TSGK Clan Forum

Osiris_TSGK

Futurmark has released an online Benchmark for the browsers:
http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/

Everyone own one but only a few does know why to use a different browser.
Considere a browser like a car, some cars are slow, some cars are unsecure, some cars pollute more than others, some cars are cute etc etc.
The choice of a browser may radicaly change your web experience, confort and at the same time indirectly (but directly) affects how does the standard are applied by web devellopers today and tomorow.

You will find a little browser comparaison, including performance and standard capabilities.
A perfect browser in the form would pass all the test while having a nice performance, but it may lack in other points like user-friendly interface, stability, security and more, which aren't reviewed in this comparaison.

Performance is how fast the browser does render the elements of a webpage, but fast doesn't mean correctly neither securly.
Acid1, 2 and 3 are the standard capabilities of the browser, the more it pass the test the more it render complex scripting page correctly and respects standard.

Acid1 test is available here:
http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/CSS1/current/test5526c.htm

Acid2 test is available here:
http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html

Acid3 test is available here:
http://acid3.acidtests.org

SunSpider test is how fast a web browser does parse javascript, exprimed in miliseconds (ms), lower is better.

SunSpider test is available here:
http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html

HTML 5 test is to test the browser HTML 5 compatibility, the higher the better, max is 300.

HTML 5 test is available here:
http://html5test.com

All the browsers were tested on the same machine with the same environement.
Windows XP Proffesionnal 32b, Intel Q9650, 4 Gb.
The same test has been done on Windows 7 64 Bits, the results are very the same even for IE 8.0 64 Bits.
Konqueror has been tested on Mandriva 2009 x64 and Epiphany on Linux Mint 6 x64.

If you plan on changing your browser (IE users maybe) you can find the alternative browsers here, all of them are free of charge:
Opera http://www.opera.com/browser/
Safari http://www.apple.com/safari/
Chrome http://www.google.com/chrome/
Firefox http://www.firefox.com
IE 8.0 http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer/beta/

The second graph adds a couple of other browsers that you can find here:
SeaMonkey http://www.seamonkey-project.org
LunaScape http://www.lunascape.tv
Konqueror http://www.konqueror.org
Epiphany http://projects.gnome.org/epiphany/
Flock http://www.flock.com
SlimBrowser http://slimbrowser.flashpeak.com/en/
Sleipnir http://www.fenrir-inc.com/global/
Avant Browser http://www.avantbrowser.com
K-Meleon http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net
Maxthon http://www.maxthon.com
Crazy Browser http://www.crazybrowser.com
Deepnet http://www.deepnetexplorer.com
SRWare Iron http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php
GreenBrowser http://www.morequick.com/indexen.htm

For information, on this forum the browsers usage is the following:
IE 54%
Firefox 37%
Opera 6%
Chrome 2%
Safari 1%

Keep the web clean, drive safely.
Enjoy.

Diet H2O_TSGK · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 21:26 Post subject:

Opera FTW!

The Borg_TSGK · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 21:28 Post subject:

Thanks for this Osiris, until now i had only heard of firefox.
As of this minute i'm downloading Safari and will give it a try Cool

Freelancer · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 22:20 Post subject:

Osiris_TSGK · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 22:26 Post subject:

Ghost Dog_TSGK · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 23:24 Post subject:

Very interesting info here.

I might be making another change :O

nex7one · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 1026

Thanks for this, I might give Safari a try since I only hear positive things about it.

Lawitz · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 01:06 Post subject:

using 13 addons for firefox its not possible for me to change really even if I wanted. Firefox just has such a big community of people working on making your browsing experience better through addons.

StonedCabbage · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 04:04 Post subject:

never had a problem with firefox neither, always found it fast, and secure.

nex7one · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 1026

Shimmy_TSGK · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 19:56 Post subject:

I've noticed something strange with firefox. The more you have it running the more resources it sucks. It could be quite taxing and drains you laptop battery. I only use it when am on flickr as it has very nice addons for that. Otherwise on my mac partition I stick to Safari Beta 4 and on my Xp partition I use google chrome.

