Re: Digit hunts for the Fastest Browser on Earth - Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and IE tes
When you visit a site like ThinkDigit extensively, you automatically make good use of all the features. (Custom CSS, Block content)
Thats modularity, imo. You are correct on "we pick and choose with Firefox." But Opera still isn't bloat. It's not a case like Nero which is the most bloaty software I've ever seen.
When I install Chatzilla, Stylish, Adblock Plus in Firefox; it really begins to lag on Linux.
Using the new snapshot i.e. Opera 10.52 beta for Linux is great in that perspective. I prefer Firefox on my Mac as it appears more native.
Oh, no no no! Not my intention to call Opera bloated at all! At-least not in the sense most people would use the term.
Opera in under 10MB, and that includes a browser, an email client, a p2p system with unite, and a bittorrent client. For someone who doesn't use all of them, they are bloat and don't add to the attractiveness of the product.
Even so, Opera is impressive. Firefox gets bloated with add-ons because the add-ons are never as optimized for the browser as the same features for Opera will be.
If Firefox were to implement the add-ons as a core part of the browser, I'm sure they would perform much better.
When I say: "I think to excel in one field you have to sacrifice other aspects."
Features aren't an aspect of the browser, modularity is, even if modularity is a feature... wait.. now I've confused myself. I hope I got my point across!
So, Firefox is flexible but that makes it difficult to have features like process separation for tabs, which the browser has because add-ons can operate at the tab and browser level at the same time. Chrome on the other hand started with that aspect of the browser defined, and now doesn't have as great extensions support. They are both approaching perfect browser from different ends.
Opera is brilliant, better with each version. However you can extend a Firefox into an Opera (albeit half as slow), but not an Opera into a Firefox
