It’s Almost Like Having A New Computer
Just today I finally got sick and frickin’ tired of putting up the Firefox web browser. Don’t get me wrong, I love Firefox, but my computer does not. In fact on both of our computers Firefox takes ages to load and pages are often slow.
I love Firefox’s user interface, everything makes sense to me, it’s fully logical for me. But the constant slowing was making me nuts. And recently it’s been crashing daily. I’ve re-installed and I’ve eliminated various plug-ins that could be to blame. But things continued to get worse.
Using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 is not an option for me because, well, because I DETEST it. That AND it’s just as slow as Firefox athough it doesn’t crash AS often.
So what I did was I fired up Opera. Opera is a very mature browser (Opera was the first browser with to bring us tabbed browsing), it’s on version 9.24. I’ve had various versions of Opera on my computer for the last 5 years, and I’ve tested in it. But I never actually moved my bookmarks into it, until today.
When I look at the system resources that Opera uses while it’s running they are fully 1/3 of what Firefox uses to show me the same web pages. Opera is using less memory and is responding faster. And it almost feels like I have a new computer.
Now I just have to convince the husband to switch. He’s been variously switching between Internet Explorer and Firefox, and cursing the lot of them. I’m hopeful that Opera will make his life on the web more pleasant. Find out more about Opera.
November 28th, 2007 15:24
Whew! I thought you were going to say you had switched back to MSIErable! I use a Mac and was a staunch Safari user until Firefox came along.
November 28th, 2007 19:44
I really do love Firefox, there’s just some kind of problem (on both my computers) that makes it regrettably slow and I’m out of patience for it.
I have used Safari on a Mac and loved it, but not enough to buy a Mac, yet. If I needed a 3rd computer it would be a Mac. But so far two get me where I need to go.
November 29th, 2007 11:35
I am now a Firefox lover but will check out Opera. The computers at school are Mac and I HATE THEM, and I really hate using Safari. On my PC at home we mostly use Firefox, but for some things (like sending pics through hotmail), IE works better. I won’t open it unless I have to though!
November 29th, 2007 12:14
Yeah- I think I’d be a PC user (’cause they’re cheaper) if I hadn’t worked as a graphic designer. I used a PC until my first job out of college where they just handed me a Mac, like “here, you’re a designer, here’s your tool.” I made the switch and now I’m just more used to the Mac interface. Hubby is a staunch PC user (though he likes Linux).
November 29th, 2007 12:59
(sorry Rivergirl, going to reply to Mexpat! Hope that is ok!)
mexpat, why is it that graphic designers are so MAC devoted? My hubby is a designer and hates PC’s, says they are the designers enemy and his coworkers agree. I just think that PC’s are more user friendly, I can’t find a danged thing on a Mac! 🙂
November 30th, 2007 00:45
This is an old issue. When I owned a PC computer store in 1990 graphic designers were all using Macs and PCs were for programmers.
In the beginning a lot of the best graphic design software didn’t exist for PC, but did for Mac. And the entire advrtising industry was using Macs. So there was this concept that you couldn’t do decent graphic design on a PC and had to have a Mac.
But the reality is that it’s all a load of BS. If you have a good graphics card and a good monitor and proper software then a pixel is a pixel.
I’ve been a PC-based graphic designer for 20 years, it’s never been a limitation to my work to use a PC. The only problem I’ve ever had is when interviewing for a job, because everyone THINKS graphic design has to happen on a Mac. So when I hand in a resume saying I’m a designer and a PC user no one knows what to do.
But the reality is that it’s a myth that Macs are better for graphic design.
November 30th, 2007 09:21
Yeah- it’s an age-old debate (one in which some people get really, really, overly riled up IMO).
When I started learning about graphics I was in college and couldn’t afford the absurd prices that Apple charges, so I bought a PC and all the regular software you need to do design. When I moved to NYC I had some experience on Macs since the graphics labs at my college were all full of macs, so when I applied for my first job (Web and Flash Designer) they just assumed I worked on a Mac and since I was capable of working on either platform, I just said, “Ok, Mac’s fine.”
Now I’m just used to it. I like the interface, I work well with it. I like how it works, it’s easy. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a PC so I can check how sites look on it before we launch (and I do the accounting with QuickBooks on the PC), but my everyday computer is my trusty Apple.
I used to be all up in arms about how you can do graphics on a PC and all, but then I just decided, eh, let other people have that battle, to each their own. Now I just wish the mac was cheaper!