Firefox vs Opera on 98SE / Pentium MMX 233 / 64Mb ?

Question

Need to install a browser on a "vintage" laptop. Which would perform best given the limitations above?

Answer 1

I like, and use, both browsers. For the resource-limited scenario you have given, however, I will have to buck the trend on this thread and recommend Opera. In my experience, it seems a little faster in a low-RAM situation. The down side is that it seems to have a few more problems rendering some pages than Firefox, but then again there are just going to be some pages that have been coded exclusively for the idiosyncracies of IE and neither Opera nor Firefox will work.



But why choose? Why not install both? You can try them out on your actual hardware and see for yourself how they do. That is the proof in the proverbial pudding.



On a side note, I wouldn't try Linux on this machine without a serious RAM upgrade. The processor is fine, but modern desktop distros really like a little more room than a skimpy 64MB. You could go for a console-only installation, but that pretty much cuts out any serious web browsing (Lynx can go only so far on the modern web) and it makes your decision between Opera and Firefox pretty moot.

Answer 2

Pentium Mmx 233

Answer 3

I totally agree with wd5gnr

Here are the minimums for Firefox:

Minimum Hardware



Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500MHz or greater)

64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)

52 MB hard drive space



Linux



Software Requirements

Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.



Linux kernel - 2.2.14 or higher with the following libraries or packages:

glibc 2.3.2 or higher

XFree86-3.3.6 or higher

gtk+2.0 or higher

fontconfig (also known as xft)

libstdc++5

Firefox has been tested on Linux Fedora Core 4

Minimum Hardware

Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-III+ 233 MHz CPU (Recommended: 500MHz or greater)

64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)

52 MB hard drive space



Mac Operating Systems



Mac OS X 10.2.x and later

Minimum Hardware

Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor

128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)

4 GB hard drive space

Default Firefox is aprox 5 Mb and with only the verry necesarlly extensions on it I am sure that it comes in fornt of Opera.

Still here are Opera's minimum:



Minimum configuration for Opera 7 without Java:



Any system running Windows 95 (or higher) operating system

9 MB of free disk space (maybe less if installing from CD)

9600 bps modem

Recommended configuration for Opera 7 without Java:



Pentium class system with 16 MB of RAM and at least 12 MB of free disk space

Windows 95 or higher operating system

28800 bps modem or higher connection

Please note that Java requires at least a Pentium 166 MHz processor, 32 MB of RAM and 65 MB free hard drive space to run.

Answer 4

Firefox. Try not to load too many extensions. Linux, by the way, would probably perform better and you can still use Firefox.

Answer 5

Mozilla is definitely my choice of browser :) I'm pro-Firefox because of the little RAM it uses to run it. In comparison to IE it's without a doubt the fat free browser for your hungry computer.

Answer 6

Firefox anywhere.