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Too Good To Ignore — 6 Alternative Browsers
bsk_cw writes "With the exception of Google's Chrome (which got attention because it was, after all, Google), most of the alternative browsers out there tend to get lost in the shuffle. Computerworld asked three of their writers to take some lesser-known browsers out for a spin and see how they do. They looked at six candidates: Camino (for the Mac), Maxthon (for the PC), OmniWeb (for the Mac), Opera (both the Mac and the PC versions) and Shiira (for the Mac)." It would have been more interesting if they included some popular open source, Linux-friendly browsers like Konqueror or Epiphany, as well.
Finally I can browse the internets on the Mac, it was the one thing missing from that experience...
I find it interesting that they checked out 4 for the Mac and only 2 for the PC. Isn't there at least one other PC browser they could have looked at? Maybe not, I'm unsure. Interesting read either way.
You know the thing about UDP jokes? I don't care if you get it or not.
At my work, I'm forced to use a SLOT-A Athlon running XP with 32mb RAM. K-Meleon allows the machine to function. All other graphical browsers bring it down to its knees.
opera
ie
mozilla (firefox/ netscape)
webkit (safarit/ chrome)
am i missing any (competitive, comprehensive) engines?
aren't all of the browsers here variations on these engines?
maxthon, for example, is ie based i believe
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
6 more browsers that all do the same things the mainstream ones do.
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Last time I checked, Maxon was built on IE. That's why I avoid it like a plague.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Maybe a better approach is to take the engines they use (ie/webkit/gecko/opera/khtml) and show what makes different from the best known browser using them.
The interface gives bells and whistles mainly, but the engine in the end is what makes a site you need work or not.
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The other day I saw this browser on a friend's machine. I think it was called Internet Explorer, but I'm not sure. I've never used it before. Is it any good?
UTF-8: There and Back Again
Maxthon, Camino or Epiphany browsers in their own right.
Not all conservatives are stupid,
but it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
- Hume
What about lynx? it runs all of you javascript in NO time.
I love opera, its a fast light weight but feature rich and rock solid browser that doesnt require endless tweaking and fiddling with extensions like firefox does.
there are still few people who intentionally (or without any option) use text based browsing ;-)
"With the exception of Google's Chrome (which got attention because it was, after all, Google),
True, but not the only reason: it's also a damn slick piece of technology and surprisingly intuitive in its initial phase.
The straight product is only one component of the experience; the community also plays a huge role. I know that the real reason I've stuck with Firefox for so long is because of the massive amount of support I can get from Greasemonkey and Userscripts.org, just goes to show that communities can build up around almost any given browser or piece of open-source software to really make the user experience unique and add value to the product.
Honestly they all seemed worthless except for Opera; and maybe Shiira 2.2, which isn't even done.
I say nothing to see here. No wonder they are so unknown.
"maxthon, for example, is ie based i believe"
I believe it is too. I noticed that one of the system requirements is IE 6. What other reason to have IE than to use the render engine?
Please don't use the term "PC" when you mean to say "Windows." It's bad enough that Apple continues to push this belief that PCs inherently run Windows in their marketing (as well as being inherently different from a hardware standpoint, something that was one true but stopped being so after 2006), but on Slashdot?
First of all, Opera is not a forgotten browser and has quite a big following. Maxthon outlived its usefulness as "IE with tabs" when IE7 came out. Chrome was interesting because of its threaded design (ie individual tabs can't crash the whole thing, in theory), its specially-developed V8 JavaScript engine and its focus on making web apps part of the desktop. Slapping a different GUI on Gecko/WebKit, along with a general lack of support for add-ons and other crucial pieces of the browsing experience, does not persuade a lot of people to switch to something "new." Especially when that "new" thing is just a downgraded version of what they're currently using.
Dear OP (bsk_cw):
With regard to your summery, it seems that you have made a slight mistake: confusing advertising with reality. Please examine the system specifications for a new Dell and a new Mac - you will find that the hardware architectures, minus a few proprietary components, are identical. In essence, a Mac is now a brand of PC, much as Ford is a brand of Car. If all PCs ran one operating systems EXCEPT for Macs, the distinction you make would still be valid. However PCs, regardless of brand, are capable of running a variety of operating systems, and THAT is the significant difference. So, next time, please, say "Windows", "OS/X", "Linux", or "all platforms", or, if its something else, say so.
