The following is a detailed of Google Chrome browser. I have taken it through the paces, tested many features and even tried to run it on Linux.
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The test machine runs on Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 Ghz (x2) with 2GB RAM. I tried loading single page PHP manual (16.5 MB) on Windows Vista from our local server with 100Mbps LAN connecting it. At the same time I was running the Javascript console to measure performance of page loading. I was also searching for the term cgi in the page being loaded. It takes about 2 minutes to load it in Firefox. 20 minutes later the page was still loading in Google Chrome!

The page up / page down keys were pretty unresponsive in the tab as well as the Javascript console. It appears Google Chrome parses pages as it loads the. As of the time of this writing the single tab with PHP manual has consumed 576 MB of RAM and still increasing. I could see the Javascript Console was using the same process which explains which it was hanging along with the browser tab. Read after the break for more details.

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Every one in my company knows about pkill, an obscure Linux command because we use Firefox (we are 100% Linux based) as the default browser. What is the relation, you ask? The answer is simple.

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Firefox download manager is still flaky, even after three major versions. Often the download stops for no apparent reasons. At least in version 3, you can safely stop and then resume the download, which works as expected.

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My most favorite Firefox 3 feature is the automatically generated Most Visited folder on Bookmarks tab. It allows me to quickly browse my important work related websites. The FastDial add-on also provides a similar feature but it does it the Opera way. Whenever you open a new tab / window, it displays your 12 favorite website, which you can just click on to open.

People are reporting that Firefox is significantly faster on slower machines. I don't feel it as I am on a high-end Core 2 Duo.

What is your most favorite feature in Firefox 3?

These add-ons are so useful that I cannot work for a single day without them and so I would suspect most web developers and QA Engineers. These plugins / add-ons makes Firefox a formidable web development and testing platform. They are:

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Selenium Remote Control (RC) is a test tool that allows you to write automated web application UI tests in many programming languages against any HTTP website using any mainstream JavaScript-enabled browser. Selenium RC is a powerful and simple framework for running (scheduled or manually) automated UI centric regression tests for web applications / services. Here are few simple tips for Selenium RC java client. I used JUnit for tests. You can use NGUnit too.

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The online US non-immigrant visa application site - https://www.vfs-usa.co.in/ doesn't allow you to submit the visa application using the popular Firefox browser.

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Microsoft was the sole leading browser (all versions combined) in 2002-2003 with over 85% of market share. The earlier leader Netscape had by then sunk into oblivion. Flash forward 2007 and we can see Microsoft Internet Explorer barely holding on to over 50% market share with its fortunes steadily declining. It is still at 57% (all versions combined) as of October 2007.

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Cross-browser and cross-platform testing is a bane as well as a requirement for web applications. Consider Internet Explorer on Windows. There are two major version 6 & 7, not to mention still used 5.5. You need to either use different machines or multi-boot machines or use hacks to run them simultaneously or virtualization software like VMWare; not of them are really easy to setup and use for common web developer. Then you have Opera & Firefox (we develop in Firefox so it gets tested first in our case). Did I mention testing on Mac with Safari, Firefox and other browsers? Oh, and don't forget Linux too. Are you feeling overwhelmed? Let's see how you can solve most of these problems.

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