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Too Good To Ignore — 6 Alternative Browsers

Posted by timothy on from the hit-the-internet-button dept.

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.

13 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Mac over represented? by JustNilt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Mac over represented? by telchine · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I find it interesting that they checked out 4 for the Mac and only 2 for the PC.

      Does anyone else find it annoying that Mac users have a tendancy to use the term 'PC' as if it were a synonym for 'Windows'?

    2. Re:Mac over represented? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Trident based third-party stuff really caught a triple blow: Over time, Trident has become less of an asset, since its performance has been mediocre for quite some time and the number of IE only websites has fallen fairly sharply. At the same time, though, the relative quality of IE has improved somewhat. Things like tabs and something resembling a popup blocker are no longer exotic features. Third, of course, is the existence of good and fairly well known non-trident browsers on Windows.

      I don't expect non-IE uses of Trident to disappear, since MS makes it fairly easy to embed in programs that could use some basic HTML-fu(though I was interested to see that Adobe's help program is now based on bits of Opera, presumably so they can reuse more of it on the mac side); but the case for the longterm survival of non-IE trident browsers is pitiful. IE is the default, and has a bunch of useful features for corporate type environments, so it gets all the corporate and clueless users; and how many of the people who actually comparison shop for browsers like Trident?(particularly with the existence of IEtab for FF)

    3. Re:Mac over represented? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No offense, but if you are going to talk about the top three, and only three, browsers, it would have to be Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. Explorer is bundled with Windows, Safari with Mac and iPhone, Firefox with many Linux distros. Who was bundling Opera with anything? Embedded devices, some mobile phones... all of which were overshadowed by Mobile Safari.

      You might be disappointed, but you shouldn't be surprised.

  2. aren't there only 4 engines? by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  3. Re:No love for k-meleon?! by Hell0W0rld · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And no love for the nice Seamonkey...

  4. Re:Hooray! by Andr+T. · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, what makes Firefox not an alternative to IE in Windows? IE is still the main browser.

    --

    Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.

  5. Comparing related to engines by gmuslera · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Props to Opera by Bredero · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  8. Re:Maxthon IE-based by owlnation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wasn't maxthon also discredited because it had spyware in it? Or has that been addressed? It was linked to t35.com which is a known purveyor of spyware.

    Incidentally, the maxthon wikipedia entry -- like so many wikipedia entries for products -- is just a PR piece, clearly written by someone with marketing links to the browser. After all, if wikipedia entries also come within the first 10 results on Google, then making sure your message is in the wikipedia entry is the best and easiest form of SEO there is.

  9. Pfft. by geminidomino · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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

    1. Re:Pfft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Write one.