Personal Development for Smart People^TM Forums

CoolBee · 02-05-2011, 03:07 PM

What is the fastest, lightest, windows compatible browser?

I want it for emergency situations when I just want/need to access mobile versions of websites (eg m.facebook.com and so on) very quickly without any fancy stuff.

StacyT · 02-05-2011, 03:43 PM

I've found Google Chrome to be the fastest

Lawliet · 02-05-2011, 06:30 PM

There's a totally original and witty text-only browser joke waiting to be made.

Are we seriously recommending Chrome as a lightweight browser though? Really? When it's been hammered for its resource usage since inception.

That said, I'm going to get shot for saying IE by the FF crowd.

Lil Chris · 02-05-2011, 07:21 PM

Safari for accessing mobile versions of sites

Curtis2011 · 02-05-2011, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawliet

There's a totally original and witty text-only browser joke waiting to be made.

Are we seriously recommending Chrome as a lightweight browser though? Really? When it's been hammered for its resource usage since inception.

That said, I'm going to get shot for saying IE by the FF crowd.

If you open several tabs then yes, it uses buttloads of resources.

But if OP is viewing on a mobile device, I doubt there will be 30 tabs open all at once. One to three is more likely.

Chrome is the fastest browser at actually loading and rendering a web page, given that your PC has enough resources to operate it without slowing down.

CoolBee · 02-05-2011, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

If you open several tabs then yes, it uses buttloads of resources.

But if OP is viewing on a mobile device, I doubt there will be 30 tabs open all at once. One to three is more likely.

Chrome is the fastest browser at actually loading and rendering a web page, given that your PC has enough resources to operate it without slowing down.

I won't be using it on a mobile, but on a netbook.
Really it's because let's just say we've had a few internet problems in our neck of the woods in the past couple of weeks, and being able to get a site to load very quickly on a very slow line (possibly dialup!) is essential.

Alstar · 02-05-2011, 08:44 PM

I don't know about fastest, but Internet Explorer is by far the slowest I've used. Firefox is the fastest, but I've only used IE and Firefox so....

Having a clean computer will also help your browser perform better, though obviously the internet speed itself is the most significant factor. If your connection is really, really limited then keep as few internet-using programs open as possible. MSN is light so it's fine to run all the time, browsers use up a lot of bandwidth but if you have something like Firefox you can get plugins to minimize loading (i.e. get a plugin to filter out images and colours from a webpage, ideal for text-based pages like this). Avoid video sites or sites which contain a lot of images on one page. Especially avoid direct video links like YouTube which will load the video as soon as you open the link. Skype uses up a horrible amount of bandwidth and computer resources for a chat program, I consider it a chore to even open it with my high-speed internet.

LostMyMap · 02-05-2011, 09:02 PM

FF 3.x is plenty fast. IE 9 says they are competing with Chrome for speed, we'll see. But rather than focus on the browser, I would try something else. I have notice that many many many times when a page is slow to load, it is because of those stupid, I hate them with a passion, Flash advertisements. So turning off Flash just might be enough to make things seem faster. Unless you are on a site where Flash is an integral part of the content.

Dial up is always going to suck though.

Hey Coolbee, you still in Cairo? Hope you are OK there.

StacyT · 02-05-2011, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lawliet

Are we seriously recommending Chrome as a lightweight browser though? Really? When it's been hammered for its resource usage since inception.

I honestly don't know what's been said about Chrome, I'm just going by my personal experience. Compared to Opera and Firefox, Chrome is lightening fast.

Lawliet · 02-05-2011, 10:44 PM

It was supposed to be more humorous than antagonistic, StacyT.

Worry not.

Curtis2011 · 02-05-2011, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolBee

I won't be using it on a mobile, but on a netbook.
Really it's because let's just say we've had a few internet problems in our neck of the woods in the past couple of weeks, and being able to get a site to load very quickly on a very slow line (possibly dialup!) is essential.

Ah. Well if bad internet connection is your problem, I don't think a browser can do much to help.

Brutha · 02-06-2011, 12:27 AM

I think Opera is good because it provides you with a special mode that disables the loading of images with is useful when you don't have a slow connection.

Chrome is also relatively fast. There might be extensions that provide similar functionality to Opera low bandwidth mode.

ragtag · 02-06-2011, 12:31 AM

In Firefox you can add FlashBlock ad AdBlock (Tools>Add Ons ... Get Add Ons and do a search). The flashblocker replaces Flash content with a play button, you can click that for the Flash content you want to see.

Opera has a feature called Turbo, which downloads sites to their servers, and sends them on to you compressed by up to 80%. It disables Flash too. It was originally used for their mobile browsers, but is now also available in their Windows version of Opera. This could help a lot if you have a slow connection.

