What is the fastest web browser?

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Note that I said "fastest" and that the fastest is not always the best all around.. I myself believe it to be SRWare Iron which I use often.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron

[Antwerpen]

I'm not that picky about speed, but voted for Opera, as I use it. So far it's the best browser I've seen.

[Horsa]

Err, the Basement...

Anyway, Google Chrome is my favorite so far. I use Firefox as well though.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

I find Opera to be very fast.. I would probably rate the top 3 in this order: Iron, Opera, Chrome..
edit: Do you really think this should be in the basement? it is more of a off topic discussion than a technical discussion.

[InsaneHanz]

Chrome is really fast, especially with a multi-core processor.

[Jaketh]

Opera

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Chrome is really fast, especially with a multi-core processor.

Have you tried Iron? It is a clone of Chrome without the violations of privacy and runs faster due to running off of many of the same libraries as Safari.

[NONOPUST]

Always used IE for years. Never ever any problems.

[Seleukos]

Moved.


Firefox has always done me right.

[Scandinavisksoldat]

When I still used Windows, I liked Chrome, as I found it to be faster than IE 7, 8 or Firefox 3.0. Since it isn't fully supported on Linux yet, and I haven't gotten around to compiling it on Ubuntu 9.04, I am not sure if the lineup has changed. Safari seems fast, but I haven't really tried it enough to tell. So, right now, all I can say is that I find Firefox to be faster than Opera, or at least on my machine.

A few people recommended SRWare's Iron, so I might try their Linux Alpha. Of course, if they are based on Google Chrome, they might lose their source code base after Google releases the Chrome Linux Distribution.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

When I still used Windows, I liked Chrome, as I found it to be faster than IE 7, 8 or Firefox 3.0. Since it isn't fully supported on Linux yet, and I haven't gotten around to compiling it on Ubuntu 9.04, I am not sure if the lineup has changed. Safari seems fast, but I haven't really tried it enough to tell. So, right now, all I can say is that I find Firefox to be faster than Opera, or at least on my machine.

A few people recommended SRWare's Iron, so I might try their Linux Alpha. Of course, if they are based on Google Chrome, they might lose their source code base after Google releases the Chrome Linux Distribution.

I believe they are based on the open source Chromium code coupled with many GNU features...

[english tyrant]

chrome = epic speed

Firefox = epic customisation

IE = epic fail

[Fingon NL]

chrome = epic speed

Firefox = epic customisation

IE = epic fail

QFT

Firefox isn't that slow but Chrome is always that littel bit faster on my pc.
IE is epic slow and homeric crap

[Obadiah Hakeswill]

I'd say Internet Explorer, but firefox is just so much better I don't care.

[Strelok]

Firefox = epic customisation

I agree. I use this guide which covers a range of settings that can be customized via the Preferences offered in the GUI and settings covered in the "about:config" page accessed by typing it in the address bar. Along with other things such as setting that can be induced by creating / editing the Userchrome.css and Usercontent.css files. These include a range of functionality, performance and security related settings. I thoroughly went through all known to customize to my needs. In real-time performance, merely judging by simple web page loading times, is on par with Opera and Chrome, with which a lot of users are reporting better speeds over Firefox. This includes changing disk cache sizes, maximum connections allocated to a server, HTTP pipelining, DNS cache settings and so on. But this does not factor in with other speed-related factors which a range of browser benchmarking apps cover.

[Roman_Wolf]

I don't really care about speed as it doesn't differ a lot. Besides I'm very comfortable with Firefox.

[Musthavename]

From what i've read, Chrome is faster. Personally i'm happy with Firefox. Just aslong as you don't use IE you're fine.

[Wheelchair]

I enjoy the speed and fluid chrome, it's just nice.

[King Edward III]

Chrome.

[Simetrical]

Do you expect sensible answers to this question? Most people answering won't have tried all the options you listed.

Note that I said "fastest" and that the fastest is not always the best all around.. I myself believe it to be SRWare Iron which I use often.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRWare_Iron

Iron should have identical performance to Chrome.

Chrome is really fast, especially with a multi-core processor.

A multi-core processor is unlikely to make a big difference with most web workloads.

Have you tried Iron? It is a clone of Chrome without the violations of privacy and runs faster due to running off of many of the same libraries as Safari.

Chrome is based on WebKit, the same rendering engine as Safari. Iron is identical in that respect. In fact it's identical in pretty much every respect, AFAICT, except that it's rebranded and has some features disabled that its developers don't like.

A few people recommended SRWare's Iron, so I might try their Linux Alpha. Of course, if they are based on Google Chrome, they might lose their source code base after Google releases the Chrome Linux Distribution.

Chrome has had a developer version for Linux for weeks now:

http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

It's unlikely to be less usable than Iron, since Iron is based on exactly the same code (except probably more outdated and/or less tested).

I believe they are based on the open source Chromium code coupled with many GNU features...

GNU has nothing to do with it. Iron has disabled some features, added an ad-blocker, and lets you change the User-Agent more easily. It doesn't add any other features, according to its own creators. See the feature list here:

http://www.srware.net/en/software_sr...me_vs_iron.php

Note the mention of using more recent WebKit and V8 is bogus. You can get that with the developer channel of Chrome too. My Chrome is using WebKit 532.0 and V8 1.3.2.2, more up-to-date than them. You can check WebKit/V8 versions by typing about:version into the URL bar.

Of course, since Iron isn't actually made by Google, it's probably going to be outdated and poorly tested compared to Chrome. Only really worth using if you're paranoid about Google knowing about you.