Browser comparisons considered harmful

People often compare browsers.  These comparisons frequently conclude that the Opera web browser is better than Mozilla Firefox in terms of features.  I’m not saying that such conclusions are not reasonably possible, but the means by which they are frequently reached is misleading and could change the conclusion from what it would be naturally, though of course it is an opinion thing to begin with.  Most comparisons exclude Firefox’s addons system, even though this is where Mozilla has been dramatically redesigning.  Addons are an integral part of Firefox.  I honestly believe that Firefox is not intended for use without at least a few addons.  This is why features like adblocking are not included in Fx by default; they are available via addons.mozilla.com.  One reason for ignoring the addons is ostensibly that there is no standard “pack” of addons.  However, Mozilla provides a set of recommended addons, which provides many of the features Opera has, and a few it doesn’t.  For example, NoScript is possibly the least obtrusive method of protecting yourself from clickjacking, and although you can address that in Opera, it is:

1. most likely not recommended by Opera because
2. you have to disable IFRAMEs, JS, etc, across all sites (NoScript is site specific, and protects you from everything even without blocking IFRAMEs)
3. There is no escape: Opera widgets are cute little pieces of fluff that have no control over the rendering engine etc, so you’re stuck with what Opera thinks is best

Clearly, something is wrong, given that if we disqualify addons, Opera beats Firefox in security.  Firefox + NoScript > Opera.

In order to be valid a comparison should take all major features into account.  The unrivaled extensibility of Firefox is a feature, and a huge one.  It’s also an intrinsic feature, because Firefox is open source.  Opera widgets are extrinsic, because Opera is closed source.  Furthermore, Opera widgets have minimal integration: They are merely little windowlets that sit atop the browser (or beneath it as the case may be).  While they are vaguely useful, try coding Greasemonkey as a widget and you’ll see what I mean.

~ by Kevin on November 26th, 2008.