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It's true, the biggest advantage of Firefox is the add-ons. I simply can't imagine myself surfing without Adblock, DownThemAll! and a few more...

But sometimes, I just wish I could launch a less-demanding and more-responsive browser that doesn't have all the features my turbo-charged Firefox has, and just surf quickly.

Is there any good alternative?

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refer: superuser.com/questions/658/… – hyperslug Aug 18 '09 at 12:39
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Which Operating System are you using? – jwarzech Aug 18 '09 at 12:48
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Have to ask - Is one of the reasons Turbo Charging your Firefox not so that it is lightning quick? – Diago Aug 18 '09 at 13:02
When you ask a rather open-ended question, that reads a lot like recommendation, you should check that box that says, community wiki. – random♦ Aug 18 '09 at 13:02
I find this interesting, because when FF first came out, this is why I used FF. Obviously it has evolved since then, and I agree that there are some addons I don't want to do without. But interesting none-the-less. – Matt Aug 18 '09 at 14:58
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27 Answers

up vote 52 down vote

Google Chrome is faster than Firefox.

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Chrome is lean and mean, you HAVE to give it a look. – in.spite Aug 18 '09 at 12:56
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If you're on a Mac (OS not specified in the original quesiton), though, the Chrome development is lagging way behind. On Windows, though, Chrome is indeed pretty awesome. – Scottie Aug 18 '09 at 13:32
+1 if you are on windows, want ultimate browser speed and can live without adblock then chrome is your best choice – Hardwareguy Aug 18 '09 at 14:02
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If you're on OSX, I find that Safari, Camino or Webkit Nightly is the way to go.) – EvilChookie Aug 18 '09 at 15:03
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up vote 8 down vote

Try Lynx... :)

Seriously, as already noted, Opera or Chrome are pretty good alternatives. If you really can't stand any broswer other than Firefox, try creating a "light" user profile devoid of all add-ons (or launch it in "safe-mode")

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I just clicked this to make that suggesting I love Lynx it is probably the world's best web browser I seriously use it for casual browsing whenever possible. – faceless1_14 Aug 18 '09 at 13:59
profiles are awesome!! never knew such a thing existed! – Lazer Sep 20 '09 at 22:38
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up vote 5 down vote

ELinks:

alt text

ELinks is an open source text mode web browser for various versions of Linux and on Windows it runs under Cygwin.

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I guess this is how SU looks on Lynx as well? Geez... :) – Isxek Aug 18 '09 at 13:16
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up vote 4 down vote

Try running Firefox in Safe Mode. It will launch Firefox with your bookmarks, saved passwords, etc., but "extensions and themes will be disabled, and any toolbar customizations will be reverted back to their defaults."

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Yes, this would be my suggestion; if you love FF, but occasionally want it "light", just make an additional shortcut on your desktop or startmenu or quicklaunch or where ever that launches it in safe mode. This will pare it down, to just the basics. – eidylon Aug 18 '09 at 14:42
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up vote 3 down vote

No love for Safari yet? I've found v4 to be MUCH faster and MUCH less of a memory hog than Firefox 3.5 on both Windows and Mac OS X.

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up vote 3 down vote

Opera is faster, especially when going backwards using (almost) only cached sites. That speeds up alot, especially if the form on the last page is still filled out.

Demands on memory are not less demanding as far as I could tell. Often enough Opera is the process consuming the most memory on my computer.

Edit: if you don't want Chrome because it's mostly the same as spyware to you, you might want to check out Iron.

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True that it's much faster to go back to previous pages, since Opera doesn't refresh them. It's a different way of working, though, takes time to get used (and mostly time to forget, when using another browser "how come it reloaded and added this item again to my cart") – Gnoupi Aug 18 '09 at 12:46
Opera though, in the current state, is the one having the most difficulty to give the memory back. Basically, it doesn't take more than others, but when you start closing tabs, more is staying in Opera, unfortunately. – Gnoupi Aug 18 '09 at 12:47
Thats right. You really have to remember that (usually) the page is not fetched anew when going back. But if you are a little used to that, thats not a problem. When going backwards I usually just want to take a different link on one of the previous pages, or change a setting and try again (on a form or something). This is the only reason I use Opera. – StampedeXV Aug 18 '09 at 13:00
Gnoupi: Opera uses memory for its memory cache (whose size depends on system RAM), and will use OS conventions for flushing memory. One thing that annoys me about Firefox 3+ (and Chrome too) is that to "save" memory, it constantly loses images from its RAM cache (this was a conscious design change from FF <3), which then have to be rerendered from disk, using more CPU when switching tabs, navigating history etc. – The Tentacle Aug 24 '09 at 8:28
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up vote 3 down vote

Try using the Orca Browser. It is based on the Firefox engine but is MUCH faster--and has lots of features.