Thanks,
A Reader
Avant is another good one, if you include one that borrows IE's renderer. I'm sure there's a ton of other ones that these Slashdot articles always miss. Lynx is always a good choice to avoid web bloat.
lol: You see no door there!
I'd rather talk about Chromium's nascent plans for extensions, which will hopefully bring AdBlock and NoScript (or at least similar functionality) to Chrome.
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
6 more browsers that all do the same things the mainstream ones do.
Unless I've missed it there is one thing that none of them do as well as Firefox and that is block ads. The browser extensions like this are the one thing that, at least for me, puts Firefox head and shoulders above the rest.
I am guessing here but I would say you may be one of few people who navigate a web site from the keyboard, I personally know of no one else that does. Anyone else know of someone that navigates solely by keyboard?
Maxthon was originally named myie2, and was basically a way to "skin" Internet Explorer. They have added more features, but they're still using IE under the hood. I used to use Maxthon exclusively before tabbed IE7 came out, but now I use Firefox. :0)
No Arora browser (QT/webkit)? I find it very fast and love the fact that it is so small. It also is a good model for using QT + Webkit to make your own application (for example, embedded or Linux console using QT embedded + framebuffer).
you want people to be more PC about using the term PC
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Both use Apple's webkit and hence, are very similar to Safari with a few minor changes.
Omniweb USED to use their own engine, but it's performance was TERRIBLE.
PS you forgot iCab... plus a host of primarily *NIX based browsers, e.g. links, elinks, etc.
Also WTF was this front page worthy? or eve news?
Honestly, while apparently Opera isn't the fastest renderer anymore, the UI /feels/ so much faster. Also, moving back and forth with the 'Back' and 'Forward' buttons are faster in Opera because it does not send out another HTTP request each time you click the button, while apparently other browsers do.
Need an automatic screenshot taker? Try here.
Taken from their overview page:
Sleipnir uses the same Trident rendering engine as Internet Explorer, so it will display just about any web page perfectly.
recently i was tasked with upgrading a bit of inhouse web 2.0 data entry software, and i had to add spellcheck, which of course is extremely easy: just use firefox. which floored longtime msie users
but then, upon further research, i found out about dynamic textarea resizing, a useful little feature for lots of data entry, while using chrome. you just click and drag the corner of the textarea to make it bigger (or smaller). very nifty
and upon even more research, i found out safari supports both dynamic resizing and spellchecking, AND a grammar checking feature (underlines green, as well as red for misspelt words like in firefox)
all of the mac users in my office were all smiles when i proposed we switch to safari company wide
so, for data entry with lots of textareas on the webpage, i summarize the following for you:
firefox: spellchecking
chrome: dynamic resize
safari: spellchecking, dynamic resize AND grammar checking
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Useless.
No linux coverage at all.
I just wish there was a linux browser besides firefox that supported extensions. With the design decisions being made by the firefox team lately, I'd love to switch. :P
Says you. I say IE is the alternative, and a poor one at that.
I see people switching from Firefox to IE nowadays and with a bit more polish on the UI I could see myself switching to IE8 from Firefox.
Opera, Chrome, etc, aren't vastly superior to IE7 for the common fool anyway,
How about alternative (not forgotten) ones?
Konqueror
Mozilla Suite
Galeon
w3m
lynx
links
They're all FOSS so we won't have any trouble.
We must be using different Operas here. To be more prone to troyans that IE you need at least support ActiveX, you know. And yes, I'm from Russia.
Quick way to get 30% Funny 70% Troll: defend Opera browser on
I care about two things in my browser - speed and ad blocking. I usually use Firefox 3.0.4. I have just installed Maxthon: noticeably slower, and the adblock feature leaves traces of where the ads were. I'm trying Opera next.
