firefox conversion

ok so the test with opera collapsed - I stopped using it very shortly after my last post. Too inflexible and I just didnt like the interface. I went back to IE 7 before trying the final release of Firefox 2..

.. and now I am a convert again for the first time in about 9 months. I wonder how long it will last this time - I have a sneaky feeling this time could be for good. It brings back memories of when I switched from Netscape to IE all those years ago. So why the change?

Delicious integration, mouse gestures, faster AJAX sites, more plugins - and more importantly it doesn’t feel like im now missing out on anything by switching.. IE7 feels no quicker than firefox and there was only things to gain by switching.

One great thing about the delicious integration is its allowing me to access my work and home favourites whether I am at home or work. This convergence between web and desktop is definitely the way to go - I disliked delicious.com as a website app - I used it only to store random links I hardly used (and therefore rarely logged into it). Now it stores all my links and I use it daily.

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Well its been a few weeks since I installed opera. I have been on holiday for one of those weeks so really this is only my initial thoughts. not looking good for opera though

Opera is quick to launch and ctrl-enter to select your login is a godsend but.. it seems speed isnt everything I thought it might be!

1. flickr doesnt work - you would have thought this would have been an important site to get working as I reckon those people who use Opera are much more likely to use Flickr than the general public.
2. my stock site doesnt like it though with some fiddling, I now have it working
3. there arent any of the cool plugins you get for firefox
4. the interface just feels weird - though I guess I might get used to it especially the home button being hidden in the address bar.
5. Outlook Web Access doesnt work right (looks the same as Firefox)
6. It feels slower generating websites - they build up in front of you whereas IE just displays them.. I wonder if IE is actualy slower but that instant display just gives instant gratification

All in all I am using IE more still than I am using Opera - even though Opera is currently set as my default.

If only Firefox was as quick as Opera

Oh and I still dont like tabs - I guess I am going to have to get used to them

I have switched to Opera.

Not 6 months ago I thought it was a dying browser on the desktop - destined only for connected devices. A healthy market in itself of course. Why? Well Firefox was beating it hands down. No one really talked about Opera - its Firefox this and Firefox that these days.

So why change now? Well I hate Firefox. OK hate is a strong word but I dislike using it. It is slow. It has always felt slow. When I open my browser I want it to feel responsive. I do not want to sit and wait for my computer to catch up with me.

Internet Explorer 6 was fast. One click and chapow! there it is ready to browse I switched to IE 7 and suddenly it feels that little bit slower. Enough to make me search for a speed comparison.

This is what I found:

That extra 0.8s load time between IE6 and IE7 is noticeable (assuming RC1 is of similar load time). Firefox is confirmed as being slow to start.. whereas Opera runs away with it.

Anyhow time to find out if Opera cuts the mustard.

Huge thanks to Tarquin for the info, you can go here to see the results in more detail (Rendering CSS, Rendering table, script speed, multiple images and history) as well as times for other browsers.

I just wrote a huge post on Firefox losing share to IE - only for IE to crash on me - someone is trying to tell me something..

The Register is reporting that Firefox has gone from 8.71% down to 8.07%, the majority of which has gone to IE. Thats a change of 7% which some would say is a significant change. Time of course will clarify if this is a blip or not. There are a few opinions out there as to why this is happening. NetApplications thinks it due to Mozilla’s decision to launch a commercial arm and The Register’s opionion (?) that other theories could include an end to the “honeymoon factor” and recent security problems tarnishing Firefox’s image as a more secure alternative to IE.

Whilst I think these will have had some effect on the change, I think it has happened because Firefox is not quite there yet. I have used it on and off several times since its launch (3 times so far to be precise). Each time my experimentation lasts longer and usage increases. The last time was for 6 months and it even became my main browser for 4 of those 6. I quit only a month ago and when you see my pros and cons you will understand why:

Pros:
1. Mouse gestures - When you accidentally use a feature from Firefox in IE, you know the feature is a winner. Whilst I eventually found mouse gestures for IE, it is not as cleanly implemented as in Firefox or as powerful (itself an addon of course).
2. Addons themselves are much easier to find and implement than in IE. A simple click from the menu and you can see them - in IE you have to search through google. If there is a good central resource it should be linked to inside the browser.
3. Tabbed browsing - for some this is the be all and end all of browsing. I never cared about it before, and after the 6 months usage I started to get used to it. For me its a change in style and I’m not there yet so I don’t care enough right now.
4. Speed of browsing - some sites seemed faster - was it just me?
5. Firefox does seem like there are endless possibilities due to its addons, the power available to Greasemonkey users is huge (I am sure it is very insecure as well..) - it would be nice to have more UK specific content but then IE (and MSN) is much worse for this.
6. The themes are nice, not critical though

Cons:
1. This is the big one - I download a lot of Excel spreadsheets and pdfs - everytime it opens an empty Firefox window - why?! There was an addon to remove them - it didnt work
2. Not all sites look right and some just don’t work. I know this is not Firefox’s fault as the sites did not meet standard X or Y but as a user I just don’t care. There are 2 ways to look at this, either the developer should have tested it in Firefox and fixed it (almost certainly they didnt and now there is no budget) or Firefox should have a module that makes things just work. Microsoft in the past has been good at this when they have had little market share - support the big guy. They did it for Exchange, Lotus 1-2-3, Wordperfect, UNIX to name the ones I remember. Sure its hard, but over time Firefox would gain share. I know there is the “always open in IE” addon - its a hassle though
3. Startup speed has slowed down over time - when I first started I swear Firefox opened quicker than IE - its significantly slower now - 3-5s slower - enough to annoy!
4. Rich Media content just does not work properly - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesnt..

If the first 3 issues are fixed, I’d switch back in a sec!

Separate to all this of course are the issues surrounding security. I am sure the recent issues with security inside Firefox has caused some of the shift back, I wonder how many people have been aware of the issues though - outside of the geeks, how many people are aware of the Firefox security glitches? Are all the people leaving geeks? The next few months will tell all I should think.

Fingers crossed for the next browser versions….

Update: Could the drop be due to all the IE 7 beta testers out there - surely there’s not that many people who think its stable enough to use yet???