Firefox 2 vs. Opera 9.6 on a Windows 98 Desktop

Here I am ranting again about my work PC running on a Pentium III and Windows 98 with 248MB of RAM. Running Firefox 2 (Firefox 3 doesn't support Windows 98, *sob*) on it is really quite slow, especially if I have something like Gmail (or Google Reader) and another tab with Flash or something similarly "taxing". Whenever I refresh the page, the whole Firefox 2 will occasionally stall for what felt like an eternity (but is actually a few seconds). Sometimes, it might proof to be a problem to exit the web browser quickly during "emergency cases".

Since Opera has been bragging about its browser being also very fast, I had to try it out, right? So I downloaded Opera 9.6 and installed it. GASP! It is even SLOWER than Firefox 2. A Gmail or Google Reader page will take ages (much much longer than Firefox 2) to load. I guess I don't have to mention how a refresh will be like.

However, do note that all the above might only happen on my ancient work PC (I know I shouldn't complain too much because there are more ancient ones than mine in existence out there) which might be worth billions in a few billion years. So, don't let this short complain stop you from trying out Opera, yeah? ;)

Note: The above links appear to be general links. When new versions appear, these links will no longer be valid for the versions described here.