Oh bother. Look at you all. There's a good reason for calling them PCs. Of course Macs are personal computers, but for many years up until around the Windows 95 days, a lot Windows and DOS software was marketed as running on "IBM-PC and 100% compatible computers" and then just as "IBM-PC Compatible. That's where it comes from. It's simply an evolution of a marketing slogan.
You'd be amazed how much you can do with them, apart from most news sites and forums they also work with yahoo-mail and gmail.
And you can use them on an ssh session tunneld through the https port to your home server for a bit of sneaky reading from work.
Actually if you want to get really technical, Macs are PCs too, and I'm not talking about bootcamp.
However if you want to get super nitpicky, Windows and Linux are not PCs, but merely software, while Macs are PCs as it is the hardware. So really the only "real" PC here is a Macintosh.
It depends somewhat on your geographic location, but these days the breakdown is something like
IE - 70-80 %
Firefox 15-20 %
Safari - 3-7 %
Opera - 1% or less
With some others thrown in.
Opera is a fine and often innovative browser, but its share of the market is negligible. Luckily, it's standards support is good, so it works with the same pages that Firefox and Safari work on.
Being the premier browser on a gaming platform doesn't do much for market penetration.
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Yes, who would ever use a browser like Firefox when it's just the Mozilla browser and Gecko engine with reduced functionality.
I find it more interesting that they decided to count Opera twice. Are the Mac and PC versions really that different to count as two separate browsers?
I noticed Lynx was not on the list but then I remembered they were listing alternative browsers, not mainstream ones.
Hv3 passes the Acid2 test
If they wanted an obscure browser they should have chosen this one.
Does IE version 2.1 count as an 'alternative' browser?
Is a really good one. Not in the same league of Firefox because of the sheer number of extensions needed to block today's web unwanted stuff, which Midori still doesn't have, but nonetheless it's a great app for fast reading of online documentation or browsing clean sites. Unfortunately it still has a nasty bug when trying to open pdf links that makes it eat both physical and virtual memory at blazingly fast speed until it's process killed by the user. Once this bug is being ironed out it will become a really good browser.
It depends somewhat on your geographic location, but these days the breakdown is something like
IE - 70-80 %
Firefox 15-20 %
Safari - 3-7 %
Opera - 1% or less
With some others thrown in.
Opera is a fine and often innovative browser, but its share of the market is negligible. Luckily, it's standards support is good, so it works with the same pages that Firefox and Safari work on.
Being the premier browser on a gaming platform doesn't do much for market penetration.
Of the half-dozen or so people I know who run Opera, exactly ONE HUNDRED PERCENT have their browser identifying itself to web sites as IE7.
It's so incredibly easy to set this on Opera, pretty much all opera users do it. That way they don't get the "this site only works on firefox and IE" message every ten seconds.
Firefox makes it a little harder (unless you load an extension) so fewer people bother with the mod, so firefox's stats aren't as skewed.
properly render this particular entry. The last two lines got overlaid with the 'keywords'. Surely we need the alternative browser, just to browse Slashdot. Eh?
Especially when that "new" thing is just a downgraded version of what they're currently using.
... that didn't stop MS from doing Vista, now, did it?
Where WebKit came from.
For those looking for a go-between between lynx and other heavy-duty gui browsers like firefox: give dillo a try.
aren't you constitutionally required to use the nord browser (opera)?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Epiphany works perfectly for me: small, clean, with support for custom stylesheets (which I use a lot, primarily to place serif fonts in place of these fscking sans-serif fonts some webmasters seem to be brainwashed in thinking that they are easier to read on screen), and upgradeable through extensions (either the included ones, third-party ones, or your own as it is very easy to build one). It even has support for both gecko and webkit (gecko seems to be working better on Debian GNU/Linux lenny/5.0 so I still use it even though webkit is now considered the preferred engine). A real full-screen view a-la Firefox 3.0 would be great to have by default, but never mind.
When did people use 'sports' for 'supports'? Is this another geek slang used on computerworld?
....Someone gives me my Mosaic back!
And makes it W3C compatible.
What annoys me when I read reviews of browsers is the "con" - "not as many add-ins as Firefox".
It comes up all the time, and they completely ignore, whether not having the add-ins means you don't get the functionality of said add-in.
