Browser reviews: Opera 9.1, Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7

I've these browsers in the last month so I thought I'd do a review of all three.

Opera 9.1: Thumbs up

It's fast. Wicked fast. "Retardedly fast," as my friend Curtis put it. Faster than any other browser, on any OS. Also, it's got some really awesome options. Like, if you have multiple tabs open, you can see them all at once by tiling them. And if you accidentally close a tab, there's a "trash can" where you can bring it back. And it has built-in bittorrent. And widgets. And all sorts of cool stuff. And it's free.
However, it doesn't have good flash support (at least not on Linux), and I can't get my Yahoo toolbar to run on Opera. Those two things are deal breakers for me, unfortunately, so it looks like I'm sticking with Firefox.

Firefox 2.0: thumbs up

The new version of Firefox really does have some spiffy new features. Like if your computer crashes, next time you restart the browser it'll open all your tabs again. Also, it has a built-in spell checker, which is GREAT for blogging and webmail. (Although it doesn't recognize the words "blogging" or "webmail!") Other than that, it's all the Firefox goodness you've come to know and love: fast, stable, secure, and free. And it runs on Linux.

The only downside is it complains about your older toolbars and other extensions. But there are workarounds for that.

Thanks to the combination of features, the fact that it runs on Linux, and runs all my toolbars and extensions, Firefox is my browser of choice.

Internet Explorer 7: thumbs down

The truth is it's not a bad web browser. But if you're going to make a new version, why on earth would you make it not as good as the competition??? I would HATE to have been in the development team for IE7. It has a nice interface, it slightly more stable and secure, the speed is good, it comes as an automatic upgrade to XP and is built in with Vista, it has nice tabbing features (including tile view like Opera), but still, it's not as good as the competition.

It's still not as stable or secure as Firefox. The first security flaw was found within 24 hours of its public release. Its plugin support isn't as good as Firefox. Frankly, it's tabbing features aren't as good as Firefox or Opera, either. Also, not only is it slower than Opera and Firefox, it's slower than IE6. How is this an upgrade?
If it weren't for Microsoft ramming it down everyone's throats as an automatic upgrade, no one would switch to it. Just like no one will switch to Vista until it comes pre-installed on their new computers. (Then Microsoft will crow: "Look, Vista usage is way up!" Yeah, because those users didn't have any other choice.)

Oh yeah, and IE7 doesn't run on my operating system. So screw 'em.