For some time now I've been running IE, Opera, and Firefox all on my desktop. Why? Because it seems for everyone who is so willing to shoot their mouth off abut how great one is over the other, nobody ever seems to have actually run all 3 to compare them
I have the latest version of IE (6.02 or whatever it is SP2 upgrades it to).
I'm running Firefox 0.9.2 (because you can't ever have enough dots in a version number).
And then I'm using Opera 7.11.
Now... I'm running Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 on a Pentium 4 2.4, 512 MB RAM. Not the absolute beefiest hi-end system in existence, but a good, solid system that can handle most anything I can throw at it.
First off let's start with IE.
IE PROS
Everything works right in IE. Pages and sites never have failed to load for me in IE, and it never crashes or hangs. Having used it for eons and eons I feel fairly safe in saying that its stability stability is top-notch -- it very rarely has ever crashed or hung itself.
IE CONS
Pages do load slightly slower than in the other two browser. And also, people will gripe about having to download security patches for it. It also does cause AdsGone (my adblocker) to crash and hang at times (it doesn't with OPera or Firefox obviously), though I think the AdsGone folks finally fixed this in the past couple versions.
OPERA PROS
Mouse Gestures! These are neat and very useful once you get the hang on them. Even with just a standard two-button mouse you can almost use it like it were a MS EXplorer Mouse, or one of the other mice with extra navigational buttons. Tabbed browsing works fine. Very good Import/Export system for Bookmarks/Favorites. Also decently stable, as it's very rare it ever will outright hang or crash.
OPERA CONS
Will often fail to load pages correctly, can't handle all forms of JAVA or Javascript. Uses just a small bit more system recources than IE or Firefox. The fact that it's can't parse all sites and pages successfully is a major snag and strike against it though. Opera just plain does a lot of weird and unexplainable things at times, and it's usually a safe bet if a page won't load in Opera, it will in IE or Firefox. It's also buckware to get the full version without ads.
FIREFOX PROS
Extensions! Plugins for all manner of things! Tabbed browsing. Pages load quicker, and never seem to really fail to load or load incorrectly. In normal usage may very well use the smallest amount of resources of the 3 browsers... however...
FIREFOX CONS
The extensions and plugins often cause problems, won't update. There's a god-awful memory leak the Firefox team has been aware for some time and refuses to fix versions later -- Firefox will begin siezing 3 or 4 times the amount of resources than it needs and it'll nearly always require a End Task or crash to stop it. Firefox also crashes a LOT on its own (I'd say roughly once every session that lasts more than a couple hours). Built-in updater is mostly-useless, as it updates only a few of the extensions automatically, and can't even update itself. Is also basically impossible to manually import Bookmarks or Favorites over outside of during the installation.
CONCLUSIONS
Most of the population needs to stick with IE. It's been around longer, is more-stable, and less-likely to cause weird things or problems. There no adjustment for most of the population as they're already using it, and keeping it updated is as simple as visiting Windows Update once a week.
Opera is good for those wanting a stable browser that's not IE, and that can maybe fiddle aorund with things a bit. They also will have to realize that Opera will occasionally goof up while loading pages. It's also fairly easy to migrate to from IE, and the Mouse Gestures are a nice addition that will be make-or-break for some people.
Firefox is not stable by any means. But if advanced users or power-users want something they can throw all kinds of plugins in, customize this and that, can deal with it crashing off and on, or endure the stupid memory leak issue, its plugins and other features are very nice and oyu can do a LOT with it. It's also much more-difficult to migrate to. And while I haven't used 1.0 yet, I hear the same complaints about it...
If Firefox were stable this wouldn't be much of a contest -- it'd be all over both IE and Opera just by having all the extra features and customizations. But it's not, and in fact it's quite a ways from stable, which is surprising considering the amount of time that's been put into it and the amount of users it allegedkly has.
So basically... if someone tells you to switch to a specific browser because it's somehow "better", they're full of crap. There are notable differences in the 3, but all 3 also have major drawbacks that hold them back from being very recommendable.
IE has stagnated, Opera can't load everything correctly, and Firefox is quite unstable.
We're a long ways from anyone making a decent browser, folks...
-- Primis.
Funny. I'm running Firefox (just upgraded three days ago to 1.0) and I have it open all the time without the problem you're experiencing. The only time Firefox crashes is if I've had Adventure Quest (www.battleon.com) open and idle for awhile, and since it happens mostly with one specific piece of weaponry in AQ, I tend to blame that on Battleon and not Firefox. Other than that, on my system, Firefox is stable.
I'm running a Xeon 2.66 GHz processor with 512 megs of RAM , XP Pro/SP2.
You're fortunate then. Even if it's idling Firefox will often crash and hang, or you'll get the memory leak/resource siezing issue. So when it's open on its own, idle, and doing that I only really have it to blame. And I've talked to enough other people who use it or have used it (basically everyone I know in Real Life, if you will) to know I'm not the only one that has the problem, and that it's not some rare occurance.
It's not Mozilla or Netscape levels of unstable, for sure. But crashing roughly once a day just still isn't acceptable.
I haven't upgraded to 1.0 yet and probably won't for another couple releases, because it unfair to ask the user to put in a whole new install for every .1 or .0.1 you might want to put out (which ties in with my Updater gripe).
-- Primis.
*nods.* My systems tend to be Weird anyhow. When I do have problems, they're not the ones you'd expect for what I'm using (like the Cyrix that never ever overheated) -- instead, I get strange niggling things no-one else on earth has ever experienced. Like the problem with the Battleon equipment -- *one* other person has experienced it. One. So it's just something to file under "strange but true."
I'm an avowed Opera fan because that's what I am. And yeah, Primis, you were using 7.11 instead of 7.54 which is the current version, but they haven't fixed most of what you gripe about so it doesn't matter. Personally, I encounter pages that don't load correctly so infrequently that it's not much of a bother to me to bring up IE when I have to.