The evaluations were performed on 3 WinXP SP3 systems with IE8, 2 at work and my home.
One system at work is an IT Test Station (slow with low resources) with a vanilla WinXP SP3.
One system at work (my office desktop), and my home system, both run RoboForm and Star Downloader.
Browsers (my-rating):
- IE8 (3/5)
- Firefox (4/5)
- Opera (3/5)
- Safari for Windows (1/5)
IE8:
While IE8 has been improved since it initial release, like everything Microsoft, it is still a resource hog. And from what I see, slower than the other browsers I've looked at.
CAUTIONS:
To make IE8 fully safe, there are things you should set/enable.
- Use Microsoft Update
- Open Internet Options, Advanced tab, and ensure Automatically check for Internet Explorer updates is checked.
If you are not using it now, just open Windows Update and look in the lower-right corner, you'll see the offer to upgrade to Microsoft Update. Use the link to open another window to install.
Firefox 3.6:
I really like Firefox, especially since it automatically integrated RoboForm and can use Star Downloader.
It has the capability of installing Add-ons (Plug-ins & Extensions).
Plug-ins = additional code, usually a DLL file (like the ones for Star Downloader or Google Updater).
Extensions = Files that you can download/install from the Mozilla Firefox Add-ons WEB page. Example, ABC SpellBound spell checker.
There is one bug, at least with Firefox 3.5.x, the Print-to-Fit does not work properly. I used this Star War article as a test because in has tables. Firefox's Print-to-Fit chops off the right side of the tables.
Opera 10.10:
This is an offering from Norway, and is seen by many to be very good. From my testing is does look good, especially its in-built downloader and Password Manager (can be set to work like RoboForm with a Master Password).
The Print-to-Fit also works correctly and it has some nice configuration options.
The Bookmarks menu takes a bit to get use to, but if you add the Bookmarks Drop-Down button it becomes more familiar.
The one flaw I found is when I tried to use Blogger's editor (which I'm using now, in Firefox) it did not display correctly.
Safari 4 for Windows:
This is a MAC import of course. But, for Windows, it is NOT ready. Its configuration, even after 4hrs, was hard to understand. Like another evaluation article commented, it does not automatically have a Home button! Also, I found WEB page display problems with some sites.
This browser needs more work.
