I’m looking for a decent, no frills, lightweight on memory browser. Any suggestions?
Although I haven’t used it personally, I understand that many Dopers are well-pleased with one called Opera, which is not only easy on resources, but has numerous features not found in either Netscape or IE. The only catch is, it’s not free.
I’m using Mozilla, which is the opensource version of Netscape.
Got to take issue with Chronos
Opera 5 Is free if you want to take a small ad or $39.00 without the ad and it is easier on resources than the alternatives.
Opera 5 for Windows O/S: Browsers for Windows, Mac, Linux | Web browsers for computers | Opera
IMHO, it’s the best and fastest browser available. If I were a Mod, I’d think it essential because of the way it opens new windows without any additional drain on resources (IIRC, in opening new windows in IE and N/S, you effectively open a second full programme and Opera doesn’t do that). Also the way new windows nestle in the browser is much nicer and efficient than the alternatives. You can even set it so that on start up, all the web pages you want load automatically - hundreds of 'em if you want.
Frankly, I think it’s a great piece of kit !
I can’t recall the size of IE and Nutscape but I do remember thinking Opera is so much smaller, seriously smaller (without Java: 2.08MB, with Java: 9.76MB )
And it even has The Straight Dope and The Onion in it’s hotlist (IE’s Favourites) by default. Classy as well as fast.
As you may have guessed, I’m a fan 
Oh, and you should really check out the ‘Preferences’ to see what you can do with it.
Not so; IE and Netscape do use up additional resources when you open a new window, but it’s not like having another executable running. According to my task manager on NT 4.0, Netscape 4.7 used a little less than 1MB for every new window I opened, IE 5.5 used about 1.5MB for each additional window. Opera used up to about 2MB for each window I opened (once I visited a web site on a particular window) but it seemed to release the memory fairly quickly afterwards. But I do agree that Opera is a much lighter load on the system.
Actually, this is the main reason I don’t use it. I prefer to have each browser window running standalone.
Full blown Netscape 4.7 is about 20MB to download.
I started using Opera a couple of months ago on my 133 Mhz Pentium running Windows 95, and overall I’ve been very happy with it – it runs very quickly and reliably. It does sometimes have trouble rendering fancy pages, so I also have a copy of Netscape 6 which I use in those cases. (On my PC Netscape 6 is unbelievably slow, and buggy on top of that).
You could check out Amaya at http://www.w3.org/Amaya/. It’s a pretty cool browser/text editor. I haven’t used it enough to give you the full lowdown, but hell, it’s free, and the site that offers it is the world wide web consortium. Very reputable, and they also have other neat programs that you can have for free.
Good luck!
Hey, I just spent a few days looking into this after my computer crashed, so I got a lot of information on this.
Side note on Opera – Chronos may not have been aware that Opera is now potentially ad-supported, as this is something new (previous versions were pay-only).
Be aware that many of the alternatives to IE and Netscape do not do everything or support the same web technologies that they do. Of course, the extras may be just what you’re trying to avoid. And you can often find other specialized programs that fill in what you do need.
Personally, I like to keep a couple different ones around in case one of them doesn’t work with a page I want to view.
If you use a Mac, the German-born iCab comes highly recommended. It’s smaller than the biggies (a few Megs), and allows/requires a high degree of customization, especially image & cookie filtering. It does not have an integrated e-mail client, and needs Apples MacOS Runtime for Java to do Java.
As mentioned already, Opera is a highly regarded competitor; it’s standalone, has e-mail, and nearly supports everything the others do (I think it might be missing DHTML and/or XML, but most likely will catch up quickly).
If you use Windows, IE works well with the system but if you don’t like the interface, there’s alternatives. These are ‘front-end’ browsers, the most well-known being NeoPlanet. They aren’t separate products, but instead use all the files that Internet Explorer uses to process pages ( IE was designed with this in mind, to integrate with other applications easier.) You need to have IE installed to use these products. Neoplanet is famous for having a wide variety of skins, so you can have a browser that looks like whatever you want.
And if you happen to pick up one of the smaller ones that doesn’t do Java, and you want to do Java, you can get one the most compliant Java browsers from Sun itself, called HotJava. I believe it can work on its own as a browser, but I hear it’s not that great.
Here’s some links –
http://cws.internet.com/web.html
Lists most browsers available (seems largely PC-oriented)
It doesn’t have every alternative, but it has downloading links and extensive reviews of each one.
http://www.darrel.knutson.com/mac/www/browsers.html
A good listing of Macintosh web browsers.
http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/98/browsers.html
An extensive list of browsers available for Windows 98, with brief descriptions of each. Has some more of the ‘front-end’ browsers for IE.
http://aolcom.cnet.com/internet/0-3773-7-1434800.html
CNET’s review of alternative browsers (the article is outdated, but you can get some names from it).
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/browser_chart/
A chart comparing the supported features of some different browsers.
I just downloaded Opera 5.2.
Very light, very fast, very configurable. I especially like the cookie management features.
Now can a more experienced Opera user please tell me why it doesn’t accept the re-directs after I post here? You know, the page that says “Thank you for posting… You will presently be re-directed… blah blah blah…”? I go nowhere.
Let’s try again.
Let’s not forget Browserwatch:
63 different browsers!
And the new 0.8 version of Mozilla is quite solid. And much faster than previous versions. I highly recommend it for basic browsing. It has some interesting new features:
Looks like you get to selectively and/or globally disable those annoyung popup ad windows! Now that’s the sort of feature we need!
Version 1.0 when it comes out should be excellent.
I tryed a browser called something like 1x. It was great at loading text first and fast, then filled in graphics. some pages didn’t display correctly and they wanted $ after the first 30 or so days. IIRC is was small, maybe 1.5-3 megs and quick to load
“I’m looking for a decent, no frills, lightweight on memory browser. Any suggestions?”
Inky-, you didn’t tell us what type of computer you have or what operating system! But I guess everyone assumes it’s a PC…
Try http://www.download.com for your type of computer & click on ‘browsers’