason we ran so many was to get a clear picture of whch browser is truly the best at JavaScript. It's pretty much a given that Chrome is going to win Google's own V8 benchmark, but because it won several of the others, we feel confident in saying Chrome handles JavaScript code better than the other browsers.
Firefox handedly bested Chrome in HTML5 performance (GUIMark), and it enables hardware acceleration by default. Even when we enabled hardware acceleration in Chrome, it still didn't keep up with Firefox.
So to sum up the performance side, Chrome is faster in JavaScript, Firefox is faster in HTML5, and Firefox is faster in hardware accelerated tasks. With all other things being nearly equal, the advantage goes to Firefox, but as we pointed out, "it's not a runaway victory."
Exarkun1138
March 25, 2011 at 7:06am
Honestly, I really think it comes down to what a person wants to run. I like both of them. I have been running Firefox for many many years until a couple of weeks ago, when I switched to Chrome 10. Now I like the minimalist UI, and Firefox 4.0 has that. I've been checking out Firefox 4.0 for the past couple of days and am impressed, over all. Still, for me, I feel Chrome is just a bit better for MY personal surfing needs, but, like with your conclusion with Firefox, Chrome is not winning by a landslide over Firefox for me. Firefox may become my personal favorite again. It sure has made great improvements. And speaking of improvements, I must compliment you on your review of IE9. So many users immediately denounce it because it's IE. But I have also used IE9 and must agree that Microsoft has made tremendous improvements with it, and IE9 now stands as a serious competitor, if not out right as one of the best browsers available. Opera is cool. Not my favorite by any means, but it's good. And I can't stand Safari.
Danthrax66
March 24, 2011 at 9:02pm
Firefox and it's GPU acceleration can go fuck itself. FF4 is honestly the worst browser I have used in a long time, and the first in which the final release crashes more than the beta. IE isn't a real browser it is bloatware pre-packaged into Windows.
don2041
March 24, 2011 at 8:51pm
I have never used IE Tried chrome didn,t care for it I like FF it does everthing I need it to.
SilverSurferNHS
March 24, 2011 at 8:01pm
i can't let go of chrome because it perfectly syncs everything anywhere i want and quickly; though ff has something similar, it doesn't quite work like it should (for me anyway) if firefox did this, i would come back... and if ie did anything but view websites... i might consider using it every once in a while (besides testing purposes)
Nurface
March 25, 2011 at 5:51am
http://clients.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/index.action Hands down Chrome and Opera out perform all others mentioned on my pc so I will stick with Chrome and Opera. Chrome shows it perform wells and finishes 1st on many of MaxiumPC test. Another item i found interesting was no mention of results in Pwn2Own 2011 but MaxiumPC gives Firefox a 9 hmm. nods my head.
ShyLinuxGuy
March 24, 2011 at 7:12pm
Chrome sounds great, but Firefox wins my attention.I guess because I've been using it since its inception, even though I've tried Chrome. The potential of privacy issues, regardless of what's said, is one of the factors of me staying with FF. yes, you can disable features that "communicate" with Chrome, but what about the possibility of backdoors? Aside from that, I don't like Chrome's layout of features and its UI in general, and I have a few extensions that aren't replaceable.
Internet Explorer's ActiveX controls may be more allowing to be turned off for all sites, but think about IE's clientele: they're noobs for the most part. They won't know what this means or how to do it. Just kill ActiveX, ditch the OS integration to where IE is just a module that can be completely removed. Better yet, give up on IE and focus development energy on something more worthwhile.
Opera--I've tried but it hasn't convinced me to use it, but it isn't bad though. Safari is, I guess, Apple's version of Internet Explorer, if you think about it. It ships with OSX, it's integrated into OSX (kind of), and it has security issues.
gendoikari1
March 24, 2011 at 6:51pm
"The option to open a private browsing session is buried deeper than in the other browsers here (Menu > Tabs and Windows > New Private Window), but once you find it, you’ll also see an option to open a private tab."
Or, you know, just right click a tab and click "New private tab".
xpose
March 24, 2011 at 6:34pm
Not too bad of a job with the article, but the praise and score for Firefox 4 is unwarranted. Most of Firefox's new features came about by copying things from Opera and Chrome. Firefox 4, much like IE9, is a once dominant browser playing catchup. Why can no one see this?
Fans of Firefox should be pissed that it took Chrome for them to wake up and do something about their browser. Now we are giving praise to Firefox, a browser that fell behind in features and speed to a browser of just 1 year old? That's extremely disapointing in my book.
Sorry, but I'd give the nod to Opera and Chrome any day before I give it back to Firefox. They have to earn it. Firefox 4 is their way of saying sorry and ALMOST catching up to the competition.
Eoraptor
March 24, 2011 at 6:34pm
Well, I have used all of these except for Safari. I agree with the conclusions drawn.
In the previous generation of Browsers (FF3.5, Opera 10, Chrome 9, and IE8) I used FF for daily tasks and Chrome for my google-centric apps. However, with the tweaks to both of those, I find myself now using FF4 exclusively fr my browsing, only occasionally launching Opera or Chrome (in that order) if I have something I specifically have to launch a separete session for. However, none of them that I have used would I turn anyone away from.
