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The Seven Hidden Browsers In the Windows Ballot

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hanging-chads-need-not-apply dept.

Barence writes "Two weeks ago Microsoft started rolling out a Windows update within the European Union, giving every Internet Explorer user the option to switch browsers. As well as the five big names, anyone who scrolls the ballot window to the right will find seven further browsers, none of which is exactly a household name. There's no quality control being offered, either — they're simply the '12 most widely-used web browsers that run on Windows 7,' based on usage share in the European Economic Area. But what are these unknown browsers actually like? To find out, seven PC Pro staff installed a browser each, used it exclusively for a day, and ran a variety of tests. The browser-by-browser verdict on the hidden seven: two are worth a look for specific reasons, the other five are only likely to give an internet novice a horribly outdated idea of what web browsing is like."

11 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Lynx? by sunderland56 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey! Where's Lynx?

    1. Re:Lynx? by Toze · · Score: 5, Funny

      Skin! In my day we dreamed about having skin! We walked around everywhere holding our insides in with our hands. Didn't have blood, either- we hand to pump oxygen into our cells by hand, and that was no easy task, let me tell you. Gripping an oxygen atom without skin on! And web pages, hah! We had to wait for our elders to die and arrange their corpses in pictograms! Those were the days. "Corpse-lying-on-its-side-with-one-arm-outstretched, corpse-half-buried-upside-down, corpse-with-fingers-up-nose. I see the Joneses have been accessing our network again."

      --
      No OS on the planet can protect itself from a user with the admin password. - Yvan256
  2. Avant browser == front-end for IE by Yuioup · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Avant browser is nothing more than a front-end for IE.
    It's basically a window surrounding an embedded Internet Explorer object.
    I personally think its ridiculous that MS offers it as an 'alternative browser'

    Y

    1. Re:Avant browser == front-end for IE by Jason+Levine · · Score: 5, Informative

      Maxthon, GreenBrowser and SlimBrowser are IE Front ends also. It means that 4 of the 7 (with Avant) are just IE Shells. One that is an IE/Gecko shell (Sleipnir). One that is essentially a FireFox offshoot (Flock) and K-Meleon.

      Not that I have anything against Maxthon. Back when I was an IE user, it was my stepping stone to FireFox (though I didn't realize it at the time). I used it instead of IE6, the most current version of IE at the time, and was impressed by the tabbed browsing, pop-up/ad blocking and other "cool new" features while not having to completely abandon my IE-comfort-zone. Of course, I grew accustomed to having these features so going on a plain-IE PC turned into a chore. Then, one day, I decided to give FireFox a chance. It was a bit of an adjustment, but not as bad as I thought it would be. So while I wouldn't install Maxthon now, I do appreciate how it helped me transition from IE6 to FireFox.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  3. This won't make the user happier by Advocadus+Diaboli · · Score: 5, Informative

    See Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice. Got to help someone with his Windows-PC lately and got seriously confused by this invasive dialog. :-)

    1. Re:This won't make the user happier by quantumplacet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      if you actually got confused by this 'invasive dialogue' then you have no business helping anyone with any computer, and might want to think about wearing a helmet on a regular basis.

  4. QC by bunkymag · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "There's no quality control being offered, either — they're simply the '12 most widely-used web browsers that run on Windows 7,' based on usage share in the European Economic Area." .. just like there's no quality control for presidents and prime ministers I suppose, except the fact that they are the most widely-voted politicians in a given area .. draw your own conclusions as to whether it works, or more importantly if there is a better option.

  5. Testing? by natehoy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From TFA:

    we installed each browser on the same Windows 7 computer and tested their speed in the SunSpider benchmark, their memory usage with the Google home page open in a single tab, and their startup times – measured from the moment we clicked the icon to the browser window appearing.

    Expectation for any sort of consistency in the testing parameters has been set to zero. But, at least we get to see which browsers are most-liked and offer a nice user experience, right?

    Then we asked seven members of the PC Pro team to abandon their favoured browser and switch to one of these alternatives. To say they were delighted to do so would be a lie: there was gnashing of teeth, wailing and screaming pleas for mercy. All these fell on deaf ears. We provide full reviews of each browser in the Reviews section, but for a helpful summary click through to the next page.

    OK, expectation of any sort of positive review of any browser has been set to zero.

    The only consolation is that the popularity of the top 12 browsers is re-examined every six months.

    Which means PCPro will have a steady ad revenue from writing meaningless reviews cobbled from the barest minimum of testing where the browser used by the least whiny of the random-picked team gets top marks just because that person hates change the least.

    In fact, maybe a PC Pro browser is exactly what the EU needs

    If it's written with the same attention and care to detail as the articles, the first installed instance of it will crash the Internet and bring civilization to a smoking ruin.

    --
    "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  6. Re:SeaMonkey? by Jer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a link to the answer given by Robert Kaiser - who I believe is probably the same Robert Kaiser that is the Seamonkey project coordinator.

    Quoted in full:

    "I repeatedly get questions why SeaMonkey is not on the browser ballot, and of course I keep telling those people that only one browser per vendor is allowed and Firefox and SeaMonkey are regarded to be from the same vendor, Mozilla."

    There you go.

  7. Re:What I do not understand by Ma8thew · · Score: 5, Informative

    The reason for 'why Microsoft' is that they have a monopoly on the operating systems market, and there are special laws governing monopolies. The reason for 'why browsers' is that web browsers is an area the EU has deemed that Microsoft is abusing its monopoly.

  8. Re:And thus the folly is proven by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Funny

    You’re kidding, right?

    Of course he is. Everyone knows that Opera was the first web browser to have zealots - Firefox totally ripped that off.