As for more esoteric solutions, there is always Lynx, an ancient text only browser.

I actually use it every now and then.

sonde · 02-06-2011, 01:54 AM

You may like to look at the Supplementary browsers at the bottom of this page:
Browser speed comparisons
I used dillo with dialup and linux for a while and it was fast but limited as to how many tabs could be shown at one time. Could be good for emergencies though.

Best wishes.

CoolBee · 02-06-2011, 08:34 AM

Thanks, I'll try a few and see what is best. Definitely interested in trying out the Lynx!

@Lost - I'm still in Cairo yes - chose this as my home, take the rough with the smooth but most of us foreigners have kept our heads down and out of the way except for the journos.

The point about a very light browser is needing to get on and off quickly mainly to send messages to people that I'm ok! (All our mobile phones were cut off too).

WISHLIST 2 - A software app that with one single click totally stops ANY automatic downloading, updating or anything.

I have turned off everything I have found using msconfig, services, things in software, but there's always something that decides now is a great time to download a 50MB update. But when you've finally got a dialup connection for 5 minutes at 4 bits per sec or whatever, you don't want ANYTHING updating itself!

If anyone knows of such a thing please tell me!

WISHLIST 3 - A very very lightweight messenger service

Something that I can use with friends on Windows Live or Yahoo or Google that doesn't come with all those features.

And before someone says Twitter - that was blocked and everytime anyone found a proxy method that got blocked to. Also, we couldn't send texts to update remotely.

Federer · 02-06-2011, 12:18 PM

For me if you want to download big files then prefer firefox.

For surfing i use opera and right now i am from opera. It is faster.

Overall it also depends on your connection speed and intrent traffic. Browser can't speed your net speed because it is used for browsing sites. Browser can help you for caching speed.

marinik · 02-06-2011, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StacyT

I honestly don't know what's been said about Chrome, I'm just going by my personal experience. Compared to Opera and Firefox, Chrome is lightening fast.

I agree!

Federer · 02-06-2011, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StacyT

I honestly don't know what's been said about Chrome, I'm just going by my personal experience. Compared to Opera and Firefox, Chrome is lightening fast.

Stacy says so because she has mega booster connection. This is why her Chrome is faster. Saving my opinion. (kidding, joke)

StacyT · 02-06-2011, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Federer

Stacy says so because she has mega booster connection. This is why her Chrome is faster. Saving my opinion. (kidding, joke)

How did you know!?

st33med · 02-06-2011, 09:48 PM

K-Meleon

Googled it.

It's based off the same engine as Firefox but is much more lightweight.

Andrew Brunelle · 02-06-2011, 11:04 PM

I use Google Chrome, and I adopted it after Mozilla Firefox became a bit of a burden, constantly crashing and freezing. It is so fast, and really light, and I haven't had one problem with it yet, so I'm staying with it. It even has a nice feature that lets you type something in the web address bar and it goes right to google. Very user friendly.

If there is anything faster or lighter, I really don't see the point, unless you have a computer from the 1990s.

cacheborn · 02-07-2011, 05:21 AM

If speed is the only criterion, then Chrome.

Personally I use Firefox and Chrome. (Chromium actually but there is not that much difference.)

Firefox has extensions, many of them to enhance security. Plus some like the dictionary tooltip. I also use FF for financial transactions. Some sites seem to be faster with Chrome, like this one. So I use Chrome for those sites.

Alstar · 02-07-2011, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolBee

WISHLIST 3 - A very very lightweight messenger service

Something that I can use with friends on Windows Live or Yahoo or Google that doesn't come with all those features.

Pidgin, the universal chat client Pidgin is definitely what you want, then. You can use it to connect to pretty much every messenger platform simultaneously and it's very light.

Federer · 02-07-2011, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StacyT

How did you know!?

Because i am psychic. Now you see.

If you want written proof, here you go: Two different place have two different energies.

Andrew Gubb · 02-07-2011, 10:58 AM

Tried Chrome since reading this thread, it really is way faster. I think I may go over to it. It lets me read one of my preferred forums (indigosociety.com) at a decent speed. I'd given it up for its slowness before.

Thank god the steve forums are fast though

Alstar · 02-08-2011, 08:36 AM

I'm now on Chrome too (Chromium, specifically), and it really is much more streamlined and speedy than Firefox. For some reason it seems to execute 10 different processes of Chromium at the same time though.

Andrew Gubb · 02-08-2011, 09:49 AM

I'm using Chrome right now. I think it'll be a long term change.

