Thread: Alternative browsers

  1. #1
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    Alternative browsers

    Does anyone know of any good alternatives to Firefox?

    I'm looking for something with the same basic featureset, but more streamlined, and that won't end up cluttered with too many features it doesn't need, as FF is starting to do.

    Looking for open source programs only, just wondering if anyone here would know...
    I live in a giant bucket.

  2. #2
    Just one more wrong move. -KEN-'s Avatar
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    You won't find anything that fits the bill better than Opera. Greatest browser ever, who cares if it's not OSS? It implements lots of features natively (and much better, I might add) that FireFox plugins try to tack-on. It's got tabs, gestures, etc, etc: and everything works nearly flawlessly. IMHO, Opera is both snappier and renders faster than FF, too.

  3. #3
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    Does Opera still cost money for the "full" version?

    Edit: looks like it does.
    Last edited by Aerie; 01-06-2005 at 03:59 PM.
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  4. #4
    Registered User Scribbler's Avatar
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    Which OS?

    If you're using Windows, I think FF is still the only way to go. Without any extensions installed it's still pretty streamlined compared to the other browsers available for windows. However I know what you mean about features being added that it doesn't need. The initial premise behind Firefox is slowly being forgotten as too many users of FF are screaming for default features to be added.

    If you're using *nix, I think Konqueror has made great strides if you're using the KDE desktop. If not KDE, then probably Epiphany or Galeon.

  5. #5
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    I use Windows and Linux.

    And yes, "slowly," if you define lightspeed to be slow.

    Edit: I'm looking at K-Meleon, but my hopes aren't high.
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  6. #6
    & the hat of GPL slaying Thantos's Avatar
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    Opera doesn't cost anything for the full version. It just costs to remove the ads.

  7. #7
    Just one more wrong move. -KEN-'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aerie
    Does Opera still cost money for the "full" version?

    Edit: looks like it does.
    Eh, you get google's text ads at the top. There's really no other way to go, though. Sure, you could use something like Maxthon, but that's just an IE Wrapper. Same security holes and all.

  8. #8
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    I'm starting to like K-Meleon. It's FOUR TIMES AS FAST as Firefox on my(non spyware/virus encumbered) system running a gig of RAM and an Athlon XP 2500.

    NO browser should be as slow as FF is once I leave it running for an hour or so.

    Some improvements need to be made(weird tab behavior, etc), but it's very much closer to my dream browser than FF now is.

    I haven't seen a page render this fast since Phoenix 0.3.

    Edit: I consider the presence of ads to be an inexcusable flaw in a product... I'd like Opera otherwise, I think, but charging for software(as an intrinsic product, it's reasonable to charge for service and support) in this day and age is archaic and only really reasonable for specialized programs.
    Last edited by Aerie; 01-06-2005 at 04:23 PM.
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  9. #9
    Just one more wrong move. -KEN-'s Avatar
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    Should the rendering time in K-Meleon be all that much different than using FF? They're both gecko-based. The interface in K-M looks pretty clunky, but I guess it's worth a try.

  10. #10
    Rad gcn_zelda's Avatar
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    With Firefox and IE so largely used, I don't see how Opera makes money.

  11. #11
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    From all the ads they serve on their free version, theoretically.

    K-Meleon is definitely a bit clunky, but it's better than FF, I think.

    And yeah, it made a lot of difference. Not sure why, but I think it's because FF's executable is way compressed(instead of just written efficiently) and so FF takes an inordinate amount of RAM: With 6 tabs open in FF, with mostly text pages loaded, FF is using 74 MB of RAM. That's crazy. With 9 layers open in KM, mostly heavily graphical pages, I'm at just over 30 megs of RAM. Either FF is grossly inefficient, or it's not releasing RAM properly.
    I live in a giant bucket.

  12. #12
    Widdle Coding Peon Aerie's Avatar
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    Oh, did I mention that FF now interferes with some 3d games?

    It seems to, under certain circumstances, assume control of the video card, which means, at those times, that launching a hardware-accelerated 3d game will fail.
    I live in a giant bucket.

  13. #13
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    Sbc-yahoo dsl is good I have it but I use firefox instead. It has a pop-up blocker. I just got ........ed at it for some reason......

  14. #14
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > Sbc-yahoo dsl is good I have it

    Wait, this is a browser now?

  15. #15
    & the hat of GPL slaying Thantos's Avatar
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    They have their own browser like AOL. I only use sbc for the DSL. I refused to install their crap (like the connection manager and stuff like that).

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