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Your guide to the alternative browsersAmaya Features: For the technojunkies, this is about the most fun you can have with a browser. It lets you edit and browse a page at the same time, and then save the results -- to your Web-based server if you have the appropriate permissions. You can edit anyone's page on the net and save it locally. Amaya is for advanced users to test latest Web technologies, so it not only supports HTML, graphics and other standards, but also newer technologies such as MathML. Drawbacks:Not always predictable behaviour; buggy -- can mess up the display and cause system crashes; not obvious how to run it (open the thot\win95\bin folder and run the Amaya application). Platforms: Unix, Win 95, Win NT, others
Arachne Features: Not for the faint of heart, but an incredibly graphical DOS-based browser. You need to know about your PPP connection and dialer before you use it, although it comes with software to set up your connection. Arachne features a very smart design with a great interface, support for DOS plug-ins, an HTML editor, and e-mail support. Drawbacks: Complex setup and configuration.
Bobcat Features: Bobcat is the little brother of the renowned text-based Lynx. It's designed to run on minimal hardware -- your old 8086 is perfect for it. Like Lynx, Bobcat is a text-only browser, so it's fast, and it uses the keyboard instead of the mouse. Drawbacks: Complex to install (in the words of the Bobcat manual: "The configuration is fairly involved... however, the installation is only done once and once finished you will understand how the Internet works a lot better than with other browsers.") Platforms: DOS
Cello Drawbacks: This is an old browser, from way back in 1994, so it doesn't support many Web developments; the all-in-one tools make it not so obvious to use -- for instance, you have to open a Jump Menu and choose Launch via URL to go to a new Web location. Platforms: Win 3.1/95
Hexabit Junior Features: Hexabit Junior is designed to make it easy and safe for children to surf the Web. Its fun, simple TV-style interface makes it suitable for youngsters, and it allows parents to restrict both the sites surfed and the hours of use. A log tracks all the sites surfed. You'll need Internet Explorer 3 or 4 installed to use it and, because of that, you'll find it supports a really broad range of Web site technologies. Drawbacks: Requires Internet Explorer 3 or 4 pre-installed; the online help needs improvement, especially as the interface is not always intuitive; doesn't support ratings systems -- must nominate each site individually to lock them out. Platforms: Win 95
HotJava 1.1 Features: This browser is completely written in Java, with the Java Virtual Machine Runtime included. It supports Java (of course), graphics and many advanced HTML features. The design is mostly slick, and it has some nice features, such as the ability to view a list of coding errors on the current page (of course, this means 'errors' in terms of the HotJava browser). Drawbacks: Surprisingly buggy; the menus need sprucing up; erratic graphics support; jerky screen writes. Platforms: SPARC Solaris, Win 95/NT
Lynx Features: Lynx is one of the best-established, text-only browsers. It's fast, small and easy on hardware resources. Drawbacks: Text-only; interface takes getting used to; short on help; DOS version a little difficult to setup. Platforms: DOS (lynx_386.zip), Win 95/NT
(lynx_w32.zip)
Mosaic Features: The browser that started it all -- everything that Internet Explorer and Navigator do now was built upon the original concepts in Mosaic. This well-established browser has a stylish interface and good graphics support (you can also turn graphics off). It's stacked with fascinating features, such as auto-surf, which automatically follows all links (you can set maximum numbers and depth) and a site mapping feature. Drawbacks: No longer being developed, so no support for recent HTML or scripting developments (it won't even try to load anything contained in tables), and it hates Java. Platforms: Win 3.1 (mosaic21.exe) and Win
95/NT (mos30.exe)
NeoPlanet Features: NeoPlanet provides a friendly face to the browser, with a channel-style approach and a built-in Web directory, all wrapped in a small package. There are links set up to news, weather, children's sites, and more, and you can localise the content. It builds upon Internet Explorer and thus supports all the same browsing standards (and non-standards). Using NeoPlanet is rather like having a personalised home page on a search engine integrated into the interface itself. Drawbacks: Requires Internet Explorer 3 or 4 pre-installed; rather clunky and busy interface. Platforms: Win 95/NT with IE 3 or greater.
Opera Features: The pick of the browsing alternatives. Opera is highly customisable, and provides support for e-mail and newsgroups. It's packed with thoughtful features. One example is how it automatically imports favourites/bookmarks from other browsers. Another is the zoom feature, which lets you view a Web page from 20% to 1000% of its normal size -- great if a page doesn't quite fit your screen or if the tiny writing is hard to decipher. Yet another: navigate the Web using one key only -- great for physically challenged surfers. And you can run it on your 386SX just as easily as your Pentium. Drawbacks: It uses a multi-windowed approach that might confuse some people (you can turn this off); won't handle Java applets, although it does handle Javascript. Platforms: Windows 3.1/95/NT and OS/2.
Web Prowler Features: A very up-to-date browser which handles Java and cascading style sheets with aplomb, and is also good with sounds, graphics and plug-ins such as shockwave. Drawbacks: Navigation controls are sometimes buggy. Platforms: Win 95
WebSurfer Features: A very stylish, fast graphical browser, which handles HTML 2 and most of HTML 3.0 including tables, forms and secure connections. WebSurfer has a neat "Defer images" button on the toolbar so you can load images later, and a useful History list. Drawbacks: Doesn't always handle graphics well; no frames support (some would regard this as a plus); installs itself as default browser without asking. Platforms: Win 3.x or later
The best choiceAfter testing dozens of browsers including all those that made it onto the accompanying list, there's still no doubt that the pick of the bunch is Internet Explorer 4, closely followed by Netscape Communicator 4. Unless you have a solid reason for choosing another browser, you really can't go past these two. If you're after better browsing performance but otherwise enjoy the features of IE or Navigator, you shouldn't go looking for another browser at all. Instead, customise your browser. Both IE and Navigator let you turn off graphics and sound loading, as well as allowing you to customise how they handle script languages. Of the alternatives, Opera is a standout. All it requires is OS/2 or any Windows operating system running on an 80386 or better. For $US30 registration (you can try it for free first) you'll get a full-featured browser that's very fast. About the worst thing you can say about it is it lacks Java support. Well worth trying. |
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