As an opera (at home) and Firefox (at work) user I'm waiting to find a useful extension functionality for Firefox that I don't have in the original (and small) installer for opera.
To me, not having extensions - just having the functionality is better, when it doesn't come as bulk (as it very much doesn't with opera). There's less chance of compatibility issues and the features upgrade with each browser software release, rather than the delay you get with firefox and its add-ins.
"6 more browsers that all do the same things the mainstream ones do." - by Hassman (320786) on Tuesday December 02, @10:37AM (#25960037)
Opera consistently does it better vs. security vulnerabilities staying at a nearly perfect record for being patched earlier or even proofed against known security vulnerabilities vs. the other webbrowsers. Opera is lighter in memory usage also and certainly starts faster as well as performing better and faster on lower than midrange systems of today vs. other webbrowsers. Opera's native featureset is also more complete than other webbrowsers who need addons to make them as feature complete. Opera's fully ACID test compliant also. Opera is faster generally in rendering HTML than other browsers are also the last time I checked in speed tests of webbrowsers, and Opera is fast in javascript. In fact, Opera led in javascript parsing speeds until recently. However, who cares about javascript parsing speed, since the javascript DOM is so weak, that nearly every security vulnerability out there today and for the past 5 yrs. now has been javascript related. Working on speeding up javascript processing, what with the faulty and weak DOM model it has, is like saying "I would like to get sick faster". Opera unlike say Firefox, though, can natively & easily enable/disable javascript usage without a filtering addon like NoScript for FireFox, and I globally disable javascript myself (via Opera's Tools QuickPreferences or Preferences menu) and when I hit an online banking or commerce site (shopping)? I right click on that site page and set unique site preferences for it, so that every time I go to that site?? Javascript is active, & on the rest of the webpages I visit, unless I turn it on, it is off by default. Opera's vastly underrated and the review by Preston Gralla didn't account for any of the factors I mention either, thus, I felt it was a poor review personally via such omissions.
"Maxthon blocks ads. I used to use that browser when I worked for a company that had internal apps that required IE back before IE had tabbed browsing." - by Valdrax (32670) on Tuesday December 02, @01:59PM (#25963531)
Maxthon is based on IE and thus has all of its security hassles (see secunia.com &/or securityfocus.com in that regards to verify the truth of my statement if you wish). As far as tabbed browsing, Opera had that before IE or FireFox AND Maxthon (& I am fairly certain before any other browser listed in this competition), plus Opera has features in it, natively, that other webbrowsers only gain via addons most times, and Opera's been imitated by competitors in that regards numerous times via addons or updates to the other browsers. Opera's long been recognized as the speed champion in page rendering and for years it even led in javascript processing speeds (not a gainer here, most security threats are javascript based, & Opera natively allows what NoScript does for Firefox, albeit natively, not via an addon like NoScript for FireFox) and Opera is lighter in memory use than other browsers also and faster on lower (and higher) end machines by far. Opera is also all the "ACID" tests compliant as well. Opera is underrated and largely due to reviews like this one that short-changed it imo. I felt this review was incomplete in making omissions in regards to Opera and the points I have just put out in its favor here vs. other webbrowsers.
"Unless I've missed it there is one thing that none of them do as well as Firefox and that is block ads." - by Roger W Moore (538166) on Tuesday December 02, @11:20AM (#25960735)
Opera natively allows what NoScript does for Firefox, albeit natively, not via an addon like NoScript for FireFox, and since many ads are javascript based, it knocks those out easily enough. Opera has a filter.ini file you can easily populate to block out other kinds by source site & I think Spybot S&D may do this in its immunize feature to help do so in fact automatically since it is an antispyware program. It can also handle other types of adbanners easily, say if they are flash based adbanners via filter.ini entries also. Plus, really, and if you are like myself, you get smart and use a custom HOSTS file which blocks adbanners (many are structured like this and free and accurate, especially vs. malware serving adbanners and websites) in any webbound program you use, making you go faster online as well as safer by far because of the protective features that HOSTS files can also yield (best addon for speed and security there is, and for ANY webbrowser, are custom HOSTS files imo - a 1 stop shopping for all your webbrowser programs' security and speed needs).