Lennie
March 24, 2011 at 5:21pm
"For the first time in a long time, a case can also be made for IE as the best browser of the bunch."
From the webdeveloper point of view, looking at what standards are supported by IE9 this is definitely NOT true.
IE9 is still 'the IE6' of the bunch. Even worse, because Microsoft choose to not allow people to install IE9 on Windows XP, IE8 will be 'the new IE6'. Most of what is new to IE was what most competitors where doing years ago or last year. But the other browsers didn't stop adding stuff after last year obviously.
Actually with all the new standardswork (think: 'html5') we've seen huge jumps in the abilities of those browsers so again we are waiting for IE to catch up. The other browsers seems to get updated pretty good too. It is really hard to find people still using Firefox 2.0 or 3.0 for example. But IE6 still has 4% which is a larger marketshare than Opera. But 99% of the Opera users are using atleast version 10 if not 11.
Forte125
March 24, 2011 at 7:02pm
http://w3c-test.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm
Read it and weep.
motlycys
March 24, 2011 at 4:47pm
So just so I got this straight:
Google Chrome scores first place in more categories than any of the browsers in your own tests.
Firefox didn't get first in any of them.
And Firefox is the best? Seemed like your personal devotion is skewing what should be a calculated opinion.
(btw, this is being posted from Firefox; obviously not a fan-boy)
Eoraptor
March 24, 2011 at 6:27pm
I can see where you're coming from, but it says right in the article that Chrome's settings require tweaking to achieve maximum effect (I.E. GPU acceleration) while Firefox works right out of the box, which is what put it over the top. And I tend to agree. If it comes down between the Ferrari I ca drive off the lot, and the GTO I have to tune up first, I'd go with the Stallion as well, but not count it against the Goat.
ty2047
March 25, 2011 at 10:36am
No kiddin, for most users including me, what is more important for our everyday browsing, javascript or graphics intensive html5. I am not a developer but would guess that for most things I do, javascript speed is more important to me therefore I use Chrome. Makes sense to me. Being the fastest at the thing that is used the most seems like that would be a good indication of the "best" browser. But I must admit I am a Chrome user and fan.
xpose
March 24, 2011 at 6:39pm
That's fine, but explain to me why GPU acceleration is so important today? The answer is that it's not. Speed, security, stability, and extensions matter most.
GPU acceleration is fine to have, and obviously its right around the corner for Chrome. To use that as the "final blow" is the author looking for excuses to crown Firefox king.
How about mention the fact that Firefox 4 still does not run extensions and tabs in their own processes? Isn't that more important than GPU acceleration? Should that be Firefox's fatal flow?
Sometimes I wonder. . .
afunyun
March 24, 2011 at 4:55pm
I agree with you
I knew that FF was going to win when I first started reading this
Neufeldt2002
March 24, 2011 at 4:19pm
Personally, I use FF. I have found that in my house Chrome's printing, gadgets, and extensions is hit and miss while FF just works.
On my google page gadgets do not load, printing articles mostly works for the kids until my girls want to print a picture for colouring then it fails, and the extensions are not mature enough to work properly (not to mention API's that are always changing). Until these things are working 100% I will stick with FF.
Mark210
March 24, 2011 at 4:05pm
Really a useless article. People are going to like whatever they prefer.
Captain_Steve
March 24, 2011 at 3:37pm
I keep using Firefox simply for the fact that the add-ons seem to just work better than in other browsers. I try using Greasemonkey scripts in Chrome, and it seems to ignore half of them while Firefox has no problem with it. Same for ad-block, which while Chrome has two of them seem to miss a lot of ads that Firefox picks up (I hate breaks in the middle of The Daily Show when I watch it). I'll admit that Chrome seems to run a bit faster, but over all, Firefox seems to work with it's extensions much better. And if I wasn't going to use extensions, then I would just run Opera anyway.
Eagle70ss
March 24, 2011 at 3:24pm
Woohoo Firefox!! Winner once again. And they didn't even test the Final version!! I'm sick of hearing Chrome this and Chrome that. It's a piece of crap. I grudgingly must use Chrome from time to time on a friend's machine and it crashes all the time.
Didn't I hear Gordon and Nathan gave up on Firefox in a recent podcast? You guys can come back anytime. We won't Gary Whitta you on this one since you didn't talk too much trash about Firefox...:|)
GaryIKILLYOU
March 24, 2011 at 3:53pm
??? Crashes all the time?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I've had FF crash MANY more times than Chrome. I use both, but I haven't used FF since I found Chrome. Chrome is exceeding FF, and it sucks for all the FF fanbodys. Suck it up and quit crying.
Eagle70ss
March 24, 2011 at 4:52pm
Firefox very rarely crashes on me. Chrome crashes on me within the first 15 minutes without fail. Usually a javascript or flash player error. However, I do like the Chrome interface other than you can't customize hardly anything on the GUI. Wow, I can add the home button to the toolbar. lol You can move/add just about anything you want on the Firefox toolbar with ease. FF is far more intuitive.
With that being said, Chrome and FF are both great browsers. That's the nice thing about choice, everyone can use what they want. I just have no use for a browser that crashes so much and loses my data. It will be interesting to see what innovation comes out of the browser wars.
