Mozilla and Chimera
I am finding the latest nightly builds of Chimera to be very stable. The Gecko browsers are exceptionally W3C compliant. I am not sure what gives people the opinion that one browser adheres to these (accepted) standards more than another. Clearly, only web developers who write to W3C standards actually know. The rest are tossers who state their opinions as fact and then feel comfortable that they are right.
Besides, since OW 4.1 came out, IE 5.2 stands alone as the slowest OS X browser. I could handle that if it were stable, but it isn't. It crashes more than any other piece of non-beta software I have. Thankfully, with Mozilla being so compiant and stable, I don't have to use IE more than about once each month. The only legitimate complaint I have ever heard about Mozilla was that it wasn't Aqua enough. With
Navzilla and
Pinstripe, that argument holds no water.
BTW, these threads often get heated, as people hate their dogmatic belief systems getting challenged. Know that I am stating facts as measured by performance on
my system--a TiBook 667 with 512 MB of RAM. If your results vary, please post them.
Here are the three litmus tests for me (as I have stated elsewhere):
TV Guide Listings (for speed--Go to "TV Listings" and; load the Satellite Listings; it's a large table; notice a) how quickly it loads and b) how quickly you can start to use the page)
ESPN.com (for compliance--check the style sheets on the right below the headlines. IE and Mozilla render these properly. Chimera, OW, and others have trouble with them)
CBS Sportsline (also for compliance--check the style sheet pulldowns under each sport; IE, Mozilla, and Chimera handle these just fine; OW does not)
The thing
my standard has helped me realize best is that your browser has to be good at what
you use it for. I use these three pages. As a result, Mozilla is the right browser for me. IE is wayyyy too slow rendering large tables (like TV Guide), OW has rendering problems, and Chimera has a few rendering and stability problems (although it's getting very close). Maybe if I used different sites, I would choose a different browser.
Also, tabs are a must. I will never switch back to a browser without tabs. Never.
In summary:
IE: Slow, compliant, no tabs, crash-prone
Chimera: Quick, rendering issues (a few), tabs, crash-prone
OW: Medium speed, rendering issues, no tabs, pretty stable
Mozilla: Fast, compliant, tabs,
incredibly stable
Your mileage may vary.
Chris