Nov152012

What is the better browser for Windows 7: Firefox, Chrome, or Opera?

Lisa Santika Onggrid asks:

I’m using Opera Mini on all my mobiles and liking it. I use Firefox for my laptop and PC and have grown spoiled by the extensions. I’ve never used PC version of Opera.

I’m willing to change if it’s worth it. So which one do you think is the best, with its advantages and disadvantages (the Windows version)?

Is it true that Opera saves you bandwidth? Please tell me your experience if you have a favorite browser and why.


Browser: Firefox 16
System: Windows 7
Tagged: , , , , ,

45 Answers - Write an Answer

0 votes
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Alan Wade

November 15, 2012

All the reply’s you get will undoubtly be of a personal choice. My choice is Firefox, like you love the addons. I have tried most of the browsers just out of a sense of adventure but always gone back to FF.
As I said, just my personal choice.

Douglas Mutay

I will support your choice. in my office, i use Chrome because it the one that has been approved and I am not authorized to install another browser. But if I had the choice FF will be the one I would use. In fact, I have it in my personal PC and it has a rich set of addons and pretty cool stuff.

November 16, 2012
0 votes
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Bruce Epper

November 15, 2012

I stopped using Firefox when it was becoming a huge resource hog but have it installed for use in site testing. On this machine, I am currently using IE9 as my primary browser just because several sites that I visit don’t work well with other browsers, but I switch to Opera for a few sites. Opera offers much better performance overall than either Firefox or IE especially for those sites. I only have Chrome & Safari on my system for testing websites I help others develop and if not for that reason, they wouldn’t even be installed on my system. On my Linux systems, I only use Firefox and it flies in those environments.

0 votes
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susendeep dutta

November 15, 2012

Opera has never been successful in PC market as it utilizes W3C standards and not all webmasters are so quick and eager to implement this on their sites.Many sites are therefore incompatible and doesn’t display well in it.

But this doesn’t makes it worst browser as it has many features that makes many people wonder and compel to use it.Have a look at some of recent articles supporting Opera and facts to take a spin for it.

Five Irresistable Reasons Why You Should Take Opera 11 For A Serious Spin -

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/opera-11-spin/

5 Ideological Reasons Why You Should Try Opera -

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ideological-reasons-why-you-should-try-opera/

Yes,Opera has a feature called turbo mode which compresses images and optimizes pages so as to save bandwidth.It’s present at status bar at left side.If you set it to automatic mode,it’ll automatically detect your connection type and will switch on when your internet speeds goes down.

I use Firefox and I like it because it’s very important for me(extensions). As an alternative to handle multiple workflow,I use Google Chrome.

Lisa Santika Onggrid

I tried to give it a spin. Strangely, it failed to load a lot of pages, saying no connection even though I was browsing normally with Firefox. I’m sure nothing’s wrong with my connection other than it being a bit slow.

November 16, 2012
0 votes
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Aswin Kumar Nayakann

November 15, 2012

No…dont go for Opera.Only Opera mini saves the avndwidth.But Opera does not.FireFox and Chrome will be best for Win 7.If you need speed go for Chrome.If you need Performance,go for Firefox.

Douglas Mutay

“If you need speed go for Chrome.If you need Performance,go for Firefox.” Well said!!!

November 16, 2012
Aswin Kumar K P

Thank u..

November 18, 2012
Lisa Santika Onggrid

Ok. I see. I really like the Mini. Maybe they ought to stay in mobile market.

November 16, 2012
0 votes
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Dave Rimmer

November 15, 2012

You will only get what others use ie I use Firefox the most, the best thing to do is simply download and install the ones you fancy then test drive them until you get the one you like the best then simply uninstall the others, It will not affect your Pc having more than one Browser installed.

0 votes
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Harry Barnes

November 15, 2012

Opera is very very bad and comes up with requests for permission to display content the whole time, so don’t get that. Chrome is by far the best. It is the most popular browser in the world for a reason. There are loads of chrome add-ons in the chrome web store, and you can add themes if you so wish. Overall, it gives you a much faster and more polished browsing experience than firefox.

0 votes
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Dave Parrack

November 15, 2012

It comes down to personal preference. I’d advise you to read through the comments here – http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/web-browser-choice/ – to see what everyone else is using and why.

Personally I use Firefox. I’m so used to it now I can’t switch. However, I have tried others, and I recommend doing the same. I have Chrome installed as a backup in case certain websites or apps don’t work with FF.

0 votes
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Alex Perkins

November 15, 2012

I use Chrome as my main browser then if I need to sign into another account on the same website I use Firefox.

Usman Mubashir

u know, you can log into multiple accounts using chrome in the same window?

November 17, 2012
0 votes
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Olivia Kovacs

November 15, 2012

I noticed a significant change in speed when I switched from IE to Chrome. I now use Chrome as my main browser and Firefox as a secondary. Chrome has lots of add-ons too, but you might as well just stick with Firefox. After all, the answers you will get here are personal choice. There is no right or wrong.

0 votes
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Lalit Kumar

November 16, 2012

best one is to use firefox..as far as security and add on are concerned firefox is best..but if u need a faster one, use google chrome..

0 votes
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Michael Leitch

November 16, 2012

It is really a personal choice on what you prefer, download them all and find which one works better for you.

0 votes
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Dimal Chandrasiri

November 16, 2012

Chrome would be the best browser! and for the extentions, turn off the extentions you don’t wont!

0 votes
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Balaji the King

November 16, 2012

If you like speed go for chrome
If you want more customization and add-ons go for Firefox
If you want multiple accounts go for chrome
In the end it depends on your personal preference

0 votes
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Aniket Singh

November 16, 2012

my personal choice is firefox & crome….both are good

0 votes
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Alan Cyborg

November 16, 2012

Actually depends. For speed, use chrome. For add-ons, choose Firefox. There is another browser called Maxthon. Its good too.

0 votes
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Lynn Wohler

November 16, 2012

Running Firefox on 2 desktops. Also occasionally use Chrome. Chrome is much faster, though. Have never used Opera. Occasional have to resort to IE because of some web sites. It basically is a horrible browser.

0 votes
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phritzg

November 16, 2012

I use Chrome on both my Windows 7 desktop and Windows XP laptop. On it I also have the IE tab extension, which I find useful occasionally when Chrome does not display the page exactly as I know it should be.

0 votes
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Daniel

November 16, 2012

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen such rubbish. Most of these comments are ill informed and it seems that most of them haven’t really used opera for a decade.

I use it daily as well as chrome and firefox. Opera has extentions too. They no longer have any display issues. They have turbo, an option to turn on the same speed improvements as opera mini. And there mouse gesture feature is better than any extention in firefox or chrome.

They are the innovators of many features now seen as standard. And their are some time saving features such as being able to press space to move to the next page in a set of results that have never been close to being matched in any browser.

The fact is that opera is the most underated browser because of such myths as all these comments keep making.

Use it for one month as your primary browser using mouse gesturesand you will experince a much smoother browser than you may think.

0 votes
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Brandon Ragoo

November 16, 2012

I use Chrome but to be fair take Nixie Pixel’s opinion into consideration http://youtu.be/iApvUMgk5Mo

0 votes
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Sandy Watts

November 16, 2012

Everyone’s said it: a matter of preference. I like Chrome for games for the speed, but for “work” I prefer Firefox.

0 votes
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Ubergeek

November 16, 2012

Chrome for general surfing and multimedia as it’s optimised that way.
Firefox for the darker areas of the web using the noscript plugin.
internet explorer for everything else (the pages optimised for internet explorer).

0 votes
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Moazzam Naeem

November 16, 2012

Google chrome is best, it is very fast and the user interface is easy to use.

0 votes
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Jim LaFronz

November 16, 2012

I use both Chrome and Firefox on my Win7 machines. I like the FF addons, but with the browsers on such an accelerated reversioning schedule, it’s small chore to keep them all up to date sometimes.

I like Chrome as well, although I get occasional memory usage messages even with just a few tabs open.

I’ve never had any problems with Opera, I’ve just never developed an affection for it.

0 votes
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Piet Djajadi

November 17, 2012

To be honest, I’m really confused but I’m using Chrome now.

0 votes
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Edmark Gutierrez

November 17, 2012

Google Chrome is the best browser

0 votes
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veera vadlapudi

November 17, 2012

Firefox Hangs For A While, When Clicking Any Download Links, Other Than This Firefox, IS Good,

Chrome Seems Best, With Awesome Group Of Extensions…

0 votes
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Asoka Dissanayake

November 17, 2012

Firefox is the smart browser for all platforms, be it Linux, Windows or Mac. It has a regular update cycle. It has the mostly-used safety extension No-Script, which helps safe browsing.

0 votes
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Usman Mubashir

November 17, 2012

I think its chrome, for its many things:
1) Simplicity
2) Big Appstore
3) Ability to integrate wit my gmail
4) Syncing settings online so I dont have to worry about installing it on another PC
5) Minimum menu space, maximum browsing space.

0 votes
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Timothy Liem

November 17, 2012

I love Firefox for its add-oms and complete sync. I love Chrome for its simplicity, UI wise and sync wise.
I hate Firefox for its freezing over the time. I hate Chrome for its greed for memory.

0 votes
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Prasanth Mathialagan

November 17, 2012

Chrome is the best in business!!!

2 votes
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Aditya Roy

November 17, 2012

I prefer firefox over others. I have firefox and ice dragon both installed, infact sometime back i even had a third firefox based browser(Epic) installed.

0 votes
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faras

November 17, 2012

firefox as better look and feel, it gives me more weight that i feel in a browser.

0 votes
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kumar raja

November 18, 2012

google chrome is nice but it require more space of about 200mb otherwise Firefox is the super browser after google chrome

0 votes
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Nathan

November 20, 2012

Overall, I prefer Firefox. Chrome second and IE third. First I like the syncing features of Firefox mostly and Chrome (when Chrome syncs correctly).

0 votes
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Carrie Baczewski

November 20, 2012

I prefer Chrome. It syncs with my Google account, so I can access apps and account-related stuff from anywhere. I also find many of the apps/extensions very useful productivity aids (examples: Cortex bookmarking app, Hootlet/Hootsuite, in-browser photo editor).

0 votes
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Luke Blache-Fraser

November 22, 2012

I personally like Chrome because it is very light and loads pages very quickly.

0 votes
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Marius Halalae

November 22, 2012

Chrome would be the best browser!

0 votes
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Bill Maginnis

November 22, 2012

I was a big Firefox proponent for years and really enjoyed the sync option so bookmarks, tabs, passwords, history were all synced on other instances of Firefox. Then, started using Android phones and more and more Google services. Installed Chrome browser (on Windows and Linux) and fell in love with its ability to sync extensions, bookmarks, etc. and its speed. I avoid using IE at all costs at work – only sites that REQUIRE IE.

0 votes
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mohit kumar

November 23, 2012

If you’ve slow internet connection, use Opera’s turbo mode.

If you want to use addons, use Firefox.

If you don’t want to use any addons, use Chrome.

0 votes
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Francisco de Gusmão

November 24, 2012

Opera is the best for browsing online, althought not for a long shot (the other ones are great, too!). The problem is that nowadays we use the browser for much more than just browsing, and that’s where chrome beats them all. The application store provides an organized way to use apps/webapps wich gives chrome a great advantage for the race of the best browser.

0 votes
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Emily Anderson

November 29, 2012

Definitely chrome.
Btw, I found a browser which is just as cool that’s called Torch, where you can download tons of videos, it’s just terrific!

0 votes
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Sathya Murthy

November 30, 2012

Even though Firefox is good, Google chrome is light weight and works faster compared to Firefox

0 votes
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mohit kumar

December 14, 2012

For normal browsing, use Opera on desktop. It’ll save tons of bandwidth if you use “turbo mode”. For transactions and banking sites, use Firefox.

0 votes
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maria

January 7, 2013

chrome . of course. good one.

firefox always break

0 votes
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Boobathy

March 12, 2013

anybody checked the memory usage of both browsers…

Chrome will consume most of the physical memory compare to firefox….

As they said…. customize : FF…. Speedy: Chrome…

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