But the difference between Safari 3 and 4 is kinda huge. It's far more stable and is super fast compared to other browsers.

Controllerboy_TSGK · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 21:10 Post subject:

What? It's normal if you have multiple firefox windows open that it drains more resources eh Razz

would be strange if it were all the same. I'm pretty much of a Firefox fan, tried all the others and didn't like them as much as FF

Lawitz · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 21:19 Post subject:

firefox can be a bit annoying because it doesn´t give the ram back as it should, if you open up loads of data heavy links in firefox and close them you will still have a lot more ram occupied than when you first start it. I think my record was 1.2gb or more just used by firefox, even if you only have a blank page open. just make sure to close the browser completely and reopen it when it starts to lag your pc.

The Borg_TSGK · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 21:59 Post subject:

Freelancer · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 23:32 Post subject:

I am Really amazed by the speedy Safari browser... all the bookmarks are imported now and i surf really fast! :O AMazing! ^_^ And it's kinda strange at the first time ,but i got used to it really fast! Very Happy

A good browser that DOEST eat A humongous amount of Ram :] And some flash stuff runs faster on it .

I have to disagree with Osi about FF. The Browser is really good and stabile. THe only thing is , it is really heavy on the RAM . Smile

nex7one · Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 1026

Freelancer · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 23:51 Post subject:

Lawitz · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 01:13 Post subject:

safari is apparantly easy to hack: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/03/last-years-pwn2own-winner-says-safari-will-be-first-to-fall.ars

Osiris_TSGK · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 06:24 Post subject:

Well, i didn't wanted to comment any of the browsers simply to stay neutral, but, maybe a couple of words are needed so that you can make your choice wisely and not just go directly to the browser who get the better score in term of performance.

As i said, faster doesn't mean the more secure.
Also, Safari 4 is a Beta, so crash and bug are simply normal since the browser isn't considered stable yet because of its Beta state.
Chrome is also in Beta so same as Safari in term of stability and possiblity of bugs.
This is true for any other Beta browsers and even worse for Alpha stage browser.

A little thing to know about browser is the different rendering engine available, those engines are the core of the browsers, and are responsible of the rapidity and compatibility.
There is 4 major engines:
Trident (Internet Explorer)
Presto (Opera)
Gecko (Firefox, Seamonkey...)
Webkit (Safari, Chrome...)

Each of them does have their default and quality.
If you consider that the Browser is like a car, the rendering engine is the engine of this car.
You could get the same engine on 2 differents model of car, and each model would then perform differently, that for why you get a faster rendering with Safari even it use the same engine as Chrome, but even it is faster, security and stability isn't forcely better because Safari would handle the engine differently.
Also an engine can also have a different version, like Safari 4 is using the lastest Webkit version and Chrome use a little older version, this would explain the Acid3 score and maybe a little of the performance.

So the following comments may be considered personal (if you want), talking of browser always make people angry, simply because they love their browser even if it isn't the best or the more secure, kinda like the way they love their car maybe.
If you aren't able to face some verity (purely technical) then don't read the following as you would probably feel the need to disagree and feel oppressed, and who know, you may have a bad day after, which isn't the purpose of this.

I have all the browsers installed, because i need all of them for work purpose, so i daily use each of them including Konqueror which is a Linux integrated browser for KDE.
The following is addressed to people thinking about moving to another Browser (mainly IE user) and is not addressed to alternativ browser users listed below, they got their browsers and are happy with it.

Safari 4
Safari is coming from the Mac world, so it is optimised for Mac user before Windows user, which mean, you may indeed be lost at the first time, even the right click may be useless since OS X doesn't have much usage of the right click, can also be unstable on Windows for the same reason, it may be more stable with the time and when it reach its final release, but in any way, it will still be focused for Mac user and the windows portage is secondary.
Definitly for now the faster with great standar compatibility but face security problem and minimalist interface which can be very confusing for first time user, but can be considered a plus for others.
Safari is primary for OS X and will probably be always the case.
If you use it on Windows then it is your choice and you are mentaly prepared for this.

