Browser Wars

Author's Current Default Browser: Sleipnir 5 Author's Current Side Browser: -Pending- "So, what are we dealing with in terms of browsers right now?" I pretend to hear you ask. Well, dear reader, it's actually very simple. The main contenders right now include Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari. IE is that politician who wants to control everything, and he does it by lying to his supporters and promising things that he cannot provide. Chrome and Firefox are the "cool guys" they're both very slick and work on impressing those who come their way. As a result, they consider each other to be a rival and work to destroy one another constantly. Opera is the hipster and self-proclaimed philosopher of the group. He stands back and chuckles a bit as the other browsers dish it out. Safari is the incredibly intelligent nerd of the group. He isn't interested in what the others are doing and strives only to improve himself. Then there are the poor, lowly browsers that we all secretly wish were the most popular ones. These are the Everyman of the browser world and many deserve plenty more attention than they are receiving.

[browserwar-blog]

Sleipnir

Hello, readers that have probably forgotten about this blog (or never existed in the first place), today we discuss Sleipnir.

First of all, the name: it comes from Norse mythology and is a reference to the mighty steed of Odin, an eight legged horse. I'd go on, but it's mostly all there in that Wikipedia article I just linked you. The most relevant part is even on the Sleipnir website. So, basically this paragraph is largely irrelevant. You're welcome.

I had been using FlashPeak for awhile in order to get familiar enough with it to write a review here eventually, but then I discovered a new build of Sleipnir was available. You may or may not be aware that I love Sleipnir. In the previous version, it was because of the potential in terms of customization that were available. And because of the fullscreen GUI.

Yes, I said fullscreen GUI.

Enter fullscreen, place your mouse cursor on either the bottom or topmost parts of the screen, and boom; this here GUI appears. In most browsers, the idea of being able to do anything but scroll up or down efficiently in fullscreen is bizarre, if not entirely unheard of. Some browsers allow you to navigate tabs and edit the URL in fullscreen, but none really have an entirely different GUI apart from Sleipnir. Atleast not to my knowledge.

The latest version, Sleipnir 5, is currently lacking this feature. But I forgive it because it's better in other ways. It's sleeker and it's faster.

The biggest thing that Fenrir was boasting about in context to Sleipnir was the brand new and totally unique font rendering engine. Which sounds like an obvious "download our browser plz, we have this thing that other browsers dont" kind of ruse, but it's actually not. The font is noticeably smoother and generally prettier than other browsers.

The screenshot I just linked you to compares Sleipnir with the current four leading browsers. I labeled the browsers whose title bars are hidden. All of the browsers are displaying the same part of the same page. I can't say that Sleipnir is completely unique in its font rendering because each browser in that screenshot appears to handle font differently. I can say that Sleipnir is my favorite in regard to font rendering. But, opinion.

Sleipnir, like most browsers, has a toggleable bookmarks bar. But I think Sleipnir is the one browser I've ever used with which I prefer to not have one. The bookmarks bar clutters the overall sleek and polished GUI which stands as a testament to better browsers everywhere.

Using Sleipnir you are able to navigate between tabs by holding right click and dragging to the left or the right.Tabs in Sleipnir can be grouped similarly to how they could be in the Presto versions of Opera. It also auto-groups tabs that are related or share the same domain.

I have decided to use Sleipnir as my default browser for now. I have not yet decided upon a secondary browser, but it's likely to be Firefox.