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up vote 2 down vote

Dillo is an interesting, quick alternative if you can do without the frills. No Windows version though.

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up vote 2 down vote

I use the Windows-only "Off By One" Web Browser to get online quickly or when I am using someone else's computer from my flash drive/SD Card.

It may be the world's smallest and fastest web browser with full HTML 3.2 support. It is a completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.2 MB application with no dependencies on any other browser or browser component, and has Tabs.

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up vote 2 down vote

My suggestion is akin to David Lantner's above, but allows for some extensions.

I keep a separate copy of Portable Firefox (free download from PortableApps.com) that only has the bare minimum of extensions I can't live without. Perhaps that's just a password/bookmark sync extension, so you can have all the same access you enjoy in your usual Firefox install.

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up vote 2 down vote

GNU Wget (or just Wget, formerly Geturl) is a computer program that retrieves content from web servers, and is part of the GNU Project. Its name is derived from World Wide Web and get. It supports downloading via HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols.

and

cURL is a computer software project providing a library and command-line tool for transferring data using various protocols. The cURL project produces two products, libcurl and cURL. It was first released in 1997.

are two options to try

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up vote 1 down vote

I use Google Chrome as my primary browser. It's very quick to load, and has all the features I need readily available. Opera is another that I've tried and liked very much. It is rated as one of the fastest browsers. Opera is in Beta for version 10 as well, so I'd recommend checking that out also.

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up vote 1 down vote

I've not tried it under Windows but Arora is quick under Linux and is cross-platform. I think it uses the same rendering engine as Google Chrome which is also a good choice.

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up vote 1 down vote

I find Firefox itself to be plenty fast with NoScript and Adblock+.

(I only have 5 total extensions installed, have used some various about:config tweaks, and use the default theme, on systems with 2-4G memory.)

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up vote 1 down vote

I use K-Meleon for quick surfing. It loads quickly and lets me find what I'm looking for.

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up vote 0 down vote

Chrome is decent, but has problems with some sites. Opera used to work pretty good, have not checked it out for a while though.

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up vote 0 down vote

You should go with Chrome. I would like to point out though, that recently, Chrome has had some security issues, an area where Firefox is the leader of the pack.

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up vote 0 down vote

Google Chrome and Opera are fast for me.

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up vote 0 down vote

Off By One for Windows. It doesn't quite do HTML4, its CSS interpretation is very limited, and it doesn't run JavaScript, but it is insanely fast. Seriously, after using it for a while going back to a 'normal' browser is painful, even if things do look nicer.

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up vote 0 down vote

I tested Maxthon a couple of times and found it pretty speedy...

Windows only I think.

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up vote -1 down vote

Definitely Chrome on Windows. It has a great interface and is super fast. On a Mac, I'd say Safari. Try downloading the latest WebKit nightly for added speed.

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up vote -1 down vote

I would go with Chrome, I have been using it on a netbook and really have been impressed with the speed.

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up vote -1 down vote

Another for Chrome. I still use Firefox, but usually have Chrome running at the same time on a different monitor. I'll often segregate tabs according to purpose, i.e. all Google services (mail, calendar, reader, documents) go in Firefox, while anything else goes in Chrome, etc. This helps keep the memory bloat down in Firefox, and ensures I don't lose everything if it locks up (which ends up not happening, because I don't keep opening new tabs over and over).

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up vote -1 down vote

If you are using Windows then Firefox is your only good browser ... Google Chrome was great until version 3.0.. it started to be slower and eating more resources..

If you are using Linux Firefox or Opera are still the only real choices ... all other open source web browsers are simply useless...

If you are using a Mac then Safari all the way ...

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up vote -1 down vote

Thank you all for your comments. i found out that the best alternative for me would be Iron browser which is Google's Chrome without all the privacy issues...

it is fast and has nice interface. recommended!

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I would recommend you to put this rather as an edit of your original question, instead of an answer. It will be more visible. – Gnoupi Aug 27 '09 at 12:23
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