Chrome
Well, not much to say, Chrome is ok because it use Webkit engine (same as Safari), i'll say Chrome is a Safari wanabe and its purpose is really a question of personal taste, i don't see any point of it execpt maybe a stable version of Safari (a bit weaker) for the windows users and if you like the Google extra then you will be pleased.
Google Chrome still in beta, and is the newest browser of the history at this time. It may be more an interesting browser with the time and may gain maturity later.
As Safari, it is fast and next version may increase standar compatibility, as Safari it got a minimalist interface which can be very confusing for first time user, but can be considered a plus for others.
If you want a more stable version of Safari for your Windows with a touch of Google then it will be your choice, until the Safari beta improves stability with Windows.

Firefox
Firefox users are probably the most virulent, mainly because it is all a philosophy and as soon as something "bad" about it is say, they get mad.
They can't face negativ comment about it and that probably the reason the Firefox browser is simply ranked last just above IE today.
Historicaly Firefox has been considered the real alternativ of IE (there was Netscape before and Opera but anyway), Firefox has spread very fastly accross the web mainly because of an excellent marketing campaign done a couple of year ago. You can still buy Caps and t-shirt if you want.
More seriously, Firefox is the sequel of Mozilla browser which use the Gecko engine, and indeed was a real alternativ of IE and still be like any others browsers, the marketing promotion they did was finaly a good thing for everyone since it showed to the world that there was another browser than IE and then people started to think about changing their bad habit of using IE.
Firefox is secure and stable, but firefox has then since take a lot of retard in comparaison to the other browsers, it took time to Mozilla dev to react and the next Firefox version 3.1 (3.5 infact) is gonna take back this delay as they stopped to keep wasting their time talking, bragging and selling clothes instead of developing.
If you do not use Firefox, there is no point moving to Firefox 3.0 at all execpt if you come from IE (but then you would prefer head to Chrome or Opera), if you really want to change for Firefox then wait a bit for the 3.5 version to be released, if not pass your way.
If you consider the gadjet and plugin a vital part of your browsing experience then you want Firefox for sure, definitly the browser that get the most plugins and things available (probably because naked it doesn't worth much? just kidding).
Objectivly, firefox 3.0 doesn't worth you change your browser for it, but Firefox 3.1 (3.5) will worth it.
3.1 should be released soon anyway and the improvement between 3.0 and 3.5 is amazing, when Mozilla dev want, they can.
You can get the 3.1 beta if you want here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html
Be ready to be cool and wear your firefox cap and t-shirt proudly.

Opera
One of the older alternativ browser, lot of their devellopers are involved to the web standard creation & language, they are the ones who develloped the Acid test to help all the browsers to respect the standard and make the web experience better for all.
Opera is the most mature browser with a very dedicated team of develloper, most stable and secure one, Opera listen a lot their users and never cry when something bad is said about it, instead they fix it, simple as it.
Opera always innovate and never wait for the others to do it, they always have a step over all the others and was the first browser to pass the Acid3 at 100/100 (Opera 10.00) which forced all the others to move on and pass it too (except Gecko (Firefox) and Trident (IE) which still not pass the Acid3 test).
Unfotunatly Opera doesn't have a single marketing promotion, and the reason is because they prefere to develop idea and make the browser better than spending money to promotionnal campaigns and blablabla.
This explain why it isn't much popular even it should be.
Opera 9 is already a very advanced browser, and Opera 10.00 which still in alpha stage is gonna improve a lot.
If i would have to say something negativ about Opera, it will not be related to Opera itself but more about the plugin developer who sometime don't propose an Opera compatibility, there is no reason they would do it, but they do it (probably because Opera isn't cool enough for them), this is the reason why Opera often does it theirself instead waiting for the others to do it.
Fortunatly most of the major plugin does have an Opera compatibility, and then it shouldn't really be a problem at all.
Opera isn't a cool browser at all, it doesn't come with a cap and a t-shirt, so if you are looking for a bling-bling browser pass your way because if you ever tell someone you use Opera they may probably ask what language do you speak.
But if you are looking for a stable browser, secure, innovativ, standard compatible, user friendly, community awake, fast with a strong experience of the web then you gonna be in love of it.