[browserwar-blog]

Opera Next

There are some things that I can honestly say are better about Opera Next, specifically the Speed Dial. Prior to the implementation of the Chromium engine, Opera was unable to group Speed Dial items. This made it much harder to organize things, which I found very annoying. I can also say that browsing speed is generally faster, though not by much. Overall, though, the old Opera was much better. Opera 12 allowed tabs to be grouped, again to allow for greater organization. Opera Next lacks this feature. I'm not surprised about this, really. No Chromium based browser I have used to date allows grouping of tabs. Sleipnir has a bit of tab group feature, but it is not nearly as intuitive as Opera(12)'s. Do I blame the browser engine? No, I blame the developers of Opera who made the choice to switch to the Chromium engine. I've said it before and I'll say it again; the internet conglomerate Google has a reputation for taking the information of their customers and selling it to other companies. Granted, it's mostly just usage data statistics, but that's not to say that Chrome is the best choice for secure browsing. For the most part, the engine that Opera used to use (Presto) was a great choice for maintaining security. There were some flaws, as nothing can be perfect, but it was far superior to Chromium. Opera Next also has fewer customization options, which, again, is the fault of the Chromium engine. Next also has far fewer extensions available, as the majority of the Opera community prefers Opera 12. However, there's an extension available that allows you to download Chrome extensions. You cannot install Chrome apps with it, but there's really no need to do that anyway. Who needs StumbleUpon when you have Opera's new "Discover" feature? I'd go into detail about this feature but I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory. Lastly, Opera Next has done away with bookmars altogether. It now uses a feature they dubbed "Stash." It's rather similar to Pocket in that it's essentially just a list of websites that you are saving for later. Yes, that's actually what a bookmark is. The difference between bookmarks and Stash or Pocket is that bookmarks are easy to manage and organize. You guessed it, Stash is nothing like that in any way. It's actually quite annoying for someone that happens to have OCD, because there's no level of organization to it whatsoever. It's literally just a list of websites. I've been getting around this by using the new folder-like feature of the speed dial, but I'm still quite annoyed by the limits the new browser puts on its users. You can still use all of your old bookmarks (and add new ones) via Opera Link. Opera states that they apparently have plans for Opera Link and they imply that they don't want to do away with their old system of bookmarks and notes entirely. This bodes well for me. My conclusion is simple. Forcing myself to use Opera Next for the purposes of writing this review convinced me that the browser still has some potential. I'm still not thrilled about the integration of the Chromium engine, but I'm willing to put that aside for now so that I can use Next as my default browser of choice. I will continue to use Opera Next until such time that it inevitably makes too many changes for the worse. At that point I will switch to either Google Chrome or Sleipnir (Both of which run on the Webkit engine.)

[browserwar-blog]

Safari

Safari is incredibly slick. Especially the new tab page. I have yet to find a more futuristic feeling browser.

That being said, Safari is Apple's official browser and not necessarily intended for Windows. There is a Windows version and I do recommend giving it a try if you aren't satisfied with your current browser.

Despite Safari's looks, it is far from being the fastest browser in the world. It takes so long to load pages that I actually have enough time to look away from the monitor for a few seconds and then look back in time to see it finish loading. Assuming that it even loads the page at all. If you're looking for a new browser because you're not satisfied with the speed of your current one, I do not recommend Safari.

In terms of extensions, it's not exactly lacking in them, but I can't really say that it matches other browsers in the amount available. This might not be surprising when you consider the fact that Safari was built for Macs. Not that I'm saying Windows is better, I'm just saying that it's more popular.

~

Next time we will begin looking at some lesser known browsers.

[browserwar-blog]

I realize this doesn't really have anything to do with web browsers, but if your computer is running slowly don't use a program to clean it. Chances are that it just needs to reboot.

[browserwar-blog]

Opera(12)

Opera jumped on the Chromium band wagon as of their 15th version release and lost the majority of its community. As a result, most of us Opera fans are stuck on Opera 12, before the troubles came. Well, that's not entirely true. Opera was plummeting in quality long before that, but its conversion to the Chromium engine is what really killed it for most of us. We refuse to update, and most extension creators that I've noticed are also refusing to update. We were using Opera as an alternative to Chrome, and we did not want it to become Chrome.

But I digress.

I'm going to pretend that the latest versions don't exist and do my review on the old Opera. This is the version of Opera that I use.

Opera has the ability to group tabs for greater organization when you have several tabs open. This allows for people like myself to have more control over their browsing. Chrome and Firefox both lack this feature.