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"The browser extensions like this are the one thing that, at least for me, puts Firefox head and shoulders above the rest." - by Roger W Moore (538166) on Tuesday December 02, @11:20AM (#25960735)
FireFox cannot do anywhere near as much as Opera does natively without addons that FireFox has to have to imitate many of Opera's features, like Opera's excellent speed-dial, for 1 single example only!
Also, as far as features, like tabbed browsing, Opera had that before IE or FireFox AND Maxthon (& I am fairly certain before any other browser listed in this competition), plus Opera has features in it, natively, that other webbrowsers only gain via addons most times!
Opera's been imitated by competitors in that regards numerous times via addons or updates to the other browsers.
Opera's long been recognized as the speed champion in page rendering and for years it even led in javascript processing speeds (not a gainer here, most security threats are javascript based) & Opera is lighter in memory use than other browsers also and faster on lower (and higher) end machines by far.
Opera is also all the "ACID" tests compliant as well.
Opera is underrated and largely due to reviews like this one that short-changed it imo. I felt this review was incomplete in making omissions in regards to Opera and the points I have just put out in its favor here vs. other webbrowsers.
Obviously it isn't as good as it's cracked up to be. I'm still ignoring it.
Maxthon is based on IE and thus has all of its security hassles (see secunia.com &/or securityfocus.com in that regards to verify the truth of my statement if you wish).
Technically not true. Ad blocking *will* prevent some malicious code from running. Maxathon had a couple of other security features base IE didn't that I forget since it's been years since I ran it. Even so, it's not like I had much of a choice -- see below.
As far as tabbed browsing, Opera had that before IE or FireFox AND Maxthon ... [blah blah Opera is awesome]
Was there a point to this entire rant? Did you miss the part where I *had* to have IE's rending engine because the company had some brain dead internal apps that required it? As long as Opera (and Firefox, my browser of choice) didn't do ActiveX, it was either IE or a shell around IE or running multiple browsers at once.
Opera is underrated and largely due to reviews like this one that short-changed it imo.
Geez, are you blaming ME for that or something? I worked with what I had to. If it assuages your fanboy persecution complex, I had Opera on my phone for years and liked it, and I was fond of Opera when I tried it back before it was free in '99.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
"Technically not true. Ad blocking *will* prevent some malicious code from running." - by Valdrax (32670) on Wednesday December 03, @01:09PM (#25977727)
Well, if a site is serving up malicious code, OR even an adbanner? Blocking it, will stop it from harming you... I.E.-> "IF YOU CAN'T GO INTO THE KITCHEN, YOU CAN'T GET BURNED"...
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"Was there a point to this entire rant? Did you miss the part where I *had* to have IE's rending engine because the company had some brain dead internal apps that required it? As long as Opera (and Firefox, my browser of choice) didn't do ActiveX, it was either IE or a shell around IE or running multiple browsers at once." - by Valdrax (32670) on Wednesday December 03, @01:09PM (#25977727)
I go thru it myself (ASP.NET dev. here @ times, mostly MIS/IS/IT in nature, for databased access to data for INTERNAL TO COMPANY APPS, mostly, on an INTRANET).
I also think IE is superior in this regards, but only there. On the 'public internet', IE's a menace... & so are apps based on it I feel. Anyone here is free to examine stats on IE + its security vulnerabilities ratings vs. KNOWN threats, vs. those of say, Opera &/or FireFox for example... in order to test the veracity of my statements.
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- by Valdrax (32670) on Wednesday December 03, @01:09PM (#25977727)
No, did I say you wrote that article?? No, I did not... show me where I did, I will take that back... simple!
Call me a "fanboy" all you like, but, the fact remains that since MaxThon is based on IE engines? It too will be as vulnerable as IE is, unless something in its code takes care of hassles IE has, somehow... I am just pointing out facts, NOT 'dumping on you'...
On the 'public internet', IE's a menace... & so are apps based on it I feel.
Yes, I would agree, but...
A) Not my policy call, and not my machine. If it burned my employer, so be it, it was their bad IT policies bed, and they should lie in it.
