baratron: (baratron again)
baratron ([personal profile] baratron) wrote2005-06-17 09:40 pm

the inevitable return of the great white flamewar

Did I mention we have a new laptop? Specifically Richard has a new laptop, but I'm allowed to play The Sims 2 on it when he's not using it. Which is all the time, now I've managed to get him re-addicted to Ratchet & Clank :D

However, the speed of the internet on this machine has been driving me nuts since we got it. Every single time I've tried to use it, I've found myself sitting here shouting "WE HAVE BROADBAND!" in a vain attempt to speed it up, before giving in and booting up the old laptop. Also, vaguely related perhaps, our MP3 player that plugs into the stereo has been having "issues" accessing the server downstairs. My guess is that our wireless signal is patchy, and although the wireless card in the old laptop can cope, neither the new laptop nor the MP3 player can. This is despite the fact the little wireless LAN button in the corner of the new laptop's screen permanently says "Signal Strength: Excellent" - I've been guessing that's like a "Good Service" on the Tube.

However, I am now utterly confused about cause and effect, because after a few days of trying to get used to Firefox, I've given in and installed Opera on the new laptop, as it turned out to be free (apparently Opera's new license agreement means that home users can install & use the software on multiple machines with a single license). And the internet is back to its usual speed.

All you Firefox users - do you actually browse the internet at half the speed of Opera users? Or was I just unlucky?

I kinda fear the inevitable geek flamewar that will result from asking this question, but I really am curious. (AND YES, I STILL LIKE pico BETTER THAN vi OR emacs, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!)

[identity profile] bfo.livejournal.com 2005-06-17 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Opera rocks, especially the tabs and being able to order then and have the all the ones you had when you closed showing up when you reopen :)
lovingboth: (Default)

[personal profile] lovingboth 2005-06-18 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Several extension to Firefox do that.

What I'd miss, if I'd ever really gotten into Opera is their enlarge feature, which enlarges / reduces the whole page, not just the text.

[identity profile] elfgeek.livejournal.com 2005-06-17 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I found that Firefox slows everything down - not just web browsing but also other applications, that's why I'm sticking with Mozilla.
lovingboth: (Default)

[personal profile] lovingboth 2005-06-18 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
What I don't like about Firefox is that its CPU usage = "as much as I can get" when opening a page.

Disabling IPv6 is indeed a good idea.

[identity profile] elfgeek.livejournal.com 2005-06-18 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Sadly, it didn't help very much when I disabled IPv6 in Firefox. Mozilla has it enabled and is still faster than Firefox (although I will disable it in Mozilla now as well).

[identity profile] wuluf.livejournal.com 2005-06-18 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
Gary [livejournal.com profile] mandrake91 recommends doing this,
in the address bar type:
about:config
then look for the entry that says
network.dns.disable IPV6 false
double click on "false" and it should then say "true"
close firefox
restart firefox