Opera has a brilliant side-bar feature that lets you have literally everything you could ever need right at your fingertips. From your bookmarks to your browsing history; from detailed information about a website to a list of currently open sessions; from notes that you jot down while browsing to virtually anything that you decide to include on the side-bar itself.

As a writer, I use the notes feature above the others and I find myself hesitant to switch to any other browsers due to a lack of cloud stored notes. Chrome has several extensions and apps that allow you to take notes and store writings from a cloud (I'm sure Firefox does too), but none of them are the same as the Opera Notes feature. Opera Notes opens in the same tab that you're on and does not use a "sticky note" GUI which clutters the screen. It can be closed and opened again with the simple click of a button and you never have to leave your current tab.

If any other browser had this feature, I would immediately change.

But that's not to say Opera doesn't have any other good qualities that make it unique. It's customization options are far superior to any browser I have come across thus far, and I am including browsers like K-Melon and Sleipnir 2 in that statement. Specifically, you can move any of the toolbars to any location in the window. Whether it be on the bottom or on one of the sides; if you wish it, it is. In that sense, Opera is the Burger King of the Browser Wars. "Have it your way."

But, Opera is far from perfect. Its start up speed is several seconds longer than the typical browser's and it loads pages slightly slower than others as well. Opera is slightly more draining on your machine at times, and is generally imbalanced when it comes to how it actually manages its own resources. There aren't many cons to Opera, but the ones that do exist could easily hinder an impatient person from using the browser.

[browserwar-blog]

Chrome and Firefox

Google Chrome Chrome is currently the most popular browser, and there's no immediate reason it shouldn't be. It renders pages quickly and generally looks very clean and polished. It has support for hundreds (if not thousands) of extensions and themes. Most importantly, it is very user friendly.

Chrome is very easy to customize and has several options to choose from. That's a huge plus for someone like me; I will often completely change the way my browser's UI looks. I actually tend to prefer to have the address bar on the bottom of the window. You can't do this in Chrome, but that's not the point here.

Chrome also runs all its tabs in separate processes so that if one dies, the rest of your session will be unharmed. To my knowledge, it was actually the first browser to do that. This also means that you can terminate those processes without terminating the browser's process.

Chrome can be draining on resources, but unless you're running on a rock you shouldn't have many issues.

The major downside to Chrome, however, is the lack of security. I don't mean this in the same way that Internet Explorer has security issues. Chrome's security has problems in that it was created by Google. What am I saying here? Well, Google is a company notorious for taking information from all of its users and then selling that information to other companies. Granted, it's all "anonymous" but usage statistics can easily be tracked back to the consumer. All it takes is the know-how.

I'll admit that people with this knowledge are few and far between, but that doesn't mean it absolutely cannot happen to you. And, yes, Chrome has a feature that allows you to browse without being tracked, but constantly ensuring that you're browsing anonymously can become annoying. I will also admit that this might be a bit of a paranoid rant, "DON'T USE CHROME, THE NSA CAN SEE YOU!!!1!!11!!!111" But the threat is nonetheless a real one. Firefox Firefox is that guy we all look up to. He's old, so he's been around and always has some piece of wisdom to give us. If I were to use a metaphor here, Chrome is the guy entering the prime of his life and Firefox is the guy leaving his prime. Chrome is embracing his youth, and Firefox refuses to let it slip through his fingers. Firefox, then, is jealous of Chrome and constantly strives to keep pace with him. Much like John Mulaney and Charlie Sheen...

That being said, Firefox is still a great browser. It's fast and sturdy, loading web pages at the same speed as Chrome. Not that speed is really an issue in today's world, where the internet is literally milliseconds away no matter what browser you're using. Still, there's a noticeable difference in the browsers if you pay attention.

Firefox, like Chrome, has support for hundreds of thousands of themes and extensions. Customization runs strong in this browser as well, but to a slightly smaller extent. I would actually recommend Firefox before Chrome. But this is just my personal opinion and has nothing to really do with the way the browsers behave.