Internet Explorer
Slow, security treat, unstable, doesn't respect the standard and instead try to reinvent them, version 7.0 don't pass Acid2 test which is a joke, IE 8.0 (beta) still miserably fail at Acid 3... As harm the web because of its non-standar respect and ruined standardization effort of the web.
Spyware and malware prolifered because of its security holes.
Webmaster eduction (new school) voided by coding with non respect to standard because of IE compatibility which was the most used browser and unfortunatly still be (but declining).
Please move to any of the browsers above, thanks.
Positive: Makes you love your alternativ browsers and bring peace between all of them.

Whatever the browser you will choose, it will be a good choice until it is not IE.
If it fit your need and you are happy with it then you gonna enjoy the web as it (not with IE).

For those who wonder why much blablabla about a browser, simply because the WWW is a gift for all who can access it, by using a browser which respect its standard you do keep it in good health and make it speak the same language for everyone today and tomorow.
Enjoy.

arjen · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 21:41 Post subject:

Thanks for useful tips. I'm the Firefox user and I've never noticed any problem with it however, I hear many positive opinions about Opera, so I'm going to try it.

gtamike_TSGK · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 12:14 Post subject:

I've always liked Internet Explorer, I have Mozilla Firefox also but don't use it has much cause some sites don't work 100% right with it (e.g. music scripts not auto playing). I download Internet Explorer 8 it has a nice clean look and has lots of new options. It also has a new button called hotmail thats takes you to the hotmail.co.uk very useful as I use it alot. Internet Explorer 8 is my personal choice and suits my needs. Wink

Freetux · Joined: 29 Oct 2006 Posts: 691 Country: Browser: Age: 36

Opera has never worked for me. I have tried it on different pcs and on my laptop and every time it has not loaded pages or loaded them too slow to bother with.

Diet H2O_TSGK · Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 22:20 Post subject:

I just installed Internet Explorer 8 and am very impressed with it. Some nice new features and it comes from a company that has been to the forefront of home and business computing for over 30 years now.

Opera is very nice indeed and the fact that it's the Wii browser underlines its credibility as a browser. Unfortunately it shoves up crap on my screen so IE8 pwns its sorry ass.

Some of you may disagree with this but I think anyone who doesn't use IE8 is a noob.

krazimu · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 15:05 Post subject:

I use firefox but I installed the IE8 just to check it out. After rebooting to complete the install it got stuck at 86% updating and would not boot into Windows lol. I had to do a safe boot with command prompt and take it out Rolling Eyes

Controllerboy_TSGK · Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 18:07 Post subject:

Osiris_TSGK · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 06:54 Post subject:

Updated to the lastest browsers versions, now including the SunSpider test which is a javascript parsing test speed (lower is better).

The first graph is a comparaison of the 5 majors web browsers at their stable release version.

The second one is an extended comparaison including beta versions of the web browsers (upcoming not stable yet) and also the browsers which can be found at the second part of the ballot screen that you may have noticed at the Windows 7 installation.

Enjoy.

Osiris_TSGK · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 01:50 Post subject:

Quite a few browsers have been updated to focus toward the new HTML 5 standard, the competition has started, a new score has been added for the HTML 5 compatibility (max 300).
Opera and Chrome also improved their speed again breaking all the records.
Here are the tables:

gtamike_TSGK · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:25 Post subject:

Im waiting for this Wink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jws_AvmHfN4

StonedCabbage · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 22:16 Post subject:

i use jquery plugin on a few websites i manage and i find javascript (well jquery plugin) runs alot faster on iss 6 than ff 3 or i.e. 7 or 8 Shocked

(Not technically i.e 6 its i.e 8 made to run as i.e 6...plugin here for any webmasters wanting to test http://www.spoon.net/browsers/

Osiris_TSGK · Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 22:48 Post subject: