Mozilla Firefox 3.5 V.S. Internet Explorer 8

[svm]

Before getting my Tablet PC, I always used Mozilla Firefox. I just liked it better. I found it to be more stable and faster.

Now, with the tablet PC and windows 7 on hand, I tried using the Internet explorer 8. But I still like Mozilla Firefox. Check out some of the apps for Mozilla such as Cooliris.

With that being said, what do Tablet PC users usually prefer. Internet explorer or Mozilla Firefox (or something else)? And why?

Care to share your thoughts/experience/opinion?

[Kyle Porter]

I prefer chrome on my Tablet. Chrome has a much smaller interface, which allows me to fit more on the screen. Combined with being fast, I wouldn't go back to firefox on my tablet.

[svm]

You can customize the interface for firefox as well. In fact, some of the addins let you have a full screen.

[gaidensensei]

This is probably left to user opinion, but for the average non-enthusiast browser, I'd say Chrome milks the most of all browsers in terms of performance returns.

Firefox offers versatility that the others have yet to support. Which, are the plugin extensions - none of the others can come close to this, although Chromium (not Chrome, mind you) has some dabble in this but it's not the same. However this is completely based on user opinion as some don't need the functionality of that.

[svm]

Agreed.

Purpose of the forum was to see if people bother with looking around and see which one is good for them or do they just go with the default Internet Explorer.

So far I guess Firefox is getting good hits.

This is probably left to user opinion, but for the average non-enthusiast browser, I'd say Chrome milks the most of all browsers in terms of performance returns.

Firefox offers versatility that the others have yet to support. Which, are the plugin extensions - none of the others can come close to this, although Chromium (not Chrome, mind you) has some dabble in this but it's not the same. However this is completely based on user opinion as some don't need the functionality of that.

[RazzNuts]

Voted +1 for Opera

It has Mouse-gesture and panning mode out-of-the-box. Which are IMO essential for tablet navigation.

[svm]

lol.... what's funny is that even opera has got more hits than Internet explorer. I throught Internet explorer was specifically made for the TABLET PC.

I didn't like opera becuase I foudn it to be slow. But that was when I tested it on my old laptop. Can anyone else, who uses opera shed some light on their experience with Tablet PC?

[Frank]

Opera is the perfect browser for a tablet PC, because of the easy and fully customizable UI and the perfectly working and easy to customize mouse gestures. This allows you to maximize the working area while still having access to all features.
It's my main browser and I prefer it over Firefox, because FF is slow and you have to install a lot of plugins to get everything Opera already has included. Internet Explorer, well, I use it sometimes for some IE specific webpages like msn skydrive. Else it's a rather slow browser with almost no features.
Chrome, I've never used it and never will. 1.) It's made by Google and spies you with the default settings 2.) It's fast, but that's all. And a browser needs more than just to be fast.

And if Opera 10.1 isn't fast enough for you, then try the latest Opera Alpha which uses a new JS engine which should be really really fast, it also uses the Chrome style with the title bar, which gives you even more usable area.

[RazzNuts]

I didn't like opera becuase I foudn it to be slow. But that was when I tested it on my old laptop. Can anyone else, who uses opera shed some light on their experience with Tablet PC?

What Opera version? I've also noticed Opera started to become sluggish in version 9.xx, but later on version 10 they introduced Presto 2.2, which they claimed to be 30% faster, I don't have any idea quantitatively, but as far as I concern it's faster. The newest pre-alpha (10.5) is equipped with new JS engine, Carakan. Currently it is the fastest engine, beating V8 (Chrom(e)(ium)/Safari) and TraceMonkey (FF) in Sunspider benchmark. You might want to try that, but mind you it's pre-alpha.

Opera is a secure browser, standard compliant, loaded with features that normally only available via extension in FF but maintaining Chrome-like fluidity.

When you're in tablet mode, you'll be both keyboard and mouse-less. It's annoying when you have to right click or navigate through drop-down menu just to do some simple tasks, whereas you can usually do them by a simple keystrokes and/or mouse-click combination.

In this kind of situation Opera's array of GUI buttons and mouse (ermm.. pen?) gesture will come, really really handy.

Also, it has fit-to-width mode button that will save you the hassle of horizontal scrolling.

However, I believe no Opera user will deny that the main problem they will often encounter when using Opera is the site compatibility. Opera is strictly following W3C standard, whereas unfortunately not all webdevs do that. Not to mention Opera user base wasn't that large in the past, so many webdev didn't bother to check whether their site works on Opera. (Well, if I'm a webdev, I wouldn't bother too)

They do try to fix incompatible site from their side though, with a configuration file called browser.js. Anyhow you'll find major websites nowadays will not have any problem with Opera.


I believe it's better if you just try it by yourself.

Opera is the perfect browser for a tablet PC, because of the easy and fully customizable UI and the perfectly working and easy to customize mouse gestures. This allows you to maximize the working area while still having access to all features.
It's my main browser and I prefer it over Firefox, because FF is slow and you have to install a lot of plugins to get everything Opera already has included. Internet Explorer, well, I use it sometimes for some IE specific webpages like msn skydrive. Else it's a rather slow browser with almost no features.
Chrome, I've never used it and never will. 1.) It's made by Google and spies you with the default settings 2.) It's fast, but that's all. And a browser needs more than just to be fast.

And if Opera 10.1 isn't fast enough for you, then try the latest Opera Alpha which uses a new JS engine which should be really really fast, it also uses the Chrome style with the title bar, which gives you even more usable area.

Iron serves the sole purpose of not including Google tracking code.

and no, the latest version (10.5) isn't even an alpha release, it's pre-alpha. Wouldn't recommend anyone to install it for productivity purpose. but I must admit 10.5 is worth to try, it introduced Windows 7 jumplist, chrome-style private browsing (per window settings and per tab!)

[kritzler]

No. 3 for Opera. I use this browser since x-years on every device i have (Desktop PC, Netbook, Win Mobile, Symbian..). For me it´s the best browser