Brutha · 02-08-2011, 04:59 PM

Quote:

I'm now on Chrome too (Chromium, specifically), and it really is much more streamlined and speedy than Firefox. For some reason it seems to execute 10 different processes of Chromium at the same time though.

It starts a new process for every tab. The goal is to prevent the whole browser from breaking down when a single tab breaks down.

Sansone · 02-08-2011, 06:31 PM

I am a firefox fan for my normal browsing since I am used to the way I have it customized. It's not the fastest anymore, maybe the slowest actually at this point, but it does exactly what I want the way I want it.

Tried chrome for a while, and it definitely loads certain types of pages faster. Like a lot faster. On my main machine, it doesn't really start up that much faster than firefox though. Ultimately I couldn't get myself to like the interface.

Opera, on the other hand, not only feels like it loads pages as fast as chrome, but starts up far faster than any of the others. When I want to just quickly hit a single site like weather.com or check my online banking (both of which are the types of sites that load slowly in other browsers) and get on and off the computer ASAP, I do it with Opera.

Alstar · 02-09-2011, 03:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brutha

It starts a new process for every tab. The goal is to prevent the whole browser from breaking down when a single tab breaks down.

Good feature, but it doesn't seem to be working like that for me.

As you can see, several processes and only one tab.

02-05-2011, 03:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
CoolBee Family Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2,044	Please recommend fastest lightest browser What is the fastest, lightest, windows compatible browser? I want it for emergency situations when I just want/need to access mobile versions of websites (eg m.facebook.com and so on) very quickly without any fancy stuff. Last edited by CoolBee; 02-05-2011 at 03:31 PM.

02-06-2011, 08:34 AM	#15 (permalink)
CoolBee Family Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2,044	Wish List for Insane Times Thanks, I'll try a few and see what is best. Definitely interested in trying out the Lynx! @Lost - I'm still in Cairo yes - chose this as my home, take the rough with the smooth but most of us foreigners have kept our heads down and out of the way except for the journos. The point about a very light browser is needing to get on and off quickly mainly to send messages to people that I'm ok! (All our mobile phones were cut off too). WISHLIST 2 - A software app that with one single click totally stops ANY automatic downloading, updating or anything. I have turned off everything I have found using msconfig, services, things in software, but there's always something that decides now is a great time to download a 50MB update. But when you've finally got a dialup connection for 5 minutes at 4 bits per sec or whatever, you don't want ANYTHING updating itself! If anyone knows of such a thing please tell me! WISHLIST 3 - A very very lightweight messenger service Something that I can use with friends on Windows Live or Yahoo or Google that doesn't come with all those features. And before someone says Twitter - that was blocked and everytime anyone found a proxy method that got blocked to. Also, we couldn't send texts to update remotely. Last edited by CoolBee; 02-06-2011 at 08:41 AM.

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02-05-2011, 03:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
StacyT Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: New England Posts: 839	I've found Google Chrome to be the fastest

02-05-2011, 06:30 PM	#3 (permalink)
Lawliet Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 128	There's a totally original and witty text-only browser joke waiting to be made. Are we seriously recommending Chrome as a lightweight browser though? Really? When it's been hammered for its resource usage since inception. That said, I'm going to get shot for saying IE by the FF crowd.

02-05-2011, 07:21 PM	#4 (permalink)
Lil Chris Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Somewhere in time... Posts: 2,213	Safari for accessing mobile versions of sites

02-05-2011, 08:44 PM	#7 (permalink)
Alstar Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 351	I don't know about fastest, but Internet Explorer is by far the slowest I've used. Firefox is the fastest, but I've only used IE and Firefox so.... Having a clean computer will also help your browser perform better, though obviously the internet speed itself is the most significant factor. If your connection is really, really limited then keep as few internet-using programs open as possible. MSN is light so it's fine to run all the time, browsers use up a lot of bandwidth but if you have something like Firefox you can get plugins to minimize loading (i.e. get a plugin to filter out images and colours from a webpage, ideal for text-based pages like this). Avoid video sites or sites which contain a lot of images on one page. Especially avoid direct video links like YouTube which will load the video as soon as you open the link. Skype uses up a horrible amount of bandwidth and computer resources for a chat program, I consider it a chore to even open it with my high-speed internet.

02-05-2011, 09:02 PM	#8 (permalink)
LostMyMap Banned Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: San Diego CA Posts: 2,944	FF 3.x is plenty fast. IE 9 says they are competing with Chrome for speed, we'll see. But rather than focus on the browser, I would try something else. I have notice that many many many times when a page is slow to load, it is because of those stupid, I hate them with a passion, Flash advertisements. So turning off Flash just might be enough to make things seem faster. Unless you are on a site where Flash is an integral part of the content. Dial up is always going to suck though. Hey Coolbee, you still in Cairo? Hope you are OK there.

