Not being a Linux user, my experiences with the browsers you mention may be skewed. Maxthon, I quit it after a brief few months, could never get past the "surprises." Chrome on RAM- I agree with you. Firefox is almost as bad in different ways- both are RAM hogs.
Opera? Interesting. Opera vanished then came back- a wolf in sheep clothing. As a browser it rocks. I love Opera although I do not use it exclusively or even in a majority of uses. Seems as though the new Opera is built over the Chrome engine- not sure on this.
Opera is nice- a few flickers for some reason but a great browser. It reviously had the #1 world class note book (IMO) Solid browser.
I won't drag the "E" browsers in as you are not a Windoz user.
Avant- give it a spin. Awesome build on Chrome. Toolbars, skins and a lot of 'gizmos' in the upper right corner. Great browser.
Both Comodos (one on Chrome and the other on Firefox) are great and have a hardening built in. Drawback on both is they lag updates of the base programs. This can be problematic from time to time.
Finally, Avast browser ^^ Yep, inside the anti-virus (and other functions) security program. Very nice and secure very secure.
(I'm on Opera now
it is so smooooooooth)
GL