Wrong. Opera is faster, but doesn't display things right all the time. Firefox does.
By speed Firefox is second, firefox displays websites the best though.

I use firefox because it is secure, I like the look, and most importantly it has loads of extensions.

I have opera on my computer solely for testing how it renders my sites, but I will not use it because I do not like the look and it does not have all my extensions.

A few things to note:

Firefox uses the Gecko engine. It is supposed to render pages more accurately than any other browser engine, but it still can't pass the ACID2 test. the ACID2 test is a test set by the web standards project to test the accuracy of the rendering of pages by browsers. you can find it at http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/ . The Gecko engine in my experience, is faster than IE's engine (called Titan i think, or Trident, or at least something beginning with T) and about as fast as the Presto engine (used by Opera). But its API allows for extensions, plugins etc like no other browser on Earth. It is also easier to release patches for. due to the way it's programmed. And because it's open source with a wide community, if you find a bug, it will be fixed extremely quickly, and you can expect to find support easily. You can also modify and distribute it, and claim it as your own. It also has many loyal fans, and many sites have been specifically designed to be best viewed in this browser. Some sites have been specifically designed to work best in Firefox (that's why some people may say it renders pages more accurately than Opera, although it probably doesn't.)

Opera, as mentioned above, uses the Presto engine (presto is italian for "fast"). It passes the ACID2 test, the second one after the KHTML engine (used by Safari and Konqueror). It's quite fast, but suffers from IE syndrome, where it waits until the majority of the web page has been loaded before displaying it. It's API does not allow for extensions as easily as Firefox does, and it's community is more narrow. And you don't get the freedom to copy, modify and distribute the browser like you do with Firefox, Konqueror and other GPL-licenced browsers. And you will have noticed it isn't as well supported either. And it doesn't have as many loyal fans as Firefox.

IE uses some engine starting with "T". It has an atrocious API, and several sites have to be specially designed for viewers to see them using IE. Because of its tight integration with Windoze, it takes a long time to release a patch, and they are usually of a much larger size than Firefox's or Opera's. Because you don't have the freedom to see its source code, you can't do anything about it either. It has a VERY small community and virtually no loyal supporters. Oh, and it fails the ACID2 test. (what a surprise).

My preference? Firefox. I just like it. Full stop.

we know opera is the fastest browser but there are so many ways to make Mozilla fast it is catching up to opera for me pages took a few seconds then after i followed a tutorial on how to make Firefox faster all my pages load in a blink. That is fast enough for me. LOL

though i feel opera is fast ,but i sometime feel thst internet explorer is fastest thsn sny other browser ,though internet explorer has a lot of security holes ,yet its comparatively faster than any other ,but yes not safer

Well, IE has tabbed browsing with its new version so that's not a reason anymore. Spyware is still a problem but is more controllable in the new version too. I still believe that even though Opera is faster than anything else, nobody really cares except the 56k cavemen guys

I mean, I've got a 4mbps, why would I care if it loads 500 milliseconds faster ?

In my opinion, the plugin setup of Firefox wins. Not caring about the speed, you could have tons of different useful plugins that play a major role in ..real speed....

Personally, I've got a myspace plugin, a youtube plugin, a gmail plugin, a ftp plugin so...why in heck would I ever want Opera ?

i thank but, Firefox for ever

According to the statistics taken from 3dnews.ru, around 75% of Russian, Ukrainian and other former USSR countries use opera. The rest is respectively split out between IE and Firefox.

I dont know about Opera being the fastest, but I do know(or knew) that it isn't always as reliable on different sites. This is my experience from when I used Opera(they may have fixed this since then in a newer version): I went to a foreign site with foreign letters with Opera. There I understood that Opera did not support that. Opera is norwegian and so am I. With my experience I would say that norwegians have problems with fullfilling the task(if the problem has been fixed I am sorry about my stupidity).

EDIT: Sorry forgot what browser I think is fastest. I would say Firefox. IE 7 starts up slow. Firefox is also safe with not so many exploits.

This post has been edited by Zlash: Apr 4 2007, 09:53 PM