B) Most of the most dangerous sites, I should NOT be viewing at work anyway. Unless someone hijacked one of the news sites I read, there was no risk (especially with ads blocked).
Call me a "fanboy" all you like, but, the fact remains that since MaxThon is based on IE engines? It too will be as vulnerable as IE is, unless something in its code takes care of hassles IE has, somehow... I am just pointing out facts, NOT 'dumping on you'...
Look, Maxathon had its uses. I never once said it was my browser of choice, but I was impressed by how much it made being forced to use IE suck less. So if you are just "pointing out facts," then why point them out *to me*, and why the big rant about how unfair it was that Opera didn't get a better shake when I *never once* said anything bad about Opera?
I mean, if you wanted to post about how awesome Opera is, fine -- do so. Just don't post it *in response to* someone else saying nothing related, and don't do so in a manner that suggests that your and your product of choice are somehow put upon because it makes it look like you're saying that I'm somehow representative of the people responsible for your favorite product's misfortune.
I mean, I could maybe understand if my post was highly moderated and you were just seeking some karma whoring attention for the issue, but why all of this was addressed to *me* in a post that most other people wouldn't see just boggles me.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
"Yes, I would agree, but...A) Not my policy call, and not my machine. If it burned my employer, so be it, it was their bad IT policies bed, and they should lie in it. B) Most of the most dangerous sites, I should NOT be viewing at work anyway. Unless someone hijacked one of the news sites I read, there was no risk (especially with ads blocked). - by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday December 04, @08:45PM (#25997729)
Nor is it mine, on the job as well. I do however have to agree w/ my superiors & fellow coders that IE is the BEST for an intranet environs...
Sure, .NET's multiplatform (multibrowser really) & served up server-side, a better form of ISAPI DLL really!
(Better, as far as memory usage, in that it doesn't leak due to built-in garbage cleanup via its runtimes, & faster than classic ASP is!)
But... like you said?
Try to run an ActiveX control inside Opera or FireFox (natively that is) - good luck!
Yes - I've run into it with CrystalReports' stuff, & everything on a std. .NET page works (for the most part) in Opera & FF, but, not the Crystal Report, the IMPORTANT part.
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"Look, Maxathon had its uses. I never once said it was my browser of choice, but I was impressed by how much it made being forced to use IE suck less." - by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday December 04, @08:45PM (#25997729)
That I might agree with, IF I even got w/in 10 feet of MaxThon... but, because it's based on IE? I won't & don't, & I am NOT forced to use it, as I would say, @ work, BUT again, IE has its merits there, per the above.
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" So if you are just "pointing out facts," then why point them out *to me*, and why the big rant about how unfair it was that Opera didn't get a better shake when I *never once* said anything bad about Opera?" - by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday December 04, @08:45PM (#25997729)
It's no "RANT" about Opera's superiority on many grounds... those were just plain statements of widely known facts about Opera.
Also?
I said this last post reply to you:
I know you didn't write the article this thread here on /. is about, & I even mentioned Preston Gralla's name in fact, here:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1048177&cid=25974591
Specifically, since he was this reviews' author, & in regards to that sentiment from myself, & that HE (he is the article's author) omitted MUCH of what's great about Opera...
So, & I enumerated just SOME points, as to how/what/when/where, in regards to that.
(You misinterpreted it - I didn't direct THAT MUCH, @ you).
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"I mean, I could maybe understand if my post was highly moderated and you were just seeking some karma whoring attention" - by Valdrax (32670) on Thursday December 04, @08:45PM (#25997729)
Uhm... there is a REASON (couple actually) I post as an "A/C" here. First, I am not about "karma" & "mod points". If I have something to say to someone, I say it directly, & also I am a bit past the "karma" phase on forums online... it's not of import to me.
Secondly - I think that registering here is the DUMBEST move you can make - as it makes you EASILY TRACKABLE, whereas an "A/C" poster? Heh, NOT so easy... think about it.
APK
P.S.=> I'd mellow out on the "playing victim" stuff man... because parts of what you THINK I directed YOUR WAY here? Wasn't directed @ you, @ all... apk