The best web browser?

[Tickles]

Firefox I kind of compare it to driving a SUV, it's slow when starting.. once it gets going it's good and has a ton of utility.. especially with the Web Developer plugins and error console.


Chrome/chromium is like driving a sports car. It's fast, but hit a bump and it crashes.


Internet Explorer, reminds me of a Honda Civic. it gets the job done, may not be the fastest. but since it's the world's most common car it gets stolen a lot. (virus and trojan magnet)

Nice analogy

 

[Elanzer]

Although I don't have my Pandora yet, on similar capable devices I would not use FF3.6 at all. It's far too slow in comparison to webkit based browsers.


FF4 is a huge improvement and would be considerable for me, given that nubs-as-mouse is comfortable. All the important extensions work in it as well.


For touchscreen style browser, the latest revisions of Fennec (FF4 based) are a monumental improvement, they have drastically improved the startup time and footprint, it's the only other browser on my N900 that I consider useful besides the MicroB stock. MicroB is somewhat integrated into the OS so it's a bit biased so usability is more ideal, but it's much slower at rendering than Fennec.


So, my choices would be between FF4 beta, Chromium, or Fennec.

 

[Prometheus]

Although I don't have my Pandora yet, on similar capable devices I would not use FF3.6 at all. It's far too slow in comparison to webkit based browsers.

Really? I'd have to say that on my Pandora, I find the current Chromium to be much, much slower and less responsive than Firefox 3.6. :blink:


Do we have any Firefox 4 builds yet, by the way? I haven't checked in a while. If it's as much of an improvement as you say, then it should work very nicely.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Actually, we do. You can get it at the App Store.

 

[Caine]

Just curious, I have seen opera used on many small devices, has anyone used opera on their pandora?


...

...


Can't say anything about Opera, not sure the status on it.

Craig asked Opera about a port several years back and they replied that the Pandora needs to have sold at least 50.000 units before they would be interested. So unfortunately there is currently no working version of Opera available.

 

[Esn]

See link

That needs to be packaged into the Firefox PND, then we'll be talking.


Otherwise, I would need detailed step-by-step instructions, since I don't know how to use opkg and such things.

 

[Blue Protoman]

We're a loooooong way off from 50,000.


OFFTOPIC ALERT

Spoiler

Yet it still surprises me how AMAZING the software support is.

 

[maplesugarlover]

Well that's cause there is a thing called open source

 

[Gregor]

http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/adobeflash-a8.html confirms that there is a version of Flash 10.1 for the Cortex-A8 on X11+Firefox. Their system is that since this is a "demo", you must make a request, which they will process, and then if they approve it give you an exclusive (non-redistributable) copy of the plugin. In principle it should be better than one torn out of Maemo. I requested a copy, I figure if they approve me I should get it at around the same time as the Pandora, and I can tell everybody how (if) it works. It is of course also possible that what I'll be getting is exactly what's already included in Maemo


@Craig, ED, or anybody else important: The link above is only for an "evaluation" copy; legally, wider distribution requires negotiation with Adobe about the terms. What would your stance be on trying to get Flash included into a future firmware? More to the point, would you be willing to give negotiation with Adobe a shot?


EDIT: Just to make it a bit clearer, hypothetically the only hurdles are legal, not technical, so it's not like negotiating with Opera to make a port, as the software already exists and is otherwise maintained.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Gregor, have you read this thread from the other forum?

 

[Gregor]

^ Gregor, have you read this thread from the other forum?

Nope!


I pretty much hopped off the forums in the year or so between ordering and getting my shipping notice, so I'm not up on everything else that's happened


Anyway, it's entirely possible (albeit unlikely) that things have improved in four months *shrugs* ... should've skipped to the end of that thread. It's a bit less likely that things have changed in one month.

 

[chris_c]

As I boot from SD I've had plenty of room to install Firefox using opkg and have found it both more stable and also faster than the PND version.


edit:


oh and I just got flash working, this is an interesting site btw http://www.renegade-uiq.com/

 

[trevj]

Has anyone tried NetSurf? I use it under RISC OS and I don't think all features are implemented but it's definitely something I'll be investigating when my Pandora arrives.

 

[PokeParadox]

I'd prefer a fully working Chromium that I can install the Adblock extension and sync my bookmarks...


But Firefox would also be good failing that... as long as I can install Adblock and sync my bookmarks.


Also note, that I'm currently without my Pandora to see how the latest beta of Chromium actually performs.

 

[Vitel]

Has anyone tried NetSurf? I use it under RISC OS and I don't think all features are implemented but it's definitely something I'll be investigating when my Pandora arrives.

I tried the framebuffer version a year or two ago. It was very unstable. Besides, it still does not support JavaScript. So a lightweight WebKit-based browser is much more interesting thing IMHO.

 

[Coldbird]

Chromium is nice and fast but from my pandora experience its way too unstable. The new firefox 4 beta though is rather stable and fully functional. The nokia flash player working on it is another very nice goodie.

 

[urjaman]

IMO: Get rid of midori, leave Arora, add firefox.

 

[cosurgi]

I don't have a Pandora yet, but I'd be happy with anything that isn't Chrome

I have a pandora and I'm happy with anything that isn't IE6


Well, ok. I actually tried only chromium-dev and midori. Chromium-dev is much better than midori. I didn't try anything else yet.

 

[Trip]

Not got my Pandora yet but I'd vote for Firefox myself. After testing all the different browsers on the desktop..


Firefox seems to be the only one that can load more than one page at once without slowing down to a crawl or stopping altogether. This includes refreshing a page for updates whilst loading a new tab.


It's standard on most systems so people will be more at home and know how to use it + tweak it to their liking.


With the exception of flash screwing it up now and again, it feels nice and stable.


Offtopic: I use ad-block plus because I connect to the Internet using my phone and I only have a set amount that I can download. The more ads there are on a web page, the more it costs me to load that page.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Do Chromium-Dev or Firefox 4.0 crash a lot?