02-05-2011, 10:44 PM	#10 (permalink)
Lawliet Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 128	It was supposed to be more humorous than antagonistic, StacyT. Worry not.

02-06-2011, 12:27 AM	#12 (permalink)
Brutha Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Posts: 8,749	I think Opera is good because it provides you with a special mode that disables the loading of images with is useful when you don't have a slow connection. Chrome is also relatively fast. There might be extensions that provide similar functionality to Opera low bandwidth mode.

02-06-2011, 12:31 AM	#13 (permalink)
ragtag Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 326	In Firefox you can add FlashBlock ad AdBlock (Tools>Add Ons ... Get Add Ons and do a search). The flashblocker replaces Flash content with a play button, you can click that for the Flash content you want to see. Opera has a feature called Turbo, which downloads sites to their servers, and sends them on to you compressed by up to 80%. It disables Flash too. It was originally used for their mobile browsers, but is now also available in their Windows version of Opera. This could help a lot if you have a slow connection. As for more esoteric solutions, there is always Lynx, an ancient text only browser. I actually use it every now and then.

02-06-2011, 01:54 AM	#14 (permalink)
sonde Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 166	You may like to look at the Supplementary browsers at the bottom of this page: Browser speed comparisons I used dillo with dialup and linux for a while and it was fast but limited as to how many tabs could be shown at one time. Could be good for emergencies though. Best wishes.

02-06-2011, 12:18 PM	#16 (permalink)
Federer Family Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: India Posts: 2,935	For me if you want to download big files then prefer firefox. For surfing i use opera and right now i am from opera. It is faster. Overall it also depends on your connection speed and intrent traffic. Browser can't speed your net speed because it is used for browsing sites. Browser can help you for caching speed.

02-06-2011, 09:48 PM	#20 (permalink)
st33med Family Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 3,829	K-Meleon Googled it. It's based off the same engine as Firefox but is much more lightweight.

02-06-2011, 11:04 PM	#21 (permalink)
Andrew Brunelle Family Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Home Posts: 2,578	I use Google Chrome, and I adopted it after Mozilla Firefox became a bit of a burden, constantly crashing and freezing. It is so fast, and really light, and I haven't had one problem with it yet, so I'm staying with it. It even has a nice feature that lets you type something in the web address bar and it goes right to google. Very user friendly. If there is anything faster or lighter, I really don't see the point, unless you have a computer from the 1990s.

02-07-2011, 05:21 AM	#22 (permalink)
cacheborn Family Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 6,439	If speed is the only criterion, then Chrome. Personally I use Firefox and Chrome. (Chromium actually but there is not that much difference.) Firefox has extensions, many of them to enhance security. Plus some like the dictionary tooltip. I also use FF for financial transactions. Some sites seem to be faster with Chrome, like this one. So I use Chrome for those sites.

02-07-2011, 10:58 AM	#25 (permalink)
Andrew Gubb Family Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Nationality: British Soul: Otherworldly Current Location: Barcelona, Spain Posts: 5,960	Tried Chrome since reading this thread, it really is way faster. I think I may go over to it. It lets me read one of my preferred forums (indigosociety.com) at a decent speed. I'd given it up for its slowness before. Thank god the steve forums are fast though

02-08-2011, 08:36 AM	#26 (permalink)
Alstar Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 351	I'm now on Chrome too (Chromium, specifically), and it really is much more streamlined and speedy than Firefox. For some reason it seems to execute 10 different processes of Chromium at the same time though.

02-08-2011, 09:49 AM	#27 (permalink)
Andrew Gubb Family Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Nationality: British Soul: Otherworldly Current Location: Barcelona, Spain Posts: 5,960	I'm using Chrome right now. I think it'll be a long term change.

02-08-2011, 06:31 PM	#29 (permalink)
Sansone Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: New Jersey Posts: 174	I am a firefox fan for my normal browsing since I am used to the way I have it customized. It's not the fastest anymore, maybe the slowest actually at this point, but it does exactly what I want the way I want it. Tried chrome for a while, and it definitely loads certain types of pages faster. Like a lot faster. On my main machine, it doesn't really start up that much faster than firefox though. Ultimately I couldn't get myself to like the interface. Opera, on the other hand, not only feels like it loads pages as fast as chrome, but starts up far faster than any of the others. When I want to just quickly hit a single site like weather.com or check my online banking (both of which are the types of sites that load slowly in other browsers) and get on and off the computer ASAP, I do it with Opera.

Personal Development for Smart PeopleTM Forums

Personal Development for Smart People^TM Forums