IE8 is funny. See updated post above.

Despite MS's claims, IE8 isn't terribly compliant and has trouble with some test batteries (I think some tests actually have an IE8 mode or some crap to let you get a comparison). IE9 is shaping up to be amazing though, not as compliant as they say, but pretty darned compliant, stable, and with built in Adblock.

Don't compare 2010 releases with 2009 releases. When will people learn this... :/

For the OP: Go with IE8/9 or FF4 Beta 7. ;)

It really depends on what you want, because the two are quite different. Opera is for advanced users. It's very feature rich (including a oft forgotten yet amazing built-in e-mail client) and largely customisable; if you like to tweak your browser to suit your taste, look no further. Chrome, on the other hand, goes the Apple way: it only does what it does, and does it really well; if you want anything else, screw you. That's all there is to it; speed is not really an issue, as the two keep stealing first place from one another with each new version.

By the way, it's kind of sad to see how completely Firefox dropped the ball. All around me I see users who just won't tolerate its slowness any more, including many of those who don't know very much about computers. I'm afraid that before they get to release Firefox 4, their image will be tarnished for a very long time; something IE6 did, or Opera back then when it had ads.

Shh. I wasn't being serious. Plus, as mentioned, I am on XP, hence I couldn't test IE9. I would have, otherwise. I added that IE post you quoted mainly to highlight I'd added Safari / Firefox to my post with test results.

Not really, Chrome does have extensions and there's quite a lot of them as well. It just doesn't have all the things Opera has "out of the box" - which suits me well, I don't really like features I don't use.

IIRC, Chrome extensions are the same thing as the new Opera extensions - pretty much just glorified Greasemonkey. Not even remotely close to the power Firefox extensions have, or the elegance and speed of Opera's built-in equivalents. This is one area where Chrome doesn't really compete, nor does it want to.

Oh an by the by, Opera does the clever thing and loads all of the extra stuff on request, so it doesn't slow you down at all (unlike Firefox, which I suppose loads everything at once). I, for example, did not even know Opera had a built-in IRC client until very recently when I needed one. And I'm sure there are still a few surprises hidden somewhere.

In my experience, IE8 is a slow as a snail. Easily into "would not touch with a bargepole" territory.

Sorry, didn't got the joke. :)

I've used Opera since version 3.0 back in the late 90s. It's remained steadfastly my favorite browser. For everyday, low-maintenance browsing, forums, social networking and such, I find it's the best-performing and fastest, especially with cached pages in the back/forth buttons.

Occasionally, I run into issues with it. Sometimes certain embedded videos or esoteric plug-in apps don't work so well or don't work at all. I can't stream movies on Netflix in Opera for instance, or use Amazon's book preview application. Opera also seems to hate any MSN website (they've had a long-standing feud, Opera would probably claim this is a "feature" rather than a compatibility bug, for my own good). A few websites per 100 or so can also act funky.

So, for everything that Opera gets ornery with I use Chrome, which I think is a superb back-up browser and has fantastic compatibility. It doesn't have all the Opera features I use and love but it's a nifty browser in of itself.

I tried using Firefox once before and found it a surprisingly bloated browser. I wasn't really impressed. Maybe it's improved since then but with all the alternatives in the browser market I'm disinterested. And of course I haven't suffered with MIE since the bronze age.

I second the suggestion for IE9, aside from a few small issues (most notable with gog actually), its a really nice browser. Oh and the other problem is the favourites are moved all the way over to the top right and there doesn't seem to be any way to move them. BLoody inconvenient position.

Chrome is my backup browser because its so lightweight, I REALLY hope it stays that way and doesn't go chasing firefox down the bloat road

I have used Chrome for almost a year but I switched to Opera after some strange issues regarding not being able to paste content in text-boxes. There were some other minor issues related to site compatibility. What I liked about it was the lightweight feeling.

Then I used Opera for a month (in the past I was a great fan of it) but I switched to Firefox because there were too many site incompatibilities. And Opera did NOT seem fast. I'm not a browser speed junkie but Opera seems to crawl...

Now I'm using Firefox and it seems to be the best compromise for me. I'm mostly happy because there are far less site incompatibilities.

I am happy with my Firefox. It starts within one or two seconds, loads every page at reasonable speed, has all add-ons I need and displays all my bookmarks conveniently. Crashes I have rarely to never, only when Firefox is updating Windows sometimes kills the shortcut to Firefox. I don't like it, but attribute the problem to be on the Microsoft side. So, in general I am happy and no need to change.